Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Labyrinth (1986)

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Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 11-27-2011, 04:12 PM:

CINEMA: AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, Silver Spring, MD
AUDITORIUM: 2 (THX-certified)
PRESENTATION: 35mm/Dolby A-type Stereo
PRINT GRADE: A
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: None. [Cool]

RATING: Five (out of ten)

Had the privilege of seeing a midnight showing of this last night (or rather, early this morning). I was shocked at the quality of the print. Oh so little scratches (most of them perhaps part of the negative) and it survived up to 25 years! (FilmGuard, anyone?) In spite of this, there were some oddities. The odd reels (1, 3, 5) had a little white bar on the bottom of the screen for a split second almost every time the film cuts to another shot (this was very annoying at the beginning of reel 5, with all the fast-paced editing during the showdown at the Goblin City). The bar was oddly non-existant on the even reels. The print might also have faded blue. If you compare a DVD or Blu-ray release of the film to the print I saw, you'll notice that the video version has more brownish colors, but I am unsure if the color temperature was the result of a remastering decision or a faded print, because some scenes had (almost) identical color temperature between the video and the print.

A handful of people attended this screening, mostly fans of the film. A group danced to Magic Dance in their seats, as others almost tried to sing along, but couldn't seem to gain audience participation. Another odd thing about the screening, there was a teaser trailer for the Tom Hanks and Jackie Gleason film Nothing in Common. I have yet to find it on the Internet, but it had the actor's names flash on a black screen whilst showing clips from the film. It was also a Tri-Star film that was released in 1986, just like Labyrinth, so chances are the trailer was originally on the print. Oddly enough, the trailer was in worse condition compared to the film itself.

Another note, after the PG rating card at the end of the film (with the nostalgic transparent white-on-navy-blue look with no sight of a black outline on any of the lettering), the tail end of the reel ran through the projector. The only sound I heard was a pop, which sounded like somebody lifting a needle at the end of a record.

I give kudos to the projectionist that night regardless of the oddities. This was my first optical Dolby A-type soundtrack I have heard as well, and it actually sounded pretty good. After all, it IS THX certified!

THE PLOT: Spoiled b***h puts off her inferior babysitting skills and tells herself a disturbing story about Goblin pedophiles taking her little brother away. Apparently, she wasn't too careful with what she wished for, and now has to put up with a deranged David Bowie wearing tights who claims to be Jareth, the Goblin King. Wackiness had already ensued.

I have seen this film on Netflix before, thinking it was mediocre. I only went to the midnight showing so I can bring friends who grew up on it. Unfortunately, they didn't come, but it was still an enjoyable experience nonetheless.

Posted by Victor Liorentas (Member # 5272) on 11-27-2011, 04:42 PM:

I ran a midnight show of this a few months ago and also had a great print with little wear and the Dolby A soundtrack was great!It kept surprising me with it's sonic quality kinda like Back To The Future did for sound.

It is also the busiest classic we have played.
After that is The Big Lebowski,Jaws and Enter The Dragon!

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 11-28-2011, 04:38 PM:

quote: Connor Wilson
The odd reels (1, 3, 5) had a little white bar on the bottom of the screen for a split second almost every time the film cuts to another shot (this was very annoying at the beginning of reel 5, with all the fast-paced editing during the showdown at the Goblin City). The bar was oddly non-existant on the even reels.

Seems it was a changeover show with 2000 ft reels. The projector that the show was started on had a slight misframing, so what you saw was the printed minus density of the negative splices. Films shot in true anamorphic format have a thin frame line, so if you rack the image up or down even a small bit, there is a chance you will see the flashes at every cut.
This is especially visible with old movies that have photo-chemical visual effects (pre-digital optical printing), sometimes the area outside the image is transparent instead of black, so you get to see white lines whenever the framing is off. The original BLADE RUNNER 35mm prints had this IIRC.

Posted by Tom Petrov (Member # 1534) on 11-28-2011, 11:08 PM:

Hey Connor, I wondering if you can comment on the theatre. I was just in Washington recently and was so tempted to check out a movie at the AFI but nothing good was playing when I was there.

We don't have THX theatres in Canada, they have all since gone and if you believe it, we had over 20 cinemas in the Golden Horseshoe which were THX at one time.

I'd love to hear your comments on the theatre.

Posted by Melanie Loggins (Member # 6454) on 12-02-2011, 09:52 AM:

We showed this as a free movie on Halloween, and it went over really well. Little kids who had never seen it, college kids who think of it as "their" 80s discovery, and parents like me who grew up on it. We played it on Blu-Ray and the sound transfer was great. I would definitely show it again.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 12-02-2011, 03:20 PM:

I remember running this film back in '86 and also noticed the white lines - due to bad editing procedures by the production company.

Being in 'scope, we had full open apertures that weren't too forgiving of sloppy post editing productions where a more closed aperture, one could roll the FRAME knob to hide these splice lines quite easily.

But, I managed to still roll the knob slightly to hide most of these lines, but I went one step farther: placed electrical tape on the glass to mask out the bottom of the reflected image so it wasn't so apparent of a flaw in the presentation.

Seems that the personnel at the Silver weren't aware of this imperfection and allowed these line blips to get presented on the screen..

Posted by Connor Wilson (Member # 6088) on 12-10-2011, 05:26 PM:

quote: Tom Petrov
Hey Connor, I wondering if you can comment on the theatre. I was just in Washington recently and was so tempted to check out a movie at the AFI but nothing good was playing when I was there.

We don't have THX theatres in Canada, they have all since gone and if you believe it, we had over 20 cinemas in the Golden Horseshoe which were THX at one time.

I'd love to hear your comments on the theatre.

Thanks for asking, Tom.

The AFI Silver Theater and Cultural Center is, in a word, amazing. There is not another place in the United States that not only cares so much about content, but presentation as well. The prints shown at the Silver are mostly either from B to A+ grade. On all three screens, the sound is phenomenal, although sometimes they turn it down a bit. Virtually any type of film (except IMAX, of course) and soundtrack shines in the beautiful house. And yes, even Academy Mono sounds fantastic there!

There are no annoying children who roam around this place. Most of what you'll see is a respectable audience who love and discuss film. They even serve beer and have an old-school style concession stand where you can pour your own butter. Their repertory program and film festivals are diverse enough to keep even the most cynical man towards cinema into the theater.

And as for THX, it is the best THX-certified place I have been to in terms of presentation quality and construction. It's not often enough when they show a THX trailer, but I have seen "Amazing Life" play there for both of the wrong movies to place it on ("Foreign Correspondant" and "The Room", both in theater #1). A friend of mine who also goes to the place reported that ye olde "Simpsons" THX trailer played before a 25th anniversary print of "Shoah." (slightly tasteless, if you ask me. The Silver seems to have a somewhat cynical sense of humor placing the THX trailers in all the wrong films)

If you ever come back, or staying longer around Washington D.C., I highly recommend that you go see a film there. It's definitely an experience.