Cinema like never before in Munich, Germany |
Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter |
| Written and photographed by: Anders M Olsson, Lund Sweden | Date: 24.01.2017 |
 Stefan Drößler lectures about one of
his favorite subjects, vintage 3D-films.It was early August in 2016 when I heard that the Film Museum in Munich was going to show a couple of the digitally restored Cinerama titles, as well as David Strohmaier’s documentary "Cinerama Adventure". So I thought, why not do it properly, and add German subtitles to the films? David Strohmaier put me in contact with the manager of the museum, Stefan Drößler, and he agreed to let me subtitle “Cinerama Adventure” for which there was already a German translation. The Cinerama films are part of a series called “Kino wie noch nie” (Cinema like never before) which is a compilation of the film formats that fundamentally changed cinema in the 1950’s. Films are screening at the Film Museum in Munich every weekend from January 6 to February 19, 2017. As the subtitling progressed with the help of Christoph Michel at the museum, we got word from David Strohmaier that he couldn’t be there to introduce the films as originally planned. So David suggested me as his replacement. Much to my surprise, the museum agreed to cover the cost of my flight and hotel room, so off I went to Munich on January 6, which was Epiphany and a holiday both in Sweden and Bavaria. |
More in 70mm reading: Welcome to “Cinerama Adventure” The Cinerama Adventure - 2003 update Cinerama's 50th Anniversary Welcome to “This is Cinerama” Cinerama Remaster in70mm.com's Cinerama page |
 Georges Méličs accidentally shot some of his films in stereoscopic 3D.
The intention was not to shoot a 3D-film but to obtain two negatives,
one for the European market, and one for the American. Public domain
image from Wikimedia Commons.Stefan Drößler met me at the airport, and made sure that I got properly checked in at the hotel, the Blauer Bock, located only 100 meters from the museum. We had the cinema to ourselves in the afternoon, so Stefan took the opportunity to show me some rare historic 3D-clips from the museum’s collections. The Film Museum in Munich is a bit different from what you would normally expect from a museum. There are no galleries of old artifacts like cameras, projectors or other paraphernalia. Instead, the museum focuses on the exhibition of films in its cinema, as well as collecting, preserving and restoring films. The cinema, which seats 165 people, is well equipped to show almost every film format there is, except 70mm and 4K digital. |
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 When in Bavaria, eat like the Bavarians.After some dinner Bavarian style, we went to Stefan’s office at the museum where he showed me a slide presentation on his laptop computer about 3D history, a special interest of his. Today, much money and effort are spent on developing 3D without glasses, but the Russians had the technology to do that way back in the 1940’s. At 9 p.m. it was time for me to introduce “Cinerama Adventure”, David Strohmaier’s remarkable documentary about the Cinerama process. 50 people came to see it, which I don’t think was too bad for a documentary that late in the evening. I made a small revision to my presentation to pay tribute to Debbie Reynolds who had passed away the week before. • Go to Welcome to “Cinerama Adventure” I spent most of the next day on my own, and had some more Bavarian food before exploring the central parts of Munich. I had a most surreal sensation when I came to the Marienplatz, a square not far from my hotel and the Film Museum. I immediately recognized everything in the surroundings, even though I had never been there before. How could that be? It turned out that Marienplatz was one of the locations in a computer game I had played some 20 years ago! |
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 Oink!I met up with Stefan again for dinner at 6:30 pm. This time we were both a little fed-up with Bavarian food, so we went to a Chinese restaurant for a very nice meal. I expected “This is Cinerama” at 9 p.m. to draw a larger audience than “Cinerama Adventure” the night before, but only 45 people came. Perhaps the lack of a German translation scared some people off, but I think most of those who were there still enjoyed the show. “This is Cinerama” is a very visual film, and you don’t need to understand all the dialogue. However, some people commented on the final part as a little too much egotism, American style. • Go to Welcome to “This is Cinerama” Afterwards, an elderly gentleman came up to me and asked me where to buy the Cinerama films on DVD and Blu-ray in Germany. I was happy to be able to direct him to laserhotline.de, a webstore run by in70mm-friend Wolfram Hannemann. In conclusion, I had two very enjoyable days in Munich. Stefan Drößler and his staff were very eager to make me feel welcome. The only thing I can complain about was the weather. It was very cold, and I hate traveling in the winter. So maybe I’ll come back to Munich at a more pleasant season for some more thorough sightseeing! • Go to Welcome to “Cinerama Adventure” • Go to Welcome to “This is Cinerama” |
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"The Beast Within" |
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 "The Beast Within" is an old computer game that I played 20 years
ago. It takes place in and around Munich. |
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 Gabriel Knight (Dean Erickson, with his back towards the camera) at
the Marienplatz in Munich from the computer game "The Beast Within"... |
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 ...and the same place in 2017, as captured by my own camera. |
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