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About 1970, Village Theatres
purchased a number of Toshiba
projectors for screening 35/70mm film.
A plant was installed in their then new
Brisbane Village Twin at New Farm
and at other locations in Victoria. About
1972, Village announced that a state of
the art projector was being imported
from Germany. The new projectors
were the Bauer U3 model. These
machines were far less cumbersome
than their earlier cousins. They could
be converted for 70mm and many were.
An innovation was that the
machines came complete as one unit,
and a separate make of lamp-house was
not required. In addition, the light
source was powered by a xenon lamp.
A measure of their versatility was that
the Bauer U3 was designed for the A Bauer U3 in the in the former Village Cinema City, George Street Sydney. The
smaller, intimate theatre and a smaller 70mm and six-track sound reproducer is in the top section of the machine (alongside
screen, but I have seem them in use on the thick looped cable). Perched above it is the newer digital sound reproducer.
large screens with quite good results. (Author’s photo.)
The Bauer U3 came with optional
rendered 70mm all but obsolete. The last new 70mm feature dates
lamp-houses; a smaller and a larger
Exhibitors have come to realise though from the mid 1990s; the Kenneth
version. The larger version was meant
the benefit of larger cinema screens. Branagh version of Hamlet, which
for 70mm presentations and could
Patrons do not like paying top dollar would have to rank as the longest
handle 4,000 watt xenon lamps. Village
for a screen not much larger than a big- 70mm film in history!
City Centre, Bourke Street was
screen television set, and multiplex Despite the paucity of genuine
equipped with two 70mm houses when
construction from the mid -1990s 70mm, there has been one
it opened in 1986: Cinema 1 and
overcame the problem of mean screens. development. Fox’s Titanic (1997) was
Cinema 3. Cinema 1 was Australia’s
first 70mm THX certified theatre. The spectacular world of 70mm released in a 70mm format from a
Village were still installing Bauer U3's contained a few lemons, (Sgt. process called Super 35. Filmed
for 70mm screenings as late as 1988, Pepper’s…as mentioned), one or two without anamorphic lenses on 35 mm
when they unveiled their Cinema One obscure titles and some cinemas not stock, the process allows a 70mm or
at the now razed Cinema City complex readily recalled as 70mm venues. A Cinemascope-style projection print to
in Sydney. Whilst Village Theatres colleague of mine showed me a be produced from the negative. For
were the biggest users of Bauer program for a film called Bing Crosby’s Titanic the old six-track stereo sound
equipment, it did find its way into Cinerama Russian Adventure. He with its magnetic stripes was replaced
several other theatres. remarked that he did not recall seeing it by a single time-code for D.T.S. So, for
anywhere. This film was made in 1966. the first time, a 70mm feature contained
The number of 70mm feature films
I found an obscure block advertisement a soundtrack on a compact disc. A
waned in the late 1980s. Their demise
for a screening of Russian Adventure at special reader installed on top of the
was due to the high cost of prints -
Sydney’s Forum in 1980 and in 70mm! projector picked up the signal to
which can be as much as $50,000 each
It barely lasted a week. It also passed operate the C.D. soundtrack.
- about ten times the cost of a 35mm
through the Chelsea Melbourne, again Film has found a new home in the
print, and the introduction of digital
for a week; possibly the shortest runs of world of the IMAX and IWERKS
sound in the early 1990s. Up to that
any 70mm feature anywhere! theatres. This technology is awesome,
time, only 70mm could supply very
high quality sound. Also in Melbourne the Forum with the IMAX Theatre Sydney now
Cinema received second hand 70mm credited in the Guinness Book of
No 70mm feature films were made
Cinemeccanica machines from the Records with the world’s largest indoor
in Australia, all were processed in the
Chelsea next door in order to show cinema screen. Some interesting feature
United States or Great Britain. Mad
That’s Entertainment in 1974. film experiments in this format include
Max III Beyond Thunderdome was
blown up to 70mm and shown that way I recall a festival of long-lost films, a remake of Walt Disney’s Fantasia.
at the Capitol Melbourne. This, and an all in 70mm. The program was all the Until now the enormous cost of IMAX
IMAX short have been Australia’s only 70mm titles available from Warners, presentation has meant that it only
70mm films. Universal, M.G.M. and Paramount - the survives in the largest population
last time some titles were shown in the centres of Sydney and Melbourne.
Improvements in picture quality of
70mm format in Australia - and only
35mm film over recent years plus the
screened in Melbourne in 1980.
introduction of digital sound has
20 2005 CINEMARECORD