And so concludes the retelling of the hellish experience I had watching Lost in Translation at the Varsity Theater.
Was it worth sacrificing a week’s worth of zippy one-liners and taking pot-shots at The Rock in The Rundown? Maybe. I got to flex a few different narrative muscles than before. I felt this was a story better told than read. I was curious to see if I could trump that notion.
If anything, it spurred from great debate. I received on e-mail suggesting that the inclusion of all the bomb mics was intentional – as if to enhance the surreal environment the two leads found themselves in while wandering around Tokyo.
It’s a fascinating thought, but one I reject. Lost in Translation is too quiet and intimate a movie to have the director constantly winking at us, saying, “See? See? It’s not told.”
Also, the cinematography by Lance Acord is too beautiful to wreck with poor composition.
The answer to my situation, I believe came from Abraham Brezo when he wrote:
“My guess about the boom mics is, that the film was shot open matte, and the projectionist forgot to matte the film. Leaving the film at an open matte will give it a smaller aspect ratio, thus including
everything that was supposed to be hidden behind the matte. This type of filmmaking is supposed to be more cost efficient.”
Judging by what I saw and comparing my experience against others who had gone to see the film, I’d say this was right on the head. It helps to aid my righteous indignation. Thanks, Abraham!
I’m doing a final flight-check for all things FallCon related at the moment. I’m leaving straight from my job this afternoon and I want to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. It’d be quite a shame to drive all that way to Minnesota to forget the posters I’m trying to sell.
…or my contact lens solution.
The more you know who you are and what you want, the less you let thinks upset you.
We wanted to talk about the movie on the ride home, but we were just to mad about what happened.
I'm MAD!
Me too!
So mad, in fact, I left an angry message on the answering machine of the Varsity Theater!
...and I will NOT refer anyone to your theater until you learn how to project your movies better!
When I'm 60, I'll be writing rambling, cantankerous letters to the editor that no one will read...
Yeah! And concession stand prices are too high!
When I was a kid, Mike 'N Ike's cost a NICKEL!
Um.. is there a comic missing?
Fixed!
Thanks, Wayne, for pointing this out. Since we moved the site to WordPress in January, I’ve been cleaning up stuff like this.
I’ve never heard of an “open matte” film… the closest thing I can think of is that there are little metal frames that go in the projector – two different sizes depending on if the film is flat or scope (type of lens used to view the film). But not placing one of those frames in the projector will completely distort the film. I know this because I once forgot when switching lenses between two different films. Putting the wrong plate in also distorts the film (which I discovered when my manager left the projector with no lens or plate in when switching movies…)
As for the employees not being in the lobby, that’s a big no-no in the theatre industry. Someone always, always has to be in the lobby for security reasons. Privately owned theatres may have a different policy, but it’s just plain stupid for many reason not to have it as such. With it being only one screen – that raises even more questions. Theatres with only one screen don’t have a clean up crew. The concessionists, projectionists, and basically just about *anyone* working at that theatre is also the clean-up crew so they aren’t leaving until everyone is out & they have the auditorium cleaned. Doesn’t sound like they take care of their business very well to me.