P3D 3D films

[abram klooswyk <abram.klooswyk@xxxxxx>]

At the remarkable 3D film festival in Antwerp, Belgium
(announced by Patrick Boeckstijns P3D 3416, 26 Jul 1999)
I have seen 6 of the 10 movies, on two consecutive nights:
"Starchaser", "Revenge of the Shogun Women", "Andy Warhols
Frankenstein", "It Came from Outer Space", "The Creature
from the Black Lagoon" and "The Mask" (Eyes of hell).
(of the remaining four I had seen 3 on previous occasions).

The programming was somewhat strange: polarisation projection
on the first three nights, anaglyph the last day. I would
rather have expected the best series on the last night.
Anaglyphs can be fine (if done well) for printing, but for
projection in theaters it remains inferior, in my opinion.
The copy of "It came" was probably faded somewhat, which
for anaglyphs means poorer extinction, so a lot of ghosting
was visible (worse than on the video copy I have seen before).

"The Mask" was the last movie of this program, this film
however is mostly 2D, with four 3D sequences of nightmare
scenes, which scenes are well done (stereo adviser was
Charles W. Smith, a well known 3D professional from England).
Otherwise it is a mediocre movie, which ends pointless.
I have quoted a comment from The Internet Movie Database
(http://us.imdb.com/) which says: "watch the movie, it
contains some incredible 3D sequences".
I would rather say: skip this movie, unless it is part of
a 3D festival. On its own it is not worth the journey.

For "It Came" and "The creature" the glasses had to be worn
with red for the right eye, but for "The Mask" red had to
be left, as I noticed when the first 3D sequence came.
This was however not announced by the speaker of the Antwerp
Filmmuseum, "Red Right" was said before each movie.
I could correct it only for a few people sitting close to
me, during a short pause I informed some official, but that
didn't make it to the speaker. Afterwards I heard no
complaints from others, they probably thought that the
pseudoscopy belonged to the strangeness of the nightmare
scenes. But I have seen before that whole audiences don't
notice, or just accept, pseudoscopy; and the technical staff
of filmmuseums often don't know much about stereo techniques.
So the 3D festival ended in 2D with a so-so movie and for
most attendants with pseudoscopic, no stereoscopic parts.

So far for the critic, but I much enjoyed the other movies and
the settings. When I phoned, the filmmuseum official warned
me that the 3D festival was in an abandoned large old movie
theater (Patrick also wrote this), but this turned out to be
a great extra attraction, well fitted to the horror and SF
contents of most of the movies.
The theater was much of a ruin. All original lamps and
electricity was removed, and most other furniture, paint
was flaking off everywhere, leaving the baroque type plaster
in fantastic 3D. There were large holes in the ceilings,
doors were missing or hanging tilted on one hinge.

Only the central part of the large balcony was accessible,
were only the upper seven rows of old worn out seats were left.
Downstairs the seats and the main floor had been removed,
exposing a grid of beams. On both sides there were heaps
of trash. These were lit by red spotlights, and the
balcony too was lit by spotlights on tripods, so that it
seemed that a movie was being shot of the audience,
rather than one shown to them. A projection screen was
suspended halfway in the main room, between the movies
appearing as a slightly greenish window in a black frame.
The seats of the first five rows of the semicircular balcony
were also removed, so that there the underlying staircases
formed wooden amphitheater, much like a classical Greek or
Roman amphitheater, or rather as the Teatro Olimpico in
Vicenza, Italy, designed by Palladio in 1580, the first
roofed amphitheater, which has the same wooden staircase
in the amphitheater form. An incredible atmosphere.

Moreover, the name of this old movie theater is "Roma",
reinforcing the ruin effect, as if we were seated in one of
Piranesi's engravings, or in one of emperor Nero's dwellings
(this year in Rome opened for the public).
Indeed, Nero would have liked a movie like Andy Warhols
Frankenstein, which quite appropriate was beginning at midnight.
Of the different existing versions of it this obviously was the
X-rated one, which is not only a parody on horror 3D movies,
but also on soft porno movies. From the laughter was clear
that this was well appreciated by the audience, of which
several members were hardly born when the movie was shot.

It remains on of the movies were 3D is used very effectively.
I have seen it before, but now I noticed a detail which has
got a new meaning.
The baron Frankenstein, who wants to snatch a new head for his
experiments, says to his assistant that he wants 'a Serb,
because that is the best race, descending from the old Greek'
(something like that, I don't remember the exact phrasing).
The recent history on the Balkans gives a morbid meaning to
this, well in accordance with the baron's ideas in general,
but probably not foreseen by the movie makers...

Abram Klooswyk