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"Windjammer" in Hamburg | Read more at in70mm.com The 70mm Newsletter
| Written by: Gerhard Witte, Berlin | Date:
15.05.2011 |
Gerhard
Witte and Dave Strohmaier. Image by Thomas Hauerslev
“Windjammer: The Voyage of
Christian Radich” (USA 1958) I saw the film the first time as a little
boy at the beginning of the 1960s at the Tonhallen-Cinema in Düsseldorf on a
huge deep curved screen with a size of around 24 x 10 meters. That was an
unforgettable event to me and awoke my interest in widescreen cinema and
film-music. I kept the film-song “Kari waits for me” and the wonderful score
of Morton Gould in my mind until today. In that year my parents gave me a
Philips EP record with some extracts of the score as a birthday present. The
record player ran the whole day long and I assume that my parents soon
regretted to give me the EP.
Many years later, on 11 March 2006, I had the pleasure to enjoy an original
3 strip Cinemiracle-projection with 7-Channel-Magnetic-Surround-Sound of
this wonderful voyage again at the Bradford Widescreen Festival, even in a
German language spoken version but of course, after such a long time, in a
faded look.
And now, more than 50 years after the film's premiere, at the revered
Savoy-, now Metropolis-cinema in Hamburg a dream has come true:
“Windjammer” remastered in full colours again on the big curved screen,
not a triptychon-projection, but now fully digital with corrected colours on
all three panels. The original Cinemiracle 7-Channel Magnetic-Sound of the
film has been changed into a digital 5.1 mix.
["...The deck also puts out 2 channel stereo that is encoded for dolby pro
logic -2 and many places use that for this type of thing. 5.1 mix is on the
digital files but for some reason few places can do it thru decks SDI or
HDMI outputs. The Pro logic sound is almost identical to the 5.1 when we did
comparisons at Chace sound after the 5.1 mix.". Randy Gitsch].
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More in 70mm reading:
"Windjammer" in Hamburg
"Windjammer" Triumphant Return to Hamburg
More Savoy Adverts Supplement to the story
of Hamburg's First Todd-AO Theatre
"Windjammer" in Cinemiracle
Internet link:
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Cadet
#34, a surprise guest in Hamburg is taking a bow. Image by Thomas Hauerslev
I am so happy, that the old Savoy-, now Metropolis-cinema still exists
today. Worldwide most of the large Cinerama/Todd-AO roadshow-houses were
demolished or gutted. I hope that the Metropolis/Savoy has a future. It
should be listed as a historic monument since it is the first purpose built
Todd-AO cinema in Europe opened on 14 March 1957. The Hamburgers can be
proud of it.
The cinema still gives me goose-pimples when I am entering it and I
feel myself thrown back to my youth when I saw all the great 70mm (Todd-AO)
films there. Now I sail the high seas again accompanied by round about 250
to 350 Christian Radich enthusiasts. I note that most of us are not the
youngest and a lot of people speak English. Even the former Windjammer film
cadet, Jan Halvorsen, appears as a surprise to all cineastes.
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David
Strohmaier and Randy Gitsch giving the lecture of the remastered version of
"Windjammer". Image by Thomas Hauerslev
Before showing the film
"Windjammer" there were given one longer and two shorter lectures. First
David Strohmaier and Randy Gitsch, extra flown in from Los Angeles, reported
about the restauration of the film. This interesting presentation took round
about 1/2 hour time. On the occasion of Hamburg harbour's 822th birthday the
Kinemathek Hamburg presents a film series with films from Norway titled
"Norway - Ships and People" in the time of 5-24 May 2011. The Norwegian
consul general, Mr. Morten Paulsen, gave an introductory speech. And last
not least the business manager of the cinema Martin Aust reported among
others about the future of the Metropolis/Savoy-cinema, to save it - but
until now no clear decision is taken.
Over the time the cinema got a new screen and I assume it has the same
dimension as it had in former Savoy times, around 20 x 8.5 meters. I confess
that the impression seeing “Windjammer” in this new digital version,
in comparison to the former original Cinemiracle-Triptychon-Projection I had
seen, wasn´t quite so overwhelming. The cinema-screen was not filled out by
the film in its full wideness and the picture could be only a little bit
sharper. The colors were a pleasure. I was astonished that the SmileBox
version of the film worked that well and increased the curvature of the
screen optically. The dividing lines of the old Triptychon-Projection were
weak, but still visible, which in my mind's eye is not bad and is
Cinemiracle nostalgia.
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Testing
"Windjammer" in SmileBox on the curved Metropolis screen. Image by
Thomas Hauerslev
“Windjammer” and a lot of Cinerama-films were shown on screens with
different curvatures in many cinemas around the world. Sometimes, the
curvature was so deep, that the moviegoer could see the film on the screen
covering a field of vision of 146 degrees in its width - this closely
approximates to the field of human vision. For example, the
Pictureville-cinema in Bradford (England) still has such a deep curved
(louvered) screen. At the Metropolis/Savoy-cinema, without SmileBox effect,
the field of vision should be about 120 degrees.
The digital 5.1 sound still was impressive, above all, when the sea became
stormy. How wonderful it was, seeing the film in its full length, here with
introductory cinema-gong, with Overture, Entracte and Play-out music. I
think it will be a great pleasure to see the film later on DVD or Blu-ray
and it is important, that thanks to the restaurators, that this nearly lost
cinematographic work will be available to the public around the world.
After the show, in the cinema's foyer a little buffet was given with wine
and salmon-appetizers and the cineastes had the opportunity to talk to each
other about their varied experiences.
The event was great and I would like to express my thanks to all the
speakers and to Thomas Hauerslev for the European distribution of the film.
To David Strohmaier and Randy Gitsch extra-thanks for the restauration of
the film and also thanks to the cinema management for the invitation to this
great evening experience at their beautiful Metropolis cinema.
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