Did you get official word that the classics weren’t happening? I don’t know if I buy the disinterested public thing. There were screenings last winter that pulled in more people than some first run films, namely ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ which I saw at Ziegfeld to an almost empty house. On the other hand the classics screenings of “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Braveheart” were packing them in to pretty full houses. Has anybody been in touch with the guy from Clearview that was posting here last time around?
‘Dreamgirls’ is no longer playing at the Ziegfeld and there are no current showings listed on their website. Anybody know what’s coming up next? Hopefully another Classics series…
Wow…end of an era. They’re changing the name, huh? I wonder what kind of ‘renovations’ they could possibly make to that place. It’s not very big, so maybe they’re changing the carpet or something. But there you go, change is happening all around. CBGB closes in New York and the Mercedes changes it’s identity. Heavy..
I unfortunately didn’t make it to any of the screenings this past weekend. Oh well..gotta wait ‘til the Fall.
Not to rain on anybody’s parade regarding the two above comments by Theaterat an RobertR about theater etiquette, but it’s not always the case that people behave at these revival screenings. You think it would be, but it’s not. I’m glad that people behaved at your shows. In the past I have encountered some real loud-mouth, rude people during Loews Jersey screenings and at Lafayette Theater screenings. No respect for anybody, just alot of loud conversation and in one of the cases, loud belching. And these were men well into their 40s, maybe 50s. Anyway..the point it is, don’t be surprised if you happen to cross paths with the obnoxious element that also attend these screenings. They’re out there!!
Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s a good idea to incorporate a ‘family’ films into these schedules, but please keep it interesting. I would hate to see a bunch of children’s films showing up in the program. “Charlotte’s Web” and “Benji” I don’t need to see again. I can’t believe I remember this, but I hated “Benji” even when I saw it when I was a kid, and I was definitely the target demographic for that film. On the other hand, I remember my mother took me to see “That’s Entertainment” around that same time and I enjoyed it. Nothing nasty or adult about it and very kid friendly as I recall. “Mary Poppins” is a great one too, and for kids and adults of all ages.
I agree Vincent. The Loews Jersey programmer’s hearts are in the right places, but an examination of ‘Dystopian Films’? Isn’t that more on par with Film Forum or a college film class? Is there going to be an exam after these screenings?
I don’t know. How ‘bout showing 'The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T’ and ‘Forbidden Planet’ instead of ‘Sleeper’ and ‘Brazil’. Maybe not quite ‘Dystopian’ but…
I still love the Loews Jersey, but c'mon guys keep the films consistent with the experience of going to an old historic movie palace. There are plenty of older/classic films that would be good box office and haven’t already been played to death on TCM, Fox Movie Channel, or AMC, that could be shown (if the prints are available) at the Loews Jersey. I thought last year’s screening of ‘The Haunting’ was a brilliant choice in that direction.
As I mentioned in an earlier post here Oliver Stone’s ‘The Doors’ had huge lines opening night at the Ziegfeld back in 1990-91. I went to to the midnight show. Had to wait in a huge line out side. The show was absolutely sold out, every seat filled.
Ditto…alot of nice choices Gary. I think I would delete ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Top Gun’, and ‘Fatal Attraction’. Although they were successful they don’t command the respect of a classic, at least not now. Maybe sometime in the future (no pun intended). To me they’re just 80s movie fodder. In all fairness I’ve never seen ‘Fatal Attraction’ in it’s entirety, but I can’t stand Michael Douglas and I’m not neccesarily a Glen Close fan either, but to each his own. Hopefully they’ll choose some of the other ones from your list. They’re are some great ones on there. ‘Bullit’, ‘The Wild Bunch’, ‘Mary Poppins’? Bring ‘em on.
I’ve seen ‘Woodstock’ tons of times and own the director’s cut DVD. I saw it on the screen about 10 years ago at the Village East Cinema when the director’s cut was released theatrically. The screen wasn’t nearly as big as the Ziegfeld. This year isn’t a milestone Woodstock anniversary (37 years ago this August), but the film is a good summertime thing to watch. I would LOVE to see a really nice print of it at the Ziegfeld. That would be amazing!! If they could get a hold of the director’s cut from the early 90s with what I beleive was surround stereo…wow…very cool!
Great show last night at LoA. Image wise one of the best prints I have ever seen on the big screen. The depth, color, and clarity of this film in 70mm was amazing. Sound also perfect. Other than a few splices and minor scratches here and there, it was almost flawless. Definitely one for the history books. I have to confess though, like BethLG I can’t say I was as capitivated by this film as I was with ‘Ben Hur’ and ‘Dr. Zhivago’ as far as epics in this series. Those two films, which I had never seen before had my full attention from beginning to end. The funny thing is, that after my friends and I had left the theater and were talking about LoA, I realized that I liked it more than I thought. We kept going through some of the quotes in the film and talking about the very unique and eccentric performance by Peter O'Toole. It was one of the more off-beat characters I think I have seen in an epic of this kind. In fact I had to go and rent the DVD today at Blockbuster, just to review the film. Mind you I never had a membership at Blockbuster until today, just so I could get this film. Thank god for DVD which preserves the aspect ratio of the film. The other benefit is that Blockbuster lets you hold on two old films like this for a week, so I can really take a look at this film again at my leisure.
