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70mm Rundown in Rio Revised |
Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter
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Written by: Paulo Roberto P. Elias, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
Date:
21.03.2013 |
"Cinerama's
Russian Adventure"
Truth be told, every research work should be
conducted on a documentation basis at all times. My last adventure reporting
the presence of 70 mm in my hometown,
published in this site,
however, had little or non-existent documents to rely upon. Not even the
projectionists or exhibitors unions had files on installation venues, let
alone information about projection booths. The result was that I had to rely
on my own memory and on the memory of others, which is bad, from a research
point of view.
However, I had recent access to images from newspaper files available to the
general public over the Internet. These are microfilm or plain paper
scanning of the pages in consecutive, albeit limited, years of publication.
I then decided to do a new investigation on two of the papers available, and
these are the Ultima Hora (1965 to 1969) and the Jornal do Brasil
(1965-1971), nicknamed “JB” by the students during my high school years.
• Go to Large Format in Brazil, part
I: 70mm in Rio
• Go to Large Format in Brazil, part
II: The Incol 70/35 projector
• Go to Palácios e Poeiras
• Go to 70mm Films shown in
Brazil
• Go to Mr. Orion Jardim de Faria - A
visit to a Brazilian 70mm film Pioneer
• Go to The Incol
70-35 projector
• Go to The Passing of Orion
Jardim de Faria
• Go to Falecimento de Orion Jardim de
Faria
These are the only newspapers from Rio that I could find. Some of their
pages are missing or unreadable. Nevertheless I could manage to make some
approximate, or in some cases exact, calculations about film releases and
theatrical openings. To achieve reliable info I had to search each and every
Monday editions from the planned time span. On those days, theatrical
openings and advertising were normally due on Mondays, and eventually on
Thursdays or weekends.
Why 1965 to 1971, you might ask? Because 1965 was the year that 70 mm film
presentation saw the light of day in a theatre on these shores, not to
mention that on October 20th 1967 the Roxy theatre opened for “Super
Cinerama”, this being the most important theatrical achievement of the
1960’s. Up to that point Cinerama only existed at the Comodoro in São Paulo,
which, by the way, was also converted to Cinerama 70. Up to 1971 most 70 mm
venues were running 70 mm feature films, sometimes on a weekly basis. Many
of them were showing the same picture for more than 20 weeks in a roll. The
very sentence “70 mm” was reason enough for audiences to crowd the theaters
incessantly. Much more to the credit, I suspect, than the “6-track
stereophonic sound” announcement in the adverts. So much so that it came to
a point that some advertising were displaying a banner saying “Filmed in 70
mm” on 35 mm regular screenings.
On a side note, advertising was constantly misleading. Previous to 70 mm
presentation a number of films were reported as 6-track stereo sound, but
these were 35 mm scope prints from 70 mm features, which were physically
limited to 4-channel stereo. The notation of 70 mm was constantly printed as
“70 m/m”, which is not a correct specification format in the metric system.
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More in 70mm reading:
Palácios e Poeiras
Large Format in Brazil, part I:
70mm in Rio
Large Format in Brazil, part II:
The Incol 70/35 projector
70mm Rundown in Rio Revised
70mm Films shown in
Brazil
Mr. Orion Jardim de Faria - A
visit to a Brazilian 70mm film Pioneer
The Incol
70-35 projector
The Passing of Orion
Jardim de Faria
Falecimento de Orion Jardim de Faria
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"My
Fair Lady"
Until today I am not sure what “Super Cinerama” means. Surely, it was not a
new photographic process. It could have been related to the way the screen
was installed, from the floor to the ceiling, occupying a space much later
than the original front stage. Apart from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo,
there are reports of a 70 mm “Super Cinerama” installation with Victoria X
projectors, with possibly Dimension-150 lenses, on a 146º curvature screen,
at the Cine Londrina, located in city of the same name, in the state of
Paraná. And once more, the term “Super” is restricted to the press fanfare,
not to the front of the theatre, which, like the Roxy, only says “Cinerama”,
and in this case without the logo. The Londrina, by the way, ran 70 mm
pictures from 1968-1974, closing down permanently.
