What's wrong with re-releasing remastered classic movies.......in THEATERS? (1 Viewer)

[Seth Paxton]

Well obviously there are 2 versions in discussion here.

1) National re-distribution like ET or Apoc Now: Redux

2) Local theaters bringing in prints for "revivals" or whatever


While I think financially it's not usually practical to pull of #1, I think #2 does exist and is actually gaining some steam in America lately.

Certainly since around 1980 home video has destroyed this area to some extent, with only cult films getting serious play (that are obviously enhanced in a group setting).

But I do think that we are seeing a re-appreciation of cinema in the last 4-5 years. Ages 15-35 are getting hit hard with items like "did Lucas ruin the OT with his changes" as well as special DVDs of classic films that promote the appreciation of such works. The Lucas thing, or ET for that matter, instigate philosophical discussion among these younger generations in regards to what cinema is and what it's role in society is, including items like "what does the artist owe to the audience? are such changes morally or socially just?". The point is not which side you are on, the point is that such a deeply philosophical question regarding the ART of cinema is active in the popular culture of youth.


The DVD/HT craze that at first seemed destined to be the final death blow to cinema seems to me to now have inspired the younger generations back to cinema appreciation. Not en masse mind you, at least not yet.

But, the DVD/HT first was the solitary theater. Next came "having your friends over to enjoy the HT". Even now, especially on campuses, film clubs are finding projected screenings much more accessible via this DVD/HT method. No, it's not film, but it is viewing on a larger screen in a group setting, often with a discussion following.

Consider Ebert's festival, another relatively new entity. It would seem that as people begin to appreciate classic cinema in smaller group settings they naturally then become curious about the actual film presentations in larger settings.


In all honesty, who doesn't think that Sunrise or Metropolis haven't seen a huge increase in appreciation recently, especially among the younger generation who now have a medium that is both comfortable and affordable for them to deal with. Gone is the overhead of bringing in a print (cost, difficulty in finding one, getting a place to screen it), now the DVD/HT (even in auditoriums) gives these fans a first step toward film appreciation.

I see HT as a vital foothold allowing casual fans to climb up to higher appreciation, and I think the effect has already begun.


BTW, while Indy doesn't quite have a revival yet, Keystone has brought in Raiders, Metropolis, Holy Grail, Help, and Nosferatu recently (mostly touring the new print obviously) and have Seven Samurai on deck. They are also trying to get a Silents Please monthly thing going where people can request silent prints they would like to see.

For Halloween 2001 Castleton Arts got ahold of the 3D projection of Friday the 13th Part 3 and it packed them in for a few days. Seriously it was the most attended screening I had been to since Blair Witch was in limited release.


I think the key is to differentiate these screenings from just "going to the movies". Promotion of discussion, the ideal of getting a group together to go (such as late night screenings on weekends as a bar alternative), or themed presentations are all ways to set it apart. Also perhaps having reduced costs on admission might help.

I don't think the prints would even have to be pristine all the time, just good enough to be enjoyable. After all, the drive-in was a blast but it was a terrible place to see a first run movie usually.

 

[Carlo_M]

Nothing useful really to add except my voice in agreement that more films should have theatrical re-releases (even if there is no "extra" content, just a nicely restored film). I am happy that apparently Warners has agreed in principal to re-release The Shawshank Redemption next year. Despite being on almost everyone's "Top 10 movies" list, it only made $18 million in the B.O. and that's after the Oscar Nominations re-release for it! I did see it on the bigscreen because I'm a Stephen King nut, but I'd gladly see it again in the theaters!

 

[Brook K]

It was just announced that Atlanta is finally going to get a repetory theater. We have classics showings at various times during the year, but there is no theater that shows them regularly unless you count the film class screenings at Emory University which the public are invited to.

Metropolis was here a month or so ago and I've seen 2001, Tokyo Story, The Lady Eve, Ran, Shock Corridor, and a few others in the past year.

 

[Chad R]

I seem to remember the 1998 re-release did fairly well for a limited release. it topped the limited release charts with extremely high per screen averages when you take into account it can only have 2 showings per day due to its length. I saw it and it was wonderful to see on a big screen (as was 'The Wizard of Oz' later that year.

