NPR this week - That Was Cinerama: A Critic Waxes Nostalgic

[SpeakerLabFan]

A very cool segment in the movies feature for All Things Considered on Friday afternoon was a retrospective on Cinerama, including details about the technology. Makes me want to go watch _How The West was Won_ if they show it again at the Seattle theater. The streaming audio from the segment is available here:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=9569559

Check out this cool picture describing the technology from the Seattle Cinerama archives...

[braxus]

I was planning on seeing "2001" movie at the Seattle theater, but never made it.

Have they done anything with the theater since then on showing any Cinerama films?

[SpeakerLabFan]

Originally Posted by braxus

I was planning on seeing "2001" movie at the Seattle theater, but never made it.

Have they done anything with the theater since then on showing any Cinerama films?

Yes they are showing 70mm and Cinerama films including Lawrence of Arabia next week. I haven't been following the schedule for showing the few Cinerama films but they do have a listing of those films on the website:

http://www.cinerama.com/cinerama_tech3_films.html

I'd love to see Kubrick's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. I saw that in the original run with my family as a kid in the '60's and we loved it. In the NPR interview, the film guy specifically cites how a fire engine ladder scene in the movie really shows the crazy, wide screen in these special releases.

[Duane]

What a treat.I saw both the movies you've mentioned when we had a Cinerama venue in San Diego way back when.Go see them if you can.

What I remember distinctly was you were watching a movie so huge ( not on the scale of Imax) that if you were seated close,you had to contantly move your head to see it all.
Downside was the obvious three panel look.

[Doc Brown]

Didn't know that Stanlley Kubrick made It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
I saw that when I was younger. Don't recall the Cinerama.
I'd love to see it again.

[SpeakerLabFan]

Originally Posted by Doc Brown

Didn't know that Stanlley Kubrick made It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
I saw that when I was younger. Don't recall the Cinerama.
I'd love to see it again.

What a fun movie and it won an Oscar in 1964 for Best Effects, nominated for several other technical categories.

Oops, sorry - wrong Stanley K. -- the director was Stanley Kramer, not Stanley Kubrich. Looks like he also directed Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in 1967.

[2DualsNotEnough]

Personally,I liked the one camera Cinerama technique that came later,better.
I saw many great films that way:2001,Lawrence Of Arabia,Grand Prix....
The greatest use of the three screen technique Ive ever seen was for a special presentation,using a full orchestra for Abel Gance's Napoleon in Los Angeles in the early 80's.Just stunning.
Jimmy

[SpeakerLabFan]

Originally Posted by 2DualsNotEnough

Personally,I liked the one camera Cinerama technique that came later,better.
I saw many great films that way:2001,Lawrence Of Arabia,Grand Prix....
The greatest use of the three screen technique Ive ever seen was for a special presentation,using a full orchestra for Abel Gance's Napoleon in Los Angeles in the early 80's.Just stunning.
Jimmy

So the 70mm films like Lawrence of Arabia (showing in the Seattle theater this week in a couple of showings, when Grindhouse isn't running) are using the one camera Cinerama technique vs the 3 cameras in a few of the Cinerama movies? I was wondering about the relationship between the 70mm movies and Cinerama. thanks.

[Tom Brennan]

Lawrence of Arabia was shot in Super Panavision 70, a straight non-anamorphic 70mm process that had nothing to do with Cinerama, neither real 3 panel Cinerama nor the later so called "Cinerama" 70mm process.

I've seen the restored Lawrence projected in 70mm several times, the latest when shown by Roger Ebert at an old movie palace in Champaign. And when it was first released of course. Marvelous.

I also saw several of the real 3-panel movies in the 1950s and early 60s. The last real Cinerama pictures were How the West was Won and The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm.

Several later pictures advertised as Cinerama were actually basically Ultra Panavision, the same anamorphic 70mm process used in Ben Hur and originally called MGM Camera 65. This process had a very wide aspect ration of about 2.7 to 1.