Cinerama South Seas Adventure in Venice | Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter |
| Written by: Randy Gitsch, The Cinerama Restoration Crew. [Photos by Tom March, Michael and Peggy Wilder] | Date: 29.09.2012 |
 On Sept. 2, Dave Strohmaier, Tom March and
myself left Los Angeles headed for the 69th edition of the progenitor of all
film festivals, the Venice International Film Festival in, where else,
Venice, Italy. Upon arriving at Marco Polo International Airport, we were
swept away onboard a richly-veneered, rakish wooden speedboat, one of dozens
which serve as the predominant water taxi for this island city of canals,
bridges and the Adriatic Sea. [1] We were actually taken, not to Venice, but
to the city’s own, adjacent resort island, Lido., the home base of the
festival, and an easy boat hop across the lagoon to and from Venice proper.We knew this festival was special when, we saw the long line of paparazzi lined up parallel to the pier at the 104-year old, Hotel Excelsior, where we were let off the boat. Despite my telling Tom to quickly put on his sunglasses and wave like the Queen of England, which he declined to do, the paparazzi were lined up in abundance waiting for none other than our boat. They were not there for us. I overheard them yelling “Claudia, Claudia!”, to one of the elderly women who got off the boat with us. To only us, she was the unrecognizable Claudia Cardinale there for the premiere of her new “Gebo and the Shadow”. | More in 70mm reading: Cinerama Goes to Venice - Sensational Festival Screening Dave Strohmaier and Randy Gitsch - in conversation with Mark Lyndon Historic Big Screen Films Get Major Digital Makeover Randy Gitsch: A Bio in70mm.com's Cinerama page Internet link: Cinerama Dome / Arclight Cinemas Huffington Post LA Observed LA Times |
 After being driven to the quiet Viktoria Palace Hotel at the island’s
northern tip, we met the Wilders, Michael and his lovely wife, Peggy. [2]
Michael is an engineer with Image Trends, the Austin, TX-based facility that
scanned and recombined the three panels of our latest digitally, re-worked
picture, “Cinerama South Seas Adventure”. Because Michael and Image
Trends were crucial to the remastering of this film, and remain up to their
necks, now in the midst of scanning and recombining our next Cinerama title,
“Seven Wonders of the World”, Michael was there as our invited
participant in a Master Class to be given by Dave and myself, entitled
“Cinerama Restoration in the Digital Age”. | |
 Inevitably, a stroll around Venice brings you to the Piazza San
Marco. Here we rehydrate. The orange mixture is a Spritz, the official drink
of Venice. It’s a wine cocktail mixed with soda water and a dash of Aperol.But before that presentation, we had a whole day before us to explore Venice. We rose early and on Lido’s centrally located pier, located the biglietteria so that we could each purchase multiple day boat/bus passes, the only way to do what we were about to do. The boat we were now about to get on was a passenger-only ferry, an all-metal workhorse known as a vaporetto, which likely held about 150-200 riders. Our route commenced to circle around the southern Dorsoduro district, or sestieri, of Venice, and in doing so passed a half dozen monster-sized cruise ships, all of which seemed odd juxtaposed against the backdrop of the ancient city. Passing them, we proceeded to the Piazzale Roma station where we disembarked the boat and began a day’s worth of trekking, browsing, photographing, shopping, eating and drinking our way through the city, from the north to the south | |
 Recognize the gift shop where Rossano Brazzi
sells Katharine Hepburn the red goblet in “Summertime”? The shop, which now
sells children’s toys, had a similar goblet in their window.Dave and I (having previously both been in Venice following our 2007 “Cinerama Adventure” screening in adjacent Udine’s InnovAction Fair) pointed out shooting locales from David Lean’s epic film, “Summertime”. Shot in Venice in 1955, the picture stars Katharine Hepburn and Rossano Brazzi, and we’d both recommend it as required pre-arrival viewing for anyone thinking of visiting the city. | |
 We found the little bridge in the Dorsoduro neighborhood,
the spot where Katharine Hepburn’s character meets Mauro, the homeless
Venetian boy. Woody Allen found it too, for 1996’s “Everyone Says I Love
You”. | |
 Because
Tom had brought frame grabs from “This is Cinerama”, at several strategic
sites around the city, we posed in these homage shots. Here, {below}, I fill
in for original Cinerama soundman, Fred Bosch | |
 | |
 That evening, Tom March surprised us all by
generously springing for a gondola ride. Hey, when in Rome, ah Venice…right?
