What 8mm films did I watch last night?

[Graham Ritchie]

Tonight was a bit of a blast from the past, using my trusty ST1200 that I bought second hand in 1979. In recent times, I went through all the guides and fixed them so they cant scratch anymore First up tonight, was Star Wars, I used a blue filter that takes the edge of the red, second film which I enjoyed much more than Star Wars, was Oh Mr Porter, from Walton. This title was one of the first films I ever bought back in the 1970s, and to this day its a brilliant edit, a must for anybody who likes trains. The ST1200 ran like a swiss watch rock steady image and good sound, not bad for a projector "M" model that came out way back in 1973.

The screen shots are not that great much better on the screen than what is shown below.


a couple of screen shots taken tonight

[Ed Gordon]

Richard, there must be a better print in someone's collection. I read that this film was still being shown in theaters in the 1950's. There are stunning restorations of 35mm B&W nitrate films on Youtube, and since the upgrade of television to HD many new prints are showing up. I believe the B&W films shot on nitrate stock are superior, but that may just be a reflection of the skill of the cinematographers in that era.

Not everyone believes that nitrate is any better than acetate, and, surely a good acetate print will be better than a bad nitrate print. At the “Last Nitrate Picture Show” in June 2000, Dominique Päini, who was the Directeur du Développement Culturel at the Centre Georges Pompidou at the time, claimed to be “very perplexed by this sudden fetishisation of nitrate by certain historians and archivists, such as my friend Cherchi Usai. Because nothing allows us to think that we will not recover nitrate’s lost qualities in the same manner in which video projection today is reducing the gaps in quality compared with the projected film image.” In order to prove his point, he projected two images, side-by-side from Paris-Londres (France, 1927), directed by Jean Arroy, with one projector screening “the rediscovered vintage nitrate positive, while the other will show the newly preserved nitrate copy,” after which he defied “anyone to distinguish these two materials from this one screening, including those who are lovers of nitrate.”

Source: https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2019/...ack-and-white/

[Richard Bock]

Thanks very much Ed, the print you've posted is really great. It does justice to the incredible black and white photography. It looks to me it came from a slightly better print, perhaps a 16mm one, however the imperfections like the 'snow' on the film stock are exactly the ones on my Blackhawk print. Whatever the case, much appreciate that you posted this.

[Ed Gordon]

That screen shot probably reflects the fact that the film was banned in the USSR soon after it's release. It does not appear to have ever been restored. I see it is available on Bluray, but the reviews don't include any screen shots. I did find the full movie on Youtube (below). The dance segment start at 46:00 into the film.

[Richard Bock]

As the man dances down the road which the director had 'paved' with a dust like powder every step is marked by the rising dust powder. The scene goes on for 2 or 3 minutes. One of the most beautiful dance scenes I've ever seen on film. From the 1930 Russian film Earth directed by Alexander Dovzhenko. Stunning photography throughout this feature film which depicts farm workers and machinery in Soviet Russia. Earth is commonly regarded as Dovzhenko's masterpiece and as one of the greatest films ever made. The film was voted number 10 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_(1930_film). This pic taken from my Blackhawk, Super 8mm print.

[Melvin England]

[QUOTE=Graham Ritchie;n117988]
Over the next few weeks I will be screening and going through all the Derann Disney animated films, one thing for certain I would never part with them.


The only Disney full length I have is "Sleeping Beauty" in cinemascope / stereo sound and, although is animation, it is a stunner, so I understand your sentiment, Graham.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night I gave "Beauty and the Beast" a screening as well. I remember reading the review in FFTC and that prompted me to save up and buy a new copy from Derann at the time, this was way back in 1993-94. To this day "Beauty and the Beast" was and still is right up there as one of the best in both in picture and stereo sound, anyway I didn't see any point taking new screen shots, as the film print last night as those shown below are just the same.

Over the next few weeks I will be screening and going through all the Derann Disney animated films, one thing for certain I would never part with them

[Osi Osgood]

And just such glorious color. I have it too! I had a pirate copy of the feature back in the mid 80's and it was horrible, the Derann print was awesome, and even had the original trailer with a young Walt Disney himself, as well as the rerelease trailer. I also spliced in an earlier, late 70's ( I think ), trailer, also LPP.

[Graham Ritchie]

Last night Snow White, what a gem all my Disney features are mounted on Elmo 1200/800ft reel with only one stop. I hand rewind all Super8 and 16mm films. I don't use a projector for that purpose. One mistake though, I did last night, and that was not to adjust the side black masking, top and bottom was into the black, but got lazy not adjusting the side. This print I bought from Derann 30 years ago. The Snow White release onto Super8 would never have happened back in the 1970s-80s Disney would have never allowed it, so here it was at last the full feature for the film collector to own, amazing and all thanks to Derann.

The below screen shots were taken last night about 6-7 ft wide on screen, its always hard to take quick screen shots from a distance with movement

[Brian Fretwell]

A couple of rather sepea looking colour Unversal 8 400ft reels, The Phantom of the Opera and Frenzy (with extensions from the 1x200ft.

[Lincoln Thorn]

I'm a big fan of the Purple Noon and Tom Ripley in general (though I've not seen the Netflix adaptation yet)!

My print is a Japanese digest of Purple Noon, but it condenses the story down pretty well! I highly recommend watching the full film. Alain Delon is wonderful in it.

I'll try to take some pictures of the print and share

[Douglas Meltzer]

Lincoln,

I know Purple Noon is based on The Talented Mr. Ripley, however I've only seen the 1999 Anthony Minghella film and the recent Netflix series, both of which I liked. How is the digest?

[Lincoln Thorn]

I've been a bad film collector as of late and haven't made a lot of time to watch all my wonderful reels. Life gets busy and passes us by without realizing it!

That has changed over the last week as I've hooked my projector back up, gave her a good cleaning, and have been enjoying a lot of my digests!

Recently I watched my 400 ft (faded) reel of Alain Delon Purple Noon!

Tonight, I plan on screening my reel 2 of ROBOCOP.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Osi,

There was a company that put out short 50' Super 8mm films of popular singers & bands. These were advertised in various music publications and fan magazines. There's no company information on the leader. The interesting thing is that these were silent!
The Elvis short is actually 100' (B&W) and is taken from the 1970 movie Elvis: That's the Way It Is.
Revolution, 50' (color), is from a promotional film the Beatles did in 1968.

I've striped both of these and added sync sound.

[Osi Osgood]

Douglas, who released that Elvis song?