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Catch it in 70mm on a WIDEscreen 19 March 2007


As part of the Bradford (UK) International Film Festival's Widescreen Weekend Mayerling is being shown in 70mm.

You can see more details on their website at.
http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/bff/2007/film_detail.asp?filmid=%206611

FYI: I'm not connected with the Festival, just a regular attendee at their Widescreen Weekend for the last decade+ and wanting to share the info to prospective viewers as opportunities to see 70mm are rare enough, let alone of rare old films like this one!

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Just noticed your post. Remember that most of these (including Mayerling) are merely 70mm blowups from 35mm negatives, more of a gimmick in the late '60s than anything else. I've done many personal comparisons (I once booked Rollerball in the '70s for a science fiction marathon and they delivered a 70mm print minus one reel, so ended up injecting one 35mm reel into an otherwise 70mm screening) and unless the work is filmed with 70mm/65mm cameras, the effect is a bit pointless. In some cases the 70mm version is inferior, since a blowup is tricky, often just introducing grain (like the hit or miss aspect of blowing up 16mm to 35mm). The blowup was a marketing decision as well as a facilitator for a better soundtrack (evident on films like Star Wars and Alien), in the magnetic stereo era, as Dolby started moving into the marketplace in the early '70s. Experiments to bring back 70mm filmmaking like Brainstorm, Tron and the Ron Howard flop Far and Away went nowhere. It's all about cost-saving and flexibility. And now of course there are talented filmmakers and decent (on paper certainly) film projects shot on video with the excuse that Hi Def covers all bases -VERY disappointing, e.g., Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (poor lighting) and Rachel Getting Married (seasickness producing camerawork).

The golden age of 70mm was brief, with most of the recent IMAX versions of features (just caught Star Trek) being blowups too.

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