I also saw this at the IMAX on opening day-April 24th.
The last time I had seen Pompeii at the cinema was circa 1979, when I saw it at the midnight movies, back-to-back with the Woodstock movie. We must have gotten out at 6am, exhilarated and very tired.
The IMAX sound is very much better than I can recall ever hearing this before. Mason’s drums in particular pound and the cymbals shimmer (especially in ‘Be careful with that axe, Eugene’).
The remastered film images are good, but lack the hyperdetailed and contrasty images that current films provide. But it was on 16mm film, rather than the 70mm format favored by IMAX.
I still don’t understand why a significant portion of this movie is dedicated to them ordering chips and beans in a greasy spoon cafe…or apple pie with no crust. Although that maybe humanizes them, it doesn’t really contribute anything of importance.
And even in 1972, Roger Waters comes as quite arrrogant and aloof.
Echoes is about as brilliant as any of Beethovens Symphonies in its melodies, and probably remains their magnum opus.
The film was shot in 35mm. There is grain, but that’s part of the character of film. It isn’t necessarily ‘hypedetailed’ or ‘contrasty’ but the light and colour are rendered beautifully (especially the late afternoon Vesuvian sun, which bathes everything in a gorgeous gold), and visually I prefer this ‘look’ to most modern movies which are usually flat and dismal-looking: too sharp, too clean.
The reason why you have the canteen and Abbey Road segments is that the original movie was just 60 minutes long when it premiered in 1972. [Director] Adrian Maben felt it needed to be a bit longer to be a viable cinema release (no home video in those days!) so in Summer 1972, while fly fishing with Roger Waters, he suggested shooting them at work in the studio and at the Abbey Road canteen. Waters and the rest agreed, which added almost 30 minutes to the 1974 edition of the movie. Maben and the group intended Pompeii to be more of a documentary than a concert movie so the footage works quite well in that context I think.
Thank you , I spent time wondering about that - and why Eric Idle was there wearing a beard and longer hair ?
I took a friend who is mad about Floyd , I nearly went to sleep . My legs were somewhat frail coming down the stairs and I wonder of I will manage all 6 and hours of Die Walkure next month . I may sit in the front row if nobody takes those seats
I am hoping that they will not inflict the two one hour intermissions from the live performance on us…
