Lawrence of Arabia 4K UHD (1962)

[NeoNical]

Ours too. I love watching it in theaters although I thought the screen was a bit small but I enjoyed is all I needed to do

[xbs2034]

Originally Posted by NeoNical

Ours too. I love watching it in theaters although I thought the screen was a bit small but I enjoyed is all I needed to do

I think the 15 minute intermission is worked into all the Fathom showings as it was mentioned being included on the event page.

It was great to finally see this movie on the big screen (one of the people I went with had never seen it at all before) with some details you miss and impact in certain shots that you can’t fully get at home, and while the technical quality was a bit uneven I think due to the source material, it was overall a nice presentation with some stunning moments. It wasn’t on one of the theater’s two big screens, but I would say on a larger than average multiplex screen with reclining seats, also there was small pillarboxing on the sides to get the 2.20 aspect ratio from the scope screen (same as with 2001 on a scope IMAX screen).

[Geoff D]

You're lucky they didn't just crop it, if it was a 'scope screen. Or worse, show it as if it was flat 1.85 (as per the actual DCP container itself) with borders on all four sides

[HDMan72]

Originally Posted by kirkman1987

Got out of the Fathom Events presentation just an hour ago. Beautiful presentation. Go see it if you can. They did a good job with this one. For those wondering, our theater had a 15 minute intermission.

Looking forward to it. Going to the Wednesday evening showing at 6pm

[WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW]

wednesday
my theater has it on one of their four smallest screens, but at least it's smallest screens are still around 40' and they are all 1.85 so they get to use full width at least for 2.20, just leaving a bit of letterbox bars

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by xbs2034

I think the 15 minute intermission is worked into all the Fathom showings as it was mentioned being included on the event page.

It was great to finally see this movie on the big screen (one of the people I went with had never seen it at all before) with some details you miss and impact in certain shots that you can’t fully get at home, and while the technical quality was a bit uneven I think due to the source material, it was overall a nice presentation with some stunning moments. It wasn’t on one of the theater’s two big screens, but I would say on a larger than average multiplex screen with reclining seats, also there was small pillarboxing on the sides to get the 2.20 aspect ratio from the scope screen (same as with 2001 on a scope IMAX screen).

My showing had that too. I was oohing and aahing at several shots just like I was as an IMAX screening of 2001 last year so all things considered I think my theater acquitted itself well.

[Archedamian]

I had to get the AMC theater in Springfield, IL to fix the projection. I knew when the Ben Mankiewicz intro was projected off behind the curtains on the sides that there was going to be trouble. I also was annoyed when 30 minutes before the end of the movie the theater lights came on and stayed on for the rest of the film. They came on dimly, but they were still on.

[Rizor]

Originally Posted by Archedamian

I had to get the AMC theater in Springfield, IL to fix the projection. I knew when the Ben Mankiewicz intro was projected off behind the curtains on the sides that there was going to be trouble. I also was annoyed when 30 minutes before the end of the movie the theater lights came on and stayed on for the rest of the film. They came on dimly, but they were still on.

Had the same problem with the intro at my Fathom screening at a Regal location earlier. I had to go out to the lobby to tell one of the workers. But then the right side of the movie was notably pinker than the left throughout the movie!



Quite a letdown since I've been looking forward to this for months, but oh well. If anything, once I realized this wasn't going to be some godsent cinema-going experience, I relaxed and even got a (free!) popcorn and (expensive!) soda at the intermission - and I never get concessions. Just means this 4K UHD release can't come soon enough.

[moviebuff75]

I am thankful I have an outdoor theatre in my backyard, with a screen taller than my house. Lawrence is awesome under the moon and stars, as was WOODSTOCK.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Rizor

Had the same problem with the intro at my Fathom screening at a Regal location earlier. I had to go out to the lobby to tell one of the workers. But then the right side of the movie was notably pinker than the left throughout the movie!