Anyway…what a great series this has been on to end the winter and go into the spring. Overall great
festival despite whatever flaws were noted. PLEASE LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!!!! ILOVE THE ZIEGFELD!
I agree with Movieguy718 last post, and just to add that; I have seen 6 of the films in this series, in hind sight I wish I had seen more. C'mon we’ve all had are issues here, myself included, about some of the prints in this series, but I have to say that the tone of some of the people on this thread is very..um, disturbing. As Bill Hueblig put so well in an earlier post ‘not every film was perfect, but all were great’. This has by far been the busiest thread on the Cinema Treasures for the last month or so with now over 1000 posts. Everytime I hear somebody go overboard with their criticisms it just makes me think that the wrong message is being sent to Clearview/Ziegfeld. I would love for the theater management to walk away from this whole thing and say ‘hey, despite a few hitches, that worked out’ instead of walking away saying ‘this was a good idea at first, but the audience for this kind of festival are a bunch of pain in the a** crybabies, we’ll never do a festival like this again’. For me the last two months of going to these films and just KNOWING it was happening was a breath of fresh air in a New York City that is very rapidly losing it’s identity. I too, do not want to walk down 54th St between 6th and 7th before the end of 2006, and see a ‘for rent’ sign hanging from the Ziegfeld. Don’t think it could happen? Come downtown below 14th street. After you see the big empty lot that used to be the Variety Theater, and the NYU dorm that used to be the Palladium/Academy of music, look around and see all of the businesses that are going under because their landlords are pricing them out. Developers don’t care about neighborhood stores, old theaters, or film revival. In the plainest of terms they want to knock stuff down and build their monuments to cultural mediocrity over what used to be a cool place. So take the good with the bad. Recognize that the Ziegfeld did an overall great job with this series, and keep supporting it financially and critically.
“otherwise don’t come on here crying that the Ziegfeld is now closed!”
I missed the shows over the weekend because I had to work. When can we expect the next series of films? Hopefully soon please??????? Any possibilities in the works??
I haven’t made to any of the screenings of LOA yet, but I will be there before the end of the week and I will definitely put my two cents in with Clearview for possible future festivals.
Cool intro Gary. Nice bit of trivia there on the date of the premiere of CE3K at the Ziegfeld. That very day was my 11th birthday. Wonder what I was doing that day, can’t even remember.
In regard to Hal, Al, and vito’s previous comments. I agree that there is some revisionism going on here in terms of how theaters used to be. At the same time, I think I’d have to say that there is definitely something missing with what’s left of today’s movie going experiences. Al you’re totally right. There are some theaters, a few in Manhattan, that actually are cool theaters. Tower East (haven’t been there in a while) is a good one, and of course The Paris. The product just isn’t out there often enoughto get people into the seats. Most of the films today, as we’ve stated one way or another, totally suck!
Ed-agree with you 100%. Just about everybody here including myself has had a grievance with some of the presentations during this series. And they’re all prety valid. But overall this has been a great series and a real positive experience. Can’t think of a better way to get through the last days of another desolate winter in New York. I hope Clearview/Ziegfeld finds a way to continue it in some form in the future. One thing that I can’t complain about anymore is how people in the entertainment business don’t take chances any longer. This was a big gamble but a great idea and hopefully the receipts will prove that after the final showing of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.
Looks like the Forum has discontinued it’s ‘Silver Screen’ film series. They were supposed to be showing “Singin' In the Rain” on April 15 but I don’t see it listed. I don’t see any further films listed either. Gonna give these guys a buzz during business hours and see what the deal is. I was hoping to see SITR again since I only saw it once at the Ziegfeld. Anybody knw what the deal is?
Peter-yeah I thought maybe there was a chance that they couldn’t do anything about the screen masking. On the other hand if you had the manual capability to correct it at the Lafayette, a much older theater, you would think that a place like the Ziegfeld could do it as well. Whatever the case, it’s kind of unfortunate. I was really looking forward to another grand-slam screening of this. I guess I have my memories of the Astor Plaza screening. Now that I think of it, last summer The Paris made an attempt at doing revival screenings Saturdays at Midnight. They had a 70mm print of ‘2001’ (that I missed). Wondering why the Ziegfeld didn’t get a hold of that print. I’m guessing it probably cost more to rent or something? What’s funny is during the end credits of this particular print of ‘2001’ last night it said ‘in CINERAMA". Yeah…we wish!
