'ZULU' sceenings info across the world - Interesting read. |
Sheldon Hall
|
Note that the list only contains details of known 70mm engagements and those in 35mm with magnetic stereo sound. There were thousands more in 35mm mono, and probably more in 35mm stereo. I also know of at least one 70mm engagement not listed here: as I write in my book, the film
"opened at Johannesburg�s Cinerama Theatre in the last week of December and was still running there six months later ... a misleading advertisement for �Zulu in Cinerama� led one disgruntled fan � identified only as �Disgusted of Discovery� � to complain to the Johannesburg Star that Zulu �was filmed in a process known as Panavision or Technirama, a process without even the added inducement of stereophonic sound,� and that the seat prices were �much in excess of the prices expected to be paid for such a type of film.�" As I have said on another thread, the 70mm print shown was probably the same one shown at London's Casino Cinerama in 1972. The fact that another UK 70mm engagement appeared at the time suggests that at least one other 70mm print was circulating in the UK in the mid-1970s. |
||||||||||||
|
Paul Bryant-Quinn
|
Sheldon -
To your knowledge, was ZULU ever shown to mixed black / white audiences in South Africa, and if so, when did that happen first? (I think you pointed out in your book that black South Africans were barred from seeing the film in 1964.) |
||||||||||||
_________________ |
Sheldon Hall
|
Paul,
Good question. I don't know of any post-apartheid theatrical engagements so, aside from its screenings on South African TV, the answer is no. It would be interesting to learn of one, wouldn't it? |
||||||||||||
|
leightarrant
|
Okay, so out there 'somewhere' are possibly 2 x 70mm prints...The hunt is on!
|
||||||||||||
|
Peter Ewart
|
Looking at the interesting list of cinemas above, would I be correct in suggesting "they don't give 'em names like they used to"? My first four visits to ZULU were at the Regent (Rye); the Gaiety (Hastings); the Curzon (St Leonards) and whatever the picture palace (sorry, cinema) was called in Lewes, all within a year or so of the film's appearance. "Translux" and the like don't quite have the same ring. The Rye & Hastings buildings have gone but the Empire here at nearby Sandwich survives entirely in its original 1930s state, although still holds only a few score of patrons.
P. |
||||||||||||
|
Paul Bryant-Quinn
|
In 1964 I saw ZULU at the Astoria in Ruislip (I'm pretty certain it wasn't the Rivoli). Kids could get in for 1/6d, if I remember, but tickets for adults cost three and fourpence. The world of the past has gone ... |
||||||||||||||
_________________ |
rich
|
I just wanted to ask that when you all saw Zulu in your respective theaters
were blacks just as likely to be in the audience? In NY, I knew the audiences were "integrated" however I can only surmise how the film did especially in our South or Deep South what with our Civil Rights crisis going on at the time. Now here's a review from respected NY newspaper critic on the film which can give an idea of how the pix was looked at: "With so much racial tension and anticolonial discord in the world, a film on the order of "Zulu" seems strangely archaic and indiscreet....if you're not too squeamish at the sight of slaughter and blood and can keep your mind fixed on the notion that there was something heroic and strong about British colonial expansion in the 19th century, you may find a great deal of excitement in this robustly Kiplingesque film". The reviewer goes on: "Is it a contribution to the cause of harmony to show so much vicious acrimony between black men and white.. to make an exciting thing of firing rifles into the faces of charging warriors and sticking bayonets into them?" |
||||||||||||
_________________ Rich |
Alan
Site Admin
|
Rich,
you're talking about 45 years ago. In my town (Pop. 120K), there was only one black family, that I knew of. The chances of going to the cinema on the same day would have been quite slim. I suspect it was a similar situation in varying degrees throughout the country. |
||||||||||||
|
rich
|
Yes, I'm sure. Your "census" bureau no doubt can give insight into the number of black households in Britain during that time.
|
||||||||||||
_________________ Rich |
Paul Bryant-Quinn
|
Rich
... What Alan said. Admittedly I was very young, but ZULU in 1964 was only the second time I had ever seen a black person. |
||||||||||||
_________________ |
Peter Ewart
|
Rich
My childhood home was 60 miles from London. The first time I went to see ZULU was shortly before my 14th birthday and I'm pretty sure I'd never set eyes on a real black person before that date (home town pop. only 4,500) other than during the previous year on a school coach trip to Wembley Stadium (May 1963). As the coach had to travel through SE London, where thousands of Caribbean immigrants had settled during the previous decade, my friends and I saw our first black people from behind the windows of the coach, and I suspect many of my generation would recognise a similar experience. (Saw a few more in the EnglandvBrazil match that afternoon!) I would no more have expected to see a black person so far from London than I would Cetshwayo himself (whom I'd never heard of, of course). I was probably too young to appreciate then the move away from imperial values (lots of new, unprounceable African countries were appearing in my stamp album, but it was all still pink on the map!) We've come a long way since! Peter |
||||||||||||
|
Sheldon Hall
|
Same with where I lived as late as the 1970s and 80s: at my school of 900-odd children (on the North East English coast), I only recall there being three non-white kids in all the time I was there. This limited interaction with ethhnic minorities may well be one of factors that sets off the British experience of the film from Americans' (see Stephen Bourne's discussion of his experience of the film as a mixed-race child in his book "Black in the British Frame").
What's more, though I have seen "Zulu" many times in cinemas in recent years, I don't ever recall a black person being at one of those screenings. Perhaps the film has a (false) reputation as racist, or perhaps black people assume that it appeals mainly to a BNP-voting "little Englander" mentality, and are deterred from seeing it for this reason. A great shame if so, because I would particularly have appreciated hearing non-white viewpoints in post-screening discussions. |
||||||||||||
|
Coll
Guest
|
Sheldon
Sadly, your second paragraph maybe holds some truth. Whilst searching for Zulu-related information on the net ages ago, I did find one or two 'uncomfortable' articles, which I couldn't read all of, due to their contortion of the events. I found myself shocked to see the film twisted in such a way to suit views. Coll |
||||||||||||
|
rich
|
Thanks for sharing your experiences. But isn't it interesting (and let's forget about population numbers for now) that blacks apparently didn't take the time to see the film? Not sure but did "Sweet Sweetback Baada*** Song" (1971) get played there? I don't know but I have the feeling that it would've caught a black audience. Just an fyi and Sheldon would know this. The movie was a hit here, defined a new genre, it was "cool" and gave an aspect of current black culture. One thing I'm pretty sure of regarding "Zulu" is that even if as you note blacks weren't in the audience it apparently had to have brought an awareness of a historical aspect of African culture. And I remember distinctly while going to college in the late 60's that the curriculum started to inlcude courses on African/African American History. I believe "Zulu" played a part in that over here.
|
||||||||||||
_________________ Rich |
'ZULU' sceenings info across the world - Interesting read. |
|
||
Powered by phpBB © 2001-2004 phpBB Group
phpBB Style created by phpBBStyles.com and distributed by Styles Database.
phpBB Style created by phpBBStyles.com and distributed by Styles Database.