Friday, October 14, 2011

10:30 P.M. Summer

22.30 kesäiltana / 10.30 en sommarkväll. US/ES © 1966 Jorilie Productions / Argos Films. EX: Louis Marquina. P: Jules Dassin, Anatole Litvak. D: Jules Dassin. SC: Jules Dassin, Margueritte Duras – based on the novel Dix heures et demie du soir en été (1960, in Finnish Puoli yksitoista kesäiltana) by Marguerite Duras. DP: Gábor Pogány - black and white and Technicolor. AD: Enrique Alarcón. Cost: Dimitri Kritzas [Dimis Kritsas]. M: Christóbal Halffter. S: Jean Labussière. ED: Roger Dwyre. Loc: Castilie. Cast: Melina Mercouri (Maria), Romy Schneider (Claire), Peter Finch (Paul), Mateos Julián (Rodrigo), Isabel María Pérez (Judith), Beatriz Savon (Rodrigo's wife). 86 min. Original in English. A Park Circus print viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki (Romy Schneider), 14 Oct 2011.

This rare Marguerite Duras movie has been criticized for its linear adaptation but is worth seeing at least because of Romy Schneider whose performance is sensitive and complex. Melina Mercouri plays the alcoholic Maria who helps the persecuted murderer (a crime of passion opens the film: a man catches his wife and her lover almost in flagrante and shoots them both). Peter Finch suffers between Romy and Melina, and the daughter is the joy of them all. The cinematography is powerful, the suspense efficiently handled. There are black and white and colour sequences, which feels only decorative. The print is complete and clean but maybe one generation too far removed from the original.

This week we have installed new lamps in the 35 mm projectors of Cinema Orion. Since 1984 we have had 2000 W lamps partly because we have been screening hundreds of nitrate prints. Now we have 3000 W lamps. In our digital projector we have 4000 W lamps also because we screen 3D with it.

10:30 P.M. Summer was the first movie I saw projected with the new lamphouses. Comparisons are difficult: films are different, prints are different, and even the same lamps are brighter in the beginning and less so later. I have been both happy and unhappy with the old lamps, and when there have been complaints, we have tried to change lamps. 10:30 P.M. Summer looked fine on the screen, and with more powerful lamps the probability of better screenings is higher.

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