SIFF Cinema Downtown

2100 4th Avenue,
Seattle, WA 98121

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Showing 126 - 150 of 266 comments

GregF
GregF on October 12, 2011 at 1:51 pm

Going to see West Side Story tomorrow at noon! I’m excited.

Bill Huelbig
Bill Huelbig on October 12, 2011 at 12:41 pm

I attended six movies at the 70mm festival, from Thursday 10/6 through Saturday 10/8. “The Sound of Music” was a good print, but there were terrible problems with the soundtrack. The entire opening of the film played silent, up until near the end of Julie Andrews' title song. From then on, the sound would intermittently cut out, most unfortunately during “My Favorite Things” all the way into the middle of “Do Re Mi”. It happened about 6 or 7 times. The theater was clearly embarrassed by all this and offered refunds. Later that night, “Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines” played perfectly. Looked like a new print too.

The next three I saw, “West Side Story”, “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Cleopatra”, were also excellent prints, and the shows went off without a hitch. “Lawrence” was a Friday night sell-out. My final show was “2001” on Saturday, a near sell-out. This print was a little more beat up than the others, but I’m sure it’s gotten the most use over the last few years.

If I had to pick one show that stood out above all the others, I’d go with “West Side Story”. It’s been a favorite of mine since I was 8 years old, but I’d never seen it on that scale before, the way it was designed to be seen. I waited 50 years to see it in 70mm, and thanks to the Seattle Cinerama that dream was realized. Well worth the trip from New Jersey.

Seattle is a really cool city, too. The Space Needle and the Monorail are 49 years old, but they still look like the future to me. The theater itself has the same effect: built in the ‘60s, but looks like a vision of the future.

egcarter
egcarter on October 9, 2011 at 2:01 am

Tonight’s screening of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (October 8th, 9PM) was a full house. Great to see all us old fogies lined up, entering after the screening of CLEOPATRA ended.

GregF
GregF on October 7, 2011 at 7:28 pm

Saw “This is Cinerama” this past Sunday. Wow. Had to close the eyes more than once. :)

Chris Utley
Chris Utley on August 26, 2011 at 11:11 am

We who dwell in Los Angeles salute you! We’ll be thinking of you while watching some lame romcom in the Cinerama Dome while this festival is going on. Sigh…

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on August 26, 2011 at 10:08 am

“This is Cinerama” and “How the West Was Won” in glorious three-strip Cinerama as well as a feast 0f 70mm delights will all be part of the Big Screen Film Festival to be presented September 30-Oct. 16, 2011. More information here: http://seattlecinerama.com/coming-soon/

RobertAlex
RobertAlex on March 4, 2011 at 3:08 pm

The Ten Commandments was not a Cinerama picture, it was filmed in VistaVision.

However, it did play the London Casino Cinerama (It is now the Prince Edward Theater) in 1972. You can find that information here:
View link
/theaters/2497/

Also, for more information on the London Casino you can visit:
http://cinerama.topcities.com/ctcasino.htm

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on March 4, 2011 at 2:52 pm

Most likely you saw it at the Casino Theatre in London; this was London’s longest running Cinerama house. It is only a bout two very short blocks away from Shaftsbury Avenue, also close to the Palace Theatre on Charing Cross. The Casino is now the Prince Edward Theatre and is used for musicals and plays. Its page ( which many links to pictures over the years) here on CT is:
/theaters/2497/ There is also more information here: http://cinerama.topcities.com/ctcasino.htm.

Cinerama (in one form or another) was also located at the Royalty (Peacock), London Coliseum, and the London Astoria theatres in London, but for much shorter runs. All of these have pages here on CT.

bigjoe59
bigjoe59 on March 4, 2011 at 2:22 pm

Hello. i hope someone has a knowledge of London’s Cinerama
theaters. the summer of 1972 i had the opportunity to travel
to London. while there i saw a re-release of THE TEN
COMMANDMENTS, this is where my question comes in. i could swear
the name of the theater was the Shaftsbury Cinerama but when
i looked it up zippo. does anyone know what Cinerama theaters
were operating in London in August of 1972? thanks for any info.

droben
droben on February 22, 2011 at 9:59 pm

Giles, I did not get a chance to see African Queen or Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but I did see Close Encounters at the Cinerama in the same format and it looked and sounded impressive. Regarding your reply to Chris on January 19, read my post above. The “regular” screen at the Seattle Cinerama is not nearly as deeply curved as the screen at the Arclight Cinerama. There appears to be no major issues with DP presentations at Seattle.