Great memories Bill. I only saw one of those screenings you mentioned at the Loews Astor Plaza a few years ago which I believe was in 70mm. I also saw this once at the old Cinema Village, and I think maybe once at the Biograph. Tonight’s screening however was not as sensational as the 70mm at the Loews AP. As you mentioned the print was not in mint conditon but was fine nonetheless.
Like I’ve said before several times here, this is and has been a great fesitival. I haven’t complained much, but after tonight’s screening of ‘2001’ I can’t help but file a major grievance which is this: the screen was not masked properly to fit the projected image of the film. The left and right side of the screen was too wide and left vertical black space along the soft border of the film image. For me this a huge pet peeve. Instead of a great presentation of a great film in a great theater,this looked like a poor revival screening in a lame first run cineplex. At this point after all of the films I have seen in this festival (West Side Story, Ben Hur, Singin' In the Rain and Dr. Zhivago) I thought the Ziegfeld had for the most part got this right. This is why I was so disappointed to see, and I hate to say this, such a medicocre presentation of this legendary film. As Bill metioned, the sound was GREAT. but why was the screen not fitted properly? It was for all of the other films I saw.
The other thing too is the Intermission parts of these films. Ben Hur and West Side Story had none. Tonight at ‘2001’ there was one like the one at ‘Dr Zhivago’. Both were too short. In my opinion intermission should be 10 minutes at the very least. Tonight and at Zhivago they were 3-4 minutes tops. Unless there is enough time to get out of your seat and either use the restroom or go to the concession, then there shouldn’t be a intermission at all,because what is happening is people are getting out of their seats to do either of these things and returning to their seats too late missing the first few minutes of part two. I don’t understand. If there isn’t such a tight schedule between films like there is for ‘2001’ why can’t there be a long enough intermission?
Finally…and this has nothing to do with the theater management, there were people talking tonight during the finale sequence ‘Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite’. I’ll be damned if I can figure out why people think they have a right or a REASON to talk above a whisper during a film in a movie theater. I
have unfortunately encountered this in alot of revival situations-Film Forum, Lafayette/Suffern, Loews Jersey, and tonight at the Ziegfeld. In the left side of the theater around Row K there was a middle aged couple-late 40s early 50s who during the finale HAD to have a discussion. The women kept asking “what’s going on? Is he alone in the room? what’s going on here?” You know what? SHUT-UP! Discuss it after the film is over like normal people do. What the hell?
I am planning on going back on Thursday for the 4:30 screening of ‘2001’. A friend of mine who has never seen this film is coming with me. For the most part, great job Ziegfeld people, but am begging you-please mask the screen properly so this film can be seen ‘the way it was meant to be’.
Total 5-star situation this afternoon with the screening of ‘Singing In the Rain’. Another film that I had never seen before. I thought it would be wide-screen, but nevertheless I wasn’t dissapointed. There was some focusing issues over the opening titles, but…so what, no biggie. Print quality overall was excellent. Amazingly colorful and sharp. Great musical numbers. Sort of reminded me of ‘The Gang’s All Here’ in some respects. I was suprised, and definitely pleased at the cynical take on Hollywood in the story. So much of it reminded me of today’s celebrity infatuated culture. And how ‘bout Debbie Reynolds at all of 20 years old! How damn cute was she?
Great film. The Ziegfeld has been out doing themselves with every film in this series. Don’t Let it end! I don’t give a rat’s ass about 'Ice Age 2’ and I don’t think the rest of the world should or will care once that’s in the house when this series ends.
Here’s a few suggestions for the next classics fest:
‘The Hustler'
'Oklahoma'
“Fist Full of Dollars'
'Good, Bad, & the Ugly'
'Vertigo'
and yeah how about The Beatles "Help!"
and for you real off-the-wall cult film folks Otto Preminger’s "Skidoo”, a wide-screen film about LSD starring Jackie Gleason, with appearances by Groucho Marx and many others! Yes, you heard it right..it’s a film about acid with Jackie Gleason and he trips in the film. Amazing!
Another great film screening today at The Ziegfeld. I was at the 4:30 ‘Dr. Zhivago’ and it was yet another amazing film-going experience. I had never seen this film before and was impressed by the acting, cinematography and overall emotitonal tone that, as I can see now, has made it a timeless masterpiece. I was also impressed again, like I was at ‘Ben Hur’ that a film clocking in at 3 hours and change was able to hold my attention from beginning to end. When you see a film that’s this great and this long, it really gives you a different sense of the story and it’s characters. It’s almost like you’re living with them for a while. That I think is one of the great things about going to the movies; something that can completely sweep you up and into a whole other ‘reality’‘. Top notch acting from Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, and the late-great Rod Stieger. I could go on about all of the great things David Lean does with the narrative construction of this film, but I’ll let all of you find that out when you see it.
