| |
60th anniversary of "The
Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm"
"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm"
digital remaster will have it's European Premiere at the
16. Todd-AO
70mm-Festival 2022 at the Schauburg Cinerama, Monday 3. October 2022,
followed by screenings in Wien
and Bradford |
Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter
|
Written by: Thomas Hauerslev, in70mm.com, written for Cinema Retro Magazine, 2021 |
Date:
28.09.2022 |
"Brothers
Grimm" 35mm negative sample.
By the end of 2021, it was officially
announced by Warner Brothers that MGM's CINERAMA production #2 "The
Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" (1962) was finally being
released on Bluray by March 2022. A full 14 years since the home-video release of MGM's
first CINERAMA production "How the West Was Won" (1962) in 2008.
"The
Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" has been remastered in both letterbox
and SmileBox formats for Blu-ray and home video release from the Warner
Archive Collection. The new remastered version was reconstructed from 6-perf
Cinerama negatives and in some cases YCM separation masters as well as a
7-channel magnetic soundtrack print master.
The new 2022 2-disc DeLuxe special edition BluRay contains "Grimm" in two
versions, made from 1080p HD Masters from 4K scans of the original Cinerama
Camera Negatives! Disc 1-Restored Cinerama image letterboxed and Disc
2-Restored Cinerama image in SMILEBOX format, to approximate the curved
theater screen experience in the home. Audio Specs DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Surround. 140 Minutes-Roadshow presentation with Overture, Intermission ,
Entr'acte, and Exit Music. Special features includesa new featurettes
"RESCUING A FANTASY CLASSIC" (HD); "THE EPIC ART OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM"
(HD); "THE WONDERFUL CAREER OF GEORGE" PAL (HD), and more, plus multiple
trailers and audio pieces.
"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" was
produced in CINERAMA, only
10 years after the first film came out in that LARGE-SCREEN motion picture
process, which revolutionized cinema exhibition in the years to come.
For the 50th
anniversary of Cinerama in 2002 Greg Kimble wrote:
Fred Waller had indeed labored that
long on his dream of a motion picture experience that would recreate the
full range of human vision. It used three cameras and three projectors
on a curved screen 146° deep. Making an anagram of the letters in
"American," he called it "Cinerama". Even in an industry up to its
Mitchell magazines in hyperbole, its impact was staggering. Running only
13 weeks in one theater in New York, "This Is Cinerama" was the highest
grossing film of 1952. Several more travelogues would follow, climaxed
by two dramatic films co-produced with MGM in 1962.
|
More in 70mm reading:
Cinema Retro's Coming Issues 2022 /
2023
"The Wonderful World
of the Brothers Grimm" to be released on BluRay from Warner Archive
"The Wonderful World of the
Brothers Grimm" Remaster Trailers
Restoration and re-mastering
“The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" from 3-strip 35mm negatives
in70mm.com's Cinerama page
Remastering the CINERAMA
Library
Cinerama's 50th
Anniversary
|
Tom
March (Canada) working on "Brothers Grimm" remaster during Covid pandemic.
"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm"
was largely a "lost" film for many years. Short of a 2½ month encore
engagement at the Empire -
Cinerama in Paris (France) in 1971/72, some private
screenings in a back-yard of a
surburbian Sydney home, and occasional TV
screenings on the TNT network, "Grimm" has not been seen publically in the
original three-strip version for the better part of 55 years.
"Grimm" has been on the wish list for many people for many years, but
restoration work was not in the pipeline until recently. Here, Dave Strohmaier gives you a look behind the screen about the film elements:
Many have heard in past years that
the “Grimm” elements had suffered damage due to some sort of a flood
many years ago at MGM and until now there has been an understandable
hesitancy to attempt such a digital restoration due to the great expense
of dealing with these 3-panel films. Utilizing new amazing software and
much faster computers, it is possible to perform restoration miracles in
your own home restoration/edit bay. Truth be told, and to my relief, I
did not have to follow up with all of my former assumptions about the
negative damage. Fortunately, we found the negatives were in somewhat
better condition than a 1994 inspection report seemed to indicate,
however still problematic with the many damaged and worn areas. Digital
restoration can allow a lot of flexibility that photo chemical or
earlier digital work could never accomplish.
Since the project started last November [2019], I have to say it has
been a real pleasure working with Cinerama’s Jim Vandever and the Warner
Bros. people such as George Feltenstein, Steven Anastasi and Craig
Johnson with this project as they are all thrilled as we are to see it
finally coming to fruition.
|
|
Producer
Randy Gitsch and Cinerama Restorer extraordinaire Dave Strohmaier getting
excited to see an authentic 3-strip presentation of "Grimm" in 2012. Image:
Thomas Hauerslev
In 2012 the Australian 3-strip Technicolor
35mm print was shipped to Bradford in the UK, for a one-off sold-out
screening. "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" had been at the top
of every Cinerama fan's wish-list, and the auditorium was sizzling in
excitement. It was surely a "I was there" presentation to remember, to which
in70mm.com reporter Mark Lyndon
wrote:
On the evening of Saturday, April
28th 2012, delegates to the Wide Screen Weekend strand of the Bradford
Film Festival were granted the rarest of rare treats, a screening of the
only surviving three strip Cinerama print of “The Wonderful World of the
Brothers Grimm”. The IB Technicolor print had come all the way from
Australia to Bradford courtesy of the patron saint of Cinerama
preservation, legend, and all round good egg, John Mitchell.