In
Rio, on June 28th 1965 the Vitória had its debut for their 70 mm
installation, the very first in town, inaugurated with “My Fair Lady”.
According to
Orion de Faria,
whom I interviewed for this site, they had a pair of Philips
DP70 projectors, which were later
replaced by
Incol 70/35 units. This is the advert for the already 2nd week of
exhibition:
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"Battle
of the Bulge"
One
week later, the Palácio was screening "Sound of Music" in 35 mm
CinemaScope. Both pictures ran for a staggering and unprecedented 21 weeks
of exhibition. "Sound of Music" would re-run at the Roxy in 70 mm on
December 23rd 1971.
The so-called “Super Cinerama” at the Roxy was first exhibited to the public
on October 20th 1967.
And the advert published in the papers was saying that it was for the first
time that a Cinerama screen could be
seen by the public in this town, and it was true.
The first picture in Super Cinerama, "Battle of the Bulge", was in
fact shot in Ultra Panavision 70 anamorphic. Therefore, a print for a 2.75:1
aspect ratio could be projected correctly on an ultra large screen. In the
presentation the credits for Cinerama (as a company) is displayed.
The Roxy theatre was originally built around the corner at the crossing of
Bolivar Street and Nossa Senhora de Copacabana Avenue. The Cinerama logo was
ostensibly displayed at the Nossa Senhora de Copacabana side, built at the
top of its side marquee. In later years this logo would be removed and the
advertised logo in the papers for the same screen would disappear too.
From
September to mid-October of 1967 there is no newspaper advertising for the
Roxy. Presumably the technicians and Orion de Faria were refurbishing it to
complete the Cinerama with a curved screen. The actual opening for permanent
operations was likely due on October 21st, one day after it was advertised
in the papers. Orion told me that they had problems with one of the lenses,
which might explain the one day delay in the opening. At any rate, although
the highly curved and tall screen was brand new technology to everyone
involved in this installation, the theater itself was fully operational from
day one, with perfect projection and sound.
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“Shoes of the Fisherman”
Of
equal importance released to film buffs, on February 3rd 1969
“Shoes of the Fisherman”
was already in its second week of presentation at the Metro-Boavista, which
presumably inaugurated its
Dimension-150
installation the week before or earlier.
The
projection in Dimension 150 was the second, highly curved screen for 70 mm
picture that I saw. The Metro-Boavista replaced the Metro-Passeio which was
demolished years before. The design of the hall was superlative. The screen
had an internal framing that would adjust its aspect ratio to almost any
known film format, including regular 35 mm CinemaScope/Panavision films. For
Dimension 150, a wider and taller screen would open up completely, yielding
a compelling and more involving projection system that I had ever seen. The
Metro-Boavista was built from scratch with that purpose in its design. A
pair of Cinemeccanica
Victoria-8
projectors were used, according to one of my sources years ago. For some
reason the Dimension 150 logo was removed from the advertising some time
later. The opening credits for “A Projection In Dimension 150” was also
later discarded.
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A number of films that weren’t even shot in Dimension 150 or 70 mm, for that
matter, were exhibited in this system, as the advert on September 11th 1969
for "Dr. Zhivago" shows.
Previous
3-strip Cinerama features would turn up on the Dimension 150 screen, and one
such example is "How The West
Was Won", running on July 2nd 1970.
The
70 mm craze had no perceivable boundaries. Feature films shot in the ancient
academy ratio by M-G-M, like "The Great Caruso", were now exhibited
“in 70 mm and full stereophonic sound” (February 19th 1971).
According
to the IMDb a 70 mm blown-up print was struck in 1967. According to film
preservationists the practice of
blowing up to 70 mm from original camera negatives led to their
destruction. One such case was the 70 mm print for "Seven Brides For
Seven Brothers", whose exhibition was on in November 1968.
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"Patton"
I had the chance to see "Seven Brides" when the Rio theater was
installing its alleged Todd-AO screen.
It was simply gorgeous. Unlike its academy ratio predecessors, the aspect
ratio adjustment was less drastic and the sound mixing adequate for the 70
mm speaker pattern.