As far as print quality, I would say that this print ranks about the same as the ‘Ben-Hur’ print that was shown a few weeks ago. Some minor problems here and there, big patches of scratches, but at other times the film was as sharp and colorful as it could be, particularly the scene when Stieger, meets Julie Christie’s fiance ‘Pasha’ played by Tom Courtenay who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role. The projectionist really did decide to crank the audio on this film. At times it was overpowering, but in a good way. Loud but never overmodulated. When trains were coming down railroad tracks for example it really sounded and felt like a train. What did they call that in the 70s? ‘Sensoround’? Remember that?
Two little notes: there was an Intermission which was a good thing but it was really short, like 5 or 6 minutes. I went to the bathroom quickly but by the time I got back, the second part had already started and I missed the first two or three minutes.
The other somewhat funny note is when I was at the consession stand during the overture (I made it into the theater right before the titles) a women came out of the theater and said to one of the ushers “there’s music playing, but I don’t see any picture”. I turned to her and told her that was they way it’s supposed to be and she just laughed and went back in.
Once again great film. If I can I might go see this one again. This is what living in New York is all about. I hope this series never ends, which brings me to one final point. I was thinking today whenever it is that The Ziegfeld goes back to a first-run schedule, I’m proposing that maybe they do something like the Lafayette in Suffern and have a classics screening once a week on maybe a Saturday or Sunday or whenever it’s convinient inthe schedule. Maybe out of this festival a Classics at Ziegfeld Film Society can be created?
And now on to the 12:30 Saturday Screening of “Singin' In the Rain”.
Nice thought my friend, but I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that that’s not going ot happen, although I would LOVE IT if it did. In my opinion, The Ziegfeld can stay the way it is, as far as the Mayfair goes that would be a great idea. The catch to that would be making that theater attractive to all the tourists that now invade Times Square. It would have to be Cinerama and IMAX for that, because I don’t think mainstream America (ie. the huge chunk of the Times Square tourists) even know what Cinerama is. IMHO, a theater like that would have to have some sort of diverse programming especially for IMAX because most people know what that is. If there was say ‘Star Wars’ in IMAX or a reallly popular film like that than maybe that could work. They could also dig up something like that Rolling Stones IMAX thing from a few years ago. The Cinerama thing would have to “piggy back” if you will, on the notoriety of IMAX and then geeks like us could see “Once Upon a Time in the West' or ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ in Cinerama. Can an IMAX and Cinerama theater physically exist? Don’t know, but at least one can dream…
One good thing I’ll say about the Oscars the other night. They were plugging for people to get out to the theaters again with that montage they did about the beauty of the ‘big screen’. They even had a clip in it from ‘This Is Cinerama’. Great idea from the Hollywood folks, right? Here’s my note to them: start putting out some original material instead of insipid remakes, and some films that need to be seen on the big screen and MAYBE you’ll get people back in the theaters again. So far though, I don’t see that happening. I just read last night that ‘Hairspray'is being made into a movie again starring John Travolta in the role Divine originated in the movie and the one Harvey Firestein did on Broadway. How ridiculous is that? And they wondering why people buy DVDs and stay at home. I think maybe they’re also wondering why something like the classics series at the Ziegfeld is successful and being extended.
I stand corrected!!! I just looked at the schedule for this weekend and they’re showing stuff in the afternoon! ‘Loving You’ with Elvis??! I am really going to plan on seeing that one. I’ve only seen parts of it and the color is amazing. I’m sure they’ll have a great print of it. Thanks again for the info.
Wow…whadda weekend coming up in the New York area. Films at the Ziegfeld, Loews Jersey, and Lafayette. Looks like film revival is making a pretty good come back. It’s the film revival-revival. Now if we could get one or two more theaters in Manhattan to have some nice repretoire schedules, I could stop complaining and the world can once again be a peace.
Thanks for the tip. I actually visited the Lafayette for a screening of Hitchcock’s ‘Suspicion’ around this time last year(?). Great theater and great presentation of the film. I’m a city dweller and don’t own a car, so the trek to the Lafayette for me begins at about 8:30 AM if I want to get the PATH to Hoboken for the train to Suffern. Long story short, I’m not really a morning person, especially on the weekends. And although ‘Suspicion’ was great I couldn’t help from nodding out here and there during the screening. Not my favorite thing to do in a movie theater, even if the film is bad. But I’m sure I’ll find a good reason to visit The Lafayette in the future. Just have to go to bed early the night before…
Forrest136
Did you get official word that the classics weren’t happening? I don’t know if I buy the disinterested public thing. There were screenings last winter that pulled in more people than some first run films, namely ‘Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ which I saw at Ziegfeld to an almost empty house. On the other hand the classics screenings of “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Braveheart” were packing them in to pretty full houses. Has anybody been in touch with the guy from Clearview that was posting here last time around?
