13th October
City Screen York. Screen 1 (A THX screen)
70mm 'Lawrence of Arabia'

More details as and when or from me... renbriggs@o2.co.uk

Cheers
Darren.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

For those that are wondering what this is about, Darren has equipped York screen 1 for 70mm at a tiny fraction of the cost of converting a 35mm screen using off-the-shelf stuff. I was treated to a sneak preview last weekend with a friend (who likes films as much as I do but is not a technology obsessive) and we both thought it was amazing. We saw an original 1960s release print reel of My Fair Lady and, having not seen 70mm for years, it really bought everything back. It looks and sounds amazing, even on the slightly faded reel we saw.

If you're in the north of England, look out for 70mm shows at York on www.picturehouse-cinemas.co.uk in the next few weeks... it'll be well worth the trip.

Steve

This may be considered sacrilege, but I'm no longer moved by hearing that Lawrence of Arabia or 2001: A Space Odyssey are being reissued. Also, based on the extremely exclusive release pattern, one could easily be led to assume that there are far fewer houses equipped for 70mm than is actually the case. For instance, when I lived in Los Angeles, only the Cinerama Dome showed 70mm revivals -- and usually it was just a once-a-year thing (around October when there is typically nothing interesting in mainstream release).

It's like every couple of years the fans of the 70mm format start yelling "for the love of God, give us something...anything!!!" and the studios take a deep breath and go: "okay let's haul 'em out...AGAIN."

I'd much rather see 70mm revivals of Alien or maybe the Indiana Jones movies or even Grease 2 for crying out loud.

Better yet...how about some 70mm blowups of some curent releases? I would sooner patronize a 70mm print of The Country Bears than some [predictable] token revival. I remember the summer of 1988 when there was always at least one new movie with 70mm prints. Whatever happened to that trend? Did digital audio come along and overshadow 70mm?

Question: could one theatre request (and actually get) a 70mm blowup?

Yes, many mistakingly think the only advantage of 70mm was the sound. But "Size DOES Matter" when trying to fill a huge screen:
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/pytlak/dec98.shtml
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/newsletters/pytlak/march99.shtml

Some European theatres have been very successful in getting 70mm prints of recent films that only played in 35mm in North America.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

After seeing the 70mm revival at the Ziegfeld in New York some years ago, I saw it at the Dome and was disappointed. The deeply curved screen had severe distortion of the images at the sides as well as focus problems and the sound reverberated around the theatre so that there was virtually no stereo image (and dialogue was harder to understand.) Presentation at the Ziegfeld (even though it doesn't have any curve to the screen) was definitely superior.

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I received the following message from Robert Harris, who supervised the
striking of the new prints, from the 65mm dupe which he created during
the restoration back in 1988.

Regarding where "Lawrence" will be shown, he says, "From what I've
been told, it opens in Seattle and Chi on the 20th, NY and LA on the
25th, B'more on the 27th plus more."

I hope some of these prints migrate over the oceans for others to see
also.

Bill Bennett
DoP
Los Angeles, CA USA

On Friday, September 6, 2002, at 09:23 AM, David Vottero wrote:

> Also, too, playing at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston from Nov 1
> - Nov
> 9th. It's a new 70mm print.

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John P. Pytlak, Senior Technical Specialist
Worldwide Technical Services, Entertainment Imaging
Research Labs, Building 69, Room 7525A
Rochester, New York, 14650-1922 USA
Tel: +1 585 477 5325 Cell: +1 585 781 4036 Fax: +1 585 722 7243
e-mail: john.pytlak@kodak.com
Web site: http://www.kodak.com/go/motion

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