“Half-A-Sixpence”
from Paramount would open the Bruni-Flamengo and Bruni-Tijuca 70 mm
installations, but only the latter had 70 mm built from scratch prior to its
inauguration. This theater was actually installed by Orion de Faria with his
Incol 70/35 projectors, opening on August 26th 1968.
Most
70 mm features were either North-American or British made. Eventually,
however, there were presentations from other countries. The Condor Largo do
Machado theater, for example, was refurbished and re-inaugurated on October
14th 1968, with Jacque Tati’s brand new copy of
"Play Time".
Brazilian
film production had its own share of 70 mm presentations. “Quelé do Pajeú”,
directed by Palme D’Or winning film maker/actor Anselmo Duarte, was actually
shot in 70 mm, and one of his later features “Um Certo Capitão Rodrigo”
blown-up to Cinerama. “Cleo e Daniel”, directed by Roberto Freire was
also shown in 70 mm.
At
this point it must be noted that the Roxy was not open to any other format
than 70 mm. I recall vividly that the press reported that the Roxy screen
was “too curved” for regular 35 mm feature films, but according to Orion de
Faria this was not true. He said to me that he was ordered by the exhibitor
to remove the 35 mm parts from his projectors, so that it would be
impossible to screen 35 mm of anything.
And
in fact, I remember all trailers preceding features being exhibited solely
from 70 mm prints. This being the case, any Brazilian production would have
to be printed in the 70 mm format or else, and that would eventually
restrict the obligatory screening of Brazilian films at the Roxy for a long
period of time.
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"2OO1:
A Space Odyssey"
On October 27th
1970, Orion de Faria had just finished installing a new pair of his Incol
70/35 projectors at the Rian theater. The exhibitor settled for a 70 mm
print of “Woodstock”, a documentary popular with people of my age
back then. The Rian was a beautiful theater, splendidly located at the
Copacabana seaside. When the print arrived there, a surprise: it was a scope
35 mm print. Orion and the exhibitor’s technician had to change plans
quickly. They worked overnight so that the opening date could be kept. The
final adjustments were made early in the morning, he said. Still, the
advertisement would claim a “6-track stereophonic sound” that was not going
to be. The “70 m/m” notice, however, was lost from the advert in the nick of
time.
“Patton”,
on the other hand, shot by Franklin Schaffner in Dimension 150, was
exhibited in regular 70 mm, at the theater next door, the Palácio. The
advertisement could only state that it was “Filmed in Dimension 150”. No one
of us would know the difference anyway, except that Dimension 150 would be a
curved screen process similar to Cinerama 70.
It seems to me until today that 70 mm projection systems were the real
revolution in film presentation ever produced, be it curved and tall or
regular “flat” screens. Its magnetic sound was superior to CinemaScope and
the picture brighter and infinitely less distorted optically and with the
best photographic resolution that can be achieved with stock film. It is
true that digital is getting there, but no one that has experienced Cinerama
70 or Dimension 150 or similar, in large theaters, will never get the same
visual feeling with today’s material. I myself experienced IMAX in its
digital format, I can peacefully acknowledge that it is great, but the
screen format, taller than larger, is not, in any way, superior to 70 mm
Cinerama.
As
far as I am concerned, my greatest Cinerama experience as an adolescent, one
that perhaps led me to believe that science-fiction would eventually be true
science at the turn of the century, was Arthur Clarke and Kubrick’s
“2001: A Space Odyssey”. It opened in Cinerama 70 at the Roxy on July
24th 1968. It was the most remarkable film presentation ever, one that will
stay in my memory for the rest of my life.
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Acknowledgements
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I would like to express my sincere
appreciation and gratitude to in70mm reader João Carlos Reis Pinto, for
sending to me the link to the Ultima Hora newspaper scannings, which allowed
me to start this new research.
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"How
the West Was Won"
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"The
Great Caruso" + "Kelly's Heroes"
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"Seven
Brides for Seven Brothers"
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"Half
a Sixpence"
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"Woodstock"
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"Doctor
Zhivago"
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"Play
Time"
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"Battle
of the Bulge"
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