This time, Pannónia Entertainment brings the 1978 film The Last Waltz to selected cinemas nationwide, 43 years after its original Hungarian premiere.
The Last Waltz concert film by Scorsese of the Canadian-American rock group The Band.
As the director was one of Woodstock’s editors, he already had some experience in the genre when he took on the filming of The Band’s farewell performance in San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom on November, 25, 1976 on Thanksgiving 1976. Many songs in those days had political message as the change came in-and-around the world.
The director even shot some additions to the work in the studio, they added a theme song, but the post-production took a year and a half due to another doc and the completion of New York. Robert De Niro‘s musical stood out with its sets, but the visual designer of the concert was not just anyone: the veteran Boris Leven (West Side Story, The Voice of Music) was responsible for it.
Hungarians were able to see the film with subtitles in cinema theaters in August 1979, and although it was later dubbed, it will be shown with subtitles faithful to the original presentation from May 25. In 2002. The DVD was made, in 2006, a Blu-Ray remaster was among the first to be made for the disc editions, but last year, with Scorsese’s approval, a full-scale restoration of the original negatives was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, in which the aspect ratio was restored and the correct color correction can also be found, while the source of the audio material is the 2001 remix, which was released as a music album at the time. We owe the negatives to 7 cameramen, including Vilmos Zsigmond, who won an Oscar with Encounters of the Third Kind, and László Kovács, who photographed the Easy Riders, among others, who was not affected by a technical stop during the concert, so he was the only one able to record everything from the stage.
The Band’s farewell was on a grand scale and although they opened and closed the evening, many other people performed besides them, so it was an approx. It swelled into a 5 and a half hour “mini-festival”. Scorsese began the dramaturgical after the applause, in order to take the viewer first to the post-production studio and then to the beginning of the ice rink party. In addition to The Band, Ronnie Hawkins, Michael McClure, Dr. John, Neil Young, Neil Diamond, Joni Mitchell, Paul Butterfield, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, in the studio The Staple Singers and Emmylou Harris, and after some legal drag Bob Dylan also appears, while Ronnie Wood from The Rolling Stones and Ringo Starr from The Beatles also pay their respects in the final chord. Of course, there are still those left out who could no longer fit into the approx. 2 hours of playing time, but it is supplemented by interviews and behind-the-scenes recordings made by Scorsese, where the heavy use of cocaine, although not sonically, was visually retouched with rotoscoping techniques.
Gosh the Band’s drummer – Levon Helm (R.I.P.) … from my impression … his looks are very much close as twin brother to Prince Harry Duke of Sussex … It is a fantastic to discover.
The Last Waltz, is generally considered one of the best concert films ever made. You will be able to see for yourself if this is the case, following the suggestion that flashes in the opening, according to which: “This film must be played loudly!”.
Mark date into your calendar in advance for May, 25.2023. and look for one of cinemas nationwide near by you.
Last but not least The Band’s movie brings back the atmosphere of those ’60s and ’70s music/life style for many how they grew up in those days, and perhaps for young adult of to-day listen/ hear something before there age.
Riport by Aggie Reiter
Rolling in Budapest 