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

It's often not economically feasible to run these films for any length of time. Vertigo and Rear Window both had regular commercial runs here when the films had been remastered. Same for Touch of Evil and The Nights of Cabiria. If you have an arthouse with more than one screen, you might get some of these for a week or two.

The Wexner Center here shows a nice mix of contemporary and classic cinema. Within the past month I've seen disparate fare like Michael Snow's *Corpus Callosum and Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole. The catch is that these films show only once or twice, so if your schedule doesn't permit it, you may be out of luck. (I'm still steaming that I'm probably not going to be able to see Gus Van Sant's Mala Noche and some short films that are part of his retrospective. Falls on the wrong night.)

Repertory houses tend to be only in bigger cities. The Music Box in Chicago runs some great stuff, although again, you may only have one or two chances to see what they're playing. I caught Kurosawa's Drunken Angel as part of the massive retrospective they had. The Music Box was probably showing more classic cinema in a week than plays in a year in some smaller cities.

Summer film series are another way to catch older films on the big screen. Titles tend to run toward the very popular (and tend to repeat summer to summer), but I know the series here showed the remastered Lawrence of Arabia a couple years ago, as well as Spartacus, Wings, various Hitchcock films, and plenty of other familiar titles.

Chances are that some older films are out there where you live, but you have to look a little bit more.

 

[Brent Bridgeman]

Brook,

Any details on that Atlanta theater?? Wow, I finally have a reason to get excited about movies in Atlanta! I would go just about every weekend to see classics on the big screen. I've seen "Casablanca", "Touch of Evil", "Rear Window", and "Gone with the Wind", but these showings are few and far between. I'm anxiously awaiting news on the impending arrival of "Lawrence of Arabia" sometime this year.

 

[MitchellD]

If you live in the NJ/NY area, there is a lot of classic films being played in theatres at the moment. In addition to Pete's Big Screen Classics, there is the project I am involved with, the restoration of the Loews Jersey Theatre in Jersey City, a 3000 movie palace. We run films once a month there. Loews Jersey Web Site , in New York City, a theatre is running a series of Academy Award winning films running at the moment, and of course, the Film Forum has one auditorium dedicated to old films.

It is a very different experience watching a film in a theatre from watching it at home, and to truely appriciate classic films, you do need see them the way they were made to be seen, and as a home theatre enthusiast, you need a frame of reference to what a real "classic" theatre going experience is like.

/Mitchell

 

[Mark Zimmer]

That's kind of the down side to the video age: the passing of the repertory theater and, failing that, the university film societies where you'd get to see classic or cult films on at least a reasonably big screen (though the film society offerings were often dodgy). Unless you're in LA or NYC, you're pretty much out of luck, with a few happy exceptions. Although I miss (and treasure) the experience, I find it more than outweighed by the ability to own these films on DVD.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I ran the last "Wizard of Oz" reissue at a regular theatre; since it was filmed in 1.33 the screen was very small and didn't make it worth the extra bucks for anyone to go out and see it.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Jesse,

That's why the older pictures need to be seen in a classic venue and not a "modern" multiplex. The older theatres such as the Loew's Jersey that Mitchell mentioned and the Lafayette in Suffern, NY where I'm running the Big Screen Classics series have the proper stage area to present Academy ratio films large.

 

[MatthewA]

It was just announced that Atlanta is finally going to get a repetory theater.

Well, that's a start.

 

[Tim Glover]

I remember seeing The Wizard of Oz too. I think the remastered release was in 1999. And yes the screen was reformatted for 1:33.1 but it was well worth it to finally get to see one of the best movies ever made on the big screen.

I graduated from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas and they had a great old classic theater called The Paramount . This was a picture of beauty. The old flashing marquee outside, big red curtains all over, elegant woodwork, balcony, large screen, and pretty decent sound.

If I remember correctly, this theater closed down for a year during the '80's for restoration. When it re-opened, the movies they presented were glorious. I still remember seeing Gone With The Wind, North By Northwest, Psycho, and Ben-Hur. Every time the theater was packed.

