This is topic Projectionist Movies in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.
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Posted by Wade Brashers (Member # 581) on 09-03-2000, 01:50 AM:
The only two that stick out in my head are Fight Club (the book has much more projectionist stuff)and Cinema Paradisowhat others are out there?
Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 09-03-2000, 05:07 AM:
Rodney Dangerfield was in a horrible low budget film called "The Projectionist".
Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 09-03-2000, 08:25 AM:
The Smallest Show on Earth (UK 1957) aka Big Time Operators Peter Sellers as aged disgruntled projectionist in a run down flea pit cinema battling for survival against a new "Ritzy" theatre
Posted by John Wilson (Member # 269) on 09-03-2000, 02:43 PM:
I didn't think he was disgruntled...drunk maybe, but not disgruntled...The scene where the three old timers watch the silent film is right up there with most of Cinema Paradiso.
Posted by Paul Cunningham (Member # 501) on 09-03-2000, 05:15 PM:
John, whats that aussie one?
The travelling showman?
You know its set in the 20's 30's 40's (something like that) and he goes around to country towns setting up for the night.
Paul
Posted by Jim Bedford (Member # 4) on 09-03-2000, 05:26 PM:
The Aussie film was The Picture Show Man with Rod Taylor from '77. There was also Bye, Bye, Brazil and Jiri Menzel's Those Wonderful Movie Cranks. All three of these films were about travelling projectionist and showmen (and a woman in Bye, Bye).
Posted by Dustin Mitchell (Member # 372) on 09-03-2000, 07:37 PM:
Don't forget "The Inner Circle." Its about Stalin's projectionist.
Posted by Kevin Crawford (Member # 469) on 09-03-2000, 08:01 PM:
I have a difficult time seeing Peter Sellers being disgruntled. However, I would have to say that Tyler Durdin was a disgruntled projectionist. And no, I don't splice porn into children's features. I save that for serious dramas.
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 09-04-2000, 04:15 AM:
If I had some 35mm porn I wouldn't go ruining it like that- you know they quit making porn on 35mm about 15 years ago, right? Porn theaters showed trailers too that didn't even bother TRYING to get a green "All Audiences" band! 
The few porn theaters that are still open now have just been showing projection video for quite some time.
There's a weird little horror movie called "Anguish" that ends with a psycho going into a movie theater and killing people, and it's the only movie I've ever seen that actually shows a platter. The theater in the movie was a single-screen and you just see a few seconds of the projectionist sitting there reading the paper while his one film's going!
"Dirty Work" has a projection bit that's pretty funny, but like "Fight Club" it's just not realistic. There's a low-budget flick from 1976 called "Drive-in Massacre" that's really bad, it was one of the first laserdiscs I ever bought (thanks, Camelot Music cutouts!)
Posted by Phil Connolly (Member # 465) on 09-04-2000, 04:41 AM:
Last Action Hero?Well it has a Projectionist in it.
Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 09-04-2000, 06:26 AM:
Perhaps I should have said that Sellers was as disgruntled as a newt!!
Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 09-04-2000, 07:53 AM:
"Night Of The Comet" (1984)Our heroine makes love in the booth.
Sigh.....
Posted by Dwayne Caldwell (Member # 417) on 09-04-2000, 09:29 AM:
Things to do in Denver When You're Dead. Christopher Lloyd played a projectionist of a porn movie theatre. In fact, he was shot to death in his own booth. And of course he was running a changeover system like the projectionists in all of Hollywood's movies do.------------------
The man with the magic hands.
Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-04-2000, 11:08 AM:
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned "Sherlock Jr.," which is one of Buster Keaton's greatest shorts (well, it runs for about 60 minutes...not sure if that makes it a short or not).
Posted by Florian Pausch (Member # 708) on 09-04-2000, 01:55 PM:
"Hellzapoppin´", a screwball comedy with Ole Olsen and Chick Johnson is one of the finest pieces of projectionist films I remember, others are:
"Gremlins"
and,of course, "Im Lauf der Zeit" by Wim Wenders.
The best, most authentic nitrate fire is in "Cinema Paradiso".
