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AP Film Studies: Sharper Image

The Hollywood goes large-format.

By AP KRYZA
CELLULOID VOID: The Hollywood Theatre will soon be one of the country's few movie houses capable of screening 70 mm film.

Hollywood Theatre
Let’s cut through the nerd-speak, since folks who saw “70 mm” and soiled their dungarees already know what this means. For the cheap seats: 70 mm is big-ass film. More importantly, it’s big-ass film that Hollywood used for its prestige pictures from 1955 to 1970—think Lawrence of Arabia, The Sound of Music, West Side Story and Ben-Hur.

Essentially, the difference between 70 mm and 16 and 35 mm projections is the difference between standard and high-def. When watching Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey in 35 mm, you'll be dazzled by the stars. In 70 mm, the film sucks you into the void, offering a crisper and more immersive experience. "The film just has more depth," says Hollywood programmer Dan Halsted, who spearheaded the project. "I feel more involved when I'm watching a movie on 70 mm. It's the best image you can get projected with celluloid, which I think is the best image you can get, period."

The Hollywood was previously equipped with projectors that could play both 35 and 70 mm, but when the place fell into disrepair, many of the machines were ransacked for parts. It hasn't screened 70 mm film since the '60s. Come January, it will be one of a handful of theaters in the country—Halsted isn't sure of the exact number—with 70 mm capabilities. (To help cover shipping costs, ticket prices will be slightly higher for these films.)

In addition to the ability to screen classics as they once were, 70 mm gives the Hollywood a unique advantage: When the movie industry went digital, many cinemas ditched their older equipment. What they didn't anticipate was auteurs like P.T. Anderson, Christopher Nolan and Quentin Tarantino shooting their films—in full or in part—on celluloid, including 70 mm.

That'll translate to special engagements of new, highly anticipated films. The Hollywood is already getting a pre-megaplex 35 mm run of Nolan's Interstellar on Nov. 4. Once the 70 mm gear is running, Halsted anticipates the same might happen with Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. "Our goal is to be a movie lover's mecca, and this helps establish that," Halsted says. "We love movies and want them to be an event. This helps them retain their power.” 


Also Showing: 

  1. The Hollywood’s new series, UnderStudy, features comedians improvising lines for classic movies that they promise will be “a lot funnier.” Considering the inaugural entry, Glengarry Glen Ross, is one of the most razor-tongued films of all time, that seems unlikely. Hollywood Theatre. 9:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 9.
  1. KBOO screens the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon to celebrate the late Beatle’s birthday. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Thursday, Oct. 9.
  1. James Ivory—Oregon native and three-time Oscar nominee—drops by the Hollywood for 1987’s groundbreaking Maurice, about a gay boy coming of age in Edwardian England. Hollywood Theatre. 7 pm Friday, Oct. 10.
  1. Eschewing the tangle-haired apparitions and chain-saw-mouthed schoolgirls who dominate Japanese horror, 2001’s Pulse is a genuinely chilling, technophobic master class in fright. 5th Avenue Cinema. 7 and 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday and 3 pm Sunday, Oct. 10-12.
  1. If you’ve still managed to avoid Lucio Fulci’s Zombi, you’re not just denying yourself a zombie-vs.-shark melee, and one of the grossest eyeball gags in cinematic history. You’re missing perhaps the best George Romero rip-off ever crafted. 5th Avenue Cinema. 7:30 pm Friday, Oct 10. Free.
  1. Sure, it’s an action flick, but between the child slavery, monkey brains and hungry crocodiles, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom works equally well as high camp. Laurelhurst Theater. Oct. 10-16.
  1. Three decades later, not even the best CGI can top the gnarly transformation scenes in An American Werewolf in London. Neither can any film approach its balance of terror and humor. Academy Theater, Oct. 10-16. Hollywood Theatre, 9:35 pm Friday-Sunday, Oct. 10-12.
  1. Zompire: The Undead Film Festival returns from the grave (thanks to an infusion of Kickstarter blood) with a lineup of shorts and features. Clinton Street Theater. Oct. 11-12. See zompire.com for full listings.
  1. Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy features junkies roaming a dilapidated Portland many won’t recognize. It’s the Pearl, 25 years ago. Clinton Street Theater. 7 pm Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and 9:30 pm Tuesday, Oct. 13-16.
  1. Kung Fu Theater rolls out the only known print of gonzo martial-arts oddity The Hot, the Cool and the Vicious. Hollywood Theatre. 7:30 pm Tuesday, Oct. 14. 

WWeek 2015