How often do you see a documentary on volcanoes that's also a romantic love story? Katia and Maurice Krafft – a very happily married couple – spent their lives studying the dangerous powers that occasionally break through the earth's crust. But I didn't watch it the way I should have seen it. I first saw … Continue reading Fire of Love on the very big screen
Category: Technical
Widescreen Black & White
I recently saw two new Netflix films shot in widescreen scope and black and white. It's an interesting mix. They were never intended to work together, but they do very well. (The movies were Mank and The Forty-Year-Old Version.) In 1953, 20th-Century Fox decided to make all its movies in its new widescreen format, CinemaScope. … Continue reading Widescreen Black & White
Alternative streaming services – if you can get them to your TV
With everyone stuck at home, distributors are creating their own streaming services. But they're not making it easy for their customers to watch what they pay for on the big home screen. Yes, I know that people watch movies on their computers, their tablets, and worst of all, their phones. Yes, I watch videos on … Continue reading Alternative streaming services – if you can get them to your TV
Swashbucklers: A needed escape from reality
Since we can't escape from COVID-19's reality, we can at least spend some time with the most escapist genre in the history of cinema: swashbucklers. Although these sword-wielding adventure movies are usually set in Europe or the Caribbean from 1500 to 1800 CE, you can find them set in ancient Greece or 19th-century China. The … Continue reading Swashbucklers: A needed escape from reality
Movie sound explained in Making Waves
B+ Documentary Directed by Midge Costin George Lucas argues that "Sound is 50 percent of the movie experience." In Midge Costin's entertaining documentary, Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound, audio geniuses like Walter Murch, Ben Burtt, and Gary Rydstrom show us how that 50 percent is created. Directors like Steven Spielberg and David Lynch … Continue reading Movie sound explained in Making Waves
Becky Sharp on Blu-ray & Technicolor
Unlike most of the Blu-rays I review, Becky Sharp isn't a beloved classic. Nor does it deserve to be one. But if you're interested in the technical side of film history, this Kino Lorber release is a must. This 1935 adaptation of Vanity Fair is the first full-length feature shot entirely in three-strip Technicolor. Technicolor … Continue reading Becky Sharp on Blu-ray & Technicolor
The Tech in the Birth of Four Stars
Hollywood has now made four films called A Star is Born, all of which followed the same basic story of love, substance abuse, one star rising while the other falls, and inevitable tragedy. But each of the films, except the most recent one, has been a trailblazer in cinema technology. 1937 version, starring Janet Gaynor … Continue reading The Tech in the Birth of Four Stars
Blu-ray vs 4K: Great and Greater
When I reviewed The Big Lebowski 4K/Blu-ray disc set, I promised that I would soon compare Blu-rays with 4K Ultra HD discs. I finally got to it. 4K Ultra HD discs (yes, it's a horrible name) offer better image quality than Blu-rays . The improvement is not as spectacular as that of DVD to Blu-ray, … Continue reading Blu-ray vs 4K: Great and Greater
2001: Not like 1968
Like a lot of people, I'm looking forward to the new 70mm presentation of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was not quite 14 when I fell in love with this epic science fiction extravaganza in its original release. For at least a decade, it was my all-time favorite film. It was the first … Continue reading 2001: Not like 1968
Last Sunday at the Nitrate Picture Show
The people running The Nitrate Picture Show, the film festival in Rochester, NY I attended last weekend, reminded us several times that this wasn't just canned entertainment. The act of projecting decades-old nitrate film is a form of live performance. Before each feature, we were asked to turn around and applaud the two expert projectionists … Continue reading Last Sunday at the Nitrate Picture Show
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