A Few Words About A few words about...™ Rear Window -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[Wayne_j]

I'm glad the problem was fixed. Is there any way you could get readmit passes for your issues?

 

[Charles Smith]

Sorry, I'm not part of the operation. I have no idea how they handled that.

If anyone's wrong at the Wednesday showing, however, I'll demand blood.....

 

[haineshisway]

I loved catching Rear Window, one of my all time favorites, on a few special occasions: Hitchcock's 35mm print at LACMA with the Master in attendance; Jimmy Stewart's 16mm print at a film seminar with him in attendance (both in the heart of the blackout years), the latter providing the opportunity to snap a photo...

I didn't know they showed Rear Window with Hitch in attendance at LACMA. What year? I do know they showed it at the old Writer's Guild Theater on Melrose and Doheney with Hitch in attendance because I was there - still have the little program. That had to be around 1970 or 71, I think.

 

[Charles Smith]

I want to say very early in 1973. It was the opening night of a two-week (?) retrospective. I'll dig out the program book tomorrow.

 

[haineshisway]

They also showed Hitch's gorgeous 35mm dye transfer print at the Writer's Guild - amazing.

 

[Charles Smith]

Jan 12 - Feb 3, 1973

 

[Bob_S.]

Saw this Sunday with the family. Happily surprised that the theater was packed. Had a hard time finding 4 seats together.

 

[Clark V. Kauffman]

I've already seen RW theatrically back in 1999 or 2000 (whenever the restoration was) and a couple of times at an art theater some time over the last decade but if I can get my friend to get her ass to the theater, I plan on going tomorrow too.

This reminds me of another recent Fathom Events showing at Cinemark theaters: "How The West Was Won."


All of the Cinemark theaters were apparently given a seriously defective digital "print" to show. The sound was glorious. The picture was sharp. But there was virtually no color in the image other than brownish-yellow and occasional splashes of blue. Almost everything was a sepia-toned mess. No reds whatsoever, and very little green. The manager at my local Cinemark was very apologetic and acknowledged the problem and offered to provide passes for future shows. But that was my one shot at seeing the restored version of that classic film on a big theater screen. I would have been much better off staying home and watching the spectacular BluRay.


I've walked out of other Fathom Events classic-film showings due to technical problems, but they were years ago when the program was just getting off the ground. For the past two years, most of the presentations have been fine. Quite good, in fact. But that botched showing of "How The West Was Won" was so terrible it caused me to pass on all of the subsequent classic films that are part of this series. I do plan to end my boycott and will check out "Rear Window" tomorrow night ... but I'll be holding breath until I see the opening credits on the big screen....

 

[Oblivion138]

This reminds me of the time (about 10 years ago) when I went to a museum in New Haven, CT. They were advertising a free screening of Dr. No. I took two of my friends with me. We were expecting to see a gorgeous 35mm presentation. Instead, the lights in the theater dimmed, and I saw "Play" appear on the screen. They were projecting a DVD! Not only that, but when the gun bbl. dots went across the screen, they were oval instead of circular! Whoever was running the player hadn't changed the setting from 4x3 to 16x9! After about 5 minutes, we walked out in disgust.

This happened to me once, only in reverse, with The Maltese Falcon. They were projecting the DVD stretched to 16x9. I tried to stick it out, but couldn't. After about ten minutes, I rushed to the men's room and was physically ill. And that, as they say, was the end of that.


Thankfully, Rear Window was in the proper 1.66 when I saw it this past Sunday evening.

 

[Reed Grele]

Just for reference, I put the first 5 minutes or so of my BD of Rear Window on the 120" screen this evening. Just wanted to have the colors, brightness, sharpness, and sound fresh in my mind to compare with the Wednesday afternoon screening I plan to attend with 2 of my HTF buddies.


I very seldom go to the movies anymore, as I never can tell what I'll be getting in terms of picture and sound quality. Not to mention other distractions caused by inconsiderate audience members.


The last Hitchcock film I saw in an actual theater was the restored Vertigo at the Ziegfeld in NYC back in '96. Now that was a real treat!


I'm sincerely hoping that the presentation of Rear Window tomorrow will be worth the trip.

 

[rsmithjr]

The Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto just completed a retrospective of Hitchcock films, all in 35mm and well attended. Here is the program:


http://stanfordtheatre.org/calendars/Hitch%202015.html


The showing of North by Northwest was an archive dye-transfer print synced to a magnetic full-coat of the stereo soundtrack recently created. What a treat that was! Incidently, the Warners Blu-ray is nearly the same color balance, I watched it later the same day in my home theatre just to verify. I wish I could say the same for the Universal titles.


The Stanford has a number of classic films for which they have full-coat magnetic soundtracks including Around the World in 80 Days.


The Stanford is well worth a trip to Palo Alto if you haven't been there.

 

[rich_d]

I'm sincerely hoping that the presentation of Rear Window tomorrow will be worth the trip.

Holy Thelma Ritter! It's like 18 miles for you, tops. Sounds like you're on a road trip to Dayton ...

 

[ChromeJob]

Ms. Ritter was a high point of the film. Love her scenes.

 

[mark brown]

Mr. Harris' 70mm DTS presentation of Vertigo was incredible both times!

 

[Reed Grele]

Holy Thelma Ritter! It's like 18 miles for you, tops. Sounds like you're on a road trip to Dayton ...

At my advanced age, time and gas are precious.

 

[Dan_Shane]

Ms. Ritter was a high point of the film.

She always is. Any movie gets an extra star in the rating just because she is in it.

 

[ahollis]

Local theater started Rear Window this afternoon and the image was squished into what sounds like Academy ratio.

This is via satellite from Fathom, not a DCP. It's on the same projector (Christie, I think) that most or all of their Fathom events run on. I know one of the managers. He said the lens doesn't change on that, and I can attest to the fact that they've never had a problem before. They're trying to reach somebody as we speak. If anyone here has any ideas based on this little bit of info, which is all I have, please chime in.

Thanks!

They could manually push a button on the digital projector and change the lens or ratio, which is what appears to be the problem.

 

[Reed Grele]

This is what the BD of Rear Window looks like on my 120" screen:

This is what we saw at the Danbury (CT) Lowes Cinema this afternoon (I have 2 other witnesses):

The "money shot" of Grace Kelly (Home):

The "money shot" of Grace Kelly (Theater):

Jimmy (Home):

Jimmy (Theater):

I knew right from the main credits that something was wrong. And I know that Raymond Burr was overweight in this film, but James Stewart and Grace Kelly certainly weren't.


Granted, these "simulated" shots of the theater are from memory (very recent memory), but it is what I saw. The picture brightness in the theater was somewhat reduced from what I'm seeing at home, so I tried to simulate that as well.


After the film was over, we had a chat with the projectionist. He confirmed that we were watching a satellite screening through a Christie projector. Not a DCP presentation.


Picture quality wise, It looked as if we were watching a 1080p Blu ray, blown up to a 25' (height) screen. There were minor compression artifacts visible, and some banding in solid colors such as the sky and walls. Miss Kelly's green dress "squirmed" at times, and looked as if it were alive.


But it would take more than what I described above to completely ruin a Hitchcock film, and despite the flawed presentation, I daresay that it was still an enjoyable experience. And seeing it with my HTF friends (Charles and Rich) made it that much more so.

 

[Charles Smith]

Sad but true.


And those are excellent simulations.

 

[Dr Griffin]

Now you can have a bad TV experience at the theater, and the privilege of paying for it.