BRADFORD’S Widescreen Weekend - a must for film fans - returns this month with an Indiana Jones all-nighter.
The film festival offers the opportunity to experience the immersive magic of the big screen at the National Science and Media Museum’s Pictureville cinema - home to the only remaining public Cinerama screen outside America.
Widescreen Weekend opens with the UK premiere of a newly restored 70mm print of Hitchcock’s stylish espionage thriller North by Northwest.
The programme includes one-off screenings and events under this year’s three strands - VistaVision, Widescreen All’Italiana and A History of Romance - covering everything from screen heritage and cult favourites to new restorations across a range of themes, origins and eras.
Coupling a diverse programme with world-class projection facilities, the festival is a highlight in Pictureville’s calendar. Last year’s festival celebrated the 70th anniversary of CinemaScope, the groundbreaking anamorphic process created by 20th Century Fox that took cinema by storm in 1953. This year the festival explores the legacy of the rival system that Paramount Pictures went on to debut a year later - VistaVision.
The process was developed to be unlike most other types of film-making, as VistaVision involves turning the film stock on its side, so that the perforations are at the top and bottom of the image, instead of on the left and right. This allowed for an image space double the size of traditional 35mm, meaning for a much higher image quality.
However, after only seven years the format fell out of favour, primarily due to advancements in film stock and processes that made VistaVision near obsolete, aside from its enduring popularity in special effects for films like Star Wars, Aliens and more recently Interstellar.
Despite its brief history, the result of Paramount’s efforts was a sample of fantastic films in high-definition and exceptional colour from top film-makers including Alfred Hitchcock, a Vista Vision pioneer, who used the process on several of his films.
This September, the Widescreen Weekend celebrates the cinematic process as well as how Hitchcock utilised the format to such magnificent effect.
Following the success of last year’s Lord of the Rings overnight movie marathon, festival-goers can again experience Pictureville after hours, with the first three films in the Indiana Jones franchise screened back-to-back overnight on Saturday, September 28. It’s a rare opportunity to experience the much-loved movies on Pictureville’s curved Cinerama screen for the first time.
The festival’s Hitchcock tribute includes premieres of newly restored prints of North by Northwest (1959) on 70mm and Vertigo (1958) on 35mm, as well as a 35mm print screening of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and To Catch a Thief (1955).
Other highlights include contemporary classics Pride and Prejudice (2005) and Phantom Thread (2017), in the festival’s deep dive into romance, highlighting the sumptuous costumes, grand gestures and poetic prose of period dramas we can’t resist. Directed by Joe Wright, Pride and Prejudice is a hugely popular big screen adaption of Jane Austen’s beloved novel about the five Bennet sisters who deal, in varying ways, with issues of marriage, morality and misconceptions. Keira Knightley stars as Elizabeth Bennet and Matthew Macfadyen plays Mr Darcy.
Phantom Thread, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Lesley Manville and Vicky Krieps, is about an haute couture dressmaker in 1950s London who has a young waitress as his muse. Nominated for six Oscars, it won the Best Costume Design prize.
Sally Folkard, Head of Screen and Cultural Engagement, says: “We are delighted that Widescreen Weekend Festival is returning to Pictureville this autumn for another weekend long celebration of great cinema.
“As one of two Cinerama screens in the world, the festival provides a truly unique cinema-going experience.
“We are excited to be hosting the UK premiere of a newly restored 70mm print of Hitchcock’s classic spy thriller North by Northwest, as well as the return of our all-nighter events with Indiana Jones. The festival creates the perfect environment for audiences to be fully immersed in the titles on offer, whilst also showcasing our world-class facilities and highly skilled team of projectionists and we cannot wait to welcome our festivalgoers back to the big screen.”
Pictureville re-opened in August following its closure last October after the discovery of RAAC (reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete).
The Cubby Broccoli screen opened again in July, after it closed last summer when the museum was shut temporarily for refurbishment work ahead of Bradford’s year as UK City of Culture in 2025.
The National Science and Media Museum is expected to open again early next year following its £6 million Sound and Vision revamp project.
* Widescreen Weekend runs at Pictureville Cinema from September 26-30. Visit visit scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/cinema/widescreen-weekend
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