3rd Todd-AO Festival Reviews |
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| Written by: Volker Hannemann, Kornwestheim, Germany | Date: 09.10.2007 |
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This year's Todd-AO 70mm film festival at the Schauburg Cinerama theatre in
Karlsruhe, Germany, was again
something worth travelling to! My wife Dorothee and me enjoyed the weekend
very, very much! Many thanks
to the great "Schauburg team"! What did we see? Friday 05.10.2007  A
picture to illustrate the fading nature of older films. Film material turns
pink."Taras Bulba" in an ultra rare 70mm blow-up from 1962 - wow, that was quiet something you cannot get anywhere else! Of course the colors faded away, but the 6 track stereo sound was still quiet good and we could Franz Waxman's score as never before! "Imperial Venus" in its 70mm Super Technirama splendor had a very good and clear picture quality (despite the fact that the colors have faded away...), the sound unfortunately was more or less 6 track MONO. The film itself was a rather boring experience :-) But again: a very rare opportunity to see it! "Pathfinder" was shown in its original language version with English subtitles in 70mm 6 track Dolby Stereo. The print was quiet good, but the photography in that picture did not make use of the intended filming in 65mm. It had too much close-ups as was nothing exceptional. We let out "Khartoum" and went for a drink instead (well, but only because I already knew this particular print). Saturday 06.10.2007 "The King And I" was presented in a 70mm print (faded) in its original version and was a real highlight of the weekend! We enjoyed this film very, very much! Then came "Ben-Hur": presented in its original Camera 65 aspect ratio with an old German 70mm print was another great experience. Although this print was faded, it was wonderful to see this film again in 70mm on the big curved screen. It will always be my favourite movie! Great was also that my favorite film composer Miklos Rozsa was honoured before the show by a short introduction by German film music expert Thomas Ruebenacker. |
More in 70mm reading: Todd-AO Festival Home • 3rd Todd-AO Festival • Wilkommen | Welcome • Intro | Festival Images • 2007 Festival Flyer (PDF) Festival Archives • Festival Through the Years • Festival Schedule and Archive • More Schauburg Cinerama Festivals in Pictures • Schauburg Cinerama • Best of Todd-AO Festival • Guests | Billboards | Posters Internet link: • Schauburg.de |
 Another
example of faded film history"Uncle Tom's Cabin" came next. This was a German 70mm print from 1965 with only slight color fading! The picture quality was absolutely superb (shot in MCS-70 Superpanorama)! The 6 track magnetic sound was also very good in quality, but the directionality was very often wrongly dubbed: sound effects and voices came often (not always) from the wrong direction! Maybe this was the sound mixer's version of "stereo" or maybe this was a dubbing fault. Nevertheless, the film itself was a bit poor: the actors seemed to not be motivated that much and Peter Thomas' score was lousy (but recorded very well!)... This again was a very rare opportunity to see this film in 70mm!!! "Ice Station Zebra" was shown in a real good old German 70mm print with only slight color fading. Although some folks love this film, I still find it rather boring... The late showing of "2001: A Space Odyssey" in a German 70mm print was somewhat too late for us. We only stayed for about 20 minutes to see the quality of the print. It was OK but also showed color fading. Sunday 07.10.2007 The morning began with some lesson about "The Wonderful World of Film Formats" by Thomas Hauerslev. It was perfect as always and the not so experienced people in the audience could learn a lot. Very interesting to see were the early Todd-AO clips Thomas showed. They were from 1953 and in COLOR! Produced in 30 fps, but shown in 24 fps to not damage this rare item (no sound). Also in the same programme was Dolby's classic "Listen..." in 35mm Dolby A optical sound as well as the Cinespace 70 demo (with 30 fps) coupled with the DTS 70mm demo. The finale was the new 70mm demo film "As Good As It Gets". Then came another weekend highlight: "Playtime" in its restored 70mm version with DTS sound. This print was introduced by Jean-Rene Failliot in French. The print was absolutely stunning and revealed so much more detail compared to any other version of this film. After the show everyone got a piece of 70mm film from this movie. Quiet a souvenir! |
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 Robert
Krasker's stunning Technirama photography also faded.Following was another of my all time favorites: "El Cid". This German 70mm print was completely faded, but nevertheless a joy to see. Mikos Rozsa's wonderful score in 6 track magnetic stereo is still one of the best film score ever written! The weekend came to an end with a German dubbed 70mm blow-up print of "The Wild Bunch". Good picture quality with only slight fading. The sound was horrible: in 6 track MONO! And that's not all: it was obviously taken off a 35mm optical sound print (you could clearly hear all the crackles!). All the films got proper introductions by my brother Wolfram who always knew to tell some interesting and funny facts. The heroes of the weekend were the 2 projectionists Vincent and Markus who both did a terrific job! And although we learned that Herbert is "not organized" he did also a terrific job: everything was just fine, the catering, the beer, the festival brochure etc. Again, it was an event not to be missed! We surely will come next year again! Volker Hannemann, Kornwestheim, Germany |
