One of the Cineville cinemas is Kriterion. Across the street from one of the largest university areas in the city, it’s mainly visited by students, as well as run by them. In the cafe you’ll find students getting together for a beer after, or in between, classes and even at ten in the evening on a weeknight the place is still buzzing.
Once a month they organize the screening of a movie classic at the big screen. Not using the original films, sadly, but using modern technology. Many of the classics are widely available on DVD and as most cinemas nowadays, they can just play the DVD. They managed to get their hands on ‘Nosferatu: ein Symphonie des Grauens’ this month, which I decided I’d want to see at a big screen. With the Cineville card, I can see as many films as I want, anyway.
Starting the movie was simply a matter of walking through the DVD setup menu, occasionally pressing buttons on the remote that did not have a function, resulting in error messages. After a few minutes however, they did manage to get it going and Act I began. From Act III on, however, the film started to experience hick-ups: it would repeat parts of about 1 second in length several times before continuing. In Act IV, the film stopped, and only after two of their employees had ran past a few times, they managed to get it going again, leaving the audience obviously and justly slightly annoyed.
Halfway through Act V, however, it stopped again, but, again, they got it going until 30 seconds later it stopped. Their old trick didn’t work this time, and they had to restart the movie from the beginning, using fast forward to get to the point we stopped watching. But then, at the exact same point, it stopped again, and this time it was final. By the time they got out of the projection room, to tell they would not restart the film due to ‘technical issues’, which I think translates to scratches on the disc, and visitors could get a free drink in the cafe, half of the crowd had already left. I declined the free drink and made my way to the subway in an attempt to get to my girlfriend at a decent hour.
Nosferatu is a classic, and rightfully so, but sadly, I didn’t get the chance to view the ending. I did see enough of it to want to own a copy of it, so once I have purchased a copy, without scratches, I’ll be watching the movie in one go, without ‘technical issues’ from my cinema-style seats at home. The viewing of a classic movie: great idea, but it shouldn’t hurt to test the copy first before showing it!