Weeklong Cinerama Festival in Seattle (1 Viewer)

[Steve Enemark]

Check this out.

WOW. The only thing more amazing than this news, is the fact that I beat Peter Kline in posting it to the forum!

 

[GerardoHP]

Great news. I wonder when the Arclight theaters in LA will show HTWWW as announced last year.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

I'll see you there, Steve.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I'm flying up there with a friend just to see this! (It'll be my first time out of California in ages!)

 

[Peter Kline]

Steve.

You should be ashamed of yourself not respecting your elders and posting before me!

I wish I could attend, but I just bought a new computer (a 17" iMac) so the money isn't there at the moment.

One of the films, "Windjammer" was actually filmed in a process called Cinemiracle. It was a knock off of Cinerama made by former Cinerama people. As a matter of fact, it really improved upon many of the problems that Cinerama had, particuarly in the area of horizon parallax distortion. The company went belly up however in 1958 and was bought up by Cinerama. Most people at the time saw "Windjammer" as a Cinerama presentation. I managed to see it as a Cinemiracle film at the Roxy Theatre in NYC.

The "This Is Cinerama" print is the one shown in LA. It is pretty good although not restored but rather made from the best available sources. "Windjammer" and "Search For Paradise" are old prints from Australia. I understand they look great. "How The West Was Won" is a brand new print. It isn't in IB Technicolor, but those that have seen it say it almost looks like a Technicolor print. Beware, however, that many sequences in HTWWW are not really in Cinerama but in 70mm Panavision (split into three images.) They will be readily apparent by their lack of sharpness and graininess and no real "puts you in the picture" view as they are not 146 degree images as the 3 Camera Cinerama parts are.

 

[GerardoHP]

Saw Windjammer two years ago in England in a very washed-out print, but it was worth it.

Peter, any idea when HTWWW is coming to the Dome?

 

[SteveP]

I've caught THIS IS CINERAMA in both Dayton and L.A. (the color in John Harvey's Dayton print seemed a bit better) and HOW THE WEST WAS WON in Dayton where the color really POPPED despite the obvious age of the print!

The HTWWW trailer shown in L.A. had excellent color, so I expect the new print will look pretty good too. Very sorry to miss WINDJAMMER which was very well reviewed at the time of its release in 1958.

New York City needs a new Cinerama installation!

 

[Peter Kline]

Gerado,

HTTWW will be showing at the Dome in late March-early April as I understand it. Possibly with showings of "This Is Cinerama" as well. Check the Arclight site from time to time.

SteveP,

John Harvey's prints were cobbled together from various Technicolor IB prints so the color is richer because of the process. The new TIC and HTTWW are Eastman color, the latter made directly from the internegs. The new print of TIC was made from some interneg material and actual release print footage. Much of the original footage has been damaged beyond repair. Same goes for the other Cinerama travelogues I'm afraid.

Cheers,


Peter

 

[GerardoHP]

Thanks, Peter.