Note: Buster Keaton is the only carbon arc projectionist able of running a full feature length on only one projector! (The lamp of the second Power´s standing in his box is not connected electrically...) so long
Flo
------------------
Florian Pausch
projectionist and technician
Filmarchiv Austria,Vienna
www.filmarchiv.at
fpausch@aon.at
Posted by Richard C. Wolfe (Member # 431) on 09-04-2000, 02:36 PM:
There was a film made back around the late 60s or early 70s about a young man who was a projectionist. I think it took place in England. The story had to do with the fact that he got married and was unable to consummate the marriage. Several months went by and he still hadn't done it...maybe the theatre he worked at should have shown X rated films? Anyway I can't remember what it was called. Does anyone else remember it?There was a great little mini movie made for cable TV by Turtleback Productions several years ago for the A & E cable network called "The Royale" It was about the goings on in a small town theatre back around 1949. It had one of the best booth sets that I've ever seen in a film. Motiograph projectors were used. All the little details of the booth down to tools, supplies etc. along with the sink, mirror...you name it, it was all there. There were two mistakes though...it was 1949 and there were a pair of adjustable scope lenses on a shelf in the background. For you young ones...remember scope didn't come about until 1953. They also used a 35mm sound editor to preview a film in the booth. I have never seen that in any of the over 1000 old single screen theatres that I have been in.
If you ever have a chance to see that film I highly recommend it as it really shows what it was like to run a single screen theatre back before TV arrived, and also what the theatre meant to the people of the community.
Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 09-04-2000, 04:34 PM:
Anyone interested in film/projection and saw the 50's teenexploit film "The Blob" will never forget the movie theater scene. The way it was filmed and cut together made everyone in the theater look back at the booth when (in the movie) the film burns in the gate...just to make sure it was in the movie. It still gives me the creeps watching the blob squeeze through the ventilation grill in the booth.... WHEW! >>> Phil
Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 09-04-2000, 04:57 PM:
How about "The Bad and the Beautiful" with some scenes that take place both in a studio screening room booth and in a regular theater booth during a sneak screening.And how about "Come See the Paradise" with Dennis Quaid as a defrocked New York projectionist who moves to LA (circa 1940) and takes both a room and a job in a Little Tokyo movie house (lives in the booth!).
*** Spoiler ***
Quaid's best line comes during his job interview when he's told that the previous projectionist, a Japanese immigrant, had committed suicide. Quaid's response:
"What'd he do, miss a changeover?"
Paul
Posted by George Roher (Member # 91) on 09-04-2000, 06:37 PM:
East Is East has a brief scene in a projection booth, where the theatre owner makes the projectionists stop the film that's running and put on a different one.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 09-04-2000, 06:43 PM:
1941 has a scene in the booth ( funny they have COrelites and penthouses about 15 years to early)
There are 2 columbo movies that the murderer uses a change over as a alibi
See Brad changeovers have advantages over platters 
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 09-04-2000, 09:41 PM:
'Desparately Seeking Susan": Aidan Quinn plays an arthouse projectionist.'Drive-In': Gratuitous projection booth scenes in the opening credits...
The music video for Bob Seger's 'Night Moves' has him spending most of the time in a drive-in projection booth...
Even porn has its share: 'Passion Pit' features a couple of loops shot in a booth thats in Film-Tech's Pic Warehouse 
Aaron
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-05-2000, 06:20 PM:
'Sherlock Junior' - Buster Keaton stars as a projectionist; 'Clash by Night' (1950s melodrama, notable because Marilyn Monroe made her screen debut in a supporting role, directed by Fritz Lang) - has a homicidal maniac projectionist, with a murder taking place in the box.There's also a British Hitchcock film from the '30s - can't for the life of me remember which one, can anyone help? - which is set mainly in a small independent cinema in south London. One of the suspense scenes shows a small boy carrying a transit case full of film through the suburban streets (he is not allowed on a bus because the film is nitrate).
Posted by Rachel Kovacs (Member # 602) on 09-13-2000, 11:17 PM:
You know, I saw one of those Columbo movies a couple of years ago (I've only been working in the booth for a little over a month), and I couldn't stop spotting cue dots afterwards. But when I mentioned them to friends, they'd ask if I'd seen Fight Club (which I didn't see until two weeks ago)...I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who'd seen that Columbo episode!Good to know I'm not completely crazy.
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 09-14-2000, 09:57 AM:
There was another film from the UK with I think Haley Mills called the family jewels that had booth scenes
Posted by Evans A Criswell (Member # 381) on 09-14-2000, 11:58 AM:
Didn't "Dirty Work" have a scene where the two guys get a job working the booth in a theatre so they can screw up a movie being shown to some important person?
Posted by Aaron Sisemore (Member # 145) on 09-14-2000, 02:38 PM:
Yep.... running 6000' reels on a single Pro-35... "Men In Black...who like to have sex with other men"
It was a special screening for the circuit's top brass...
I think I had mentioned this one somewhere before on film-tech.
Aaron
Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 09-14-2000, 08:16 PM:
quote:
Anyone interested in film/projection and saw the 50's teenexploit film "The Blob" will never forget the movie theater scene.
