New York City Repertory Cinema

[schlockvalue]

Every screening of my Heartbreak Kid DCP was cleared through BMS -- the idea behind scanning that 16mm print was just to make a more proper (but of course flawed) HD version of the film accessible to theaters that either couldn't get one of the two circulating 35mm prints or that can't run film. AGFA also had nothing to do with that project.

[Lowry_Sam]

Yeah, my point is more: why not play what's probably the most rewatchable 70mm film of all time every year you commit to a 70mm festival? If there's one movie that perfectly explains the appeal and power of large format, it's that one

After 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.

I first saw Playtime in 70mm at The Castro before Criterion released the 2-disc set. I remember it looking very good with the only exception of some discoloration during the opening title sequence. While I loved it, I wasn't quite as in awe as I was watching 2001 in 70mm at the Cinerama in LA, but that also could have been a difference in theaters.

[Drucker]

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

I have seen that Playtime 70mm print four times since my first viewing in 2005. The print is starting to show some wear and tear and could use a new one, but I doubt it will happen and the owners would probably rather run a DCP at this point. Even if they did, I can’t imagine it being another contact print and would see them going the easy route of a digital to film-out print. It’s also worth noting that I’m not sure about the staff at the Paris Theater or their equipment, but I was told they were the second venue for a new 70mm print of Vertigo a few years ago and they apparently damaged the print.

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

Yeah, it can be tough to book rare prints for that exact reason. I posted this before, but even though Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid gets shown regularly around New York City, they don't always have a film print. (IIRC the available DCP was made from a 16mm print, which explains why it looks so crummy.) I think there's only TWO existing 35mm prints that ever get shown: the BFI's print, which I've never seen, and the Academy's immaculate print. When Metrograph screened the Academy's print, they made it clear that it was a tough process, with the Academy going the extra mile of checking out the venue's insurance policy among other things. Elaine May just had a retrospective at Lincoln Center, making an appearance herself, and yet even there they weren't able to book the film at all, sadly an egregious omission.

I’ve seen that BFI print and can attest that it looks excellent. Beautiful, dark colors with no fading and minor damage. The DCP is a scan made from a 16mm optical reduction print (so several generations removed from the negative) distributed by AGFA and made by Muscle Distribution’s Elizabeth Purchell. From my understanding, it often screens in a legal grey zone.

But the difficulty of being able to screen prints is a real phenomenon. Without giving names, a major venue in Los Angeles with union staff apparently damaged an Academy print and the Academy refused to send a print again to them for a year. I work in art and there’s similar logistics when dealing with different types of material. I’ll never forget one lender not allowing a certain artwork that was a centerpiece to the artist’s career out because of the museum’s ancient HVAC system.

My wife is a registrar and I can only imagine the shitshow that she would tell me about if a work of art was damaged!

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Every screening of my Heartbreak Kid DCP was cleared through BMS -- the idea behind scanning that 16mm print was just to make a more proper (but of course flawed) HD version of the film accessible to theaters that either couldn't get one of the two circulating 35mm prints or that can't run film. AGFA also had nothing to do with that project.

Ah! I was convinced AGFA was involved licensing and that licensing for theatrical remained tricky. Thanks for the intel

[Never Cursed]

Wait, why does Bristol Meyers Squibb own the rights to the Elaine May film?

Yeah, my point is more: why not play what's probably the most rewatchable 70mm film of all time every year you commit to a 70mm festival? If there's one movie that perfectly explains the appeal and power of large format, it's that one

After 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien.

I mean, I would rather watch PlayTime than either of those movies, but that's entirely subjective. What I meant is that PlayTime uses the large format and huge screen to its advantage better than any other 70mm movie I can think of because of the enormous amount of choreographed background action. A 70mm print of the Kubrick no doubt looks great (and, having seen a solid third of PTA's filmography on 70mm, blow-ups look great too), but it's practically an internal component of the Tati movie and might work as a powerful argument in favor of this kind of exhibition.

(What I really wish is that US theaters would be as adventurous as the BFI and would program art-house movies on their IMAX screens during slow weeks - when I lived in England, I saw some great stuff there).

[domino harvey]

They own Stepford Wives too. The reason they jacked up the licensing prices is because they were paid massive amounts for the remakes of these and think that’s also what they’re worth to put out on disc

Palomar Pictures sold majority stake to BMS and thus they control rights but don’t have a clue what the going rate is. More here and here

[malachi_lui]

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

I have seen that Playtime 70mm print four times since my first viewing in 2005. The print is starting to show some wear and tear and could use a new one, but I doubt it will happen and the owners would probably rather run a DCP at this point. Even if they did, I can’t imagine it being another contact print and would see them going the easy route of a digital to film-out print. It’s also worth noting that I’m not sure about the staff at the Paris Theater or their equipment, but I was told they were the second venue for a new 70mm print of Vertigo a few years ago and they apparently damaged the print.

The Paris Theatre is pretty dubious in terms of print care. For their 70mm series in 2024, they ran the blow-up print of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, and the end of a reel caught fire and incinerated onscreen in front of all of us (right when Malcolm gets the letter in prison from Elijah Muhammad). I wonder if that’s the same print that FLC ran a month ago. Anyway, the Paris Theatre closed for a bit after that 2024 70mm series to perform upgrades, and I haven’t been there for large format since then. I’d rather see a movie literally anywhere else, as the only venue with less legroom is the small room at Anthology.

[beamish14]

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

I have seen that Playtime 70mm print four times since my first viewing in 2005. The print is starting to show some wear and tear and could use a new one, but I doubt it will happen and the owners would probably rather run a DCP at this point. Even if they did, I can’t imagine it being another contact print and would see them going the easy route of a digital to film-out print. It’s also worth noting that I’m not sure about the staff at the Paris Theater or their equipment, but I was told they were the second venue for a new 70mm print of Vertigo a few years ago and they apparently damaged the print.

