Mr. Tarantino could not have been any nicer. He enjoyed seeing the films This Is Cinerama, Cinerama Holiday, Cinerama Seven Wonders of the World & How The West Was Won. He met and really hit it off with projectionist, historian and presenter John Harvey. When the local press came to interview him for a 90 second spot for the local news I set up my little video camera to grab the 7 min interview. What Mr. Tarantino had to say about Cinerama, Harvey and that giant deeply curved screen filled by 3-interlocked 35mm projectors and full discrete stereo delivered by a 7-channel system (all invented in 1952) thrilled him! And his singing John Harveys praises for helping to save Cinerama pleased us all. DAYTON- November 29, 1999 -Pulp Fiction filmmaker Quentin Tarantino made his first visit to Dayton this weekend to fulfill a longtime dream. Id always heard about Cinerama but had never seen it, Tarantino said Sunday afternoon during the intermission of the 1962 film How the West Was Won at the New Neon Movies. The Fifth Street theater is the only one in the country to operate Cinerama, a process that shoots movies with three separate cameras and projects them on a wide, curved screen. How the West Was Won, which starred Gregory Peck, Debbie Reynolds, James Stewart, John Wayne and Spencer Tracy, is one of only seven movies ever made using the Cinerama process. I learned about the theater from the national paper The Big Reel, the 36-year-old filmmaker said. And I had seen the movie on TV when I was a kid and then I saw bits and pieces that stand out to me when I was working at a video store. Tarantino, who flew in after spending Thanksgiving in New York with the owners of Miramax studios, said he was pleasantly surprised with what he got to see of Dayton. Tarantino said he encountered several admirers during his walk. People would come up to me and say, `Is that you, and I would say, `Yeah, its me, Tarantino said. Tarantino also spent time Friday and Saturday with theater owner Larry Smith and local Cinerama preservationist John Harvey. Tarantino had dinner Saturday in Harveys home where he watched the documentary Keepers of the Frame, which depicts Harveys single-handed efforts to save Cinerama. Tarantino said he started getting teary-eyed watching the documentary. So many people make a lot of money and never give anything back, Tarantino said. Heres a guy whos not a professional, not a museum curator, just a film enthusiast who wants to keep Cinerama so people can see it. Tarantino said hes open to the idea of filming a movie in Dayton, but only if he is able to write a script that is specific to the city. In his three films Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown, the Los Angeles setting was so strong it acted as one of the main characters, he said. Tarantinos first big movie Reservoir Dogs (1992) brought him the seed money needed for his biggest film, Pulp Fiction , starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis. The 1994 release won an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Screenplay as well as much critical acclaim.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 16:08:55 +0000