‘Dreamgirls’ is no longer playing at the Ziegfeld and there are no current showings listed on their website. Anybody know what’s coming up next? Hopefully another Classics series…
Wow…end of an era. They’re changing the name, huh? I wonder what kind of ‘renovations’ they could possibly make to that place. It’s not very big, so maybe they’re changing the carpet or something. But there you go, change is happening all around. CBGB closes in New York and the Mercedes changes it’s identity. Heavy..
Awsome!!! I will totally be there. Great job Craig and Clearview!
I unfortunately didn’t make it to any of the screenings this past weekend. Oh well..gotta wait ‘til the Fall.
Not to rain on anybody’s parade regarding the two above comments by Theaterat an RobertR about theater etiquette, but it’s not always the case that people behave at these revival screenings. You think it would be, but it’s not. I’m glad that people behaved at your shows. In the past I have encountered some real loud-mouth, rude people during Loews Jersey screenings and at Lafayette Theater screenings. No respect for anybody, just alot of loud conversation and in one of the cases, loud belching. And these were men well into their 40s, maybe 50s. Anyway..the point it is, don’t be surprised if you happen to cross paths with the obnoxious element that also attend these screenings. They’re out there!!
Don’t get me wrong. I think it’s a good idea to incorporate a ‘family’ films into these schedules, but please keep it interesting. I would hate to see a bunch of children’s films showing up in the program. “Charlotte’s Web” and “Benji” I don’t need to see again. I can’t believe I remember this, but I hated “Benji” even when I saw it when I was a kid, and I was definitely the target demographic for that film. On the other hand, I remember my mother took me to see “That’s Entertainment” around that same time and I enjoyed it. Nothing nasty or adult about it and very kid friendly as I recall. “Mary Poppins” is a great one too, and for kids and adults of all ages.
I agree Vincent. The Loews Jersey programmer’s hearts are in the right places, but an examination of ‘Dystopian Films’? Isn’t that more on par with Film Forum or a college film class? Is there going to be an exam after these screenings?
I don’t know. How ‘bout showing 'The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T’ and ‘Forbidden Planet’ instead of ‘Sleeper’ and ‘Brazil’. Maybe not quite ‘Dystopian’ but…
I still love the Loews Jersey, but c'mon guys keep the films consistent with the experience of going to an old historic movie palace. There are plenty of older/classic films that would be good box office and haven’t already been played to death on TCM, Fox Movie Channel, or AMC, that could be shown (if the prints are available) at the Loews Jersey. I thought last year’s screening of ‘The Haunting’ was a brilliant choice in that direction.
As I mentioned in an earlier post here Oliver Stone’s ‘The Doors’ had huge lines opening night at the Ziegfeld back in 1990-91. I went to to the midnight show. Had to wait in a huge line out side. The show was absolutely sold out, every seat filled.
Ditto…alot of nice choices Gary. I think I would delete ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Top Gun’, and ‘Fatal Attraction’. Although they were successful they don’t command the respect of a classic, at least not now. Maybe sometime in the future (no pun intended). To me they’re just 80s movie fodder. In all fairness I’ve never seen ‘Fatal Attraction’ in it’s entirety, but I can’t stand Michael Douglas and I’m not neccesarily a Glen Close fan either, but to each his own. Hopefully they’ll choose some of the other ones from your list. They’re are some great ones on there. ‘Bullit’, ‘The Wild Bunch’, ‘Mary Poppins’? Bring ‘em on.
I’ve seen ‘Woodstock’ tons of times and own the director’s cut DVD. I saw it on the screen about 10 years ago at the Village East Cinema when the director’s cut was released theatrically. The screen wasn’t nearly as big as the Ziegfeld. This year isn’t a milestone Woodstock anniversary (37 years ago this August), but the film is a good summertime thing to watch. I would LOVE to see a really nice print of it at the Ziegfeld. That would be amazing!! If they could get a hold of the director’s cut from the early 90s with what I beleive was surround stereo…wow…very cool!
“OPENING DAY of Ice Age. 30 people in attendance”
I love the Ziegfeld and I hate to gloat but…
Sorry about those typos in the above post. I just read it and had to wonder where the hell my head was at. Duh!!!!
