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KRRR! 70mm Filmfest in Krnov, 2019 Report |
Read more at
in70mm.com
The 70mm Newsletter
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Written by: Hans Haenssler, Stuttgart, Germany. Pictures by
Thomas Hauerslev. |
Date: 19.04.2019 |
 The 70mm film festival in Krnov (Czech Republic)
took place from 5. - 7. April 2019. The 840 km drive by car from
Stuttgart, via Pilsen and Prag, of
course is a little bit long, but I enjoyed the trip. I stayed one night in Pilsen and visited the Salzmannu restaurant, the oldest in town from 1637, with the world famous
Pilsner Urquell beer. In addition, there was a chance to see
a so-called 4DX film at Cinema City in Pilsen. "Dumbo" was running, only in
2D, but with special effects in the auditorium. Wind, Rain, Flashing lights, Low Bass
Sound and movable chair series within the scenes of the picture. I was the only
one visiting the evening show. The chairs and other effects were not in
operation on the other empty seats.
From Pilsen I did not take the long autobahn route via Prag, Brün and Olmütz to
Krnov. I prefered the shorter route via Pardubitz and Zemberg near the Polish
border and the well known ski-area to Krnov. After the arrival on Thursday
evening, there was a meeting with some other 70mm fans for a dinner and later
on we met on a a small warm-up program at the Kino Mir 70 where Pavel was showing us
some 70mm single reels including "The Sound Of Music", with the scenes from
Salzburg and the "Do-Re-Mi" song, also a Russian blow-up reel of "Unter Geiern"
a German Karl May production from 1964 with Stewart Granger and Elke Sommer
filmed in Ultrascope with dubbed Russian dialogues and very good picture
quality. I could not find out if the sound was in multichannel Stereo, since
there was only dialogues scenes with no music. Next came one reel of
"Spartacus"
with different external synchronized multi channel sound and languages. This
was a test of Ivan Skoluda's system used later during the festival program.
The festival officially started on Friday 13.30h with "Front Beyond The Front Line" a Russian 70mm
production from 1977 filmed in
Sovscope 70 and presented in 6-track magnetic
sound in original language with English and Czech subtitles from the computer,
played back with the video projector. The film was a little bit long (174 minutes
plus intermission) and told the story of World War II during the winter 1943 in
Russia with partisans against the Nazi frontline. There were Russian spies for
the Germans and vice versa. So after a while, it was not easy to follow the
story and who was who. All the German soldiers talked in German, but were
overdubbed into Russian at the same time. This propaganda film was not very well
attended by the public, but for school kids, it was mandatory to see it in the
first run. Of course, the partisans won at the end with many casualties and moved
forward to Berlin. The picture quality was not as good as any Kodak material; it
had the typical steaks within the frame and in many scenes a green touch but not color fading into red.
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More
in 70mm reading:
• Home of "7OMM Seminar" at Kino Mir 70, Krnov, Czech
Republic
• KRRR! 14th 70mm Film Fest Krnov 2019
• Gallery: 14th 7OMM Seminar, Krnov,
Czech Republic
7OMM Seminar Through the Years:
• Film Program
• Text and Image
About Todd-AO
•
Počátky
Todd-AO
Internet
Kino Mir 70
Namesti Miru 14
794 01 Krnov
The Czech
Republic
Telephone: +420 554 615 050
Head of the Kino Mir 70:
Pavel Tomešek
• Festival Page
•
KRRR! Facebook
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 After a short intermission, "The Rose" in a
70mm
blow-up
print from Australia with 6-track magnetic sound and Czech subtitles was shown
at 17.00h. There was some color fading to red, but no jump splices with missing
scenes and little signs of wear. The Sound was typical Dolby A mix with dialogue
in the centre channel only.
Friday evening at 20.00h the new mayor of Krnov was a special guest with
expressions of thanks for the organizer of the festival, especially to Pavel
Tomesek the founder of the festival. During the whole film festival there was a
simultaneously translation by Barbora Stevanova via headphone in English for the
foreign festival guests.
After the usual introduction, "Lord Jim" filmed in
Super Panavision 70 and
presented with 6-track
Dolby SR magnetic sound was showing with a fine print,
made some years ago. It was also synchronized with Czech subtitles thanks to Ivan
and his special system. The Dolby sound was a little bit abrasive, maybe it was
not SR encoded, even if it said on the film cans. The dialogue sounded somehow
as some kind of automatic level control was in action.
There was no intermission in the print. After the almost sold out show at late
evening the well-known cold buffet was set up for the many festival guests. This
year there were more visitors buying a weekend pass compared to former events.
