For fans of 70mm film, New York is the place to be this weekend as the ‘Big & Loud’ season returns to The Paris Theater in Manhattan. The venue, which describes itself as New York City’s longest-running arthouse cinema, was upgraded last year to offer 70mm projection and Dolby Atmos.
Running from 23 August through to 3 October the Big & Loud season returns a raft of classics to the big screen, many of them in 70mm format, the largest film stock that offers image quality that fans say exceeds that of 4K digital presentations.
A highlight is the New York premiere of a new 70mm print of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which regularly appears at or near the top of ‘the best films of all time’ lists. Even if you’ve seen it before the chance to catch it on the big screen is one that any cineast should grab, especially in 70mm.
Over the series, a whole host of films will be shown in 70mm mixing up classics with more modern fare. The list consists of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights and Phantom Thread, Malcolm X, The Remains of the Day (with a Q&A with James Ivory), Kubrick’s Spartacus and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Lawrence of Arabia, Nope, Inception, Hamlet (1996), The Untouchables. There’s also a newly struck 70mm print of The Searchers – and a new 70mm Restoration of Hitchcock’s North By Northwest.
It’s not just the film purists that should get excited – there are also showings of several films in Dolby Atmos, the 3D surround format, including East of Eden, Gravity, Jaws, Okja, Training Day, and Uncut Gems.
Sci-fi fans will also want to check out Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Abyss: Special Edition and while neither will be presented on film or in Atmos, I’d still be excited to get a chance to see them on the big screen.
Other highlights include the 1956 sci-fi rework of Shakespeare’s The Tempest that is Forbidden Planet, introduced by animator Don Hertzfeldt, while he will also be introducing screenings of his films, Me, It’s Such a Beautiful Day, and The World of Tomorrow.
It’s all enough to make me want to jump on a plane and hang out in New York for a while. If you’re local, then do check out the full schedule.
