Boston-area film fans have the opportunity to see one of the most highly-anticipated movies of the fall in an extremely rare format.
The Coolidge Corner Theater in Brookline is one of only four theaters in the world showing “One Battle After Another” in VistaVision.
Using projector borrowed from museum
“We’re using a projection system that’s on loan from the George Eastman Museum,” said Mark Anastasio, the program manager at the Coolidge Corner Theater. “These are actual museum pieces that have been broken out of their display cases and brought to a theater to be put back to use for the first time since the 1960s.”
The projector isn’t the only thing that’s different. Thomas Piccione, a cinema engineer at Boston Light & Sound, said the film itself is unique. Where a regular 35 mm film “runs vertically through the projector, whereas VistaVision runs horizontally.” That creates extra stability and a picture that takes up the full frame.
1 of 4 theaters in the world using VistaVision
Director Paul Thomas Anderson released just four VistaVision prints of his new movie, “One Battle After Another.”
“It was originally New York, Los Angeles and London but there was an opportunity for a fourth print and projection system to be installed and we jumped at the chance,” said Anastasio. “It’s a great car chase movie. There are incredible sequences of chase scenes taking place in the desert sort of over rolling hills of road.”
“We did an A-B comparison with a digital projector that most movies would be shown on in a normal movie theater and the VistaVision projector and it was night and day immediately,” said Piccione. “This is also a very well-photographed film. It takes great advantage of that full frame and it’s very, very sharp and colorful.”
Two reels hold more than 29,000 feet of film for the movie.
“There are rollers [on the projector] and up on the ceiling that lets us run the film from the spool tower, back up over the walkway, down into the projector, out of the projector, back up over the walkway and back onto the take-up spool,” said Piccione.
It’s something audiences haven’t seen for decades. “One Battle After Another” is the first film in 60 years to be projected in the vintage format.
“A new movie in the year 2025 in VistaVision? It’s pretty incredible to be something, to be a part of that,” said Piccione.
The Coolidge Corner Theater will show “One Battle After Another” in VistaVision through at least Oct. 12.
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