After my last post on the Another Hole In the Head film festival raised the perennial issue of film vs. video projection at film festivals, I got a comment from Indiefest director Jeff Ross. He informed me that there are indeed five films in this year's HoleHead that will be screened in 35mm. In addition to the previously-mentioned Barbarella and Yaji & Kita, the screenings of Alone, Tunnel Rats and Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer will be shown on film.
As I've mentioned before, I tend to find horror films scarier when shown on 35mm prints in theatres. So this is welcome news for me, especially in regard to Alone, which I've decided I don't want to know anything more about until I get to see it for myself once the festival starts. Admittedly, it made me a tad less intrigued by Exte: Hair Extensions to learn that it would definitely be a video projection, at least until I read the last paragraph of this piece, which unearths the social critique in the film. I remind myself that perhaps my favorite Indiefest experience ever was seeing a well-attended digital screening of Takashi Miike's Visitor Q, which is packed with about as much disturbing social critique as a blistering Pasolini film. Sometimes the immediacy of digital can indeed be scarier than the terrible beauty of the most pristine horror film print.
This seems as good a time as any to put another plug in for the Film On Film calendar, maintained by the same team that presents screenings such as this double feature of Dennis Hopper's the Last Movie on 35mm and Anthony Newley's Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? on 16mm at the Roxie on June 4th, the evening before HoleHead settles in there. It's the best place I know to get the latest information on the upcoming Frisco screenings put together by exhibitors and programmers that almost certainly spent more on their print shipping costs than on publicity. Look at it right now; there's some interesting things happening this week in particular that I haven't mentioned here yet.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
On Film
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I dislike the trend of digital/beta screenings at festivals, so I am heartened to hear that Alone will be on 35mm. It has some cinematic moments that really pop on the big screen.
ReplyDeleteGreat gumshoe work, Brian. If I see only five screenings at Holehead, it will be these 35mm projections. I'm especially heartened to hear Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer will be 35mm!! Such a fun film! Also glad to hear about Tunnel Rats since my screener wouldn't even play.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad Jeff Ross was forthcoming with the information. Sometimes it seems like festivals and screening venues are trying to hide behind the hope that nobody really cares whether their selections are shown on film or video. As far as I'm concerned, if a venue is showing movies as close as possible to the way the filmmakers intended (which more and more often means digitally) then I'm happy.
ReplyDeleteWiseKwai, thanks for stopping by. I broke my own rule and started reading your review of Alone, but once you dropped the names of two of my top three or four directors of all time as comparison pieces, I knew your review would confirm my desire to see the film, and restrained myself from spoiling myself with further info.
Loved Visitor Q, definitely one of our favorites. Miike's awesome!
ReplyDeleteThank you for this list of which films will be in 35mm. I wouldn't mind the digital screenings so much if they had a better projector. But as it is, I've seen too many potentially good horror films ruined because the coloring of the blood is off, and is always kind of a pinkish purple, which I find very distracting. I'm still considering Exte, since it's not a gore film, but it's hard to rationalize paying $10 when the only advantage over waiting for the DVD (or if the DVD never comes, finding it to download) is a bigger screen and a lesser quality. Hardly seems worth it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of service, Placenta. Was good seeing the right-color blood in Fulci's the Beyond last night, wasn't it?
ReplyDeleteIt really, really was. That was my third time seeing The Beyond (second time in the theater, but the first was 10 years ago), and I definitely enjoyed it this time more than ever before. The gore is so ridiculous and awesome. The tarantula scene, especially, is incredible.
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