20 AFV Winter 2013.pub - Federation of Australian Movie Makers

My Favourite MovieRecently I went to an exhibition of Hollywood Costume at the ACMI (Australian Centre for the MovingImage) in Federation Square, Melbourne. There are clothes worn in films by famous actors dating back to1920 (Sex) and as recent as 2012 (Anna Karenina, The Dark Knight Rises, and a Mocap suit). It was amazingto think the DNA from actors’ perspiration might still be imbedded in the fabric. It was surprising somehad even survived after many trips through the laundry like the gingham dress worn by Judy Garland inThe Wizard of Oz (1939), John Wayne’s blue jeans and red shirt worn in The Searchers (1956), andMarilyn Monroe’s dress in Some Like it Hot (1959). My heart jumped when I saw the dashing russet outfitErrol Flynn wore in Adventures of Don Juan (1948). He was my boyhood hero and I emulated his look andswashbuckling in my own 8mm movies. But one costume took away my breath and, as I stood before it,my eyes welled with joy. There was Charlton Heston’s blue and gold-trimmed robe and white cassockworn as Judah Ben-Hur. Time had faded the brilliance of the colours, but the memory of having seen itworn in my favourite film was a lucid as ever.I’d already fallen in love with the movies after having seen my first movie Peter Pan. My parents took meto see The Robe, the first picture made in Cinemascope. Catholic schools organised excursions to movietheatres to see those biblical-themed pictures deemed acceptable by the Legion of Decency. Classroomnuns led me in to The Ten Commandments and Demetrius and the Gladiators. I was 13 in 1959 when Ifirst saw Ben-Hur. It made such a huge impression that I watched the Academy Awards and saw the moviewin 11 Oscars. I have not missed a telecast of the Academy Awards since. No matter where I’ve been, I’vealways managed to catch the telecast. It’s been a regular feature of my life, a genuine popcorn night. It’s aritual all due to my having regaled in the grandeur of Ben-Hur.In filming Ben-Hur, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was determined to have the most exciting photography obtainable.It chose Camera 65 for a new and vastly improved motion picture image. Camera 65 uses film whichis 65mm wide (over two and a half inches). Six cameras with rare Panavision lenses worth $100,000 eachwere shipped to Rome’s Cinecetta Studios. The overall depth and the high quality of picture allow the audienceto feel it is seeing the actual scenes through an open window, rather than an image on a screen. Maybethat’s why after cheering along the chariot race, I felt like brushing dust and horse poop from my face. Isaw Ben-Hur on a monstrous wide-screen or, because I was just a kid, it may have seemed bigger than life.A decade or so later, I was a teacher and took some 9 th grade students to a local theatre to see a 35mm printof Ben-Hur in the hope they might enjoy the experience as much as I had. The print was well-worn,scratched, spliced, and the screen was tawdry and puny. We walked out. If Ben-Hur can’t be seen in optimalconditions, it shouldn’t be seen at all. Given square screen analogue television, I never watched Ben-Hur. Even somewhat larger Academy-format TV screens couldn’t do justice to the picture with its pan andscan method for televising wide-screen films. Catch the film on videotape? Nope. Not worth it.Ben-Hur on DVD was somewhat acceptable with its masked format, but still not near as good-looking as itshould be on square screen TV. Enter the wide-screen digital TV. Bigger is better? When considering Ben-Hur, oh yes, it is! My screen is just 42 inch, but anything bigger would force me out of my caravan annexe.There are several issues of Ben-Hur available on DVD. There is a way to see the earliest silent film attemptsand see what all the fuss was about in the 1925 $4 million silent version starring Ramon Navarroand Francis X. Bushman. If it’s still around, find the Four-Disc Collector’s Edition. Then get your hands onthe Fiftieth Anniversary release of Ben-Hur on Blu-ray, the Limited Edition including six collectable charactercostume sketches. It has some of the extras found on other DVD releases, but it doesn’t include themagnificent 1925 silent version.Page 48 AUSTRALIAN FILM & VIDEO—VOL 20 WINTER 2013