MGM-UA is releasing a special edition of Raging Bull on February 8th. To promote the DVD they a premiere of the movie tonight in NYC. I was in a video store last week and entered a contest and won tickets to the premiere. It was a pretty cool event. Irwin Winkler, the producer introduced the event and Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro both spoke.
Winkler mentioned that this was actually the first premiere of the movie because in 1980 Raging Bull did not have a premiere. The movie was booked into a single theater in Manhattan (Remember when movies would play for a long time at a single theater and then slowly roll out to other theaters?) and Scorsese took red-eye flight out from LA to hand-deliver the print, because they were still editing it that week. Scorsese said he had kept going back and scratching the negative for the home movie sequences to make them look old. He said it was the first film that Michael Chapman had shot in black and white and they had a brief scare when the first test footage had come come back looking terrible and found out the lab had run the footage through the color solution by accident.
Then Scorsese persuaded DeNiro to say something. As usual he was reluctant had to be coaxed into talking. I believe his entire speech was "Thank you. I'm sorry I'm late. Thank you for coming."
Scorsese mentioned that Michael Chapman was going to be there but got snowed in in Massachusetts and that Thelma Schoonmaker was going to be there but she was wrapping up the DVD for The Aviator. People started mumurring and pointing and she turned out to be in the audience and stood up and gave a wave. Cathy Moriarty and Jake LaMotta were there but didn't speak. I think John Turturro was there too. I think that was his first movie, he has a brief non-speaking part. I think Joe Pesci may have been working. It was a very cool event.
The new print was absolutely gorgeous. I think they may have remastered the sound too. There were at least three lines that I never heard clearly before. It may just have been the speakers in the theater, but I definitely have never heard those lines sitting six feet my TV.
We were up in the balcony and the special guests were on the floor, as we were leaving the two crowds mingled on the staircases. Roseanna Arquette was right in front of me. My friend and I noticed that Thelma Schoonmker was going to pass right in front of us. So we waited for a bit. I told her I loved The Aviator and she seemed pleased to be complimented. If there was more time, I would have asked her if they remastered the movie, but it wasn't going to happen. She won the Oscar for Raging Bull and I have always liked her editing. She has also won two BAFTA awards, one for RB and one for Goodfellas. She has a pretty good shot of winning another Oscar this year. I was making Thelma Schoonmaker jokes all week to my girlfriend, so I couldn't believe I got to bump into her. On the Goodfellas commentary they talk about the long the "Joe-Pesci-I'm-a-clown-I-amuse-you" scene took to edit. They talk about how to make it funny without killing the tension and lengthen it out so the tension keeps growing. That's the kind of editing you often take for granted, the choreographed fight sequences of Raging Bull are fantastic and gorgeous and they are what most people think of as "editing." They are more obvious to notice, but editing for performance and for drama is subtler and probably harder. After we had said hi to Thelma, I turned to my friend and said, "Now all we have to do is meet Marcia Lucas." He got the joke, one of the few people I know who would get it. They had all these buses to take the special guests to the premiere party and we got pretty close to getting on one, but you had to have a special pass and we figured it wasn't going to happen.
All in all, it was an amazing night, however, we somehow picked seats right in front of about eight guys who were reciting every line of the movie. Usually before the actors did. For the whole movie. Also these were guys who thought Raging Bull was a comedy. Guys who don't understand that Scorsese is critiquing machismo and racism, not celebrating it. The missed virtually all the pathos.
Winkler mentioned that this was actually the first premiere of the movie because in 1980 Raging Bull did not have a premiere. The movie was booked into a single theater in Manhattan (Remember when movies would play for a long time at a single theater and then slowly roll out to other theaters?) and Scorsese took red-eye flight out from LA to hand-deliver the print, because they were still editing it that week. Scorsese said he had kept going back and scratching the negative for the home movie sequences to make them look old. He said it was the first film that Michael Chapman had shot in black and white and they had a brief scare when the first test footage had come come back looking terrible and found out the lab had run the footage through the color solution by accident.
Then Scorsese persuaded DeNiro to say something. As usual he was reluctant had to be coaxed into talking. I believe his entire speech was "Thank you. I'm sorry I'm late. Thank you for coming."
Scorsese mentioned that Michael Chapman was going to be there but got snowed in in Massachusetts and that Thelma Schoonmaker was going to be there but she was wrapping up the DVD for The Aviator. People started mumurring and pointing and she turned out to be in the audience and stood up and gave a wave. Cathy Moriarty and Jake LaMotta were there but didn't speak. I think John Turturro was there too. I think that was his first movie, he has a brief non-speaking part. I think Joe Pesci may have been working. It was a very cool event.
The new print was absolutely gorgeous. I think they may have remastered the sound too. There were at least three lines that I never heard clearly before. It may just have been the speakers in the theater, but I definitely have never heard those lines sitting six feet my TV.
We were up in the balcony and the special guests were on the floor, as we were leaving the two crowds mingled on the staircases. Roseanna Arquette was right in front of me. My friend and I noticed that Thelma Schoonmker was going to pass right in front of us. So we waited for a bit. I told her I loved The Aviator and she seemed pleased to be complimented. If there was more time, I would have asked her if they remastered the movie, but it wasn't going to happen. She won the Oscar for Raging Bull and I have always liked her editing. She has also won two BAFTA awards, one for RB and one for Goodfellas. She has a pretty good shot of winning another Oscar this year. I was making Thelma Schoonmaker jokes all week to my girlfriend, so I couldn't believe I got to bump into her. On the Goodfellas commentary they talk about the long the "Joe-Pesci-I'm-a-clown-I-amuse-you" scene took to edit. They talk about how to make it funny without killing the tension and lengthen it out so the tension keeps growing. That's the kind of editing you often take for granted, the choreographed fight sequences of Raging Bull are fantastic and gorgeous and they are what most people think of as "editing." They are more obvious to notice, but editing for performance and for drama is subtler and probably harder. After we had said hi to Thelma, I turned to my friend and said, "Now all we have to do is meet Marcia Lucas." He got the joke, one of the few people I know who would get it. They had all these buses to take the special guests to the premiere party and we got pretty close to getting on one, but you had to have a special pass and we figured it wasn't going to happen.
All in all, it was an amazing night, however, we somehow picked seats right in front of about eight guys who were reciting every line of the movie. Usually before the actors did. For the whole movie. Also these were guys who thought Raging Bull was a comedy. Guys who don't understand that Scorsese is critiquing machismo and racism, not celebrating it. The missed virtually all the pathos.