2001 coming back in 70mm, unrestored

Result! My first ‘decent’ viewing of 2001 was on the letterboxes laserdisc box set. Proper aspect ratio and the entrance/intermission cards and music left me feeling that Inreally hadn’t seen the film properly before. Seeing it on the big screen for the first time put that in turn into perspective. 70mm plus the original, complete presentation is going to ale for such a good evening.

Also loved the clip on the laserdisc of ACC ‘introducing’ the film to what I remember as assorted MGM execs, stars and associates at a dinner before a screening. It is self evident that most people in the room haven’t the foggiest what the good author is talking about.

 

Entrance and intermission music at the Hollywood Arclight.

 

Apparently in70mm.com hasn't been updating their list of venues screening 70mm prints - I just discovered this afternoon that one will be playing in Houston for the next week starting tomorrow. Pleasantly surprised as I didn't expect to see it here. It will be in the same theater that screened 70mm prints of both THE HATEFUL EIGHT and DUNKIRK during their initial runs, and given that the presentation was top-notch for those films I'm expecting this one to be as well.

Warner has a site up with ticketing info for the cities it's screening in, worth a look if you've been wondering whether it's coming to your locale. Quite a few places listed that are not on the in70mm.com list:

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY – Special Engagements in 70mm Film.

 

It's now playing through June 26th at the Gateway Film Center in Columbus, Ohio.

Just went to the opening night showing, took my 15 year old son with me. We went last year as well when they had it (again in 70mm, different – older – print of course).

I have no real opinion about which looks better. I guess I might give the slight edge to the 5oth anniversary 'un-restored' version. Some of the colors look a bit garish, for lack of a better term. Especially on some of the internal scenes on the 'Orion III'.

Been to the GFC many times but it's the first time there was ever an introduction given by someone that works there. He mentioned that the print here in Columbus is one of a handful of prints in the world of this newly struck 50th Anniversary version, which I thought was interesting.

Typically, whether it's for a screening of a classic or contemporary film, GFC always shows trailers for upcoming films they'll be getting. Tonight they only showed four trailers for the 2001 screening; they only showed the trailers for the other Kubrick films they are showing in July… Dr. Strangelove, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket.

It was a real treat.

 

Having seen it on the big screen (at eight!) and again in my early 20's when I lived in L.A., it would be a real treat to see it again. I'm also looking forward to the 4K release. It would be nice if there were more special features for the film this time around.

 

I guess the Dome has been doing great business. It has been playing for almost two weeks and runs till the 20th. All viewings are in the Dome, not the shoe boxes in back. Von Karian is half the enjoyment. The full eight minutes of exit is ......

 

I loved the Northpoint. Fantastic presentation there. Miss it greatly as well as the Coronet.
Actually 2001 wasn’t originally shown at Northpoint in 1968. It was at the Golden Gate Theater.

 

I didn't go, mainly because when it went into re-release in 1980 I saw it ten times.

 

Oh, interesting. I'd heard it did originally play at the Northpoint, complete with tripping hippies. I thought the GG had lost its Cinerama screen by the time 2001 came out.

 

Too bad the theater aesthetic of the Northpoint wasn’t better. Wonderful projection and sound though. Apocalypse Now and Lawrence of Arabia 70mm re release were amazing experiences there.

 

Well, the Northpoint was very mid-century modern. It was good for what it was.

Some dot com had moved into the building a few years ago, but I was by it the other week and now Goodwill has setup shop in the space. They have offices and a smallish Goodwill store. My assumption is this replaces their big building down at Mission & Van Ness that got taken out to make room for more overpriced investment condos nobody will actually live in.

 

Last movie I saw there was Scorsese’s Age Of Innocence. Looked fantastic.

 

No showing anywhere near Rochester, NY. Ain't that a shame! I so want to see a film again in 70 mm. If I remember correctly, when I saw the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes back, they were in 70 mm. Back in the day, we had a theatre that was capable of showing those. Not anymore. IMAX is the closest thing, although it's different. We DO have one of those in our town.

 

Dang! I saw it an a large theater in the basement at the Arclight Hollywood a couple weeks back. At the time Solo was playing the Dome.

 

Yep, when it first was booked, it only played in the Dome at select showings. I got tix for an 11AM on a Sunday & it sold out. The Web stated this as only the times with the "Dome" logo had it showing in that room. All the other times were in the back rooms. Once demand increased, the Dome was made available. I think they were caught off guard. They do not run ads in the LA Times, but made an exception and ran an ad.

 

Right - and 'Solo' didn't turn out to be the blockbuster they anticipated. Still - the room I saw it in, after the Dome, is the second largest and looked mighty fine. I hope the sound was better in the Dome though. See my post above about the sound we experienced.

 

Finally caught up with this, and was really impressed with how good the 70mm print looked, considering the film is "unrestored". There were only a couple of very brief instances (a few frames) of obvious damage to the source materials, and a couple of places in the Dawn of Man sequence that looked like they'd been sourced from elements that were a couple of additional generations removed from the camera negative.

Having seen the film in 35mm a few times previously, where the 70mm presentation really shines is in the increased detail visible in Kubrick's famously obsessive production design - not only obvious stuff like being able to read text such as the Zero Gravity Toilet instructions, but being able to appreciate even more the craft that went into the models and sets.

One thing that I don't recall ever noticing before was during the scene where Dave is disconnecting HAL's memory modules and the video from Dr. Floyd subsequently starts playing, the caption on the CRT playing back the video reads "Haywood" R. Floyd, as opposed to "Heywood". Can't believe Kubrick let that one get past.

 

The 4K UHD is coming out on 10/30/18 according to the Digital Bits.

 

Thanks for update. Was just wondering about this while looking at 4K blurays.

 

Saw this presentation this afternoon. It was my first time seeing 2001 in a theater, so I don't really have anything to compare to as far as picture quality, but it looked about as good as I expected. One aspect I had to get used to was that the blacks weren't true black, but I blame most of that on watching HDR content on an OLED for the past 5 months.

The most pleasant surprise was seeing a projected film rather than digital content. The flicker of the picture, the softness of the images, the occasional scratch mark...it brought me back to my childhood in a big way. Just like vinyl is an imperfect experience that feels more tangible and real, so was the picture I saw projected on a huge screen today. The back half of the film, in particular, was stunning. Interiors with lots of groovy 60s colors came to life.

Also, the sound was fantastic! Was this a 6-channel mix from back in the day or a more modern remix? I understand that it has to be played from disc because modern 70mm projectors can't read an optical track, but I didn't have any info on the history of audio mixes for the film. All of the obelisk and Jupiter scenes were loud and with aggressive but appropriate use of the surround channels.

It's jumping over to a different theater in our area in a few weeks, and I may try to go see it again if I can fit it in.

 

The email announcement I got from WB Shop today stated "Building on the work done for the new 70mm prints, the 4K Blu-ray with HDR presentation was mastered from the original 65mm camera negative". I believe the 70mm prints were at least a couple of generations of interpositives/internegatives removed from the OCN.

 

Perhaps a dumb question but... if the negs are 65mm why do we call the prints 70mm? Marketing? Or is there a technical reason?

 

Those 5mm are for the (6) audio tracks.

 

Had a feeling - thanks.

 

As they were on any print ever made in the past.

But even a couple generations past the OCN is still a ton of information because we are dealing with chemical molecules that are analog footprints that have nano measurements vs computers that are using square pixel APPROXIMATIONS in the thousands (for instance 8K has 7,680 pixels).