Yes, it had a Simplex E system.Gordon, wasn't "The Family Jewels" a Jerry Lewis picture?
------------------
Better Projection Pays!
Posted by Joe Odenthal (Member # 217) on 09-17-2000, 09:24 PM:
Omega Man.. love the scene where Charlton Heston trims a Peerless MagnaArc with the door open..Comming up roses.. Welsh in English.. Projectionist and consessionist try to keep the theatre in a dying Welsh mining town open
Posted by Thomas Hauerslev (Member # 566) on 09-18-2000, 12:05 AM:
Remember "Silent Movie"? The projection room is staffed by a very near sighted projectionist and Marty Feldman as the upper reel.Last Friday on the "Disney Sjov" (No, it IS SJOV!) my kids saw Cruella de Ville trying to run a cinema.
And finally, there is a Danish short film (from the early 80s) about a cinema (In Tølløse I believe) where the whole plot is centered around a young boy who's much more interested in dating girls, than running his fathers projectors.
All the best, Thomas
Posted by Dick Vaughan (Member # 540) on 09-21-2000, 02:36 AM:
Richard/GordThe film about non consummation of marriage with Hayley Mills was The Family Way 1966 .
A possible redeeming feature being a soundtrack Paul McCartney.
Posted by Joseph Pandolfi (Member # 223) on 09-22-2000, 10:20 PM:
Two movies come in mind right now. Most recently "The Green Mile" there is a 5 second shot 20 minutes near the end.Also "The Last Action Hero"
Posted by Dave Cutler (Member # 515) on 09-23-2000, 09:29 AM:
There is a short scene in 'Urban Legends II' that takes place in a booth. 16mm reel to reel, don't get to see much though. 
Posted by Greg Anderson (Member # 235) on 09-23-2000, 11:18 AM:
A upcoming episode of Touched by an Angel will feature some projectionist action... and special guest star Robert Loggia... and proejectionist technical assistance from one of your fellow Film Tech guys (but not me).
Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 09-23-2000, 01:36 PM:
Dick all I remember was they had varamoph lens and peerless lamps but cant remember what head
Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 09-23-2000, 04:16 PM:
I will not appear on network television until they get rid of those stupid onscreen logos.
Posted by Martin Frandsen (Member # 74) on 09-25-2000, 02:41 AM:
Thomas, i don't blame that boy for not wanting to run his dad's projectors, after all in that age everyone was dateing! ...Now where was that town of Tølløse?
Posted by Andrew Walls (Member # 179) on 01-19-2003, 06:34 PM:
Wasn't there an episode of Hawaii Five-O where Jack Lord goes into a change-over booth to arrest the Projectionist? I forget the who and why though. Just a distant memory.
Posted by Chris Markiewicz (Member # 1415) on 01-19-2003, 07:17 PM:
"Phantom of the Megaplex" often run on Disney Channel has some booth scenes including a repeating scene on screen running off a platter. I think it was shot in Vancouver; looked like Strong gear.
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-20-2003, 02:11 AM:
The Hitchcock film I forgot the name of was Sabotage (1935).
Posted by Kenneth Wuepper (Member # 1174) on 01-20-2003, 09:11 PM:
Don't for get the "Gremlins" film with all of the little furries in the booth and in the house jumping on the seats. Reminded me of the old Saturday Matinees.
Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 01-20-2003, 11:32 PM:
An episode of Columbo...
Columbo goes to the booth to investigate a murder and finds a nickel on the floor. The projectionist says to leave it there because that's the nickel he winds up in the film so he knows when the film's about to end. (By the sound of the coin dropping out.)
I always thought, "Hmmm... You'll REALLY know when the film's about to end when that nickel falls into the projector and gets wedged in a sprocket somewhere!"
Posted by Don E. Nelson (Member # 1049) on 01-21-2003, 03:04 PM:
The Majestic, filmed in Ferndale, Ca. was all about Marting Landau rebuilding the Majestic theater when Jim Carey came back to town with amnesia.
Good film.
Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 01-25-2003, 09:31 PM:
In the movie "The Projectionist" that was mentioned in an earlier post, even though Rodney Dangerfield was in the movie, it was Chuck McCann who played the projectionist.
And the scenes in "Desperately Seeking Susan" I believe were filmed at the old 8th St. Playhouse, but I might be confusing those scenes with those in Fame when they go to see the midnight screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I think one of those films used the 8th St Playhouse and the other used the Bleecker St. Cinema.
Posted by Bill Carter (Member # 156) on 01-25-2003, 09:47 PM:
Chuck McCann also played the projectionist in the above mentioned Columbo episode.