Before each presentation, one of the Paramount Theater owners would step in front of the mic and give a brief talk about the film about to be seen.

This was the best date experience in town.

 

[Nathan V]

Go to Seattle. We show everything from The Godfather to Fight Club to North by Northwest to The Silence of the Lambs.

 

[Brook K]

Brent, It was in the AJC a few days ago. A company is renovating an old General Cinema 8plex on Roswell Rd. just north of 285. The article said it would be part art house part repetory. It didn't list a timetable for opening.

The theater is nothing special, just like any other of it's type. I used to go there quite a bit a couple of years ago. It was where a lot of the critics screenings were held and I had a free pass connection which has since dried up. But if the company ponies up for new sound equipment, it will be a big improvement over the Lefont's and Tara.

I would be shocked if Lawrence doesn't play at the Fox this Summer as part of their Summer film series.

 

[Bill Street]

We have an old Paramount movie palace here in Birmingham called the Alabama Theatre. It went through a restoration a few years ago, and is really a grand, wonderful place to visit.

Perhaps as a victim of its own success, movies play there only irregularly as the venue is rented out for well over 200 dates a year for everything from weddings, to concerts, to opera.

There was a successful revival film series a few years ago that played there sponsored by our local city weekly. The choice of films was terrific, but the condition of the prints were often rough.

At a recent screening of Wings for the Alabama Theatre Organ Society, I noticed that they used a digital projector rather than a 35 or 16 print. The source was probably DVD. I think I may have been one of the only people to notice.

Is using DVD or digital source projection an affordable way to get films out that are economically unfeasible to strike new prints? Or is it considered anathema?

Bill S.

 

[Peter Kline]

Theatrical revivals of classic films are hit and miss. Sorry to disagree, but GWTW did not have a spectacular theatrical revival a few years ago. It was, in fact, a fisaco. All the major reviewers saw a true Technicolor IB print, while most of us were only able to see an Eastmancolor print which was terribly muddy. And, those handful of theatres that did show the Technicolor IB print had enormous problems with the film shedding and becoming scratched because of the thickness of the print. A revival of WOZ did little better. People would rather see these films at home as revivals in general just don't do well. Except for us HTFers I don't think current audiences have any real respect for films of the past. They just want to see the latest CGI fiasco or the umpteenth sequel of same. My opinion of course.

 

[Scott McAllister]

I believe that the Arclight theater in Hollywood revives old movies all the time.

They do it as part of the "Meet the Screenwriter" series and are constantly re-releasing older movies for a few weeks at a time.

In fact, some of you might remember that I went to the Arclight and saw Lawrence of Arabia in 70mm. I also lost my wallet that night, but ended up getting back. I also saw Lethal Weapon there, and after I left California, they re-released the Fugitive and Back to the Future, as well as a few other notables.

I'm pretty sure it's a decent money maker for them.

Scott

 

[SteveP]

The GWTW prints that I saw in 1998 were windowboxed 'Scope prints (saw 2 of them) to get the 1.37:1 ratio and had bad color fringes throughout.

Later that year the Astor Plaza in Times Square showed a genuine 1.37:1 print of WIZARD OF OZ that looked pretty good.

 

[Peter Kline]

Indeed the Arclight shows older films and has special events. Some events do better then others. They use excisting prints and do not have new ones struck for what is usually only one showing (such as last night 3/7/03 when they showed "The Bandwagon" and had a discussion afterwards). The theatre was not sold out.

 

[Sathyan]

We (Columbus OH) have a film series here shown in a nice big 2800-seat Movie Palace (Ohio Theater) . They show a combination of classics and popular film. Last year:
Superman, Chaplin shorts, American Graffiti, Funny Girl, Dial M for Murder, Top Gun, 42nd Street, Spellbound, Marx's Monkey Business, Ben-Hur, Great Escape, From Russia with Love, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Abbot & Costello Meet Frankenstein, Ghostbusters, To Sir with Love, and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. $3.50 a film.

Between this and HT I'm basically boycotting the multiplexes (except when I can't resist: LOTR).

The film I want to see on a big screen with proper projection (not multiplex) is 70mm "Lawrence of Arabia". That would be so cool!

Sathyan