Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: North by Northwest (1959)

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Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 09-04-2011, 08:40 PM:

CINEMA: AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, Silver Spring, MD
AUDITORIUM: 1 (THX-certified)
PRESENTATION: 35mm/Dolby Digital
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Very few (see below).
RATING: Nine (out of ten)

This was the most outstanding filmgoing experience I've had in my life, second to "The Room" at the same venue three months ago. I wasn't told what print it was, but after investigating enough, I've concluded that it was a remastered 40th anniversary print from 1999. There were some dirt on the print, mostly at the beginnings and ends of each reel, as well as very, very few color shifts, but it was tolerable throughout. The color was OUTSTANDING, and looked better than any DI I've seen printed on film, heck better than a 2K DI at least! Bernard Hermann's score, which was recorded in LCR stereo, was outstanding in the 5.1 soundtrack played back on the Silver's sound system.

The crowd was very good, very appreciative of film. They quieted down when the lights started to dim, applauded when Hitchcock made his cameo, laughed at the moments that were genuinely funny, and give a huge round of applause when "The End" flashed on the screen. There were no trailers (unless you count the little promos about the AFI and the theatre before the film on the digital projector), they just darkened the lights and the now-outdated awful green MGM logo variant illuminated on the screen as the film began.

THE PLOT: Wackiness ensues, for the sake of wackiness. Can't get original.

The film was excellent with great acting, witty dialogue, great soundtrack, great cinematography, great character chemistry, just great film. That's all I have to say.

Posted by Mark Lensenmayer (Member # 134) on 09-04-2011, 09:17 PM:

It is a great film in every way. I've seen it a dozen times and I still enjoy it. If you look closely in the scene at the base of Mt. Rushmore, you can see a child cover his ears right before the gun shot.

One gripe I have about the summer film series at our beautiful Ohio Theatre is that they INSIST on an intermission, no matter what the movie. They usually have it at the end of one of the middle reels. So, it was EXTREMELY frustrating when they went to intermission right in the middle of the crop dusting scene. As our late friend, Mr. Pylak said, "This is film done WRONG!"

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 09-04-2011, 11:46 PM:

I'm looking forward to presenting this in October!