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Flicker Alley and Cinerama Inc. are pleased to announce the long-awaited re-release of This is Cinerama, now beautifully restored from the original three-panel, six-perforation camera elements. Presented in a deluxe Blu-ray edition, this is the most extensive and thorough restoration yet of the film that changed the shape and sound of the movies forever!

On the evening of September 30, 1952, This is Cinerama premiered at the Broadway Theatre in New York City. Robert C. Ruark of The New York World Telegram said of the event: I have just looked at the movies answer to television, whether or not the movies know it yet. Indeed, this unique, widescreen process was launched when television was deemed a major threat to US film exhibition. Fred Waller, Cinerama s creator, dreamed of a motion picture experience that would recreate the full range of human vision. Using three cameras and three proctors on a curved screen 146° deep, Cinerama created an immersive cinematic event, wowing 20 million viewers in its original roadshow version.

Now, audiences can experience the forerunner to all modern widescreen formats once again, and in a brand-new, definitive restoration. From Venice to Madrid, from Edinburgh Castle to the La Scala opera house in Milan, and all across America in the nose of a B-25 bomber, travel around the world with Cinerama, presented in the one-and-only Smilebox® curved screen simulation.

BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:

Audio Commentary - With John Sittig (Cinerama Inc.), David Strohmaier (Cinerama Restorer), Randy Gitsch (Cinerama Historian), and Jim Morrison (original crew member)

The Best in the Biz - Updated hour-long documentary about the composers of Cinerama

Restoring This is Cinerama - A detailed, behind-the-scenes look at the brand-new restoration

Alternate European Opening to Act Two - A European-oriented segue into the second half of the film, featuring the panoramic view of the United States from the nose of a B-25 bomber plane.

Cinerama Everywhere - A French-produced short on the Cinerama tent shows in Europe.

Tribute to the New Neon Movies - A short film celebrating an Ohio theater where a projectionist revived Cinerama through special screenings for people from all over the country.

Radio Interview with Cinerama Creator, Fred Waller - Recorded on the eve of opening night; accompanied by a slideshow of selected Cinerama images.

This is Cinerama Trailer - An updated recreation of the original theatrical trailer, edited with newly-restored clips.

Cinerama Returns to the Cinerama Dome (2002 Announcement Trailer) - Promotional short for the 50th anniversary of Cinerama and its return to the fabled Cinerama Dome in Hollywood.

Breakdown Reel - Footage originally projected interstitially during the interruptions of any Cinerama performance.

TV Spots - Original television ads for This Is Cinerama and Seven Wonders of the World.

At a star-studded premiere at Grauman s World Famous Chinese Theater in Hollywood, Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich sailed into movie history on April 8th, 1958. The brainchild of National Theatres, who hoped to compete with rival widescreen sensation Cinerama, Windjammer was the first (and eventually, the only) film to use the Cinemiracle process. Utilizing proprietary widescreen technology accompanied by seven-channel audio, Cinermiracle was the perfect format to tell the sweeping adventure of the Christian Radich, a Norwegian square-rigger, and her crew.

Now newly restored from original camera elements, the color, the music, and the true artistry of this classic are reborn in a definitive Blu-ray edition. Embarking from Oslo, Norway, the Christian Radich sets out across the Atlantic with a storm-tossed stop in Madeira, where New Year s festivities entice the young crewmen to enjoy Portuguese musical celebrations and heart racing rides in basket sleds down steep cobblestone streets. After that, it is on to Willemstad, Curacao, where young sailors take part in Dutch festivities. They catch a courtyard performance of Pablo Casals in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, they re greeted by native steel bands and Calypso singers. By the time they arrive in New York, the Cinemiracle cameras offer a kaleidoscopic treat of color and sound created by famed photographer Arthur Weege Fellig. A later encounter with the U.S. Navy Task Force makes for a grand promenade of ships, and when underwater shots of frogmen and a submarine emerge from the depths to reveal the Windjammer on the open sea, Cinemiracle becomes the true star of this breathtaking story. Presented in Smilebox® curved screen format, audiences are once again able to rediscover and re-appreciate this timeless and newly-restored cinema gem!

BONUS MATERIALS INCLUDE:

The Windjammer Voyage: A Cinemiracle Adventure - A documentary by historian Dave Strohmaier on the film s production

The Reconstruction of Windjammer - A behind the scenes look at the reconstruction and restoration of Windjammer from the original Cinemiracle camera elements

The Windjammer Breakdown Reel

The Christian Radich Today - A modern look at the famous ship at the Aalbourg, Denmark Tall Ships Festival in 2010

Windjammer Trailer - New re-creation from the original 1958 release trailer

Windjammer Behind The Scenes Slideshow - Images from the production of the film

Cinemiracle Showplaces Slideshow - A look at the unique venues that screened Windjammer

domino harvey wrote:Every Cinerama film I've seen other then Cinerama Holiday has been dreadful, no need to rewatch these in new restos to be reminded of that

justeleblanc wrote:The are moving "The Best of the Biz" over to the new THIS IS CINERAMA release. It was originally on SOUTH SEAS ADVENTURE I think. I suspect this is a sign that they might pull some of the other Cinerama titles out of print.

