Won the 1960 Academy Award for Best Color Cinematography
4 Responses
Thanks for posting this frames. What I think is amazing about Surtees’ cinematography in this film, besides the 2.76:1 frame, is the use of color and the tonal range. Some frames almost look like paintings. I was looking at the chariot race scenes and the shots on the ocean. I think the use of blue and red in some scenes are really amazing. This is a fine example of how a cinematographer can use color to tell the story and create a mood.
For sure. The technicolor and 70mm work so well for this film.
It’s interesting that according to his biographer in “A Talent For Trouble: The Life Of Hollywood’s Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler” Wyler only accepted the 2.76:1 aspect ratio grudgingly. He thought it was too difficult to fill the frames and compose the shots.
First seeing the film, less than a month after its premiere, in Loews State Theater in NYC, where its New York premiere took place, I was moved to pursue every opportunity I could to see it again there, and in other major city first-run venues. On those widest of theater screens, the color saturation, super=sharp images, and just the size of the images, alone, left a memory like no other burned into my mind. When I first saw a 35mm projection of a less that pristine print in some later run of the movie, I was shocked at how the quality suffered. I was young, but had seen many movies already. I never before saw anything to match this experience. Decades later. I built my own widescreen projection facility, very much with that movie, and its aspect ratio in mind. The 50th Anniversary Blu Ray restored edition enabled me to see a closer approximation of those original presentations than anything I had seen since the early 60s.
4 Responses
Thanks for posting this frames. What I think is amazing about Surtees’ cinematography in this film, besides the 2.76:1 frame, is the use of color and the tonal range. Some frames almost look like paintings. I was looking at the chariot race scenes and the shots on the ocean. I think the use of blue and red in some scenes are really amazing. This is a fine example of how a cinematographer can use color to tell the story and create a mood.
For sure. The technicolor and 70mm work so well for this film.
It’s interesting that according to his biographer in “A Talent For Trouble: The Life Of Hollywood’s Most Acclaimed Director, William Wyler” Wyler only accepted the 2.76:1 aspect ratio grudgingly. He thought it was too difficult to fill the frames and compose the shots.
Photo’s are of very good clarity. Some photo’s are missing, but a very big THANK YOU for posting this number of photo’s. Keep up the good work.
First seeing the film, less than a month after its premiere, in Loews State Theater in NYC, where its New York premiere took place, I was moved to pursue every opportunity I could to see it again there, and in other major city first-run venues. On those widest of theater screens, the color saturation, super=sharp images, and just the size of the images, alone, left a memory like no other burned into my mind. When I first saw a 35mm projection of a less that pristine print in some later run of the movie, I was shocked at how the quality suffered. I was young, but had seen many movies already. I never before saw anything to match this experience. Decades later. I built my own widescreen projection facility, very much with that movie, and its aspect ratio in mind. The 50th Anniversary Blu Ray restored edition enabled me to see a closer approximation of those original presentations than anything I had seen since the early 60s.