I didn’t even know that a gondola could carry five passengers and it’s
gondolier, but they can. Tom spotted one of the green “Servizio Gondole”
signs outside the Hotel Bauer, and after boarding here at the narrow Rio San
Moise canal, we then proceeded slowly up Rio dei Barcaroli and Rio di San
Luca canals, coming upon the Grand Canal, where we turned and headed toward
the Rialto bridge. Now that’s something you’ll never forget. | |
 All gondolas are black, and if piloted by only one gondolier
(above), can carry only one oar. Michael (below) rode in front and had the
head on view. Note the mirror bolted onto the wall. These canals are narrow.
Corners are tight. Boats pass within inches of one another. | |
 On Wednesday, we were delighted to see
Festival Director, Alberto Barbera showing up for our Master Class.
Long-time Venice International Film Festival staffer, Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan
kicked things off, making introductions. I moderated, recognizing a half
dozen Italian widescreen processes (i.e. Panoramica, Super Totalscope, and
others), giving a background on Cinerama, the process and it’s body of
films. I also tipped my hat to mention Italy’s dozen, original Cinerama
theaters. The audience was buzzing when clips of the Venice footage from
“This is Cinerama”, shot in the city, in 1951, were on screen. Dave and
Michael each took turns getting into the meat and potatoes of our uniquely
challenging remastering. “Before and after” comparisons always captivate our
audiences when we do these behind-the-scenes shows, and our Venice audience
was no exception. It certainly helps when a film editor, like Dave, puts the
show together and another hands on technicians, like Michael, give you an
over the shoulder view of their own workflow. | |
 All three of our screenings were booked into theaters within
the immense Palazzo del Casino. Built in 1938, it is the second of the two
theater venues built here for the festival’s host, the Biennale.The festival scheduled three shows of our digital Cinerama feature, and we were in the theater for the first screening. Shown from a DCP, our sound was crisp and clear and our picture was beautiful on the Sala Perla’s immense screen, inside the Palazzo del Casino. I introduced the film, with the help of an Italian interpreter so was able to remind the audience that the film they were about to see would not be rectangular, but instead would be Smileboxed, and consequently convey a curved screen simulation adding to their viewing enjoyment. Of course, Cinerama was never, ever viewed rectangularly, so the curved screen simulation is also bonifide authentic. | |
 Charles
asked to take our picture and we obliged him. Little did he know, Peggy was
busy photographing him photographing us.Applause was sustained after our restoration credits, and comments we heard in the lobby thereafter were equally heart-warming. Charles Rubinstein of London’s Rio Cinema, for example, loved the film, the restoration…and our Smilebox presentation By the way, Clemens Scherer, your fellow widescreen enthusiast friend, Gunter enjoyed the film and says “hello”. | |
 Lufthansa’s on-going cabin crew strike
resulted in the cancellation of our scheduled return flights to L.A.. This
is usually a vacation stunner. We weren’t too unhappy to hear the news
however. After all, we were enjoying Venice, staying on Lido, and making new
Cinerama fans. The added bonus was that the festival kindly picked up the
tab on our extended stay. Life is good.Venice was a perfect warm up to the next “Cinerama South Seas Adventure” screening, in the upcoming Cinerama Film Festival, Sept. 28-Oct. 4, at Hollywood’s Cinerama Dome Theater. We will all miss this city of canals and movies. And we’ll all miss the Italian ice cream, which we concluded was infinitely more icy and less creamy than others we’ve taste-tested elsewhere in Europe. | |
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