What Blu-Ray did you watch last night?

[Mike Newell]

RKO 281 brilliant story of the making of Citizen Kane. Superb cast

[Graham Ritchie]

From "The Maltese Falcon" blu-ray the other night to "The Worlds Fastest Indian", we ran this film at the cinema and it did "really" well, directed by Roger Donaldson and based on life of New Zealander Burt Munro. Its been a long time since I last watched it, most likely back in those film projection times I was pleased to find the blu-ray of it lately, and projected using the Panasonic VP.

I do remember one morning at the cinema getting a call from the downstairs staff, letting me know, the actress that played opposite Anthony Hopkins, Annie Whittle in the film had just gone in to watch it, mmmm better double check that focus. The print stayed with me after the place closed and later I swapped it for a 35mm print of "The Last Starfighter" .

Excellent film and well worth watching.






Anthony Hopkins and Annie Whittle.

[Lincoln Thorn]

"There's one Napoleon, one Washington, and one me!" - Big B oy Caprice.

Rewatched Dick Tracy and it's still a treat!

[Graham Ritchie]

Picked out two brand new latest releases this week, thankfully there is still a store bringing them in. One being Avatar "The Way Of The Water" blu-ray, we will watch that one over two nights soon. The other, but this time a dvd that caught my attention, distributed by "Madman". I remember us dealing with Madman at the cinema, and they always had an interesting line up of films. I had never heard of this movie called "Close", but after checking it out, found it was the winner of the Grand Jury Prize 2022 at the Cannes Film Festival, also and this might come as a surprise to some, this film scored a higher rating on Rotten Tomato's, over Hollywood newest big budget Indiana Jones Dial of Destiny, which I still have not watched yet. I think I will wait for the blu-ray to come out for that one

Anyway getting back to "Close", I did watch it tonight on the Epson VP, both picture quality and sound and English sub-titles were excellent.

As for the film, well I can only repeat what The Telegraph says quote...."A miraculously subtle Belgian drama packing a formidable emotional wallop" .Its little wonder this film has won awards all over the place. The subject matter in my book should be shown in high schools, The amount of research done by the director is very interesting and the casting two youngsters with no past acting experience really payed of. "Close" is one of those films I think everyone should watch. It does cover the subject of suicide, guilt and coming to terms with it and sadly in the world we live in, what is shown here in "Close" in real life happens all to often as we grow up.

I would rate "Close" as one of the best films I have come across in years and would certainly recommend it.

[Graham Ritchie]

Still got to screen Avatar, but tonight it was the blu-ray of "The Wake Of The Red Witch" 1948. I had been thinking of this one for a while now, as I once had it on Super 8 long long ago. As for the blu-ray, in general the image is good, but some parts are a bit soft. Sound wise its OK. The only real problem I had was that after a while I was really loosing interest in watching it, I am afraid "The Wake Of The Red Witch" was just not working for me tonight. The rear screen projection and miniature work does seem to stand out unfortunately. Overall I felt that the movie just seems dated.

[Ed Gordon]

...but tonight it was the blu-ray of "The Wake Of The Red Witch" 1948. I had been thinking of this one for a while now, as I once had it on Super 8 long long ago. As for the blu-ray, in general the image is good, but some parts are a bit soft. Sound wise its OK. The only real problem I had was that after a while I was really loosing interest in watching it, I am afraid "The Wake Of The Red Witch" was just not working for me tonight. The rear screen projection and miniature work does seem to stand out unfortunately. Overall I felt that the movie just seems dated.

It is definitely dated, but I still enjoyed it. The first time I saw it was back in the 60's as part of a triple feature at a old classic movie theatre. Back in those days it was not uncommon for theatres to run films that were decades old. Today, there is no such thing as "second run". The last time I saw this one was the restored version at the Film Foundation website (https://www.film-foundation.org/rsr).

[Brian Fretwell]

Empire of Light set in a south coast cinema. Mainly filmed in Margate, though I did detect one scene shot in Broadstairs, round the coast. Also when passing Cliftonville Lido the lead character had gone past where she was living as that was between the Winter Gardens and the Lido. Local knowledge to to my grandfather living close by can be a curse. Staring Olivia Coleman, Michael Ward, Toby Jones and Colin Firth.
The only film I have seen credits for Covid measure compliance members of crew!!!

