Originally Posted by Libretio:
“THE INNOCENTS is one of those films I wish I liked more, since it has a lot going for it - the aforementioned bw scope photography, fantastic production values, and Deborah Kerr (she was always great value for money). But it's clearly been made by people who are ashamed of the genre in which they're labouring, resulting in a film that wants desperately to be viewed as something other than what it is (ie. a horror movie). Critics have been lauding its subtlety for years, but I find it SO subtle that all the horror has been leeched out of it - no doubt exactly what the filmmakers had in mind. But I'll bet it looks fantastic on the big screen (like its contemporary, THE HAUNTING, another film which I don't really care for).”
I don't think you can accuse Freddie Francis of being ashamed of the genre, given that he went on to direct several examples of it! I have to wonder if he was the driving force behind shooting it in CienmaScope, as it's the only film directed by Jack Clayton in Scope. And Francis had won an Oscar the year before for his b/w Scope work on SONS AND LOVERS. THE INNOCENTS really does use every inch of the wide screen, and I'd imagine that parts of it would be incomprehensible panned and scanned.
I'll agree with you that tasteful craftsmanship is the hallmark of Jack Clayton's fairly sparse filmography (seven cinema features, one short film, one TV movie), even in a film like his debut ROOM AT THE TOP (also photographed in b/w by Freddie Francis, though in 1.66:1), which was at the time a film that pushed boundaries regarding sex. His next film after THE INNOCENTS, OUR MOTHER'S HOUSE is rather undervalued and worth a look.
Originally Posted by Libretio:
“It's definitely there - I made sure before buying it. The disc also includes a feature-length documentary about the history of Cinerama, with SmileBox clips of the various travelogues produced in that format (not the Brothers Grimm movie, though).
It was simply too impractical for general usage, though I've seen images of the Cinerama presentation at the Bradford cinema, and I'll bet the experience of seeing any Cinerama film is absolutely fantastic.”
It is indeed.
The Pictureville Cinema in Bradford (attached to the National Media Museum) is one of only three public cinemas in the world which can show three-strip Cinerama, the other two being in the US. (There are also at least two private Cinerama set-ups, one of which is in some guy's front room - now that's what I call a home cinema!) The Pictureville can also show 70mm, even apparently Ultra Panavision, a format I've yet to see a film in. (Seen normal 70mm though.)
The Pictureville hosts an annual Widescreen weekend as part of the Bradford Film Festival, and they have permanent Cinerama prints of THIS IS CINERAMA and HOW THE WEST WAS WON. When I went there in 2012 (the sixtieth anniversary of Cinerama) they showed the only known Cinerama print of THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE BROTHERS GRIMM, which had been flown in from a collector in Australia and which has been gifted to the Pictureville.
While we're on multi-screen movies, watching NAPOLEON at the Royal Festival Hall with a live orchestra was quite the experience. The 20-minute Polyvision finale was shown on three screens with three projectors (all running at the correct speed of 20fps) to an aspect ratio of approximately 4:1. (There is a version of the film available, which I saw twenty years ago, which prints the triptych on one reel of film, which is then projected in Scope with massive letterboxing. That copy was also shown at 24fps which knocked about an hour from the running time!)