Saturday 21 April 2007

A slightly technical question on the meaning of 70mm

I'm involved in my local film society here in Edinburgh. We've been working on programming our next season and one of the themed ideas we came up with was a selection of 70mm films. The films we would be showing are probably the obvious choices, things like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Lawrence of Arabia. But, in browsing giallo posters on Ebay over the years, I've often noticed that a fair number, especially on the Spanish ones, seem to suggest that they were 70mm presentations.


The Bloodstained Butterfly


My Dear Killer


All the Colours of the Dark

Is this the case and, if so, is it 'true' 70mm or just a process that allowed the description to be used but wasn't really the same thing at all as far as quality went, perhaps akin to the widescreen processes often used on Italian westerns a few years earlier.

Again, it would seem unlikely that these films were still available in 70mm and even less likely that they would be viable in terms of getting an audience – it's more that enquiring minds want to know...

5 comments:

Joe D said...

These films were shot in Techniscope, a 2-perf 35mm format. They were blown up to a 4-perf 35mm anamorphic internegative, from that element it was fairly common to blow up to a 70mm release print for first run big city theaters. In my opinion 70mm projection with 6-track magnetic sound was the zenith of film presentation.
Joe D'Augustine

K H Brown said...

Thanks Joe

Joe D said...

Kevin,
Are you involved with the Edinburgh Film Festival? I'm just finishing a film that I would love to screen there, it's called "One Night With You". I really enjoy your blog, being a huge fan of Italian cinema in general and gialli specifically. My film also features performances (on the soundtrack) by two great maestros, Alessandro Alessandroni and Antonello Vannuchi. they performed on many. many classic Italian soundtracks from the 60's & 70's.If you're interested I will email you links to a trailer etc.
Joe D'Augustine

K H Brown said...

I'm not involved with the EIFF, it's the Film Guild, a film society rather than festival, that I do things with. Both are based in the same building, however, and have historical links as far as I know.

Please do send me a link to the trailer for your film - I'm sure I (and readers of this blog) would find it interesting :-)

Joe D said...

Kevin,
Here's a link to 2 trailers and a link to a review. My film is screening at the Silver Lake Film Festival in May so if any of your readers are in Los Angeles and want to see the film, please attend.
http://www.kitehillpictures.com/seetrailers.html
http://www.kitehillpictures.com/press.html
Thanks!
Joe D'Augustine