Great show last night at LoA. Image wise one of the best prints I have ever seen on the big screen. The depth, color, and clarity of this film in 70mm was amazing. Sound also perfect. Other than a few splices and minor scratches here and there, it was almost flawless. Definitely one for the history books. I have to confess though, like BethLG I can’t say I was as capitivated by this film as I was with ‘Ben Hur’ and ‘Dr. Zhivago’ as far as epics in this series. Those two films, which I had never seen before had my full attention from beginning to end. The funny thing is, that after my friends and I had left the theater and were talking about LoA, I realized that I liked it more than I thought. We kept going through some of the quotes in the film and talking about the very unique and eccentric performance by Peter O'Toole. It was one of the more off-beat characters I think I have seen in an epic of this kind. In fact I had to go and rent the DVD today at Blockbuster, just to review the film. Mind you I never had a membership at Blockbuster until today, just so I could get this film. Thank god for DVD which preserves the aspect ratio of the film. The other benefit is that Blockbuster lets you hold on two old films like this for a week, so I can really take a look at this film again at my leisure.
Anyway…what a great series this has been on to end the winter and go into the spring. Overall great
festival despite whatever flaws were noted. PLEASE LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!!!! ILOVE THE ZIEGFELD!
I agree with Movieguy718 last post, and just to add that; I have seen 6 of the films in this series, in hind sight I wish I had seen more. C'mon we’ve all had are issues here, myself included, about some of the prints in this series, but I have to say that the tone of some of the people on this thread is very..um, disturbing. As Bill Hueblig put so well in an earlier post ‘not every film was perfect, but all were great’. This has by far been the busiest thread on the Cinema Treasures for the last month or so with now over 1000 posts. Everytime I hear somebody go overboard with their criticisms it just makes me think that the wrong message is being sent to Clearview/Ziegfeld. I would love for the theater management to walk away from this whole thing and say ‘hey, despite a few hitches, that worked out’ instead of walking away saying ‘this was a good idea at first, but the audience for this kind of festival are a bunch of pain in the a** crybabies, we’ll never do a festival like this again’. For me the last two months of going to these films and just KNOWING it was happening was a breath of fresh air in a New York City that is very rapidly losing it’s identity. I too, do not want to walk down 54th St between 6th and 7th before the end of 2006, and see a ‘for rent’ sign hanging from the Ziegfeld. Don’t think it could happen? Come downtown below 14th street. After you see the big empty lot that used to be the Variety Theater, and the NYU dorm that used to be the Palladium/Academy of music, look around and see all of the businesses that are going under because their landlords are pricing them out. Developers don’t care about neighborhood stores, old theaters, or film revival. In the plainest of terms they want to knock stuff down and build their monuments to cultural mediocrity over what used to be a cool place. So take the good with the bad. Recognize that the Ziegfeld did an overall great job with this series, and keep supporting it financially and critically.
“otherwise don’t come on here crying that the Ziegfeld is now closed!”
I missed the shows over the weekend because I had to work. When can we expect the next series of films? Hopefully soon please??????? Any possibilities in the works??
I haven’t made to any of the screenings of LOA yet, but I will be there before the end of the week and I will definitely put my two cents in with Clearview for possible future festivals.
Cool intro Gary. Nice bit of trivia there on the date of the premiere of CE3K at the Ziegfeld. That very day was my 11th birthday. Wonder what I was doing that day, can’t even remember.
In regard to Hal, Al, and vito’s previous comments. I agree that there is some revisionism going on here in terms of how theaters used to be. At the same time, I think I’d have to say that there is definitely something missing with what’s left of today’s movie going experiences. Al you’re totally right. There are some theaters, a few in Manhattan, that actually are cool theaters. Tower East (haven’t been there in a while) is a good one, and of course The Paris. The product just isn’t out there often enoughto get people into the seats. Most of the films today, as we’ve stated one way or another, totally suck!
Ed-agree with you 100%. Just about everybody here including myself has had a grievance with some of the presentations during this series. And they’re all prety valid. But overall this has been a great series and a real positive experience. Can’t think of a better way to get through the last days of another desolate winter in New York. I hope Clearview/Ziegfeld finds a way to continue it in some form in the future. One thing that I can’t complain about anymore is how people in the entertainment business don’t take chances any longer. This was a big gamble but a great idea and hopefully the receipts will prove that after the final showing of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’.
Looks like the Forum has discontinued it’s ‘Silver Screen’ film series. They were supposed to be showing “Singin' In the Rain” on April 15 but I don’t see it listed. I don’t see any further films listed either. Gonna give these guys a buzz during business hours and see what the deal is. I was hoping to see SITR again since I only saw it once at the Ziegfeld. Anybody knw what the deal is?
Peter-yeah I thought maybe there was a chance that they couldn’t do anything about the screen masking. On the other hand if you had the manual capability to correct it at the Lafayette, a much older theater, you would think that a place like the Ziegfeld could do it as well. Whatever the case, it’s kind of unfortunate. I was really looking forward to another grand-slam screening of this. I guess I have my memories of the Astor Plaza screening. Now that I think of it, last summer The Paris made an attempt at doing revival screenings Saturdays at Midnight. They had a 70mm print of ‘2001’ (that I missed). Wondering why the Ziegfeld didn’t get a hold of that print. I’m guessing it probably cost more to rent or something? What’s funny is during the end credits of this particular print of ‘2001’ last night it said ‘in CINERAMA". Yeah…we wish!
