Widescreen Weekend Report 2025 |
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| Written by: Johan C.M. Wolthuis, Arnhem, the Netherlands & co-author Paul Rayton | Date: 08.10.2025 |
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Main entrance of the
museum in Bradford. Picture: Paul RaytonThis year Bradford (UK) was awarded the title of “Cultural City 2025” of the United Kingdom because of their great number of cultural activities, in a contest with 20 other cities. It receives UK£ 275,000 in the process, helping the city to develop future plans and hoping to attract more tourists. For several years now, the city has also been awarded the status as a UNESCO “City of Film”, the first in the world, because of the history, over a period of almost 100 years, of pioneering work in cinema plus the many films over the years like “The Kings Speech”, “Downton Abbey”, and a good number of TV series. Before the 2nd World War, Bradford was a traditional industrial city known particularly for its textile business, especially wool; in fact it was known to some as “Woolopolis”! Nowadays it has still many classic buildings from the era within the middle of the town, including the classically-beautiful 19th Century city hall. Most streets around the city hall area have been replaced this by a pedestrian zone and cycle paths with borders of flowers around, and a centerpiece water fountain area, all for a greener future. The city has now more than 350,000 inhabitants. And so again this autumn, they once again took the “screen” as the city hosted the annual Widescreen Weekend events, beginning on the 25th of September in the renown Pictureville Cinema, a part of the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. The Pictureville Cinema is now the only cinema in the world with the possibility of screening CINERAMA 3-strip films from the fifties using 3 projection booths! The first event this year was – and deservedly so -- “This is Cinerama” on the large curved 146 degrees panorama screen. An original Cinerama print introduced by Dave Strohmaier, Cinerama restoration expert. David tells the tale: when he was six, his father took him to the Ambassador Cinerama Theatre in St Louis to see "Seven Wonders of the World". A few years later they saw another show, the famed Cinerama western "How The West Was Won". Those cinema visits as a young boy were the start of his admiration for 3-strip Cinerama and by 1997 his curiosity had been re-awakened and he began his latter-day research. “This is Cinerama” premiered in 1952 in the only Cinerama theater in New York, but it almost immediately began setting box-office records! |
More
in 70mm reading: John C M Wolthuis's in70mm.com Library Widescreen Weekend 2025 PDF: WSW 2025 Brochure • WSW Home • Through the Years • The Best of WSW • Academy of the WSW • Creating the WSW • Planning the WSW • Projecting the WSW • Home of CINERAMA • Projecting CINERAMA in70mm.com News Peripheral Vision, Scopes, Dimensions and Panoramas in70mm.com's Library Presented on the big screen in 7OMM 7OMM and Cinema Across the World Now showing in 70mm in a theatre near you! 70mm Retro - Festivals and Screenings |
 The
next program of the Weekend was a lecture/presentation, “The Legend of
Todd-AO”, about the film process developed now some 70 years ago. It was an
illustrated talk by
Professor Sir Christopher Frayling combined with a very interesting
video from
Thomas
Hauerslev,
about the Todd-AO
process. Sir Christopher Frayling would also be introducing a few
screenings. He has published widely on film, design and the history of
culture. After the Todd-AO event, there was an informal gathering and
reception in the lobby with all visitors from
England, Belgium,
France,
Germany,
Denmark, Sweden, The
Netherlands, USA and even
from Australia!The concluding screening of this Thursday was the legendary World War II movie "Patton", originally filmed in the “Dimension 150” process, but now presented in Smilebox DCP panorama projection. (1970, 172 min). The movie Patton surprisingly received 7 Oscars in the categories: original screenplay, direction, sound, editing, art direction, actor and best picture! It tells the story of General George Patton as he marched from North Africa to Germany during World War II, with George C Scott as General Patton and Karl Malden as General Omar Bradley. One of Patton’s famous quotes was: Lead Me, Follow Me or Get Out of My Way! The second day (Friday) started with the story of “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines, Or - How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 hours and 11 Minutes” (1965). Originally filmed in Todd-AO but now presented on DCP. Directed by Ken Annakin, with Sarah Miles, Robert Morley, Gert Frobe, Terry Thomas, Red Skelton and many more famous stars. It’s a long (132 min) but very enjoyable film about the great London-to-Paris airplane race in 1910. It received three Golden Globe Award nominations. The second movie of the day was "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm", in original 3-strip Cinerama. Despite it being an original print from 1962 and with some minor damage here and there, it is really a wonderful movie and great seeing it again on the large panoramic screen of the Pictureville cinema. It’s a colourful George Pal movie with Oscar winning costumes! After a second delegates-reception interval, they resumed shows with a 70mm print of “Dune”, filmed in 1984 on 35mm with Todd-AO lenses. Dune is an epic science fiction film, this version directed by David Lynch. This malicious fancy story plays in the far away year 21,191! It is a labyrinth of political intrigue, mysticism and desert mystique! Later that evening, we had the choice between BATMAN BEGINS, OLD BOY (35mm) or THE DARK NIGHT. |
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 Main
entrance of the museum in Bradford. Picture: Paul RaytonSaturday morning started with a warming up movie from 1963: IRMA LA DOUCE directed by Billy Wilder, with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon in a satire movie about love, labour and illusion. Next on the large screen, in original Todd-AO 70mm, was "Baraka", which tells the story of the evolution of Earth and Mankind. Shot on locations in 24 countries and finished in 1992 by director Ron Fricke and producer Mark Magidson, Baraka is a non-verbal journey through the world. There is no dialogue, only music and beautiful images; you will never view your earth the same way again! The rest of the day there were several viewing options, including the more-recent “Dune” shows, presented in IMAX in the Museum’s IMAX theater. We also could watch some retrospective movies with Julie Andrews, such as “DUET FOR ONE” from 1986, presented in the smaller Cubby Broccoli cinema (also a part of the Media Museum), featuring Julie Andrews in the role of a musician, who is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The film was introduced with a 20 min illustrated talk by musicologist professor Dominic Broomfield-McHugh. Later in the evening we saw “VICTOR, VICTORIA”, from 1982, directed by Julie’s husband Blake Edwards. A romantic, warm and funny story about an English soprano, who ends as a superstar in Paris nightclubs! Julie Andrews is now at the age of 90 years. |
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 City
hall at night, with colorful lights and "forecourt" watery/fountains area.
