The pictures were big again on "Sunset Blvd." the other night.
AFI screened Billy Wilder's creepy classic in one of the main cinemas at the new Arclight in the Valley, playing to an enthusiastic and participatory crowd.
People voiced their favorite lines, laughed mercilessly at the black comedy and cheered heartily as the credits rolled.
Seeing this great dark Hollywood film with a pumped-up audience was a real treat. (The other Arclight is on Sunset Boulevard, ironically.)
The last DVD version of "Sunset Blvd"
Filmed on unstable silver nitrate, the 1950 "Sunset" no longer existed as printed when Paramount decided to revive the black comedy for its archives and its DVD "Special Collector's Edition."
The movie so closely identified with the studio survived only as flawed acetate copies of the original internegative. They were converted to digital at 2,000 lines -- a resolution double that of high definition. Restoration specialists Lowry Digital Images went through the film frame by frame, buffing out scratches and removing the dirt. After several years' work, the results were transferred back to 35mm prints, and DVD.
On DVD (and at the Arclight), the film was presented full frame (1.33:1), as Wilder shot it. Like tarnished star Norma Desmond, the post-surgery "Sunset Blvd." images have their ups and downs, but their inner beauty can't be denied.
Read the complete "Sunset Blvd." DVD review.
Comments