Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Italian Cinema Shows 'Tree of Life' Out of Order and No One Notices

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Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 06-09-2011, 12:18 PM:

Italian Cinema Shows 'Tree of Life' Out of Order and No One Notices

Source: firstshowing.net

quote:
This is just a fun story for those that love hearing some amusing film news from around the world. I caught on Twitter last night via @theangrymick that an Italian movie theater named Lumière apparently played Terrence Malick's new film The Tree of Life for a full week out of order, but no one really noticed. They provide a link to a translated article on an Italian news site (Corriere di Bologna) where it says that the first two reels (in projectionist speak, each reel is a 22 minute portion of the film) were swapped, but the film ran for a full week before anyone even realized what was wrong until they went to see it again at another theater.

The translation is a bit hard to understand, it refers to reels as "rollers", and some sentences make no sense. But the story begins when the theater decided to show the "original" version of The Tree of Life from Cannes in English with Italian subtitles - later comes a dubbed version and most would rather see the "original." They go on to say "[only to] discover, after a week of screenings, scenes were not exactly in the sequence designed by Malick and his editors." The first two reels were switched and even though the film starts with production logos and a biblical quote, audiences seemed to think that was just part of Malick's crazy editing.

"Those who had read something on The Tree of Life, knew that the plot was traveling from present to past and then, seeing [it in] the Lumière, did not [say] anything after. But some doubt the projectionists had come, because the logo of the distribution appeared after almost half an hour. And besides that also a quote, which is usually in the head. None of them had even seen the work (projected only to Cannes) and so they had no clear evidence to say that something was wrong. Just a feeling. Strong enough to move the logo to the top of the distribution. Apart from that small correction, the projection odd went on for a week."

So how did they figure it out? Apparently some guy first noticed it reading on Facebook. "Until someone pointed it to him: Facebook. Movie buffs that after watching the original version were then returned to see (in other [theaters]) dubbed in Italian, and [the truth was revealed]. The Lumière ran for cover (also discovering that the rollers had been marked incorrectly by the distributors), but none, however, protested the 'creative' error." What an odd story. The article claims the Lumière in Bologna, Italy also had the same issue with Malick's The Thin Red Line when they showed that in 1998, but "noticed it almost immediately." I guess it just goes to show how the very abstract, surreal nature of the storytelling and imagery in The Tree of Life is so trippy, that it can play out of sequence and some unknowing audiences won't even realize it at all.

Next time, Malick needs to visit that theater in Italy himself to make sure everything is correct, as he's going to be quite unhappy if he ever hears this news. I don't think the instructions for projectionists helped either.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 06-09-2011, 02:10 PM:

Sweet Jesus, are the words in that article even in the correct order?

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-09-2011, 05:50 PM:

I started reading that thing at noon and I'm still only half-way through trying to decipher it! [Big Grin]

No wonder the reels got out of order and nobody noticed...twice.

And they have the nerve to blame that poor filmmaker!

Posted by Jim Cassedy (Member # 4115) on 06-10-2011, 12:40 AM:

Many years ago, I once got a couple or the reels for WOODSTOCK out of order, at a midnite show- - and didn't realize it till the next night as I was taking them out of the reel bins for the next show.

Posted by Andy Frodsham (Member # 4061) on 06-10-2011, 02:23 PM:

The article says that the first two reels got swapped, but how does anyone run the first reel (or last, for that matter) out of order?

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-11-2011, 02:23 AM:

When I was managing for UA I broke down a print for the Lowes across the street onto 2 of their 6000 foot reels. I took a spare Coca-Cola polar bear ad that was going to be tossed and spliced it to the beginning and ends of the reels so there would be a couple of wraps to protect the print (so they wouldn't lose the leaders by re-attaching the leaders as happened previously). I explicitly told the manager who picked it up (and said he was going to be the one to load it onto the platter) that the outer and inner wraps were there to keep the film from getting scratched, he thanked me, and you can figure out what happened.

A week later I passed an employee into that movie and they came back laughing that "halfway through the movie it just stopped and started running the Coke polar bear commercial for about 20 seconds and then picked up right where the movie left off.

What is really sad is that I used that roll of opaque yellow tape to make a single-sided splice joining that protective film to the roll and wrote on the tape securing the end "remove junk film before splicing" and they didn't even notice.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 06-11-2011, 02:11 PM:

Next time you do this, cut the Coke® polar bear ad out of frame.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 06-11-2011, 04:32 PM:

Who still runs film anymore???

Oh wait, I just removed the digital projectors from one location and put the 35mm back in this last week. Does anyone have a spare Coca-Cola polar bear ad I can cut up?

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 06-11-2011, 06:20 PM:

..lol...dang, that's too funny, yet so bad ....

(should have just slip wound that hunk of film around the roll, then they'll prob wonder if that is needed to be attached...)

-now, one can understand of the need for digital projection: to keep things horribly simple.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 06-13-2011, 02:40 PM:

quote: Brad Miller
I just removed the digital projectors from one location and put the 35mm back in this last week. Does anyone have a spare Coca-Cola polar bear ad I can cut up?

Even swap... Polar bears for the digital projectors.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 06-13-2011, 11:30 PM:

quote:
I once got a couple or the reels for WOODSTOCK out of order,

Well...since that one's a concert film, you could probably run the reels in any order you want and nobody would notice. Besides, the audience is all stoned anyway! [Big Grin]

Posted by Manny Knowles (Member # 1171) on 06-13-2011, 11:43 PM:

quote: Andy Frodsham
how does anyone run the first reel (or last, for that matter) out of order?

I've run into changeover situations where one projectionist prefers to start on the left-hand projector, whereas another likes to start on the right. It gets awkward when one tries to "help" the other by pre-threading. Whenever I pre-thread, I always leave a big note over the controls of the "Reel 2" projector saying "Reel 1 is over there" with an arrow pointing the way. I also remove the adhesive tape (R-1, R-2, etc) and actually stick it to the projector so that it's clear as to what's threaded where.

quote: Brad Miller
I used that roll of opaque yellow tape to make a single-sided splice joining that protective film to the roll and wrote on the tape securing the end "remove junk film before splicing" and they didn't even notice

When I use a trailer as protective material, I don't actually splice it onto the print. Instead I treat it like a "paper band" and just tuck it under the first convolution and then tape it down to itself.

One time I got so desperate as to use part of an old trailer in place of actual "leader" and, in that case, I used paper tape to mark every foot, so it was pretty obvious that wasn't to be projected, and the numbered tapes gave a solid reference as to where to actually begin threading.

quote: Joe Redifer
Next time you do this, cut the Coke® polar bear ad out of frame.

I learned, working at USC, there's only so much "fool-proofing" you can do. I swear! There will always be that one "fool" that comes along....