Raiders and Fassbinder
A film-exhibition-history researcher contacted me today asking where I might have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. I e-mailed him back:
"I first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark on June 18, 1981 at the Lincoln Mall Cinemas in Lincoln, RI. I saw it again a month later on August 26 at the Imperial Theatre in Montreal. I noted that it was shown there in 70mm and Dolby sound. I was in Montreal for the World Film Festival and squeezed that in as well, primarily to take advantage of the high-quality presentation.
"Now this next bit is not useful to your research, but at the Festival, that evening of August 26 around midnight, I caught a special showing in its North American premiere of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film Lola. The director was on hand to introduce it. He had brought his newly-finished film in his luggage.
"The print of this German-language movie had no subtitles. The festival staff distributed headphones for simultaneous translation in French or English. It was a privileged event. Less than a year later, the following June, Fassbinder would die from heart failure brought on by heavy use of sleeping pills and cocaine."
"I first saw Raiders of the Lost Ark on June 18, 1981 at the Lincoln Mall Cinemas in Lincoln, RI. I saw it again a month later on August 26 at the Imperial Theatre in Montreal. I noted that it was shown there in 70mm and Dolby sound. I was in Montreal for the World Film Festival and squeezed that in as well, primarily to take advantage of the high-quality presentation.
"Now this next bit is not useful to your research, but at the Festival, that evening of August 26 around midnight, I caught a special showing in its North American premiere of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's film Lola. The director was on hand to introduce it. He had brought his newly-finished film in his luggage.
"The print of this German-language movie had no subtitles. The festival staff distributed headphones for simultaneous translation in French or English. It was a privileged event. Less than a year later, the following June, Fassbinder would die from heart failure brought on by heavy use of sleeping pills and cocaine."