IN FRANCE, MAY 22, PRESENTED BY THIERRY JOUSSE; ALSO "SEE IT BIG" AT MOMA IN NEW YORK
Film critic and filmmaker Thierry Jousse will begin an evening on the importance of sound in the cinema (May 22nd, at Cinéma Cinévals in Saint-Jean-d'Angély, France) with a screening of Brian De Palma's Blow Out, according to Sud Oest's Philippe Brégowy:
The association of local cinephiles Grand Ecran offers, on Monday May 22 at 8:30 p.m., an evening dedicated to the importance of sound in cinema. Thierry Jousse, specialized journalist but also film director, will discuss this subject after the screening of the film “Blow Out” by Brian de Palma. A great specialist in film music, he has written several books on this subject.Thierry Jousse considers that sound and music are "essential" in a film. “They lead the viewer's gaze. But the sound – a little less the music – still remains a poor relation of cinema for the general public”, estimates the one who hosts a weekly program on France Musique: “Ciné Tempo”.
For Thierry Jousse, "90% of the best memories of spectators in dark rooms are related to music". Even if he does not consider himself an "ayatollah" of music and sound, he deplores the general public's ignorance of these essential elements of a film.
The evening promises to be exciting because the film was chosen by the speaker himself and has for hero... a sound engineer!
Meanwhile, at The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York, a 35mm print of Blow Out has been arranged for upcoming screenings on May 27th and June 4th, according to Michael Gannon at Queens Chronicle:
The Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria always makes a splash with its annual “See It Big” film series.And there’s no way to make it any bigger than this year’s lineup dedicated to summer blockbusters, dating back to when they were invented in the 1970s.
The promo on the museum’s website, movingimage.us, says it all:
“Kick back in the air conditioning and enjoy these summer movies the way they were meant to be seen.”
The series began May 5. “Jaws” (1975), the original “Star Wars” trilogy (1977-83) and “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) headline the A-list offerings.
Edo Choi, MoMI’s associate curator of film, programmed the series alongside Curator of Film Eric Hynes and co-editors Michael Koresky and Jeff Reichert of MoMI’s “Reverse Shot” magazine
“We researched the summer movies from each year going back to the 1973 release of “American Graffiti” which we judged to be the historical, as opposed to the mythic (“Jaws”), beginning of the summer movie phenomenon,” Choi told the Chronicle in an email. “We then tried to achieve a selection that had a good mix of mainstream blockbusters, genre films and arthouse hits.”
Choi said “American Graffiti” was not available because the studio is planning a theatrical release around the film’s 50th anniversary. But he did receive a nice consolation prize
“I’m particularly excited that we managed to arrange the loan of a 35mm print of Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out” (1981),” he said. “The digital format (DCP) has more commonly circulated in recent years and this is certainly one to ‘See Big.’”