{"id":4221,"date":"2012-02-03T15:36:09","date_gmt":"2012-02-03T20:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=2851"},"modified":"2012-02-03T15:36:09","modified_gmt":"2012-02-03T20:36:09","slug":"festivals-a-go-go-feb-3-5-r-i-p-the-cinesphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4221","title":{"rendered":"Festivals-a-Go-Go: Feb. 3-5 + R.I.P. The Cinesphere?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Before I roll off a quick tally of interesting things screening at interesting venues this weekend (bobby-pins, please<\/em>), here\u2019s a video<\/a> released by NASA this week showing the dark side of the moon, proving Pink Floyd does not have a secret base in crater XB-14.<\/p>\n

Why is this important? It\u2019s just cool<\/em>. The footage resembles Ridley Scott\u2019s blazing Alien<\/strong> trailer of a giant egg scraping up from the base of the cinema screen. Add your own sound effects if needed, but it\u2019s a great little video showing a side of the moon we never see because of its different rotation schedule. Of course, had we never been able to venture up to the moon via space probe imaging, a certain percentage of the populace would still believe there\u2019s green cheese growing in the dank darkness, or maybe moon cows, as prophesized by H.G. Wells in his very silly pulp tale First Men in the Moon<\/a><\/strong>. (Happily Ray Harryhausen dumped that element from his film adaptation.)<\/p>\n

Still ongoing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox is Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron Curtain<\/a>, featuring an alluring smattering of sci-fi films from the former Soviet Union, East Germany, Estonia, and other neighbouring countries. I\u2019ll have a review of the recently screened Dead Mountaineer\u2019s Inn<\/strong> (1979) shortly, with a related review of its very cool soundtrack album, and reviews of other recently screened sci-fi rarities.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also Bangkok Dangerous: The Cinema of Nicholas Cage<\/a> that seems to celebrate the actor\u2019s performance excess in his bawdiest work. If you haven\u2019t seen The Rock<\/strong>, do so this Saturday at 10pm, because it\u2019s a big loud stupid Michael Bay film in all its goodness. Only question: why name the series after one of Cage\u2019s worst films?<\/p>\n

Lastly, Part 2 of Hollywood Classics: The Cinema is Nicholas Ray<\/a> continues With Johnny Guitar<\/strong>, and The Way Home: The Films of Yilmaz Guney<\/a> concludes Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Projection Booth<\/a> is screening Werner Herzog\u2019s Caves of Forgotten Dreams<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (likely not in 3D, but still worth seeing on a big screen), and while the Cinesphere is still listed with a weekend schedule, apparently the whole park is locked up<\/a>, except for the Molson Amphitheatre and Atlantis event complex. This doesn\u2019t bode well for the world\u2019s first permanent IMAX cinema, which was previously threatened with a closure and possible redevelopment (read: destruction).<\/p>\n

The province wants to save money, but it\u2019ll be a tragedy if the iconic dome is gutted the way the McLaughlin Planetarium was hollowed out and relegated to a circular (and impractical) storage shed<\/a>. Torontoist has a new photo spread<\/a>, but 2010\u2019s historical essay<\/a> by Jamie Bradburn offers a few archival images and multimedia goodies from its opening in 1971.<\/p>\n

Does anyone remember the excitement, waiting in line, inching closer to the dark entrance, and making that steep ascent to the seating area before the lights dimmed and the massive screen was filled with an IMAX film?<\/p>\n

If the province wants to turn the money-losing venture into a profitable year-round business, be smart, and don\u2019t kill off the unique architecture, nor relegate its historical components into commercial banalities like a casino. Ontario Place should be filled with unique draws, and its accessibility \u2013 by car and transit \u2013 has to be improved. No one ever liked that horrible drive home through terrible traffic after a concert, or the mega-walk just to reach a transit hub. The park was built for the car culture, but traffic made that trip less agreeable years ago.<\/p>\n

The wait begins, and so does the fear of what level of cultural negligence the province endeavor as it mulls over the park, and wonderful chunk of Canadian cinema history (albeit with bad seating, but that can be fixed).<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Quick recap of this weekend’s interesting (to me) screenings, plus NASA’s video of the Dark Side of the Moon, and the Ontario Government’s decision to shut down most of Ontario Place forthwith, henceforce, herewith, and now, with the future of world’s first permanent IMAX theatre – the Cinesphere – up in the air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[1065,1027,1066,887,54,1067,814,1068,658,1013],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-165","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}