Giles
Giles on February 22, 2011 at 9:05 am

did anyone check out ‘The African Queen’ or ‘Breakfast at Tiffanys’ they weren’t 35mm, but in actual 2K DCP harddrive form from Paramount – ‘Queen’ most have looked stunning!

Giles
Giles on January 19, 2011 at 11:06 am

ah-hah, essentially the same problem, but the image on the curved screen at the Cinerama isn’t? that’s odd.

Chris Utley
Chris Utley on January 19, 2011 at 10:44 am

Giles: The Dome @ ArcLight does have issues with DP on it’s screen. The image can’t fit on the bottom left & right corners of the screen.

droben
droben on December 20, 2010 at 9:46 pm

Giles, the regular screen used at the Seattle Cinerama is not the deeply curved screen shown in the photo above. Since the theater’s restoration in 1999, a slightly curved 70 foot wide screen has been placed in front of the true Cinerama screen and is used for all screenings except periodic 70MM and Cinerama festivals when the “flat” screen is dismantled. I have not been there since digital has been introduced, but I’m assuming everything is fine.

Speaking of 70MM and Cinerama festivals, the new independent operator has stated that there will be festivals in 2011. When they’re announced, I’ll be sure to post. It’s been a few years since Cinerama has been projected on the giant curved screen.

Giles
Giles on December 20, 2010 at 1:50 pm

the reason I ask is that I find it odd that both the Seattle and Uptown screen feature Christie DLP digital projector systems yet one of the two (the latter) is having problems both in it’s screen size and required brightness for projected 3D imagery.

Giles
Giles on December 20, 2010 at 1:30 pm

question: the new digital projector is properly displayed on the curved screen … right?? The Uptown here in DC just upgraded to digital projection and they are having a slight problem with the projected image in relationship to the curvature of the screen – it sounds like both the Seattle Cinerama and the Arclight Dome don’t have this problem, I wonder what the deal is why this problamatic with the Uptown’s large curved screen.

ColinMarcoe
ColinMarcoe on November 30, 2010 at 3:00 pm

more on the sound, I think it’s a new system, but honestly it didn’t sound any different to me. The surround speakers looked the same…and sounded the same as the ones from the major remodel 10 years ago. And that’s not a complaint at all!

ColinMarcoe
ColinMarcoe on November 30, 2010 at 2:44 pm

Giles, I attended “HP7” on Thanksgiving. And I have to admit…(sigh)…the Digital projection looks quite amazing! I hope others will chime in too, but I was very impressed! The image had a nice warm ‘grain’ similar to 35/70mm. NO pixalization at all. Another thing I noticed, it wasn’t a perfectly steady “powerpoint” projection-like image. It had just a touch of movement like film does if you know what I mean, visable during credits especially. The only thing missing was that occasional speck of dust and cue marks every 20 minutes! The sound was just amazing, it’s been the last 10 years since the first remodel.

tdickensheets
tdickensheets on November 26, 2010 at 6:37 am

Cinema is not own by AMC anymore.

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on November 21, 2010 at 1:42 pm

The re-opening spurred the online Post-Intelligencer to run an article recalling the original opening of the theater in January, 1963: View link

neeb
neeb on November 18, 2010 at 5:33 am

An article on the re-opening.

View link

Giles
Giles on November 17, 2010 at 6:31 pm

someone please post back how Harry Potter 7 looks and sounds! (please … please)

Giles
Giles on November 17, 2010 at 2:56 pm

great to hear the DP system is a Christie ‘Series 2’ projector.