Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: 70mm film festival in Somerville, MA., September 16-25

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Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-19-2016, 02:38 PM:

This is some shameless promotion for a venue that I am tangentially involved with and which is doing a 70mm and wide screen festival next month. The Somerville Theatre in Somerville, MA. is a 900-seat cinema built in 1914. They have top-notch 70mm projection and sound equipment (including every 70mm picture and sound format (well, except for CDS)) and the knowledge to present the format correctly. You should attend.

Here is the schedule:

16 September - LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (70mm print)

17 September - LORD JIM and IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD (70mm prints)

18 September - TRON and SLEEPING BEAUTY (70mm prints)

19 September - RIDE LONESOME (35mm) and THE WILD BUNCH (70mm)

20 September - INTERSTELLAR (70mm)

21 September - SILVERADO (70mm)

22 September - WEST SIDE STORY (70mm)

23 September - 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (70mm prints)

24 September - THE VIKINGS (35mm, probably a Tech print) and SPARTACUS (70mm)

25 September - THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (35mm IB Tech print) and BEN-HUR (35mm IB Tech print, with some reels in mag)

More information is on the theatre's web site:

http://somervilletheatre.com/70-mm-presentations/

Amazingly, I am told that this is the very first time that there has been a full-scale 70mm festival in the Boston market.

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 08-19-2016, 03:17 PM:

Scott I emailed and sent you a PM on here. I am open you could use an extra projectionist with 70mm c/o experience of the roster is full then maybe you can hook me up with a booth tour [Big Grin]

Posted by Rick Raskin (Member # 1561) on 08-19-2016, 04:25 PM:

Interesting: I saw MGM's "Ben Hur" studio print some years ago and all reels were magnetic.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 08-19-2016, 04:43 PM:

No 70mm Vertigo? I hope the projectionist doesn't go on strike because of that omission.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 08-19-2016, 06:18 PM:

Some of these prints are showing right now as part of the "See It Big" series at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, but they came up with a picture I never knew was in 70mm: the Rolling Stones concert film Let's Spend the Night Together.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-19-2016, 07:10 PM:

If the print of Silverado is the one I showed earlier this year (#5001 from Sony Repertory, reel 1 barcode OR0862), I'm afraid it has bad JJ scratching throughout, several long sections of deep vertical scratches, and it's a pretty washed out and grainy blowup from 35mm 'scope anyways. The mag audio is very crisp, though. I rated it poor for pix and excellent for sound.

I have the, erm, pleasure of playing The Master and Inherent Vice next month, arguably the two most pretentious pieces of esoteric crap ever to be printed on 5/70 in recent years (with Vertigo being a very strong contender for the bronze medal). Oh well, there's a Scientology "information center" next door, so we'd probably be able to fill the house by offering free tickets!

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 08-19-2016, 07:18 PM:

Sean--I sent you email.

Brad--they played Vertigo in 70mm earlier in the spring. No one went on strike then.

Leo--sorry to hear that. I don't know specifically where these prints are coming from, but I can assure everyone that this is a venue that takes presentation seriously; they would rather not play something than play a print like you described. I expect that they will be showing a better print than that.

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 08-19-2016, 07:59 PM:

I'm hoping that several of those blowup Silverado prints were made, and that you're getting another one, maybe from a private collection somwhere, or one of the big nonprofit archives. I looked through our print report database (email me if you'd like a PDF of that report from my show) and seen that we've played #5001 on three occasions in recent years, and the scratching was noted on all these bookings. Therefore, I'm guessing that this is the only one that Sony has, at any rate.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-16-2016, 11:10 AM:

This starts tonight!

IAMMMW has been moved to next weekend due to a shipping mishap. West Side Story plays a second time tomorrow in its place.

And, Leo, we got one of your inspection reports with the 35mm print of Ride Lonesome. [Smile]

Also, the 70mm print of Silverado that will play here is in excellent condition.

Posted by Mark Ogden (Member # 43) on 09-17-2016, 12:43 AM:

I had a terrific evening watching the 70mm Lawrence of Arabia at the Somerville tonight, many thanks to Scott Norwood and David Kornfeld for the great courtesy and the booth tour.

The print was very interesting, reels 1 to 5 or so showed light to moderate wear and were just a touch yellow-green in the lowlights. Reels 6 to 13 were nearly flawless, perfect color and super clean and scratch-free. Projection and presentation were, of course, top notch. David the projectionist introduced the show and was obviously so psyched to be running 70mm for the first time at the Somerville that the whole crowd got up for the experience. Dual curtains too!

Good luck on the rest of the series!

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 09-18-2016, 12:56 PM:

Glad you got a better print of Silverado than the one I played. I'm guessing that it's from the same batch, but managed to avoid being molested.

As for Ride Lonesome, if I remember correctly, it was one of the grainiest prints I've ever come across. I have literally seen 16mm 'scope prints with more detail in the picture. I'm guessing that it was shot on faster stock than was intended for use with early CinemaScope optics (possibly to enable location shooting in natural light, and to reduce lighting costs on the interior shots): either that or something went seriously wrong in post-production. What made it look all the more unwatchable was that we played it in a double bill immediately after the UCLA restoration of The Bullfighter and the Lady, which was so crisp and detailed that it could almost have been 70mm.

Posted by Sean Weitzel (Member # 244) on 09-19-2016, 12:34 PM:

What condition was TRON in? Was it the print that was struck in 1999 that played at the El Capitan?

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 09-19-2016, 12:43 PM:

Tron was gorgeous. It was print #001 and had a format 44 (format 42, with SR) mag track (erroneously labelled as "4-track" on the cans). There was no noticeable damage at all.