[Ed Gordon]

RKO 281 brilliant story of the making of Citizen Kane. Superb cast

I enjoyed this one. It is as good as Mank, but focuses on Welles rather than Mankiewicz. Citizen Kane certainly benefited from an ensemble of very talented people. Perhaps we give Welles too much credit for the work done by this talented group. My only complaint is the title which obviously does not give us a clue at to what the film is about.

[Mike Newell]

I enjoyed this one. It is as good as Mank, but focuses on Welles rather than Mankiewicz. Citizen Kane certainly benefited from an ensemble of very talented people. Perhaps we give Welles too much credit for the work done by this talented group. My only complaint is the title which obviously does not give us a clue at to what the film is about.

I agree Ed . Welles was talented but was supported and used others in his work. He could have achieved much more with his career but was too temperamental and mercurial in his approach.
His most commercially successful movie was The Stranger which he directed. He was tightly controlled by RKO and Edward G Robinson acts him off the screen.

[Graham Ritchie]

"Mr Bean's Holiday" on blu-ray last night Hard to take in, that's its now been 16 years since we ran the 35mm print. Although its hard to imagine anyone not liking Mr Bean my better half and the cinema manager did not. I still remember saying "we have" got to get the print, so we did. The brilliant thing about it regarding doing the weekly screening schedule, was it was only 1 hour and a half long "brilliant", so I could schedule heaps of screening times for the film. Now at the time, we were only a couple of days away from the school holidays, Mr Bean's Holiday started the day before and hardly anyone came to see it fearing I had made a disaster of the schedule as it was to late at this stage to change it, I was about to question myself about so many screenings

Well the first day of the school holidays kicked in and we started to get full sessions thank goodness. for the full two weeks there after, we were flat out, the word got out Mr Bean's Holiday turned into a roaring success. ah! memories

PS I still have the brilliant 35mm trailer. The thing is with all movies you never really know how the public will react, this film and the later "Wild Hogs", we ran that one for months were real money spinners, thank goodness.

PSS I really like the scene in the projection room when actor Willen Dafoe calls out......where is the projectionist.....

[Graham Ritchie]

This was another film we ran a print of at the cinema many moons ago, I always regarded it as an excellent Australian film and certainly worth watching. If you have never heard of "Beneath Hill 60" then give it a go. Projected the blu-ray using the Epson VP last night.

[Douglas Meltzer]

If you have never heard of "Beneath Hill 60" then give it a go.

Graham,

I've never heard of it and now I will give it a go!

[Graham Ritchie]

Its Friday night and after telling Yvonne how good "Close" was she was interested in seeing it. The problem was, Yvonne has macular degeneration so she cant see right in the center. So sub-titles are out. I said we can give it a go, and I will sit behind you and do the narration from the sub-titles and see how it goes. Well thankfully it worked and Yvonne said afterwards I did a good job. Yvonne thought the movie was very good indeed, but was hitting the tissues at some of the scenes "not surprised". Thankfully the Epson VP can give a bright clear image, much better than our inside TV, so I am glad it worked out well.

After a break Yvonne was back inside, so I thought I could watch "Titanic" but found it to much after a while due to watching "Close" as that film really takes it out of you.

Anyway here is some blu-ray screen shots from a previous screening of "Titanic". I do feel its very under rated, I found it had a good story and acting. pity it never came out as a full feature in Super 8

The Black and White image quality of the blu-ray is excellent and its one title I would highly recommend getting.

[Graham Ritchie]

Interesting week, to start with my daughter April and my grandaughter Ella came round and wanted to watch a movie. So I thought OK, and without telling them the title and in particular see what there reaction is, I chose "Close". After it finished I asked them what they thought of the movie, Ella said it was one of the best she had seen and April, well was still into the tissue box, so that says everything. I think its important to take people out of what I call there comfort zone every so often, and "Close" certainly did that. Tonight it was this one on blu-ray "What We Did On Our Holiday" brilliant in every way is all I can add and highly recommend it.

[Douglas Meltzer]

Graham,

Beneath Hill 60 is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. I found it an extremely well made movie, engaging and effective, especially during the tunneling scenes. Thanks for the recommendation.