Windjammer (1958 film)
- Yngvar Kjelstrup (Captain)
- Asbjørn Espenak ( crew)
- Gunnar Haugsvær ( crew)
- Lasse Kolstad ( crew)
- Nils Hermansen ( crew)
- Semund Remøy ( crew)
- Sven Erik Libaek ( crew)
- Arthur Fiedler
- Pablo Casals
- Stump ( ship's dog ) u.v.a.
The film Windjammer is a documentary from the year 1958 in the rare Recording format Cinemiracle. In English, the film is also Windjammer: The Voyage of the Christian Radich called to distinguish it from other films with the same title. The film was directed by Bill Colleran and Louis De Rochemont III. The premiere took place at Grauman 's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, on April 8, 1958 and the film was held there for 36 weeks.
The narrator in the German version was Hans Clarin, at the time known as the Speaker of the Kookie in the crime series " 77 Sunset Strip".
Content
The film depicts the journey with the Norwegian sail training ship S / S Christian Radich from Oslo across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean, to New York and back to Norway. The crew of 16 officers and 42 cadets under the command of Captain Yngvar Kjelstrup, experienced on the 17,000 nautical mile journey fascinating encounters with the country and people. So they experience on the island of Madeira, a traditional wicker sleigh ride, meet the famous cellist Pablo Casals, who gives a concert just for them in his garden, and they hit the German sailing ship Pamir, which goes down during the filming of 1957 in a storm. The film thus contains the last moving footage of the Pamir.
Shortly before making the Christian Radich on the return trip to Norway, Cadet Sven Erik Libaek with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra may a live concert at the port of Portsmouth, give New Hampshire ( Edvard Grieg's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor op. 16).
Cinemiracle
The classification of the film in a particular category is not quite so simple. Actually, it is a documentary, because he holds the journey and the events of the sailing crew there. At the same time he is also a music film, because many now well-known songs that belong to the standard repertoire of shanty choirs, come to him for the performance, and he is also an experimental film for the complicated film format Cinemiracle.
When shooting the film three Mitchell cameras for 35mm film have been installed in a camera block. The camera block was so great that when shooting from the wheelhouse of the sailing ship an entire wall had to be taken out. The film cameras could record a viewing angle of 146 degrees horizontally and vertically by 55 degrees. The two outer images were taken the wrong way. The left camera picked up the right image, the right camera left. When projecting the images had to be projected on three electrically coupled projectors onto the canvas. The outdoor pictures were projected by means of mirrors on the middle image and so gave an undistorted wide screen image (as opposed to widescreen format Cinemascope, which, although it included simple with only one camera, but when recording zusammengestaucht the image and this will therefore be equalized when projecting again must ).
There a canvas with 32 meters wide and 17 meters high, was for the German première on 22 May 1959 in the Essen Grugahalle temporarily installed at the time the largest screen in the world. In the Grugahalle the film in 1959 and then in 1962 and 1965 shown and seen doing a total of approximately 650,000 spectators.
Only a few movie theaters in the world were to perform Cinemiracle movies in the situation. The film " Windjammer " was therefore copied later in the enforced CinemaScope. Here, the left and right image by clearly visible lines by means brighter image were then separated. In rare television broadcasts was not even a CinemaScope version, but only a 4:3 version with only the middle image sent. So 60 percent of the total counts were nowhere to be seen.
For the 60th anniversary of Cinerama the restored film in the U.S. was published in a region-free DVD-/Blu-Ray-Box with over one hour bonus material in September 2012.
Film Music
The film was fitted with a 7 -channel stereo sound frequencies from 20 Hz to 18 KHz could play and was referred to at the time as High Fidelity. The soundtrack was created by the American composer Morton Gould (1913-1996) composed. This music was recorded instrumental in stereo. In addition come in the movie many songs composed by the folk trio The Easy Riders and recorded in mono. The songs were sung by members of the crew.
" The Easy Riders" consisted of Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr and Frank Miller. Terry Gilkyson, for example, composer of the song " Trying out comfort " from Disney's Jungle Book. Among the currently known songs of the movie Windjammer include " Kari Waits For Me", "Marianne", "Sugar Cane", "Memories Are Made of This ", " Saturday Night ," " Do not You Worry " and " Village of New York". The cellist Pablo Casals contributed the song " Catalan Melody " for the film. The soundtrack has been released at the time on LP and EP singles.
Reviews
" A documentary with technical perfection. The impressive effects of the " Cinemiracle " method that simulates three-dimensional visual effect and also on oversized formats guarantees a flawless image sharpness, can be traced only to the big screen. The film has been the first in this process and had the time of enthusiastic spectators. "
More Windjammer movies
- The Windjammer (1926 ) ( IMDb )
- Windjammer ( 1930) ( IMDb )
- Windjammer ( 1937) ( IMDb )