The End of The Reel World

The Grind House double feature’s celluloid scratches, grain, dust et cetera, all serve to situate the viewer in a real grind house cinema. From the fact of being a double feature to the trailer for a film that was not to exist (but was later made), to the genre, everything at Tarantino and Rodriguez’s disposal has been used to give the viewer, whether in living room or aeroplane seat or real cinema, a sense of presence of the cheap, dirty, seedy cinema.

As Dorothy steps through the door into Oz, she steps from the era of black and white movies into the era of colour film. If we look to Fight Club, the film at the turn from celluloid to digital, the medium change is hidden. The film emulates the previous medium, denying its place in the introduction of digital film.

At the beginning of quite a few songs, you can hear the sound of a needle being put onto the record before the music starts. This is similar to celluloid effects being added to a digital film; the previous, more physical ritual of the medium is being emulated. They have added a narrative to the way you are listening to the song; you go from sitting on the train with your headphones on to lying on your back in the sun listening to a record.

Planet Terror, part of Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s Grind House uses intermedial celluloid effects to situate the viewer in a 1970′s grind house cinema. From the fact of it being a double feature to its genre and accentuated film effects implying an eviscerated, overworked film reel, the viewer is made to feel like they are sitting in a seedy darkened movie house surrounded by people only there to make out. The use of film grain and burning at pivotal moments, as if the celluloid were reacting to the plot puts the human-ness of 35mm back into cinema.

The Killers music video for “Bones”, Directed by Tim Burton, uses celluloid effects (grain, dust and scratching) to separate the diegesis of the drive-in-cinema where the band are playing (which is implied as the same reality as ours) from the diegesis of the movie that is playing in that cinema (a movie within this video).

As the video goes on, everyone in the diegesis where the band is playing remove their skins too blurring the line between reality and film.

Unlike the sensation that was the transition from black and white to colour film, the transition from celluloid to digital went largely unnoticed. Most viewers do not notice the difference between celluloid and digital film. And why should they? They are still sitting in the dark watching a bright screen, expecting to be surprised and enthralled. Not much has changed for them. Only the film maker and the aficionado lament the difference.