CAN-CAN 1960 will probably never be released on Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

[usrunnr]

That's what I remember MFL sounding like at the Warner Cinerama. It was in surround sound. And sound effects were coming from the back. I was as appalled by the destruction of that sound system as much as I was by the destruction of the auditorium. Paint Your Wagon sounded glorious. I literally walked around the orchestra listening to the amazing speakers throughout. Easy to do as there were only a few people in the audience. I have the astounding looking 50th anniversary edition of MFL(far better than the 90s restoration. Must have found completely new elements. Looks like it did at the Cinerama.) but I have a 2 channel system so I don't know what it sounds like in a surround sound home theater. RH bristled when I said it sounded better at the Cinerama. I concede my living room is not the Mark Strand fitted out for 70mm 6track stereo prints.

Do you mean the Hollywood Warner Cinerama? "My Fair Lady" opened at the Egyptian.

 

[roxy1927]

I saw that presentation at the Gotham and brought a friend who had never seen it. But he told me after the film he had seen Mary Martin in the original production and instead of talking about Julie Andrews he was telling me how incandescent Martin was on stage. And remember Martin was 46 at the time years older than the mother superior played by Patricia Neway.
I also saw El Cid there and sure I would have liked seeing it on a larger screen but I was just happy to see it for the first time in a theater. I wonder if that SOM print was the same one used at Radio City which played there in the mid 70s. It was one of the most beautiful prints of a film I've ever seen.

 

[roxy1927]

I would have loved to have seen MFL at the Egyptian! From photos it looks like it had a magnificent 70mm screen. Now when I see photos of the interior I think what did they do turn it into a screening room at Film Forum? Is this a joke?
When I'm referring to the Warner Cinerama I'm referring to the one in Times Square which was originally the Strand movie palace. Named after Mark Strand you could still see the M and S intertwined on the balustrade going to the lower level. I thought it was named after the street in London. I don't know who Mark was. My friend told me the woman's restroom was quite beautiful. I assume they had never modernized it.
In the mid 70s they had a 70mm revival where I got to see original prints of films in that format which is why I also mentioned South Pacific and Paint Your Wagon. That one was a real revelation for me even though it was a blow up. I had seen it on TV and thought it was lousy. Well everything shown in the Cinerama was a revelation. Films shown in the former balcony level Penthouse not so much.

 

[OliverK]

View attachment 74713

FXM broadcast. Cropped on all four sides, mostly on the right.

70mm frame

FXM broadcast

HD master, probably close to what is available on several streaming services

 

[Stephen_J_H]

Here is a scan from a length of 70mm Eastmancolor film that I have from CAN CAN. It's distressing to see what has happened to the color over 60 years. I certainly hope that color separation negs exist. View attachment 74697

Colour by DeLuxe indeed.

 

[ptb2020]

I do not think this should be called a restoration, it would give restorations a bad name.

Yes it is a bit better than the DVD and the best version available on disc. It also retains the original aspect ratio. Textures and fine detail are mostly absent however so it has an overall softness that I find very annoying and it is certainly closer in quality to the DVD than to what it could look like on Blu-ray:

Mutiny on the Bounty • DE Blu-ray vs. DE Special Edition DVD

caps-a-holic.com

The transfer they showed on French tv last year was gorgeous. But this seems to happen a lot. The Alamo looked terrific too, as did Ryan’s Daughter.

 

[OliverK]

The transfer they showed on French tv last year was gorgeous. But this seems to happen a lot. The Alamo looked terrific too, as did Ryan’s Daughter.

Except for fine detail and textures Mutiny already looks very pleasing but I cannot stand its fuzzy looks at closer seating distances. The Alamo is in another league when it comes to detail and Ryan's Daughter is somewhere in between. Certainly the latter two would be good enough for Blu-ray releases that would look better than the majority of large format titles out there.

 

[roxy1927]

I've written this before but I don't understand how when I've seen gorgeous prints of films in a revival house in NY I then read reviews of the bluray where the critic finds the film less than pleasing. Is it that those who are doing the blurays are not putting an effort in finding the best prints? Why should the bluray of Bounty not be excellent when on French TV they have shown an excellent print?
I was more than surprised by the reviews of Swing Time and the Selznick Tom Sawyer when they are visually among the most beautiful films I've ever seen. I couldn't help but thinking this is the way the original audiences saw these films? They were quite a revelation. No wonder large movie palaces were filled with thousands of people in an audience mesmerized.

 

[OliverK]

I've written this before but I don't understand how when I've seen gorgeous prints of films in a revival house in NY I then read reviews of the bluray where the critic finds the film less than pleasing. Is it that those who are doing the blurays are not putting an effort in finding the best prints? Why should the bluray of Bounty not be excellent when on French TV they have shown an excellent print?

These are not prints. It has been said that at Warner they were working with 35mm IP's which is not great for 70mm productions.

As for the French TV airing it is probably from the same master and on TV and at a distance that should look good enough compared to the other stuff that gets aired on TV. But a really good Blu-ray enables you to sit a lot closer to the screen for these movies and this is not what we have for Mutiny, it is unfortunately rather soft when you get closer.