This legendary “lost” Cinerama feature has held up well over the years
and delegates were captivated and entranced by its old magic. For a
fifty year old feel good film it still felt and looked pretty good.
George Pal produced and directed the fairy tale sequences with Harry
Levin for the real life drama. “The Wonderful World” is a skilfully
scripted and acted production with some fine performances to enjoy from
Laurence Harvey as the waifish, romantic and hopelessly impractical
Wilhelm Grimm, and Karlheinz Bohm as his terminally exasperated brother
Jacob.
The new official and Smileboxed remaster
trailer was released in the fall of 2021 on in70mm.com's channel, and was
seen more than 6000 times by January 2022. The new trailer has sparked
several enthusiastic comments like this:
"That looks amazing. I saw this in Cinerama when it opened. It had an everlasting
effect on me."
Moses Nebogipfel
"My God, that looks amazing. I saw it in Cinerama some years ago and this looks
even better than I could have imagined. I cannot wait to get this Blu-ray!".
Gerardo Paron
|
|
Facade
of Empire
Cinerama, Paris front 12 February 2005. By then the Empire had been a TV
studio for decades. Image by Thomas Hauerslev
Filming and locations by
Gerhard Witte, in70mm.com:
Filming began on 31 July 1961 (source: "Atlanta Journal-Constitution" newspaper
from that time), most likely at the MGM-Studios in Culver City, a city in Los
Angeles county. In charge of the cameras was the American cinematographer Paul
Vogel (1899 – 1975), who previously, in 1950, was awarded with an Academy Award
for the movie "Battelground" (USA, 1949) in the category "Best black and white
Cinematography". "Brothers Grimm" was directed by Henry Levin, who took over the
biographical script. Producer George Pal was responsible for the fairy tale
sequences. Before start of filming, both had toured parts of Europe seeking
authentic backgrounds for the story. They found suitable film motifs in
West-Germany, but not in Hesse, the immediate homeland of the Grimms, where most
buildings from the 1800s had been destroyed during the past wars. They filmed at
Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria (the Royal Palace in "The Dancing Princess"),
at Weikersheim Castle in Baden Württemberg (the Duke's Residence), in the
Rhineland and in the historic, late medieval districts of the Bavarian towns of
Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Middle Franconia (in the film their home town), and
Dinkelsbühl – also located in Middle Franconia. Pal and Levin were able to
convince the famed Regensburg "Domspatzen" Choir, consisting of boys and young
men, to sing (the boys) in the movie's Rheinburg sequence. The steam-propelled
side-wheeler tugboat (built in 1921 / 1922), named "Oskar Huber", taken by the
Grimms down the Rhine is the oldest such item in Germany. The boat's last
towering operation, now powered with fuel oil instead with coil, took place in
1966. Today it is a museum ship and is located in "Vinckekanal" (Vincke Canal)
in Duisburg-Ruhrort, and is part of the local Museum of the German Inland
Navigation. (Gerhard Witte)
Premiere
The official World Premiere took place at New York's (New) Loew's Cinerama
Theatre on Tuesday, 7 August 1962 (festive World Premiere where it subsequently
ran for 33 weeks). There had been a World Preview of "Brothers Grimm" on
Saturday, 14 July 1962 at the Cooper Cinerama Theatre in Denver (Colorado)
Score
In 2010 Film Score Monthly
re-issued the entire score:
Disc one of this 2CD set presents the
premiere release of the complete score to "The Wonderful World of the
Brothers Grimm", newly mixed and mastered from the original
seven-channel Cinerama masters. Disc two has three sections: First is
the David Rose “cover” version of the Brothers Grimm soundtrack released
by MGM Records at the time of the film, featuring Rose’s versions of
Merrill’s themes on side one, and six contemporary movie themes on side
two. In the middle of disc two is a program of bonus tracks from the
original soundtrack sessions to Brothers Grimm.
Congratulations to
the team behind the
BluRay and remaster – and ALL the work, which has gone into this, and
remastering (and
archiving) ALL the 3-strip library the past 15 years. A
wonderful conclusion with “Grimm” now available again for cinemas and home
cinema. Only question that remain - What’s Next? A new remaster of “Porgy
and Bess”, “80 Days” or “The Alamo”? Only time will tell……..
See more about "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" on
Remastering the CINERAMA Library
"The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" digital
remaster will have it's European Premiere at the
16. Todd-AO
70mm-Festival 2022 at the Schauburg Cinerama, Monday 3. October 2022,
followed by screenings in Wien
and Bradford
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Go: back - top - back issues - news index Updated
28-07-24 |
|
|