I also wonder about the 2017 aspect of the restoration. It seems like its the same restoration they did many years ago, but this is just a higher quality transfer to the disc. Considering that the docs on the disc are about the original restoration, I'm waiting to see evidence that this is in fact a new restoration.

This whole thing seems fishy to me.

FlickeringWindow wrote:The 2012 Blu-ray was from a 1080p scan of the 65mm dupe negative created for the 70s re-release, which consisted literally of pointing a 65mm camera at a rear projection screen as three projectors ran an existing 3-panel print. The new restoration went back to the original camera negatives scanned at 2K for each panel, effectively being a 6K image. You can see clips in The Best of Cinerama.

HitchcockLang wrote:Are you sure that wasn’t just the secret coupon code for $10 off the DVD of La Roue? It’s been available for years from Flicker Alley. Haven’t seen anything about an upgrade but I’d love to be wrong.

L.A. wrote:Das alte Gesetz (Ewald André Dupont, 1923) DVD just came out from Arte and with English subtitles.

Flicker Alley is proud to present Ewald André Dupont's 1923 silent film The Ancient Law (Das alte Gesetz), digitally restored by the Deutsche Kinemathek with generous support from the Sunrise Foundation for Education and the Arts. The Ancient Law is an important piece of German-Jewish cinematic history, contrasting the closed world of an Eastern European shtetl with the liberal mores of 1860s Vienna. With its historically authentic set design and ensemble of prominent actors – all captured magnificently by cinematographer Theodor Sparkuhl – The Ancient Law is an outstanding example of the creativity of Jewish filmmakers in 1920s Germany.

After first reconstructing the film in 1984, the Deutsche Kinemathek found the censor’s certificate with the text of the original title cards. This provided the impetus for a worldwide search for all the surviving film elements and a new, digital restoration – which drew upon nitrate prints in five different languages held in archives across Europe and the United States. With the censor’s certificate, the restoration team from the Deutsche Kinemathek could accurately reconstruct the intertitles as well the correct editing. The color scheme is based on two nitrate prints nearly identical in their tinting and toning. The restored version closely corresponds to the original German theatrical release, both in its length and digitally simulated color.

In the film, Baruch (Ernst Deutsch), the son of a rabbi, becomes fascinated by the theater. Against his father’s wishes, Baruch leaves home and finds his way to Vienna, where an archduchess at the imperial court (Henny Porten) falls in love with him. She becomes his patroness, facilitating his successful career as a classical actor. But Baruch continues to long for home, and must find a way to reconcile his religious heritage with his love of secular literature. The movie paints a complex portrait of the tension between tradition and modernity.

Now viewers can experience a film fundamental to German-Jewish history in its most complete form since 1923. This deluxe dual-disc collectors set features two scores: an orchestral score by French composer Philippe Schoeller, and a second ensemble score by Donald Sosin and Alicia Svigals. In addition, fascinating bonus materials contextualizing the film, include:

Der Film im Film (Germany, 1923) - The only surviving excerpt of a documentary on film production in Weimar Germany, featuring the different personalities of several famous directors of the era at work on the set including Fritz Lang, Robert Wiene, and E.A. Dupont.
Insights into the Restoration - A 15-minute demonstration with raw scans of the different nitrate source materials, illustrating how the reconstruction was completed.
Image Slideshow - Rare production stills and original archival materials.
Essays on The Ancient Law - A booklet containing two essays: an appreciation of the film and its historical context, written by film historian and scholar, Cynthia Walk; and an overview of the restoration process by Daniel Meiller, Head of Audiovisual Collections, Deutsche Kinemathek.
Notes on the Film Music – Introductions to the two new musical scores commissioned for the restored film.

Silent Era wrote:Flicker Alley (USA) has announced their Blu-ray Disc and DVD releases for 2018, with silent film titles including dual-format Blu-ray Disc / DVD editions of Mary Pickford in Fanchon the Cricket (1915) and Little Annie Rooney (1925); manufactured-on-demand (MOD) Blu-ray Disc editions of Rudolph Valentino in Moran of the Lady Letty (1922), Virtuous Sinners (1919) and Eyes of Youth (1919); a MOD Blu-ray Disc edition of Berlin: Symphony of a Great City (1927); a deluxe Blu-ray Disc edition of V.I. Pudovkin’s Mother (1926), The End of St. Petersburg (1927) and Storm Over Asia (1928); and a Blu-ray Disc /DVD collection including F.W. Murnau Stiftung restorations of Arthur von Gerlach’s The Chronicles of the Gray House (1925) and Johannes Guter’s The Tower of Silence (1925): no release dates set.