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Karlsruhe 2007 Review by Anna Rudschies |
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“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe... attack ships off the
shoulder of Orion; C-beams glittering in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
All those moments lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die...” This is the quote that went through my mind as I sat in the Schauburg last weekend and watched “Khartoum”. 70mm film is a moment that lives under the constant threat of being lost in time. The only thing stopping this are 70mm festivals, like the ones in Karlsruhe or Bradford. I’m a journalist and at first this review was meant to be “formal”. But I went to the festival not as a journalist, but as a film lover. This review cannot be formal. All it can be is from the heart. We got off to a very pink start, following Taras Bulba in his beloved steppes. Colour-fading is a distressing issue and, much to my surprise, it was what people griped about most this year. I thought it was going to be the fact that so many copies were German-dubbed versions, but no, colour-fading that turns brave Cossaks into rather gay-looking Cossaks (hey, don’t get me wrong, pink Cossaks are hot too) was definitely the bigger problem people had to come to terms with. At least, it couldn’t get worse than “Taras Bulba” and it didn’t, so that movie proved to be a wise choice to show first on Friday. The weekend’s programme was varied, fun, exciting and touching. Friday’s films ranged from the quite unknown “Imperial Venus” (Lollo pouting in the most beautiful costumes for two hours) to the always grand “Khartoum” (I’d forgotten one of Charlton’s many faces is “distinguished”). And that was only the first day! On Saturday we opened with a floorshow of singing and dancing and Yul Brynner constantly opening his shirt to reveal his broad chest. Then, we accompanied Judah Ben-Hur in his long and harrowing journey and I cried my eyeballs out when he got handed a cup of water by Jesus (who, incidentally and I’m sorry about this, looks like Jesus in “South Park”, or is that just me?). I had seen the movie a couple of times before, but seeing it in all of it’s colour-faded splendour on that gigantic screen the Schauburg sports gave me the chills. When my friends complain they don’t see the appeal of such movies, I take on my scary televangelist voice and tell them they haven’t seen them “the real way”. They have a hard time believing it, but we all know it’s true and besides, we all know you can’t truly describe 70mm, it needs to be experienced, so I don’t blame them. I just shake my head and pity them. Sunday was the day many festival visitors looked forward to the most. At breakfast, I could already hear voices all around me saying “this is the part I love the most, when we get tidbits and surprises and demonstrations and lectures!”. I agree wholeheartedly. The excerpt from “As Good as It Gets” was breathtaking. Such clarity, such sound, such colour! Thomas Hauerslev’s lecture finally managed to establish some basics in my seriously film formats challenged brain. Jean-René Faillot was there in person to introduce the restored copy of “Playtime” and we were all falling off our seats with laughter not ten minutes into the film. I had seen “Playtime” once before, on a rather big screen in Paris but in 35mm only. Seeing it through the glory of 70mm was awing. Like “Annie Hall”, this is a movie I can see over and over again and still discover new things in it and I love that. In that sense, 70mm acted as a big magnifying glass. All in all, the weekend was great. I congratulate Herbert Born for keeping us all fed (unlike Bradford if you get my drift) though I must chastise him for not getting that supposedly very good English copy of “Ben-Hur” that is sitting in Oslo. Rumour has it that after buying a digital projector, the funds for getting the Oslo copy were insufficient, but knowing what digital looks like (s***) I say sell that projector and get us good 70mm copies whenever possible! I’ve been to Bradford twice and every time, it was amazing. What I like better about Karlsruhe though, is the atmosphere of warmth and “family” that reigns in the Schauburg during the three festival days. I’ve hugged people and shaken hands, met new people without being (too) shy and had a delightful time. My favourite part of the day is always breakfast, when the whole family gets together over yummy croissants, bacon and eggs, orange juice and yogurt to talk about only one thing: movies in 70mm. My idea of paradise? Pretty much what I’ve described above. Just one last request, in my role as a woman attending the festival: gentlemen, please keep the Star Trek talk to a minimum. But that’s a subject to discuss elsewhere. So thank you, all those who made Karlsruhe possible again this year, thank you for showing us all things that other people wouldn’t believe. |
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