Giles

Just a head's up that there will be three showings of 'West Side Story' in glorious 70mm for the film's 50th Anniversary at the AFI/Silver next month:

Friday February 11: 8:30pm

Saturday (12th): 9:30pm

Sunday (13th): 5:30pm

The film's been having some one off showings on the West Coast last year, at the Castro and I believe a Los Angeles showing, but this is one of the first East Coast playdates for this film.

davidh777

tellybox

That would be awesome. Thanks to that damn DVD, I don't even think I've seen the film in widescreen.

Giles

as this is not an excuse to wait and see/buy the eventual bluray, the 65mm transfer shown on HDNet Movies (and I'd assume MGM-HD) is stunning to say the least.

Rypro 525

I have the widescreen version from the 2 disc set, but it looks like shit, with lots of print marks and scratches. This will def be a treat

TheGuy

Please, please come to NYC..........

Dr Mabuse

Giles

here's an interesting article from Chase audio on the sound restoration (the AFI has 5 across speaker sound, so this should sound amazing!)

http://www.chace.com/admin/uploads/d...002chacers.pdf

NoirFan

Hopefully this will receive a Blu-ray release this year.

Charlie Goose

Heck yes, daddy-o.

My very favorite movie of all time. I'd love to see this.

bluetoast

Sent out an email to my friends about this...looks like we got a group!

grip

I have this permanently on two of my dvrs from the HDNET broadcasts. I totally agree with you G, this was an incredible experience. Further, the sound remix was awesome (on directv 5.1) in my humble opinion.

I don't use my DVD to watch this. Regardless I'm such a WSS fan, I will do everything I can to get into one of these showings.

grip

Wait....this article was from Feb 2010, so..

Did the restored 6track get broadcast on hdnet? Or will this showing be a "premiere" of sorts?

Giles

no the six track refers to five front channel speakers ( + mono surrounds), something that is not replicable on home theater systems or HDNet for that matter. The print has been shown at some West Coast theatres, but to really hear the movie as the Chase restorers were mixing it, you have to attend a theatre that has speaker configurement as such - most theaters that can playback 70mm usually have the five speakers behind the screen (as the AFI Silver does)

Giles

just a quick bump for this thread since the first of the three screenings is tomorrow night.

Giles

oh my!!, while the print didn't wow me say as much as 'Playtime' and 'Hello Dolly' did in 70mm, the image for the second act of the film was less flawed than the first act. For a film that restored the sound to excellent effect, the print could (and should) have been spiffed up too. The five front speaker sound was 98% of the time exceptional - it makes me wish 8-channel SDDS (Sony Dynamic Digital Sound) would be resurrected (with digital projection it is very technically possible)

GenPion

Agreed. West Side Story is one of my all time favorites and one of my most desired Blu-ray's.

bluetoast

I went with a bunch of friends last night, theater was probably only 1/4 full, surprisingly. In any case, I had never seen the film all the way through in one sitting (had seen it in music class in middle school years ago). Print was awesome most of the time, but there were quite a few scenes where it went hazy.

Giles

another West Coast LA screening is happening this weekend at the Egyptian Theater as part of TCM's Classic Film Festival. (Sunday May 1st 7pm)

no news... still... of a East Coast New York screening is downright odd.

Giles

Digitalbits has confirmed a 2011 bluray release is in the works.