The Paris Theatre is pretty dubious in terms of print care. For their 70mm series in 2024, they ran the blow-up print of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, and the end of a reel caught fire and incinerated onscreen in front of all of us (right when Malcolm gets the letter in prison from Elijah Muhammad). I wonder if that’s the same print that FLC ran a month ago. Anyway, the Paris Theatre closed for a bit after that 2024 70mm series to perform upgrades, and I haven’t been there for large format since then. I’d rather see a movie literally anywhere else, as the only venue with less legroom is the small room at Anthology.

In all of my decades of going to repertory screenings, I have never seen a reel incinerate. Malcolm X has continued to receive 70mm screenings, so I’m glad WB has backups or produced new reels for this particular one.

Still, it is sad to see fresh 70mm prints get significant blemishes right out of the gate. The Hateful Eight which played at the Hollywood Arclight was apparently ruined by the end of its run. I saw it on opening weekend and it already had very notable scratches.

[beamish14]

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

I have seen that Playtime 70mm print four times since my first viewing in 2005. The print is starting to show some wear and tear and could use a new one, but I doubt it will happen and the owners would probably rather run a DCP at this point. Even if they did, I can’t imagine it being another contact print and would see them going the easy route of a digital to film-out print. It’s also worth noting that I’m not sure about the staff at the Paris Theater or their equipment, but I was told they were the second venue for a new 70mm print of Vertigo a few years ago and they apparently damaged the print.

They also played it in 2023. In 2024 it played in MoMI's "See It Big" series, so it's possible that the owner of the print is concerned about wear and they're limiting its bookings to one NYC venue per year.

Yeah, it can be tough to book rare prints for that exact reason. I posted this before, but even though Elaine May's The Heartbreak Kid gets shown regularly around New York City, they don't always have a film print. (IIRC the available DCP was made from a 16mm print, which explains why it looks so crummy.) I think there's only TWO existing 35mm prints that ever get shown: the BFI's print, which I've never seen, and the Academy's immaculate print. When Metrograph screened the Academy's print, they made it clear that it was a tough process, with the Academy going the extra mile of checking out the venue's insurance policy among other things. Elaine May just had a retrospective at Lincoln Center, making an appearance herself, and yet even there they weren't able to book the film at all, sadly an egregious omission.

I’ve seen that BFI print and can attest that it looks excellent. Beautiful, dark colors with no fading and minor damage. The DCP is a scan made from a 16mm optical reduction print (so several generations removed from the negative) distributed by AGFA and made by Muscle Distribution’s Elizabeth Purchell. From my understanding, it often screens in a legal grey zone.

But the difficulty of being able to screen prints is a real phenomenon. Without giving names, a major venue in Los Angeles with union staff apparently damaged an Academy print and the Academy refused to send a print again to them for a year. I work in art and there’s similar logistics when dealing with different types of material. I’ll never forget one lender not allowing a certain artwork that was a centerpiece to the artist’s career out because of the museum’s ancient HVAC system.

Has Janus produced many digital-to-celluloid prints? I was surprised to see a note about this when I saw a print of Tye Wages of Fear around 2 years ago.

Regarding sources for 70mm prints, I know that private collectors have some of Universal titles, and they’re OK with those being shown, as they likely have very few of the ones they produced during the 80’s. The National Science and Media Museum in the UK has been loaning more to the American Cinematheque

[hearthesilence]

Hah, I remember attending a 35mm screening of The Wages of Fear over a decade at MoMA. (I was so tired I actually fell asleep through half the movie.) I've seen it many times but wanted to catch a 35mm screening, and I remember thinking there was something underwhelming about how it looked and presumed it came from the same digital master used for their (now outdated) Blu-ray. I don't remember the digital-to-celluloid note, but I might've just came in late and missed it.

[malachi_lui]

I've seen quite a few Janus prints and they've seemed pretty legit, I mean the Ozu and Kurosawa prints from the early 2000s are absolutely battered (most likely due to the elements they were sourced from, plus being screened pretty often for two decades) so those clearly aren't film-outs. But now that I think of it, some Janus prints I've seen have been freakishly clean for a film's age. I know that at some point they made a new 35mm print of Daisies and I'm pretty sure that's the one I saw at Metrograph a couple years ago; it was very clean, detailed, and the colour timing was basically identical to the Blu-ray. Still, there are many old films where they can still make all-photochemical 35mm prints that are clean and with the proper colour timing, for instance the stunning print of 8 1/2 for the 60th anniversary (said to be struck directly off the original negative, so it was really a fine grain). I can't comment on The Wages of Fear.

However, beware of the current Janus 35mm of In The Mood For Love. It's a film-out of the WKW digital green 'restoration', which in addition to the colour controversy, is also too soft and the print grain looks more like a superficial added layer than part of the actual image. According to my notes, the green looked a little less forced on the film-out print, black levels weren't as problematic and whites looked slightly whiter than the disc. Though more recently, I also saw a bit of the equivalent green DCP on the same screen in Metrograph's big room, and I think digital projection is better for that than the film-out print or the disc on a TV. At this point, I assume that WKW forced Janus to pull all of his original theatrical prints when the box set was done, as I've not seen the legit original versions screen here in the past 2 years since I moved here (maybe someone else can comment on when the original prints were last screened in NYC). Yet 2046 and Ashes of TIme Redux are with Sony Classics, so those original prints (digital intermediate film-outs) still get screened often.

One more thing that probably goes without saying, but any new film from Janus that gets a 35mm print (Peter Hujar's Day, for instance) is going to be a digital intermediate printed out to film.