Quite a letdown since I've been looking forward to this for months, but oh well. If anything, once I realized this wasn't going to be some godsent cinema-going experience, I relaxed and even got a (free!) popcorn and (expensive!) soda at the intermission - and I never get concessions. Just means this 4K UHD release can't come soon enough.

There's no technical reason (AFAiK) why Fathom Events can't look as good as a DCP, but for some reason, they seem to always look like crap. I won't attend any.

I've seen the 70mm restorations of various vintages of LOA several times in both NYC and Los Angeles (but not the latest one) and those were spectacular and probably the best it's ever going to be, but it still doesn't and can't look like the original 70mm prints that were struck off of the OCN because they were so much crisper and cleaner. I saw the original on Broadway in NYC when I was a kid and I can't say I remember it in detail, but I do remember my mind being blown.

[HDMan72]

Just got back from my screening and it was great. I was a bit worried but it looked fantastic. The screen was pretty wide, could barely notice the slight vertical bars at each end. Sound was good but during the intermission me & my dad were making our way back to the seats and an theater attendant told us he was gonna raise the volume a bit. It sounded much better after that. I'm so glad I got to experience this on a theater sized screen.

[Bent Wookiee]

I saw the Fathom screening today as well and really enjoyed it. Would have preferred 70 mm but I'll take what I can get. Just gorgeous!

I hadn't seen it in years. I noticed a few frame skips though, but unclear if part of the restoration or just technical issues with the Fathom stream. The first one I noticed was during the conversation in the courtyard with Lawrence and the generals sitting around the fountain post-Aqaba. The other was just after the intermission when Faisel is speaking with the reporter. I'll check my BD when I get a chance but wanted to throw it out there in case anyone knew for sure.

[Rizor]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

There's no technical reason (AFAiK) why Fathom Events can't look as good as a DCP, but for some reason, they seem to always look like crap. I won't attend any.

Others who attended the Fathom events thing seem to have had a more positive experience. I believe it was a DCP, just my theater probably messed it up with bad bulbs or whatever. Dunno enough about projectors to know what the issue was, but I attended a screening of that Avengers Endgame re-release that looked murky and purple as well. It's gotta be a theater issue because I imagine the DCPs of these things are probably pristine.

Haven't attended any other Fathom events for movies though. Only for NT Live stuff.

[Rizor]

Originally Posted by Bent Wookiee

I saw the Fathom screening today as well and really enjoyed it. Would have preferred 70 mm but I'll take what I can get. Just gorgeous!

I hadn't seen it in years. I noticed a few frame skips though, but unclear if part of the restoration or just technical issues with the Fathom stream. The first one I noticed was during the conversation in the courtyard with Lawrence and the generals sitting around the fountain post-Aqaba. The other was just after the intermission when Faisel is speaking with the reporter. I'll check my BD when I get a chance but wanted to throw it out there in case anyone knew for sure.

These issues are probably restoration based. The film was edited down to a shorter length in its theatrical history and it might be hard to fathom (), but the original cut was lost. They did their best to reconstruct it in 1989 using various sources. In some cases, audio was missing and some of the actors even re-recorded their lines. In that Faisel/Bentley scene you mention for example, it's quite noticeable when Alec Guinness's lines switch between the original '62 lines and the '89 redub. So it wouldn't surprise me that there are some missing frames in there as well. Another scene where the dialogue sounds terrible is during a scene with Lawrence and his two servants are travelling to Cairo.

[WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW]

Wow, it was fabulous seeing this today!

As stated, it was on one of the four smallest screens, but it was 1.85 screen so they got to use full width and just left some letterboxing with the screen set to it's 1.85 position and here even the smallest is still at least 38' screen, probably 40' pretty sure, so not shoe box mall screen. The smallest here are as big or almost as big as the largest at some of the old mall theaters. Thankfully it's also one of the ones that still has a bulb that is at least acceptably bright if maybe not quite as the brightest screens and one of the ones with perfect focus and good contrast, not washed out. It does have a few tiny things off with calibration (red primary a trace hot and just perhaps a trace of shadow detail clipping), but looks good.

