World of Blue - Archived Forum 2007-2022

I just saw this for the first time: IFC Center, front-row-center, 35mm. Everything about this film (especially the audio and immersive murkiness... immurkiness?) was simply arresting. I'm afraid that a home viewing will dampen the mystique. Even with all the lights off, I'm not sure even my reasonably large TV and decent speakers could make up for that first experience. Is there any hope for me? Any input from those that first experienced the film on the big screen? I'm dying to see it again but can't go back to the final screening and not sure when it will be playing anytime soon.

And wow... DV on 35mm is a special trip.

I enjoyed Inland Empire a lot more the second time I watched it, even more so the third and fourth. Never saw it in a theater though.

teddyleevin wrote:I just saw this for the first time: IFC Center, front-row-center, 35mm. Everything about this film (especially the audio and immersive murkiness... immurkiness?) was simply arresting. I'm afraid that a home viewing will dampen the mystique. Even with all the lights off, I'm not sure even my reasonably large TV and decent speakers could make up for that first experience. Is there any hope for me? Any input from those that first experienced the film on the big screen? I'm dying to see it again but can't go back to the final screening and not sure when it will be playing anytime soon.

And wow... DV on 35mm is a special trip.

What exactly was DV (standard def DV no less!!) like on 35mm exactly, then? I can't even imagine tbh but it sounds glorious in a retrograde kinda way.

And how was the audience?

teddyleevin wrote:I just saw this for the first time: IFC Center, front-row-center, 35mm. Everything about this film (especially the audio and immersive murkiness... immurkiness?) was simply arresting. I'm afraid that a home viewing will dampen the mystique. Even with all the lights off, I'm not sure even my reasonably large TV and decent speakers could make up for that first experience. Is there any hope for me? Any input from those that first experienced the film on the big screen? I'm dying to see it again but can't go back to the final screening and not sure when it will be playing anytime soon.

And wow... DV on 35mm is a special trip.

What exactly was DV (standard def DV no less!!) like on 35mm exactly, then? I can't even imagine tbh but it sounds glorious in a retrograde kinda way.

And how was the audience?

It was a very beat-up print and SO much of it looked like it was shot on film. I'm anticipating a revelatory experience when I finally watch a Blu-ray. Some shots had that wide-angle/handicam DV feel, but anything locked down felt truly filmic in an otherworldly way. It also looked more filmic if the shot was darker. For example, the Dern/Zabriskie scene in the beginning had a DV edge due to how bright the surroundings are. The brightness doesn't last.

Audience was packed and laughed now and then (especially at Harry Dean Stanton... sign of an audience in the know) but applauded at the end (the film ends abruptly after the credits and the theatre lights FLASHED right on without a beat, and the audience began to applaud. Bizarre to have applause in a fully-lit theatre like that, but the film doesn't let you applaud when the credits begin). There was a man behind me who shifted and sighed the whole film at regular 5 minute intervals. I gave him a few side-glances and nearly told him that if he didn't like the film he should depart. As the film ended, the mouth-breather turned to his friends and wheezed, "Euchhh, I only knew what was going on for like the first two reels!!"

Great to hear! Lucky you got that experience.

I've got the Blu Ray and it's pretty good (it's the best way to see it anyway, better compression wise than the DVD and it fixes the problem the DVD had with the skipped frames to do with the frame rate conversion), but I doubt it'll come close to getting that bizarre but beautiful experience of printing DV to 35.