K.J. Relth-Miller, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures' Director of Film Programs, was kind enough to speak with us ahead of the museum's upcoming screening of 1932 film Blonde Venus in 35mm nitrate. You probably have some awareness of the film stock, even if you're not on the cinematography side of filmmaking. Perhaps the most famous recent example is its use in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds—as an incendiary device to take out a bunch of Nazis in the finale. The stock is also featured as a key prop in Alfred Hitchcock’s Sabotage and Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso. Highly flammable to the point of being unstoppable, but notoriously beautiful in projections, nitrate film has slowly faded away in favor of safer stock and, nowadays, digital filmmaking. Relth-Miller told us how the film is transported and handled safely for screenings at the Academy Museum and why the stock is an important piece of cinema history that should be witnessed—especially since many of these screenings might be once-in-a-lifetime, with the number of usable reels dwindling with each passing year. Blonde Venus screens Nov. 2, 2024. You can buy tickets here. Blonde VenusParamount PicturesEditor's note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.No Film School: Can you tell us a little bit about why this screening is so unique and what makes nitrate so unique?K.J. Relth-Miller: Nitrate film stock was the predominant film stock that was used for printing feature films that were distributed theatrically from the 1920s, '30s, '40s and into...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Friday, 1 November