"70mm is Back by Popular Demand - 50 Years Of Todd–AO"
Todd-AO 70mm Festival 7 - 9 October 2005
Schauburg Cinerama, Karlsruhe, Germany

Friday 7 October 2005

Saturday 8 October 2005

Sunday 9 October 2005

Before my lecture - huge slides!

I woke early as usual, but unlike the previous day, I was in much better shape without a headache. I looked forward to giving my lecture about Todd-AO and was curious about how many would show up for it. I had re-edited the Bradford version down to just under 30 minutes.

Anyway, I had breakfast at the hotel and quickly went to the Schauburg to set up the lecture,  microphone, light, slides and laser pointer with Herbert.

I read it slower compared with my previous performance in Bradford 2005. Very early on Herbert wanted to translate it into German and hand out earphones but it proved to be too costly. Fortunately, he realized Todd-AO 70mm history was adequately covered in the festival program in both German and English.

It all worked fine and from what I understood, the lecture was well received. At least I got a nice round of applause. 

Following the lecture several short films were shown to demonstrate the superiority of 70mm film. Olivier Brunet's "Fanny's Wedding" (2003 - MCS-70 Superpanorama) looked absolutely stunning as did Morten Skallerud´s "A Year Along The Abandoned Road" (1989 - Super Panavision 70) which is always an audience pleaser. Herbert introduced "Fanny's Wedding" and I introduced "Abandoned Road" by explaining the technique behind nature animation. Then followed a long line of 70mm trailers and rare clips, including:

"Stuyvesant" 65mm film cigarette commercial and a MGM 6-track test film (with clips from "Doctor Zhivago"). 70mm trailers from: ”Far and Away”, "Cliffhanger", "Hot Shots: Part Deux", "Rising Sun", "Body of Evidence", "Lorenzo´s Oil", "Batman", "Ben Hur", "2001", clip from the "Ben Hur" chariot race and a faded clip from "The Agony and the Ecstasy" and finally, a French "Lawrence of Arabia" trailer.

Dear Herbert,

I am sorry to report that despite my efforts I won't be able to attend your festival next Sunday. Too much work and concerns, too much travels planned in the same short period of time. I hope the print has now reached Karlsruhe. I'll be very curious to learn about the audience's reaction after the screening of "Fanny's Wedding". Thank you again for your kind invitation. I wish you the greatest success, (I hope that there are still many 70mm lovers in Germany.

Best regards,
Olivier Brunet

"Grand Prix" was represented with a 16mm documentary titled: "Challenge of Champions"/"La Course des Champions" blown up to 70mm. A faded 70mm print of the classic Technirama film "Shellarama" concluded this morning and it seemed to please the audience once again with it's naïve view of the roaring, gasoline-consuming 1960s.

It was time for lunch and the local brewery served a nice German schnitzel and some good beer which we all enjoyed. The weather was absolutely fabulous and here we were, sitting inside all day watching 40 year old movies. We should of course have stayed outside all day enjoying the sun and the German beer (or maybe not).


During the summer Herbert had asked me which 70mm films I hadn't seen yet. One of them was "Airport" and Herbert kindly scheduled it Sunday afternoon. What a nice gesture. The print was a faded German print with mono dialogue and stereo sound. I was told the film didn't open in 70mm until late into the release and therefore the German mono dub was used on the 70mm prints. I didn't understand a word of the dialogue, but had great fun seeing it. "Airport" was one of the first disaster movies and was almost as funny as the spoofs "Flying High/Airplane I+II". The images were sharp and again showed off Todd-AO at it's very best. 

"Airport" was dubbed in Room 1 at Universal which was only set up for 4 track. I haven't seen it in 70mm since it's original release (I've heard rumours of a new 70 print being struck for ten years), so I don't recall if the appropriate dialog and effects were moved around to match the positioning of images on the screen during the multiple image sequences, but putting dialog and effects either solely in the center or bled into the other channels was pretty much the accepted standard by the January, 1970 when the final dub was being done."

Rick Mitchell 17.10.2005


Another update on the "Airport" soundtrack  - many thanks for update to Wolfram Hannemann, LASER HOTLINE

"The print was a faded German print with mono dialogue and stereo sound"

That is not exactly true. The sound was mono all way long! Not only did the dialogue not have a stereo panning, but the music and sound effects were mono, too! Certainly it was 6-track magnetic, but all tracks had identical sound information (= mono).

Wolfram, 17.12.2005

70mm film in film gate during projection

My last film this "Magnificent" weekend was "The Sound of Music" which is sometimes disparaged by critics as a piece of horse manure. The reviewers obviously  haven't seen it in Todd-AO ;-)

Anyway, to me it is one of the funniest and most enjoyable musicals ever made. With Christopher Plummer in his best musical role as Captain Georg von Trapp (despite the fact his singing voice was dubbed).  The dialogue is funny, the songs are classics and Ted McCord's solid 65mm photography is totally fantastic. The whole cast of characters are superb especially Richard Haydn as Max Detweiler, Ben Wright as Herr Zeller and of course Eleanor Parker as the Baroness. Not forgetting of course Julie Andrews and the children. Very well cast.

It is also the most successful 65mm film ever made, according to Variety, and in 2005 it's the 40th anniversary of the film. I've seen it countless times and  wouldn't miss this opportunity to see it again.

I was told the Schauburg´s presentation was the German premiere of the full version of the film. "The Sound of Music" never played well in Germany because  the Germans already had their own films about the Trapp Family Singers. "The Sound of Music" was shortened in Germany and ended with the wedding scene (making some of the the storyline pointless). The whole finale was cut from  the German release prints. I've encouraged some of the German Schauburg guests to write the story about "The Sound of Music" release in Germany.

"The Sound of Music" was released in Germany on December 25, 1965 in a completely dubbed version (even the songs were dubbed – according to the critics poorly) The German title was "MEINE LIEDER MEINE TRÄUME" (literally translated: “My songs, my dreams”). There was a German film based on the true story with the title "DIE TRAPP FAMILIE" (1956) and the second film "DIE TRAPP FAMILIE IN AMERIKA" (1958) Both were huge successes in Germany with a all German popular cast. Only in 1959 there was the Broadway premiere of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical SOUND OF MUSIC at Broadway. The German release of "The SOUND OF MUSIC" was a flop and according to industry gossip, the German 20th Century Fox Manager at this time had to go. There was a re-issue later with an almost 20 minutes shortened version to eliminate all political issues, to make the film “friendlier” and easier to “consummate” by the German audience, which ruined the structure of the movie totally.

The final film of the festival was the classic 70mm Cinerama film "2001:A Space Odyssey" in a new 70mm Dolby 6-track magnetic print. I didn't see it except  for the beginning. I have seen it so many times by now, and unlike "The Sound of Music" I had no problems not seeing it on the curved 70mm screen. Besides, it had really been a  very long day already and I didn't quite need to see one more movie.

I went back to the hotel and had one final beer with Mr. Sebastian Rosacker from Sweden. I returned to Copenhagen the next day, full of 70mm-happiness from  the German eye-orgasm.


It was a unique event to see so many Todd-AO films. 2005 has indeed been a good year for the Todd-AO film legacy with Bradford in  March and now Karlsruhe in October. Oddly enough, no one in the States organized a similar celebration despite the American origin of the process. On the other hand, many of the films takes place in Europe, so you might be able to say Todd-AO is equally European.

The citizens of Karlsruhe are lucky to have the unique Schauburg cinema. Most of these cinemas are long gone everywhere. Take good care of it - citizens of  Karlsruhe.