Great memories Bill. I only saw one of those screenings you mentioned at the Loews Astor Plaza a few years ago which I believe was in 70mm. I also saw this once at the old Cinema Village, and I think maybe once at the Biograph. Tonight’s screening however was not as sensational as the 70mm at the Loews AP. As you mentioned the print was not in mint conditon but was fine nonetheless.
Like I’ve said before several times here, this is and has been a great fesitival. I haven’t complained much, but after tonight’s screening of ‘2001’ I can’t help but file a major grievance which is this: the screen was not masked properly to fit the projected image of the film. The left and right side of the screen was too wide and left vertical black space along the soft border of the film image. For me this a huge pet peeve. Instead of a great presentation of a great film in a great theater,this looked like a poor revival screening in a lame first run cineplex. At this point after all of the films I have seen in this festival (West Side Story, Ben Hur, Singin' In the Rain and Dr. Zhivago) I thought the Ziegfeld had for the most part got this right. This is why I was so disappointed to see, and I hate to say this, such a medicocre presentation of this legendary film. As Bill metioned, the sound was GREAT. but why was the screen not fitted properly? It was for all of the other films I saw.
The other thing too is the Intermission parts of these films. Ben Hur and West Side Story had none. Tonight at ‘2001’ there was one like the one at ‘Dr Zhivago’. Both were too short. In my opinion intermission should be 10 minutes at the very least. Tonight and at Zhivago they were 3-4 minutes tops. Unless there is enough time to get out of your seat and either use the restroom or go to the concession, then there shouldn’t be a intermission at all,because what is happening is people are getting out of their seats to do either of these things and returning to their seats too late missing the first few minutes of part two. I don’t understand. If there isn’t such a tight schedule between films like there is for ‘2001’ why can’t there be a long enough intermission?
Finally…and this has nothing to do with the theater management, there were people talking tonight during the finale sequence ‘Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite’. I’ll be damned if I can figure out why people think they have a right or a REASON to talk above a whisper during a film in a movie theater. I
have unfortunately encountered this in alot of revival situations-Film Forum, Lafayette/Suffern, Loews Jersey, and tonight at the Ziegfeld. In the left side of the theater around Row K there was a middle aged couple-late 40s early 50s who during the finale HAD to have a discussion. The women kept asking “what’s going on? Is he alone in the room? what’s going on here?” You know what? SHUT-UP! Discuss it after the film is over like normal people do. What the hell?
I am planning on going back on Thursday for the 4:30 screening of ‘2001’. A friend of mine who has never seen this film is coming with me. For the most part, great job Ziegfeld people, but am begging you-please mask the screen properly so this film can be seen ‘the way it was meant to be’.
Until then ‘klatu barrada nikto’!
Total 5-star situation this afternoon with the screening of ‘Singing In the Rain’. Another film that I had never seen before. I thought it would be wide-screen, but nevertheless I wasn’t dissapointed. There was some focusing issues over the opening titles, but…so what, no biggie. Print quality overall was excellent. Amazingly colorful and sharp. Great musical numbers. Sort of reminded me of ‘The Gang’s All Here’ in some respects. I was suprised, and definitely pleased at the cynical take on Hollywood in the story. So much of it reminded me of today’s celebrity infatuated culture. And how ‘bout Debbie Reynolds at all of 20 years old! How damn cute was she?
Great film. The Ziegfeld has been out doing themselves with every film in this series. Don’t Let it end! I don’t give a rat’s ass about 'Ice Age 2’ and I don’t think the rest of the world should or will care once that’s in the house when this series ends.
Here’s a few suggestions for the next classics fest:
‘The Hustler'
'Oklahoma'
“Fist Full of Dollars'
'Good, Bad, & the Ugly'
'Vertigo'
and yeah how about The Beatles "Help!"
and for you real off-the-wall cult film folks Otto Preminger’s "Skidoo”, a wide-screen film about LSD starring Jackie Gleason, with appearances by Groucho Marx and many others! Yes, you heard it right..it’s a film about acid with Jackie Gleason and he trips in the film. Amazing!
Another great film screening today at The Ziegfeld. I was at the 4:30 ‘Dr. Zhivago’ and it was yet another amazing film-going experience. I had never seen this film before and was impressed by the acting, cinematography and overall emotitonal tone that, as I can see now, has made it a timeless masterpiece. I was also impressed again, like I was at ‘Ben Hur’ that a film clocking in at 3 hours and change was able to hold my attention from beginning to end. When you see a film that’s this great and this long, it really gives you a different sense of the story and it’s characters. It’s almost like you’re living with them for a while. That I think is one of the great things about going to the movies; something that can completely sweep you up and into a whole other ‘reality’‘. Top notch acting from Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, and the late-great Rod Stieger. I could go on about all of the great things David Lean does with the narrative construction of this film, but I’ll let all of you find that out when you see it.
