Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich new restoration (2 Viewers)

[rsmithjr]

Currently the plan is to release both "This Is Cinerama" and "Windjammer" in the late Spring of 2018.

...

Dave

Dave, Just to confirm: this means a new Blu-ray release for both titles? If so, that is fantastic news!

 

[Strohmaier]

yes both titles but in Blue Ray only.

 

[Charles Smith]

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

 

[RichMurphy]

Great news. I will happily double-dip on both of these.

 

[rsmithjr]

Super!
-- This is Cinerama has great historical and cultural significance.
-- Windjammer is the best of the bunch, save for How the West Was Won.

Thanks again for all of your work over the years. It took a while.

 

[Darren Gross]

The new clips look phenomenal, David. Kudos for all your hard work and sacrifice. It's quite an upgrade.

Any chance the Blu-ray will have the Norwegian audio track?

 

[Strohmaier]

never found a Norwegian audio track

 

[rsmithjr]

Just out of technical curiosity: could the Swedish soundtrack on the 35mm version be used? The languages are similar. Obviously only mono.

 

[bigshot]

I picked up a blu-ray of the knockoff German movie Flying Clipper. Apparently it's from a 70mm print that is in pretty good shape. Haven't watched it yet.

 

[cinemiracle]

I picked up a blu-ray of the knockoff German movie Flying Clipper. Apparently it's from a 70mm print that is in pretty good shape. Haven't watched it yet.

You will be very disappointed as the bluray picture quality is very dark throughout most of the film. The film is ever so dull but the extras are superb.

 

[nara]

The film is ever so dull...

Indeed it is. I fell asleep when it was screened in Bradford a few years back.

 

[DP 70]

Its a shame the BD of Flying Clipper is a bit dark and has some dirt on plus the changeover cues, this could be the print that
was shown in Bradford.
I am waiting for a UHD review but I know this has been delayed.

 

[tns49]

Another willing double dipper. All of us can't thank you enough for your tireless efforts to restore all of these films.

 

[bigshot]

I watched the first half of Fkying Clipper tonight. It's a great transfer with lots of sharpness, color saturation and it isn't dark at all. There were white whites, black blacks and plenty in-between. They just were shooting available light in direct sunlight in many locations, so faces were in shadow. You can clearly see where they had lights and where they didn't. It doesn't look bad at all, in fact it looks very good and I can't imagine the film looking any better than this. The sound is fantastic. I didn't find it boring either. The stuff in Egypt was amazing, and the bit with the jet fighters taking off of the aircraft carrier was very exciting. The running time is too long, but I'm taking it in two halves and it's fine. It has the opening music and intermission music too. It has reel change cues, but that doesn't bother me. Maybe people are just taking other people's word about it being dark and boring. I can't imagine someone actually watching the blu-ray and thinking it looks bad. Boring to some folks maybe, but if so, the Cinerama films are probably boring to them too, because it's a travelogue with no real story.

 

[cinemiracle]

I watched the first half of Fkying Clipper tonight. It's a great transfer with lots of sharpness, color saturation and it isn't dark at all. There were white whites, black blacks and plenty in-between. They just were shooting available light in direct sunlight in many locations, so faces were in shadow. You can clearly see where they had lights and where they didn't. It doesn't look bad at all, in fact it looks very good and I can't imagine the film looking any better than this. The sound is fantastic. I didn't find it boring either. The stuff in Egypt was amazing, and the bit with the jet fighters taking off of the aircraft carrier was very exciting. The running time is too long, but I'm taking it in two halves and it's fine. It has the opening music and intermission music too. It has reel change cues, but that doesn't bother me. Maybe people are just taking other people's word about it being dark and boring. I can't imagine someone actually watching the blu-ray and thinking it looks bad. Boring to some folks maybe, but if so, the Cinerama films are probably boring to them too, because it's a travelogue with no real story.

w

I saw all the Cinerama travelogues when they were first released but I never found them boring. Most of them did indeed have a story despite them being travelogues. To-day they are unique experiences of people and places as they seen in the 1950's..FLYING CLIPPER lacked everything that made the Cinerama travelogues unique experiences when seen in cinemas. F.C. even had a name change in the USA and most countries never even released the film in cinemas. After seeing the new bluray release, I can see why. .Not only is it boring but 'extremely' boring. The brilliant extras did somewhat compensate for the tedious feature.

 

[john a hunter]

Can't recall too much about Clipper though the disc has arrived and now I just need to get the 4k player and PJ to go with it.
I saw most of the Cinerama travelogues when they were released and once again on BD thanks to Dave S.
Some parts just can't stand up in the 21st Century.
Much as I love Verdi, those Aida bits in This is...send you to sleep and likewise the second half of Seven Wonders(or Seven Blunders as the Itinerama crew renamed it).
Great to have but you need to give them some latitude.

 

[bigshot]

Well I wasn't bored, but I have an attention span and an interest in the places it shows. I love opera too and seeing a golden age performance at La Scala is pretty neat for me. Honestly, I didn't see much difference between the format of Windjammer and the format of Flying Clipper, and the shots on the aircraft carrier are exactly the same as in the Cinerama movie that ended that way. My only complaint, and it holds true for most of the Cinerama films too, is that the movies are too long. I usually watch them over two nights breaking at the intermission. I bet if you did that with Flying Clipper, it wouldn't be so boring.

 

[Strohmaier]

For those of you in the NY City area we will present the new restorations of Windjammer and This IS Cinerama at the Museum of Modern Art as part of their "To Save and Project" film festival. Cinerama titles will play Sunday Jan 21st starting at 1PM. We will also do a lecture on NY Cinerama history and show samples of restorations etc.

https://www.moma.org/calendar/film/3908?locale=en

 

[lark144]

Thanks for the heads up, David!

 

[Alberto_D]

I'm curious. May I ask how this project, for restoration of most cinerama films, started and raised funds for the expansive work ?
Without this beautiful initiative the films would perish. The big studios only care about their own films, like Warner restoring How The West was Won (shot in a eastman stock more resistant to fadding than most other cinerama films).

There is one technical detail I don't understand well. If the camera trick technic to split screen, using a soft edge mask place close to the camera lens, exist since early days, and created little visible division line, why cinerama could not create less visible division lines between the panels ?
The cinerama films not digitally restored always have the edges of each panels darker.

I wonder if is possible or if some silled cinerama fan managed to create a DIY project to built a large curved screen and use adapted lenses to a digital projector, to get the something close to cinerama experience in home. I know one guy installed a real cinerama film projector system, in home, but I'm not aware of a curved screen in home for digital projection.