Today is the premiere of Knives Out on Blu-ray and DVD, and fans eagerly await more news about the upcoming sequel. But yesterday was a milestone of another kind: the world premiere of the film on 35mm. In partnership with American Cinematheque, a non-profit organization aimed at preserving the legacy of film, director Rian Johnson introduced the very first projection and the only 35mm print of his Oscar-nominated whodunnit.
Johnson himself is a big fan of shooting in 35mm, but Knives Out is the first film he and cinematographer Steve Yedlin (with whom he collaborated on both Looper and Star Wars: The Last Jedi) have shot entirely digitally. Despite this, the 35mm print was made available and the director delighted in sharing what he learned about the differences in projection with the audience at the Egyptian Theater.
After geeking out about the fact that only one print of Knives Out exists in the format, which he had previously done on Twitter, Johnson explained how the screening would work. Cinema aficionados know while movies are projected digitally in one file nowadays, they used to be on several reels of film which had to be switched out by the projectionist. That’s interesting in and of itself, but what’s more exciting is how that changes the end result of the Knives Out cut that a few lucky witnessed. As the director revealed:
Anyone who would like to witness the magic of 35mm for themselves can stop by American Cinematheque’s “Noir City: Hollywood” festival in April. The annual film noir festival will present 28 detective stories, some of which inspired Knives Out, at 18 of them will be in 35mm. As for those clamoring to see this slightly different cut of Johnson’s masterpiece? There may be only one print in existence, but there must be other opportunities to showcase it.
So, the interesting thing about this print is it’s actually a slightly different cut than the [theatrical] version. Nothing too exciting. Essentially, because you need a little bit of a leeway. When they would edit films back when this was the norm, of projection, at those points where they knew the changeover would happen, they would actually build into those transitions a little bit of extra space, so that there’s a little bit of a runway because he’s really trying to hit like a moving target. He pulls that lever and switches the projectors. So, there’s a couple of transitions that are actually different from the regular theatrical cut.
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Knives Out is now available on Digital, as well as on Blu-ray, DVD and 4K.
