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Off-Topic Discussion / Free Tour Of A Restored Movie Palace

« on: May 22, 2014, 07:15:30 AM »

This Saturday, another free tour of a restored movie palace in Jamaica, Queens: the Valencia.  The tour is given by the church which took over the space and restored it to its former glory.

http://www.scoutingny.com/take-a-rare-tour-of-the-incredible-valencia-movie-palace-this-saturday/

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The Good, The Bad and The Ugly / Luciano Vincenzoni, RIP

« on: September 22, 2013, 07:18:09 PM »

Screenwriter for FAFDM and TGTBTU has passed at age 87.


http://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli/cinema/2013/09/22/news/morto_vincenzoni_sceneggiatore_per_germi_e_leone-67032017/


http://www.fistful-of-leone.com/classic/articles/vince.html

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Once Upon A Time In The West / MOMA Screenings

« on: April 18, 2008, 06:50:12 PM »

May 1-5, Museum of Modern Art, New York City

Sergio Leone reimagined the American Western genre with Once Upon a Time in the West, in which two mysterious strangers join forces to defend a widow after a sinister hired gun murders her family in a bid to grab their land for the railroad. Unlike the well-groomed characters depicted in traditional studio Westerns, the inhabitants of Leone's frontier are dusty, sweaty, and grimy. Leone also cast good-guy icon Henry Fonda radically against type as the darkest of villains, and brought the European stylistic reinterpretations perfected in his low-budget spaghetti Westerns to the quintessential cowboy movie location—John Ford's iconic Monument Valley.

Since it was shot in the Techniscope format—which hasn't been in use since the early 1970s—restoration of the film required that an interpositive be printed from the original negative to create a new preservation internegative. As a result, the new prints offer a sharper image and finer grain than even the original prints. In addition, the color was completely restored to capture the rich earth tones of the original photography, and the audio for both the Italian and English soundtracks was restored from magnetic masters, significantly improving upon the original optical soundtracks.

Organized by Rajendra Roy, The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film. This presentation is a collaboration between the Tribeca Film Festival and the Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art. The restoration was made possible with support by The Film Foundation and The Rome Film Festival in association with Sergio Leone Productions and Paramount Pictures.


Upcoming related screenings:

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Once Upon a Time in the West. 1968. Italy/USA. Directed by Sergio Leone. Screenplay by Leone, Sergio Donati. With Henry Fonda, Claudia Cardinale, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards. 165 min.
Thursday, May 1, 2008, 6:30 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Friday, May 2, 2008, 7:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Saturday, May 3, 2008, 2:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Sunday, May 4, 2008, 2:00 p.m., Theater 2, T2
Monday, May 5, 2008, 6:30 p.m., Theater 1, T1

 

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Once Upon A Time In The West / my xmas shopping is done

« on: November 20, 2007, 04:25:49 PM »

http://jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product=3780115

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Once Upon A Time In The West / Springsteen and title theme

« on: July 19, 2007, 12:18:51 AM »

Hopefully fans of maestro Morricone and/or Bruce Springsteen are enjoying the Boss' take on the title theme, as heard on this year's Morricone tribute CD.  Turns out Bruce's connection to the piece goes back a ways--while supporting The River LP in 1980-81, E Street Band piano player Roy Bittan would introduce the song "Badlands" with a brief reference to the theme.  You can hear it in a concert clip from that time on YouTube; just type in  Badlands and click on the video from Landover '80.

I saw five shows on that tour, but missed the boat completely on the Morricone, since I didn't know the music properly until the original CD issue.  I was subsequently clued into the homage by re-reading Glory Days, the Springsteen bio by Dave Marsh.  Apparently while performing the opening in Nice, France, the crowd spontaneously took up the glorious Edda Dell'Orso vocal.  What better tribute could there be to this music, than it was remembered collectively 13 years after the film came out!

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Once Upon A Time In America / OUATIA location

« on: July 15, 2007, 04:02:50 AM »

Hi!  New here, and hope I can add a piece of trivia to this great site. 

In the scene in OUATIA where Max greets Noodles coming out prison (the first appearance chronologically of the characters as adults), the prison location has changed.  Judging by the shot of the boys standing across the street as Noodles enters prison in the black maria, it appears to be set in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.  The later scene is clearly set elsewhere, and having lived in the Long Island City section of Queens, New York, for 14 years, I can tell you their reunion is set on the side street of Court Square next to the landmarked Queens County Courthouse.  I'm not set up currently to take or post pictures, but you can believe me on this one (the Queensborough/59th St. Bridge is visible through the windshield of the hearse, a view now blocked by the looming CitiBank skyscraper; the "Sternberger's" warehouse present in the reverse shots is now the Citi-Wide storage building).  The courthouse has been used in other movies (of course, none presently come to mind), as well as being the setting for a short-lived Oliver Platt/Anabella Sciorra TV show called "Queens Supreme."

Haven't plowed through all the location posts yet, but I hope this gets me off to a good start here.