GR film sprocket holes and vistaVision

[Clément Lévy]

Well, you may be right about the Porky Pig images, but remember that,
according to Howard, editing the novel took about a year. Pynchon could
change his mind a few time during that time. And the bombed theater story is
a reference to a real event to which the author makes an allusion. Let me
quote Luc Herman in his "Introduction: Approach and Avoid" to Pynchon Notes
42-43 (Spring-Fall 1998): Approach and Avoid, Essays on Gravity's Rainbow,
Papers from International Pynchon Conference, Antwerp 1998.

"On December 14, 1944, twelve hundred people were watching a matinee
performance of Buffalo Bill (starring William Wlellman and Maureen O'Hara)
in the Rex movie theatre in Antwerp, when a V-2 came down and killed 567 of
them. This historical event inspired Thomas Pynchon to write the final
episode of Gravity's Rainbow, […] Interestingly the proper noun "Rex"
appears on page 546 of the novel in connection with Antwerp, not as the name
of the movie theatre—which was in fact derived from a Parisian model—but
rather as that of the Belgian Fascist party led by Léon Degrelle". [9]

The book's cover presents a picture of the bombed movie theatre. You can
find this picture (...rex002.jpg) and many other pictures here:
http://www.v2rocket.com/start/chapters/antwerp.html
This site seems to be very accurate, and corrects Luc Herman about the date
of the bombing and his affirmation that the film shown at that moment was
Buffalo Bill. It was The Plainsmann, a western-story anyway.

Here, you'll find an account on the story of this movie theatre, and it
could screen VistaVision films:
http://users.pandora.be/rudolf.bosschaerts/rex1e.html
This v2rocket.com site is quite stunning by the way. It must be well known
to Pynchon enthousiasts.

I unfortunately couldn't find where the idea of the Porky Pig line as
chapters' divider. It's not in Steve Weisenburger's Companion, not in the
wiki,
http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
and not in Don Larssons' Companion to the Companion
http://english2.mnsu.edu/larsson/grnotes.html
... Well, I will try harder.
Thanks for your comments.
Clement

On 29/04/07, mikebailey <mikebailey at speakeasy.net> wrote:
>
>
> wouldn't this imply that the received wisdom about his wanting
> to use Porky Pig images for section dividers but being balked by
> copyright restrictions or something is wrong?
>
> but the fact is, GR is replete with film references, and knowledgeable-
> enough-sounding use of names of particular types of film, so you
> certainly may be onto something here.  Something that I learned from
> the fragmentary group read of 2005 was that it's quite possible to
> find a frame-tale involving a bombed movie theater, and the entire
> plot in-between sandwiched as the actual movie being shown...
>
> On Wed, 25 Apr 2007, [UTF-8] Clément Lévy wrote:
>
> > Dear all, this is a second posting for the same message, as it was only
> sent
> > (sunday the 22nd at 00:58 CEST) to the archives' file, and not the
> list's
> > members (strange isn't it?).
> > I've been looking for informations on the seven sprocket holes used as
> > separators between chapters in Gravity's Rainbow, and couldn't find any
> > better and more authorized comment on the question than Gerald Howard's
> in
> > his short memoir about Cork Smith published in BookForum. He also quotes
> one
> > of the closest editors of the text, Edwin Kennebeck:
> > http://www.bookforum.com/archive/sum_05/pynchon.html
> > I should close the file with him, saying: "Sometimes a rectangle is just
> a
> > rectangle." [this reference has already been quoted a few times on the
> List]
> >
> > And yet, I found some funny information about large film formats. One of
> > them, still currently used, is called VistaVision, and was copyrighted
> by
> > Paramount in the early 1950's.
> > Here's my source: the Widescreen Museum:
> > http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/widescreen/wingvv1.htm
> >
> > The funny thing about it is the big letter V in the middle of its name.
> >
> > And something interesting: this film travels horizontally in the camera
> as
> > well as in the projector. It has 8 sprocket-holes per picture. If 6 was
> 9
> > (Hendrix 1967), 8 could be 7! Usual 35 mm films travel vertically
> between
> > the light and the lens, but many films made for very wide screens travel
> > horizontally (IMAX too). Calling these seven square film sprocket-holes
> was
> > not a wrong idea.
> >
> > Some of the movies made using this format are quite famous, so you'll
> have a
> > very long list on the IMDB:
> > http://www.imdb.com/SearchTechnical?PCS:VistaVision
> > And a shorter list here:
> > http://www.dvdaust.com/film_formats.htm#VistaVision%20Film%20List
> >
> > Among them a few Hitchcock, films I never watched like Strategic Air
> > Command(1955), An
> > Alligator Named Daisy (1955), some western-movies: Gunfight at the OK
> > Corrall (and Pardners, starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), AND De
> Mille's
> > Ten Commandments . I cannot guess what every title means, there are also
> > more recent Japanese films, but also musicals like High Society and
> Italian
> > horror-films. It could mean anything, but for sure it sounds like some
> of
> > the best scoring movies on the box-office, at least between 1954 and
> 1961,
> > showed a big central V during their opening credits, V for VistaVision,
> and
> > if we want the so-called "sprocket-holes" to mean something to Thomas
> > Pynchon, we should look carefully at these VV movies.
> >
> > I'd be glad to hear what you think about all this (it could be only
> > coincidences, but to quote Borges: two times is a coincidence, but three
> > times is a proof!)
> > Clement Levy (hoping to join you soon on ATD/TDA)
> >
>
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