Picture: Paul RaytonSunday morning started as always with the unique CINERAMACANA program: Cineramacana is the most intriguing (and technically complex) show of the whole weekend (usually, anyway). Bits, pieces, shorts & miscellanea about movies and films, some on the flat screen and (typically) some on the curved screen. Starting out with the flat screen; 1st: Starting with a DCP of a trailer from Wolfram Hannemanns from Germany: “Hollywood or Bust”, a 1956 Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis comedy, and one of the early shows in VistaVision. The trailer played up the various advantages of VistaVision in the traditional Martin & Lewis comedic style. 2nd: Trailer for “A Bridge too Far” by Richard Attenborough (about the Battle of Arnhem in the Netherlands in 1944) and a trailer for "2OO1: A Space Odyssey", presented from 35mm film. 3rd: Animated film (DCP), “Pinocchio”, drawn by Gina Kamentsky, in the style of Canadian artist Norman McLaren, hand-painted (and somewhat “collaged”) originally on to 70mm film. Included a 3-min. explanatory video from the maker, showing her work process. (Originally screened for the Annecy 2024 Animation Festival.) 4th: The surprise of the program: Bradford resident Harry Nicholls made a version of the song, “Oh, What A Beautiful Morning” from “Oklahoma!”, sung by himself, riding through a cornfield on a horse – but with a bit of a surprise ending. Great for a guy of 89 years! He is The Greatest Showman of this Widescreen Weekend! Produced in “CineScope”, per the credits. 5th: IB Technicolor original trailer for “The Ten Commandments” (1956), from 35mm, a 9-minute promo featuring Mr. DeMille himself. Colors still very vivid after all these years. 6th: Short regarding the 2006 screening “How The West Was Won” at the Dome in Los Angeles, plus a new trailer for "Around the World in 80 Days" as created by David Strohmaier but very much in the style of the mid-’50s. [Now a pause to switch to the curved screen.] 7th: A recently re-discovered wide-screen process, known as “Rotoscope” (but NOT the rotoscope process used to do animation!). This “Rotoscope” was devised by two guys in Rolla, Missouri, beginning in the late 1950s, and inspired by (of course) Cinerama. One of them, Rowe Carney, owned a cinema, and with a colleague devised a process to capture a 180-degree view in a 3-image composite. Some of the footage has been recently preserved by the Film Atlas project, and some samples (driving in and around Missouri locales in the early 1960s) were shown on the deep-curve screen. Read about “Rotoscope” on filmatlas.com. Presented by James Layton. 8th: Pre-feature short film, which had run prior to screenings of “The Agony and the Ecstasy” (Todd-AO, 1965), about the sculpture works of artist Michaelangelo. It was made as a companion to the main feature to acquaint audiences with the wider work of the artist and to serve as a bit of an introductory “scene setting” for the dramatic relationship between Michaelangelo and Pope Julius II, and the painting of the Sistine Chapel. Michaelangelo primarily worked as a sculptor, and was nagged to do the paint work, so the short was eventually called, “The Man Who Would Not Paint”. |
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 Mark
Wright, Johan Wolthuis, Mark lyndon, Keith Stevens and Ulrich Rostek of
the Widescreen Weekend in Bradford wearing a Davy Crockett fur cap before
and during the screening of "The Alamo". Picture by Inez WolthuisThe evening event film was the long semi-lost “complete” version of "The Alamo" (1960), with the legendary John Wayne as Davy Crockett. Originally filmed in Todd-AO 70mm in, now presented digitally. The efforts of Dave Strohmaier and his associates have restored virtually all of the deleted sequences, bringing it back to running time of 198 minutes, just slightly shy of the original 199 min. There has been speculation about a full 70mm restoration for years, but it has never materialized, so this reconstruction is likely to remain the only way to see the full continuity. The resolution of the restored scenes aren’t quite on a par with the “kept” scenes, due to careless storage of the source materials over the years, but it is essentially complete! A long saga of the battle at The Alamo, with plenty of historical scenes, a truly memorable spectacle, also directed by John Wayne! The musical score by Dimitri Tiomkin includes the popular song “The Green Leaves of Summer”. Then there was another chance to see Julie Andrews with Paul Newman in “TORN CURTAIN” (35mm) an American spy thriller from 1966 directed by Alfred Hitchcock. As usual Hitchcock turned up in the movie, this time for 9 minutes in the lobby of a hotel holding a baby! Sunday evening ended with a 70mm screening of “Airport” from 1970. A thriller movie with a man who wants to blow up himself in an airplane. After seeing this movie, you maybe should be afraid of flying with an airplane! And on Monday morning the end of this Widescreen Weekend with "Cinerama Holiday" on the large panorama screen in a digitally restored Smilebox presentation. That was the last performance of this unique festival in Bradford’s Pictureville Cinema in the Media Museum. A great compliment for the management and the projectionists! Hope to see you next year on the 30th WIDESCREEN WEEKEND with the screening of the 3-strip Cinerama print of “HOW THE WEST WAS WON”! |
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