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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: IMAX + IMAXDome In One?
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Christian Appelt
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 505
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: Dec 2001
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posted 03-27-2005 03:25 AM
Thomas,
I think it closed last September. The large auditorium had one of Europes largest screens with 30 meters (98 ft.) arc length, but for the last 20 years, the ROYAL PALAST was owned by UFA theatres, notorious for letting old movie palaces fall apart. Friends from Berlin told me that the worst employees from all UFA theatres were sent to the ROYAL (to collect all foul apples in one basket, as an UFA manager explained), and when no one cared about presentation and showmanship any more, the public ceased to favor these former roadshow theatres any more.
To give an example of that attitude:
During the 1980s the masking mechanism in auditorium #1 broke down. Instead of fixing it properly, they vertically reduced the size of the image for all formats. From that day on, even with anamorphic scope format only 18 of total 30 meters were used. Nobody cared.
These theatres are still fully equipped, there are three additional smaller auditoriums built in the 1970s, and there has been some interesting in reopening the whole complex, but the owners of the shopping mall, being totally ignorant of the bad name the UFA management gave the place, does not want to invest any money so that someone could revive the ROYAL with some style.
BTW, the ROYAL website was created by Jean-Pierre Gutzeit, a great guy who has fond memories of seeing films like MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY and FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE in Ultra Panavision on ROYAL #1's huge deep curved screen. J.P. also helped screening the restored 70mm version of SPARTACUS in honor of Kirk Douglas some years ago. Initially, the Berlin Film Festival authorities had shown the film (with Douglas attending the show) in a scratched and patched-up 35mm scope/Dolby print in one of the new multiplex theatres on Potsdamer Platz. Many fans wrote lettres and mails insisting on an additional 70mm screening on a huge screen, and with the help of Mr. Gutzeit it did happen, and more than 800 people did show up to see SPARTACUS in 70mm at 11.15 PM.
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