On Saturday, it was time to get up early for the 9.00h show of "The King And I"
a 70mm blow-up print from
CinemaScope 55 negative with 6-track magnetic English
sound and Czech Subtitles. It was a good preserved print with some fading into
red and intermission, entr’acte-and exit music. Always nice to see and hear Yul
Brynner in his parade role, while Deborah Kerr was dubbed by Marnie Nixon in the
songs. After "The King and I" there was a lecture by Ivan Skolunda from
Banska
Bystrica about the numerous challenges to show
"Around the World in 80
Days" in 35mm
Cinestage format. This is similar to CinemaScope format,
but has only a compression
factor of 1:1,57 instead of 1:2. So Pavel was experimenting with different
optical lenses including a mirror anamorphic from many years ago, but it did
not fit to the Meopta projector due to the size. At the end, he came up with
three
lenses mounted in one plastic tube especially fabricated by a printer. "Around
The World" was planned to show in 70mm with 30 frames/second, but there were
only three reels delivered. So after the lecture these two reels were shown with many
splices and color fading, but for the first time, the Meopta projector was
electronically converted to run 30 frames pr. second. Before the bullfight started in the
second reel, there was another bad splice and the rest of the reel was not run.
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 After this exciting event, Thomas Hauerslev from Denmark started his lecture
"Todd-AO - How everything started" with many stills and drawings shown on the
screen. In addition two short features
"CineSpace
70 / ClearVision 2000" filmed in
65mm 30 frames/second by
Todd-AO and
"As Good as it Gets" another demonstration
filmed with the ARRI
765 camera at 24 frames pr. second.
There was not too much time to get a goulash soup from the catering service in
the foyer. At 14.30h "Around The World In 80 Days" started with a French 35mm
Technicolor Cinestage print with 4-track magnetic sound. With the selfmade
optic, the picture was not so good in focus on the right side of the screen in
long shots, but on close ups it was OK. The sound came from the computer
again in English from DVD 5.1 source along with Czech subtitles. This was the
long version with the Méličs scenes of "Jouney To The Moon" from 1902. It had
an intermission, entr'acte music and the long end titles.
While "Armageddon" was starting at 18:15h I met Paul and his wife Peggy from
USA, Thomas and Orla from Denmark in the nice Hermes Greek restaurant for
dinner.
The late show on Saturday began at 21.30 with
"Phantom
Thread" a 70mm blow-up
filmed in Panavision 1,85:1 spherical and played back with 6-channel DTS original
soundtrack with sub-titles as done before. Daniel Day-Lewis portrays a renowed
dressmaker whose life is disrupted by a strong-willed young woman, Alma who becomes his
lover. This Paul Thomas Anderson Film from 2017 had good picture quality and
nice photography. Also the blue touch in the more darker scenes thanks to FotoKem Los Angeles.
Early Sunday Morning at 9:00h "Big Horn - Ein Tag Zum Kämpfen" (Original Title
"Custer Of The West") was not shown in the original German dubbed version,
rather in a mixture of original music and sound effects taken from the German
print. The English dialogues in 3 channel mono sound from BluRay disc mixed
into the program via computer playback synchronized with the picture from the
Meopta projector. Absolutely in sync, even if there were sometimes frames missing
in the picture, thanks to the three weeks work effort of Ivan. First, he had to
record the complete film with picture and 6-track magnetic sound to the
computer, compare it with the English BluRay disc and make the corrections
whenever it was necessary. The 70mm
Technirama print had left very good picture
quality with some fading to red, but little blue and green left. With overture,
intermission, entr'acte music it was a real road show presentation.
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 The same procedure was done with "Erster Sieg" another German print of
"In Harms
Way". A very good blow-up from Panavision anamorphic black and white negative.
This time Ivan synchronised the English DVD sound per computer with the
projector. The 165 minutes film had no intermission.
After "Harms Way" most of the visitors left the festival, because
"Armageddon"
was showing the second time at 16:30 and only about 12 people, including me
attended the show. This very nice 70mm blow-up print came from Italy, but the
first reel was missing. So with the help of Ivan again, he was synchronizing reel
one from the computer with the recorded picture and sound from a BluRay disc,
including change over signs and some slight signs of use in the digital
picture. So at the end the print with Italian language and missing reel was
shown completely as it would have come from the USA. The digital effects, also
the soundtrack was very exciting.
After this last show, the delegation from USA, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and
Germany said goodbye to Pavel Tomesek and his team Ivan Skoluda, Michal Jaso and
the two Martins and left for a dinner at the Hotel Cvilín in the hills of Krnov.
It was a very nice evening with a lot of talks about the festival and 70mm.
Many thanks to the organisation of the Kino Mir 70 and next year the festival
will be in his 15th year running in March 2020 for 4 days. Do not miss it!
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27-07-2024 |
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