Lawrence of Arabia

[Matt Pacini]

I've never seen L of A in the theater, but I have seen Raiders twice.
Once when it originally came out in 1981, and again, they played it about 1 1/2 years ago up here at an arthouse theater.
It was a really bad print, the sound for about the first 30 minutes literally sounded like there was a jet airplane running coming out of the right speaker.
I complained and got free tickets.
It eventually stopped, then when the movie ended, right at the last scene, it played about 4 notes of the theme song, and the curtains came down!
They didn't even have the ending credits on their print!
I think somebody found this print in their garage or something.
Really hilarious, but I love the movie.
For one of my "self-taught film school" excercises, I watched the movie a zillion times, stopping as I went, and wrote a script from watching the movie.
Then I graphed it out, in time, as to what happened when, to get a good feel of the pacing (which Spielberg is a master at).
It was tedious, but it really taught me a lot. I suggest it.
It WILL wear out your tape though, if not your VCR! (DVD would be great for this).

Matt Pacini

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[Dominic3]

For me, watching L of A, ( which I have seen several times) is the aesthetic equivalent of looking at a painting by someone like Vermeer, where as most "arthouse" films are the aesthetic and philosophical equivalent of a Jackson Pollock painting - or worse.

I also think Kubricks "Barry Lyndon" falls into the same aesthetic category as L of A.



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[Shenan]

Lawrence of Arabia is going to be one of the films shown at the "Widescreen Film Festival" at CSU Long Beach on October 7 (3:30pm). Also, Raiders of the Lost Ark on October 6 at 7:00pm. Have you guys seen these on the big screen? I've actually never seen the movie (L of A)! I am looking forward to it. They have a pretty nice auditorium there (the Carpenter center) - I wonder if they are going to bring a 70mm projector out? Tickets can be ordered at http://www.carpenterarts.org or at (562) 985-7000. $7.00 each film, but there are various discounts available. Hey, maybe we could have a little LA area Super 8mm filmmakers meeting there! :-)

Shenan

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[Matt Pacini]

Yeah, you're right.
This happens to be one of two theaters, that will show anything other than the latest releases, so they call them Arthouses here!
Funny.

I've heard Barry Lyndon was great too.
That's on my list of movies I need to see.
I was fortunate enough to see River Runs Through it at the theater when it came out.
Really beautiful movie, that was.

Any more suggestions, good films to watch for cinematography?



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[Dominic3]

Matt, you really should see Barry Lyndon, apparently Kubrick had his camera adapted to use an ultra fast f 0.75 lens for the interior scenes which were filmed just in natural candle light!

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[Dominic3]

Matt, you really should see Barry Lyndon, apparently Kubrick had his camera adapted to use an ultra fast f 0.75 lens for the stunningly beautiful interior scenes which were filmed just in natural candle light!

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[Matt Pacini]

Wow, who makes a f0.75 lens?
That would be outstanding!
I want one.
I'll just get a hacksaw to get this Schneider off my Nizo 6080....
Has anyone ever heard of anyone being crazy enough to try to put something like a Nikon mount or C mount modification to a S8 camera with a non-removable lens?
I wonder what would be required?
(I would never dare this myself, of course... just wondered if one of you nutso grearheads had tried this, and other than how hard it would be, what the technical problems with it would be, as far as other lenses working for Super 8, etc.
Roger?

Matt Pacini

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[Dominic3]

The lens Kubrick used for Barry Lyndon was very rare. I saw a documentary about Kubrick a week or so ago on BBC TV and they interviewed the guy who adapted the camera for Kubrick. He said that the lens was SO unique no one else had ever used it for this purpose.

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[Dominic3]

I would also highly recommend Fritz Lang's "Seigfried" - if you were to cut out a single film frame at random, it is as perfect a compostion as a great painting. Every inch of this film is stylized beautifully.

Apparently when Lang was making this film he had a sign on the wall which said," Nothing in this film is accidental".

Pity he is not around making films now in colour....lol

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[c_77]

YES - I think probably anything by Fritz Lang is worth picking out. "Siegfried" also goes by the German name "Die Nibelungen", in my video book. Thanx for the idea; I'll go check it out now. I have a copy of "Rancho Notorious" on order that I can't wait to see...I'll be back to tell everyone how it is!!

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