Cinerama Adventure (2002)

A nostalgic and compelling look into the legendary three camera, three projector process that revolutionized motion pictures and led the industry into the widescreen era. Through actual ... See full summary »

Director:

David Strohmaier

Writer:

David Strohmaier

Stars:

Lowell Thomas, Fred Waller, Jim Morrison

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Lowell Thomas	...	Himself (archive footage)
Fred Waller	...	Himself (archive footage)
Jim Morrison	...	Himself, Cinerama crew member
Rudy Behlmer	...	Himself, film historian
Jane MacLardy Schacht	...	Herself, production secretary
Kevin Brownlow	...	Himself, film historian
Michael Todd Jr.	...	Himself, Cinerama crew member (as Mike Todd Jr.)
A.C. Lyles	...	Himself, film producer
Leonard Maltin	...	Himself, film historian
Howard Rust	...	Himself, International Cinerama Society
Greg Kimble	...	Himself, Cinerama historian
John Caron	...	Himself, Fred Waller's stepson
Thomas Erffmeyer	...	Himself, author of 'History of Cinerama'
Florence Hill	...	Herself (in 'A Bundle of Blues') (archive footage)
Bessie Dudley	...	Herself (in 'A Bundle of Blues') (archive footage)

Storyline

A nostalgic and compelling look into the legendary three camera, three projector process that revolutionized motion pictures and led the industry into the widescreen era. Through actual Cinerama clips, rare behind the scenes footage and new interviews, CINERAMA ADVENTURE takes the viewer back to a lost era of movie showmanship, placing this American cinema phenomenon into historical perspective.

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Plot Keywords:

cinerama | interview | widescreen | behind the scenes | showmanship | 

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Taglines:

The dramatic behind the scenes story about the wonder hunting pioneers of the widescreen phenomenon that thrilled a generation

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Genres:

Documentary

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Details

Official Sites:

C.A. Productions / Cinerama, Inc.

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 September 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Aventura en Cinerama

Company Credits

Production Co:

American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), Cinerama Productions Corp., C.A. Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This documentary is featured on the Three-Disc Special Edition, Ultimate Collector's Edition & Blu-Ray DVDs for How the West Was Won, all released in September 2008.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: Many of us experience childhood memories, that on occasion, rush into our consciousness. A memory that has invaded my mind on numerous occasions was when I was only six years old, and my parents took me and my sister on a special trip to St. Louis, Missouri. On the last day of this visit, we arrived at a very large ornate old movie theatre. It was as if we'd walked into a sultan's palace out of the "Arabian Nights." It was the Ambassador Theatre, and it was specially set up for a ...

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Connections

References The Perils of Pauline (1914)

User Reviews

A not-to-be-missed film!

I recently saw Cinerama Adventure at the ArcLight Cinema, adjacent to the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood. The completion of this production culminates a six-year labor of love by David Strohmaier, the documentary's producer, director and writer. There is new music by John Morgan and William Stromberg, which blends perfectly with music excerpts from many of the original Cinerama features.

Though it had been test screened in Bradford, England earlier, I first saw a rough cut of this production, projected in video, in Seattle in 1999 and then saw it again last summer in Los Angeles when it was shown at a local SMPTE chapter meeting which was very well attended. It is now finished, on film, with Dolby Digital sound. The Interviews are shown at 1.33:1 inside a 1.85:1 aspect ratio. The Cinerama cuts are shown in the C.A. Productions' SmileboxT curved screen simulation format at 1.85:1, which really "puts you in the picture."

This production is simply perfect! It blends the history of the people behind Cinerama with the story of the making of the films and highlights the technical aspects of this pioneering widescreen format in an exiting and dramatic way. There are numerous interviews with many of those who were involved with and stared in the original Cinerama films. I was most interested to learn more about Paul Mantz, who flew the Cinerama camera for all of the aerial sequences.

This is a not-to-be-missed documentary which is a uniquely American story of technology, movie making and film exhibition which started the whole widescreen era.