 

[john a hunter]

I thought Mutiny was great when I first saw it on BD, but as my screens got bigger so did the flaws in the transfer.
A new transfer is well overdue.

 

[OliverK]

I thought Mutiny was great when I first saw it on BD, but as my screens got bigger so did the flaws in the transfer.
A new transfer is well overdue.

The curse of the big screen

I am a member of a film club and one of our older members still says that the 70mm presentation of Muntiny on the Bounty on a special 80 x 30 ft screen at its premiere was one of the best movie presentations he has ever seen to this day.

For what it's worth he likes the current Blu-ray except for its lack of detail which he claims was outstanding in the 70mm print.

Of course like most cinemas with big screens it doesn't exist anymore, it was demolished long ago:

BERLIN MGM

www.allekinos.com

 

[Robin9]

The curse of the big screen

I am a member of a film club and one of our older members still says that the 70mm presentation of Muntiny on the Bounty on a special 80 x 30 ft screen at its premiere was one of the best movie presentations he has ever seen to this day.

For what it's worth he likes the current Blu-ray except for its lack of detail which he claims was outstanding in the 70mm print.

Of course like most cinemas with big screens it doesn't exist anymore, it was demolished long ago:

BERLIN MGM

www.allekinos.com

I once saw a 70mm print of Mutiny On The Bounty and it was magnificent.

 

[ptb2020]

The curse of the big screen

I am a member of a film club and one of our older members still says that the 70mm presentation of Muntiny on the Bounty on a special 80 x 30 ft screen at its premiere was one of the best movie presentations he has ever seen to this day.

For what it's worth he likes the current Blu-ray except for its lack of detail which he claims was outstanding in the 70mm print.

Of course like most cinemas with big screens it doesn't exist anymore, it was demolished long ago:

BERLIN MGM

www.allekinos.com

Great though that over the past few years really big screens have made a comeback in cinemas. Chiefly with the arrival of Imax other cinemas installed big screens as rivals I imagine, but here in France I regularly go to cinemas in Toulouse where all the screens in the two Gaumonts are really big and in the biggest salles/screens enormous. Mind you even the art house has good size screens. No ghastly little postage stamps like the Cineworld I used to suffer at in Eastbourne and Brighton!

 

[OliverK]

Great though that over the past few years really big screens have made a comeback in cinemas. Chiefly with the arrival of Imax other cinemas installed big screens as rivals I imagine, but here in France I regularly go to cinemas in Toulouse where all the screens in the two Gaumonts are really big and in the biggest salles/screens enormous. Mind you even the art house has good size screens. No ghastly little postage stamps like the Cineworld I used to suffer at in Eastbourne and Brighton!

In Germany screens of a little over 65 ft are quite common in bigger multiplexes but we have very few screens of 80 ft and above except for the Imax screens that to me look like giant TV screens, I don't like them.

I made a mistake by the way with the screen above as it was about 85 ft wide for a roughly 2.6:1 aspect ratio. It was one of the very few screens that were flat and optimized for early Cinemascope and Ultra Panavision. As we now know Mutiny on the Bounty was the first and last movie that took advantage of the format in exhibition when it premiered, later movies would be promoted in different formats and shown on screens that were not suited to show them to their best advantage.

 

[usrunnr]

The curse of the big screen

I am a member of a film club and one of our older members still says that the 70mm presentation of Muntiny on the Bounty on a special 80 x 30 ft screen at its premiere was one of the best movie presentations he has ever seen to this day.

I saw the premiere of "Mutiny" also. It opened in Hollywood at the Egyptian Theater on its huge screen. Quite a spectacle.

 

[OliverK]

I saw the premiere of "Mutiny" also. It opened in Hollywood at the Egyptian Theater on its huge screen. Quite a spectacle.

I envy you, Robin and the other members who saw these prints when they still had full colors, that must indeed have been spectacular. I only saw Mutiny twice in faded prints. The colors are extremely important on this one once the ship reaches Haiti so I was happy that the second print I saw had at least some color left even though it was in rather bad shape.

So Warner if you ever intend to release really spectacular looking movies from your back catalog make sure to include Mutiny on the Bounty - it is right up there with the best.

 

[roxy1927]

Is there a market left for the restoration of its 70mm print? Most of us who are interested are getting old and dying off. Do younger people care? I'm too young to have seen its original engagement but too old to be in anyone's market research.

 

[ptb2020]

Is there a market left for the restoration of its 70mm print? Most of us who are interested are getting old and dying off. Do younger people care? I'm too young to have seen its original engagement but too old to be in anyone's market research.

How was the public interest in the 70mm release of the Tarantino movie Thé Hateful Eight? It wasn’t shown in many theatres as most have been converted to digital presentations. It was shown in London at only one cinema and I couldn’t get to see if it was shown properly in the correct aspect ratio.

 

[Robert Harris]

Is there a market left for the restoration of its 70mm print? Most of us who are interested are getting old and dying off. Do younger people care? I'm too young to have seen its original engagement but too old to be in anyone's market research.

In discussing 70mm prints, the market is secondary. Safely running a print, without damaging it, comes to the fore.

 

[revgen]

Cropped HD master

Cropped 70mm scan

Cropped 70mm scan color matched to HD master