I have a new life goal: to see 2001: A Space Odyssey on the big screen, meaning in a movie theatre.
I actually don’t understand why replaying old movies in theatres is such rare practice. I was at the movie the other night and they advertised (heavily) that it was being projected on a digital projector. I could see where film projectors would prohibit old movies, after all the film has a short lifetime. Now with digital projectors, there’s absolutely no reason a theatre couldn’t play old movies. Well, once the old movies have been converted to digital, but that’s a one time procedure and has supposedly already been done for DVDs anyhow, though perhaps not in a high enough resolution. Maybe HD-DVD and BluDisc will change this?
With movie theatres struggling, I believe this could be a way to draw in the older crowd. Perhaps not the 35+ crowd, they are unlikely to ever return en-mass to theatres, but the 20—35 crowd who want to see movies, but not the movies that come out of hollywood today, the movies that cater to the ever profitable teenage market.
I for one can think of many movies I’d gladly pay to see on the big screen, classics like Psycho, The Godfather, A Clockwork Orange, The Wizard of Oz, Vertigo, Goodfellas, Eraserhead (besides 2001, especially Eraserhead) etc. The cost to theatres and Hollywood would be minimal, and it doesn’t really make sense to only play new movies in theatres anyhow.
OMG, that movie was so slow, I felt like I was dying. Seriously, don't watch it. Andy just likes to get a rise out of me by telling everyone how awesome this movie is. I'd rather watch a 24 hour marathon of Dr. Quin Medicine Woman than 30 mins of this horribly slow movie!!!!!!!
Ok it's slow but awesome regardless. I watched it again the other night, which prompted this post... It's way better with good sound instead of just a TV's crappy speakers cause the music makes it for me... gotta love the Ligeti!
Hi, you don't know me, but I have lurked on your blog for quite a while. I love your photos and enjoy your thoughts.
In any case, just wanted to let you know that, in my neck of the woods, there are several theaters that do this. They used to play old movies on the big screen where I went to college (UW-Madison) too. I saw The Godfather there in fact. Anyway, you might want to see if there are theaters in your area that do re-runs. - Leigh
Hi Leigh, thanks for the kind words... I did look around for theaters that play old movies. I found one, which is cool. It's a small, independent joint... they play old movies, but not all that often, which is understandable. And as another plus, they serve beer!
I thought 2001 was not slow enough. I wanted to stare at the monolith for a lot longer.