Anyway it looked good and pretty crisp. I think it was set to 4k as select things seemed likely a bit better than 2k can do. Grain looked super tight and fine.

Pretty sure this was one of those Fathom events that uses a DCP. Just like My Fair Lady last year used a 4k DCP for the Fathom event. A number of their events use DCP.

It really did look pretty amazing. The crispest and richest I've seen it projected (never seen it in film).

Had thought about going to a different theater since the screen is somewhat bigger, but the Sunday showing got suddenly bumped to a smaller screen and all shows on that screen cancelled for the next day and after that I wasn't sure to trust if that auditorium wouldn't break again and also not sure that that screen isn't scope, in which case by the time they pillar box it, not so much larger than the screen saw it on. Plus, as said, local theater did have it on one of their screens that still produces a crisp, rich, bright enough projection and I saw on a peak on Sunday that they had it set correctly.

The theater did forget to turn the lights off at the start! I ran out and so did some others. My theater has had more mistakes with lights in the last half year than I have ever had in my entire moviegoing life all other theaters combined! All My Fair Lady showings last year had it come on 1hr:30m in! But at least they left it on the near off position and it stayed that way after the complaints, so only on for the overture and the intro scene where he is getting ready to get on his bike and ride.

Oh, I did notice a few stutters and frame jumps, almost all in Cairo with King Faisal (whose voice also seemed to go from sounding like in the room to ADR a couple times then), at first I was like uh-oh, but I noticed the audio was continuous so I figured it must just be the film editing. And it was really only a few times.

[WBMakeVMarsMovieNOW]

Really was a fabulous experience!

[benhoppel]

Originally Posted by Rizor

These issues are probably restoration based. The film was edited down to a shorter length in its theatrical history and it might be hard to fathom (), but the original cut was lost. They did their best to reconstruct it in 1989 using various sources. In some cases, audio was missing and some of the actors even re-recorded their lines. In that Faisel/Bentley scene you mention for example, it's quite noticeable when Alec Guinness's lines switch between the original '62 lines and the '89 redub. So it wouldn't surprise me that there are some missing frames in there as well. Another scene where the dialogue sounds terrible is during a scene with Lawrence and his two servants are travelling to Cairo.

The frames are missing at the places material was cut and put back for the restoration. While it would be possible today to interpolate these transparently it was not done since Lean can't approve it anymore. Dommage. I find the jumps jarring.

[HDMan72]

Originally Posted by Bent Wookiee

I saw the Fathom screening today as well and really enjoyed it. Would have preferred 70 mm but I'll take what I can get. Just gorgeous!

I hadn't seen it in years. I noticed a few frame skips though, but unclear if part of the restoration or just technical issues with the Fathom stream. The first one I noticed was during the conversation in the courtyard with Lawrence and the generals sitting around the fountain post-Aqaba. The other was just after the intermission when Faisel is speaking with the reporter. I'll check my BD when I get a chance but wanted to throw it out there in case anyone knew for sure.

I did notice one jump in the courtyard scene as well and another but can't exactly remember.

[xbs2034]

Yeah, the frame skips and poor sound in the scene right after the intermission was what I was referring to when I mentioned the presentation was a bit uneven due to the source material (I didn’t know that any lines had been redubbed as part of the restoration, but in both the home and theatrical version you can tell some of the dialogue is off, I thought just due to the quality of the mix they had). I also spotted one other frame skip early on and another closer to the end, but those were quick and infrequent enough to not bother me really, and in the vast majority of the movie were the source material was strong, the picture and sound were great.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Bent Wookiee

I noticed a few frame skips though, but unclear if part of the restoration or just technical issues with the Fathom stream.

There are three in the restoration.