As far as print quality, I would say that this print ranks about the same as the ‘Ben-Hur’ print that was shown a few weeks ago. Some minor problems here and there, big patches of scratches, but at other times the film was as sharp and colorful as it could be, particularly the scene when Stieger, meets Julie Christie’s fiance ‘Pasha’ played by Tom Courtenay who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role. The projectionist really did decide to crank the audio on this film. At times it was overpowering, but in a good way. Loud but never overmodulated. When trains were coming down railroad tracks for example it really sounded and felt like a train. What did they call that in the 70s? ‘Sensoround’? Remember that?
Two little notes: there was an Intermission which was a good thing but it was really short, like 5 or 6 minutes. I went to the bathroom quickly but by the time I got back, the second part had already started and I missed the first two or three minutes.
The other somewhat funny note is when I was at the consession stand during the overture (I made it into the theater right before the titles) a women came out of the theater and said to one of the ushers “there’s music playing, but I don’t see any picture”. I turned to her and told her that was they way it’s supposed to be and she just laughed and went back in.
Once again great film. If I can I might go see this one again. This is what living in New York is all about. I hope this series never ends, which brings me to one final point. I was thinking today whenever it is that The Ziegfeld goes back to a first-run schedule, I’m proposing that maybe they do something like the Lafayette in Suffern and have a classics screening once a week on maybe a Saturday or Sunday or whenever it’s convinient inthe schedule. Maybe out of this festival a Classics at Ziegfeld Film Society can be created?
And now on to the 12:30 Saturday Screening of “Singin' In the Rain”.
Sounds great Gary. Also looking forward to it.
Ed-
Nice thought my friend, but I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that that’s not going ot happen, although I would LOVE IT if it did. In my opinion, The Ziegfeld can stay the way it is, as far as the Mayfair goes that would be a great idea. The catch to that would be making that theater attractive to all the tourists that now invade Times Square. It would have to be Cinerama and IMAX for that, because I don’t think mainstream America (ie. the huge chunk of the Times Square tourists) even know what Cinerama is. IMHO, a theater like that would have to have some sort of diverse programming especially for IMAX because most people know what that is. If there was say ‘Star Wars’ in IMAX or a reallly popular film like that than maybe that could work. They could also dig up something like that Rolling Stones IMAX thing from a few years ago. The Cinerama thing would have to “piggy back” if you will, on the notoriety of IMAX and then geeks like us could see “Once Upon a Time in the West' or ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ in Cinerama. Can an IMAX and Cinerama theater physically exist? Don’t know, but at least one can dream…
One good thing I’ll say about the Oscars the other night. They were plugging for people to get out to the theaters again with that montage they did about the beauty of the ‘big screen’. They even had a clip in it from ‘This Is Cinerama’. Great idea from the Hollywood folks, right? Here’s my note to them: start putting out some original material instead of insipid remakes, and some films that need to be seen on the big screen and MAYBE you’ll get people back in the theaters again. So far though, I don’t see that happening. I just read last night that ‘Hairspray'is being made into a movie again starring John Travolta in the role Divine originated in the movie and the one Harvey Firestein did on Broadway. How ridiculous is that? And they wondering why people buy DVDs and stay at home. I think maybe they’re also wondering why something like the classics series at the Ziegfeld is successful and being extended.
Hey Bob-
I stand corrected!!! I just looked at the schedule for this weekend and they’re showing stuff in the afternoon! ‘Loving You’ with Elvis??! I am really going to plan on seeing that one. I’ve only seen parts of it and the color is amazing. I’m sure they’ll have a great print of it. Thanks again for the info.
Wow…whadda weekend coming up in the New York area. Films at the Ziegfeld, Loews Jersey, and Lafayette. Looks like film revival is making a pretty good come back. It’s the film revival-revival. Now if we could get one or two more theaters in Manhattan to have some nice repretoire schedules, I could stop complaining and the world can once again be a peace.
Hey Bob-
Thanks for the tip. I actually visited the Lafayette for a screening of Hitchcock’s ‘Suspicion’ around this time last year(?). Great theater and great presentation of the film. I’m a city dweller and don’t own a car, so the trek to the Lafayette for me begins at about 8:30 AM if I want to get the PATH to Hoboken for the train to Suffern. Long story short, I’m not really a morning person, especially on the weekends. And although ‘Suspicion’ was great I couldn’t help from nodding out here and there during the screening. Not my favorite thing to do in a movie theater, even if the film is bad. But I’m sure I’ll find a good reason to visit The Lafayette in the future. Just have to go to bed early the night before…