The Music Box's 70mm Film Fest Has A Kickass Line-up

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 25, 2016 7:31PM

photo of a 70mm reel, via Music Box

The 70mm film format is long from dead. The first week of the Music Box's special 70mm Roadshow presentation of The Hateful Eight in December brought in $196,358. This was not only a new house record, but the third highest gross in the country for the special engagement. Though there surely were many factors at play (it's a new Quentin Tarantino movie, lots of people were on vacation, everyone there had probably already seen Star Wars, etc.) it's obvious that curiosity about the 70mm format was key.

Touted by the Music Box as "film turned up to 11," 70mm projection prints boast as much as four times the resolution of 35mm and digital projection. What does that actually mean though? Richer colors, deeper blacks, and astonishing detail. Further enhanced by a multichannel soundtrack that surrounds you, the experience of watching a film in 70mm brings you closer than ever to a total immersion in the film itself. Your sad little iPad is no match at all.

The Music Box presented their first ever 70mm Film Festival in 2013, a landmark undertaking that despite some technical issues was a still a triumph. From Feb. 19 through March 10 the theater is remounting their cavalcade of colossal celluloid, bringing back several films while adding new some ones. Exact showtimes have not yet been announced, but here's the entire kickass lineup:

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (70mm Print from Warner Brothers with DTS Sound)


• Brainstorm (Original 70mm print with 6-Track Magnetic Sound)


• Cleopatra (Restored 70mm Print from 20th Century Fox with DTS Sound)


• Ghostbusters (Original 70mm print with 6-Track Magnetic Sound)


• Inherent Vice


• Interstellar


• It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (Restored print presented in Ultra Panavision with DTS sound)


• Krull (Original 70mm print with 6-Track Magnetic Sound)


• Lawrence of Arabia (Restored Print with 6-Track Magnetic Sound)


• The Master


• Starman (Original 70mm print with 6-Track Magnetic Sound)


• Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (Restored 70mm Print from 20th Century Fox with DTS Sound)


• Vertigo (Restored 70mm Print from Universal with DTS Sound)


• West Side Story (Restored 70mm Print with DTS Sound)


• The Wild Bunch (Director's Cut With 6-Track Magnetic Sound)


• 70mm Shorts Program

Making encore appearances, Lawrence of Arabia, Vertigo, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and The Wild Bunch are all classics that every film-lover should experience in 70mm. But our top pick is Cleopatra. An honest-to-God epic more derided than actually seen these days, the notorious money pit from 1963 nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox, costing $44 million to produce—which, adjusted for inflation, still makes it the second most expensive film ever. But most of that money seems to have ended up on screen at least. And at nearly four hours long, the sheer scale and spectacle of the thing is truly jaw dropping. It's also hard to imagine there will be another opportunity to see it in 70mm anytime soon. According to one viewer, the resolution of the print is so sharp you can actually see Elizabeth Taylor's throat and vaccination scars!

Elsewhere in the list, the one-two punch of Krull and Starman will be catnip to fans of 1980s pop cinema. The former is a rather freewheeling riff combining elements of Star Wars and J.R.R. Tolkien, while the latter is John Carpenter's most sensitive movie to date, with a standout performance by the perennially underrated Karen Allen.

The two most recent movies on the schedule are also a must. Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice will be screened in a rare 70mm print that has only exhibited in the US in Los Angeles and the Alamo Drafthouse. All the better to appreciate the movie's supremely hazed out 1970s atmosphere. One of celluloid's highest profile advocates, Christopher Nolan has said, "Film is the best way to capture an image and project that image. It just is, hands down." Nolan designed Interstellar for large format exhibition, so you know it's going to knock your socks off all over again in 70mm.

Lastly, presented in conjunction with the Northwest Chicago Film Society, the 70mm Shorts program offers up a selection of rarely seen trailers and curiosities. Among them is "Here’s Chicago: City of Dreams," a 12-minute travelogue from 1983. It was originally shown as part of an expensive multimedia presentation in the newly refurbished Chicago Avenue Pumping Station across the street from the Chicago Water Tower (which today contains a visitors' center and is the home of the Lookingglass Theatre).

As described in the July 17, 1983 issue of the Chicago Tribune, the film features "spectacular helicopter views of the lakefront, skyline and rooftops as well as tight ground-level shots showing the city at work and play. The opening shot takes you toward the Standard Oil Building and over the Chicago River with all the bridges open, like a series of steel jaws. There are views of the Loyola elevated platform, the Loop, a tight shot of Wabash Avenue and Lake Street and more architectural shots." This colorful bit of boosterism sounds irresistible.

Also included is "A Year Along the Abandoned Road," a 1991 time-lapse film from Norway, capturing an entire year in the Arctic in a single tracking shot.

The Music Box's timing for the festival is impeccable. Courtesy of Tarantino and the Weinsteins, the theater boasts a new 41 foot screen, double the image size of past presentations, plus a new 7.1 channel sound system. It's altogether the perfect reason to dodge the frigid temps outside by basking in some larger-than-life entertainment.