Screenings

It snowed like it meant it all day today. Still, life goes on in Moscow. Imagine if Russian cities were to take a Los Angeles attitude towards meteorological inconvenience. So you go out and do what needs doing. In today's case, the late afternoon brought a drive out to the Gorky Film Studios.


On today's menu, the first film-out of the HITLER KAPUT! trailer. In one of the screening rooms upstairs we settled in to watch.



For those not intimately familiar with modern cinema post production... the overwhelming majority of what you see on the the movie screen originates on 35mm film. This 35mm film negative is then scanned into a digital format using one of a few different makes of equipment. One of the most popular is the ArriLaser version. Then, once you have assembled and color-corrected the film, you scan the image back out to 35mm film. This new negative is then used to print the film reels used in the projection booth.

This process is as much true in Russia as it is in the U.S. And this phase where we scan the color-corrected picture out to 35mm negative we call the film out. At this point you watch the movie for the first time as a real (reel) movie -- but without sound. You're just checking picture. The composite print will come later.


So we watched the first film out of the trailer and it looked great.
But since a filmmaker's job is never done, Marius and I then had to run over to Moscow's answer to the Cinerama Dome, the Dome Theater. Next to the natatorium...


...under the looming weight of the Renaissance Hotel...


...covered in snow, sits the dome.


At least I think it's called The Dome. Anyway, it's a theater and it's in a dome. Underneath is a restaurant. Nobody was there. Maybe this is Moscow's answer to The Arclight.


They just need to add the people.


In between the seats are plugs for headphones. The American films are shown in English. But you can plug in your headphones, adjust the volume, and listen to the Russian overdubbing. But buyer beware. When films are dubbed here you generally get two actors -- one for all the male parts and one for all the female parts. So it can be a little jarring when a six year-old boy runs up and opens his mouth only to sound like James Earl Jones.

We saw NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. It was amazing. Like surgery. I'm still trying to digest the ending and what it all was trying to do.

Anyway, here's Tommy Lee Jones.