With our free press under threat and federal funding for public media gone, your support matters more than ever. Help keep the LAist newsroom strong, become a monthly member or increase your support today .
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Egyptian Theatre To Become One Of The Few Theaters In The Country To Screen Rare Nitrate Prints
Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre, opened in 1922. (Photo by Michael Locke via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
()
Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre, already one of the best venues for classic movies in Los Angeles, just stepped up their game.
On Tuesday, the American Cinematheque (the nonprofit that oversees programming at both the Egyptian and Santa Monica's Aero Theatre) announced that the historic theater on Hollywood Boulevard would soon be outfitted with the ability to project nitrate prints, a film format that has been discontinued since the early 50s.
If you have any friends who are film geeks—and if you live in Los Angeles, chances are you do—you'll always hear from them how much better it is to see things on 35mm prints as opposed digital projection. (Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Theater sticks by this—their programming is exclusively 35mm.) Nitrate stock, which was discontinued in 1951, is said to look even better than its successor, the so-called "safety film."
"The art of cinema developed with nitrate from its beginnings to the early '50s, and the silver content gave us a luminosity and a richness that was never quite matched by the safer stocks that followed or their digital reproductions," said director Martin Scorsese in a statement. Scorsese's Film Foundation, a nonprofit he founded for the preservation of film, partnered with the American Cinematheque, Academy, Hollywood Foreign Press Association and Turner Classic Movies to make the Egyptian one of the few theaters in the country equipped to project nitrate prints.
Support for LAist comes from
Why is nitrate projection so rare nowadays? Let Samuel L. Jackson explain, in Inglourious Basterds:
(Spoiler alert: here's what happens with all that film in the movie.)
According to Atlas Obscura:
It is essentially a solid form of nitroglycerin dragged across superhot carbon rods at extremely high speed. If celluloid combusts, which it can do at "car parked in the sun" temperatures, the fire generates its own oxygen, creating a flame which cannot be extinguished. It can burn underwater. It can burn beneath a fire blanket. It burns until the celluloid is gone, and any attempt to smother it creates clouds of poison gas.
Vault fires are, sadly, why so many films from the first half of the 20th century have been lost. The flammability of the stock is also the reason why film projectors have their own separate room in a movie theater.
The Egyptian will now be the second theater in Los Angeles equipped to handle nitrate. The James Bridges Theater, located on the UCLA campus in their film department is the other—and where this writer saw Citizen Kane for the first time on a nitrate print!
Support for LAist comes from
The Egyptian has not yet announced when nitrate programming will begin at the theater, but Angelenos can get a taste of it on August 13 when the Hammer Museum's Billy Wilder Theater does a "Nitrate Noir" double feature, featuring Leave Her To Heaven and Nightmare Alley.
At LAist, we believe in journalism without censorship and the right of a free press to speak truth to those in power. Our hard-hitting watchdog reporting on local government, climate, and the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis is trustworthy, independent and freely accessible to everyone thanks to the support of readers like you.
But the game has changed: Congress voted to eliminate funding for public media across the country. Here at LAist that means a loss of $1.7 million in our budget every year. We want to assure you that despite growing threats to free press and free speech, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Speaking frankly, the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news in our community.
We’re asking you to stand up for independent reporting that will not be silenced. With more individuals like you supporting this public service, we can continue to provide essential coverage for Southern Californians that you can’t find anywhere else. Become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission.
Thank you for your generous support and belief in the value of independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
The study found recipients spent nearly all the money on basic needs like food and transportation, not drugs or alcohol. -
Kevin Lee's Tokyo Noir has become one of the top spots for craft-inspired cocktails. -
A tort claim obtained by LAist via a public records request alleges the Anaheim procurement department lacks basic contracting procedures and oversight. -
Flauta, taquito, tacos dorados? Whatever they’re called, they’re golden, crispy and delicious. -
If California redistricts, the conservative beach town that banned LGBTQ Pride flags on city property would get a gay, progressive Democrat in Congress. -
Most survivors of January's fires face a massive gap in the money they need to rebuild, and funding to help is moving too slowly or nonexistent.
Best of LAist