Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s new film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, opening throughout the city, is playing one of its local engagements in 35 mm at the Belcourt. As recently as eight years ago, the vast majority of films playing everywhere were exhibited on actual celluloid, so it hasn’t been all that long since the alchemy of shining light through an emulsion was entrusted to teenagers. But after the changeover to digital in 2011, actual film projection became an arcane rite left locally to only the Belcourt, the Frist and the Blue Room at Third Man Records.
So a new mainstream release getting a 35 mm release these days is uncommon enough for there to be some media attention. The Belcourt, which shows film prints regularly as part of its repertory programming, has over the past few years shown The Love Witch, Person to Person and Knife + Heart as new-release 35 mm engagements, but none of those films was a nationwide release from a major studio. Factor in Tarantino’s devotion to the format (he owns and operates the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles, which only shows films on 16 mm and 35 mm prints) with his new film’s focus on 1969 Hollywood, and you’ve got a neat little opportunity for fans of the medium and the message. Sadly, the film wasn’t screened for the press, so we’re focusing on the technical aspects of its exhibition.
But at the same time, as part of its Midnight Movies series (this weekend’s theme: “Chestbursters in Paradise”), the Belcourt is also showing the new 4K restoration of Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien. Celebrating its 40-year anniversary, that film has been released in just about every home-video format there is (notable exception: the PSP). But each subsequent transfer, including the 2003 “Director’s Cut” (an appellation Scott acquiesced to just to get the film back on screen nationwide) — which got a 35 mm release in theaters — has had differences in color timing and sound mix. The original prints had even begun to fall prey to the dreaded red shift, wherein the blue-green and yellow dyes fade over time, leaving a print that looks reddish.
But this new 4K restoration of Alien is magical. It eschews the master used for the extant Blu-ray transfers and the previous 2K DCP shown in theaters over the past few years, going back to the original negative and digging deep. It doesn’t look or feel boosted, or scrubbed, or manipulated in any way, merely truer to the mechanics of its making. It’s a breathtaking look for one of the greatest films ever made, and well worth an exploration for anyone interested in the process of how films, and their viewers, age.
