While I admit I’m a bit late to the party, I couldn’t let the months pass without noting the BFI IMAX is 25 years old this year.
King Charles has been a patron of the cinema since he is opening it in 1999, and renewed his patronage on 11 June, the date which officially marked its 25th anniversary.
The IMAX is a single screen cinema, sitting in the heart of a roundabout by London’s Waterloo station. Seating 500, the screen is 20 meters wide and 26 metres wide, making it the largest screen in the country. It has had a number of upgrades and refurbishments over the years, including a recent upgrade of its lamp-based digital IMAX projector to a brighter, laser-based system. However, due to the booths size only the single-laser, commercial laser (CoLA) variant could be fitted, rather than the dual laser version. This is a problem as the single laser version cannot fill the entire 1.43:1 screen.
Fortunately, this compromise was made so the BFI could keep its IMAX 15/70mm film projector, making it one of only 30 cinemas worldwide that can show movies that use full frame 1.43:1 aspect ratio images, captured on IMAX film cameras.
For its 25th anniversary the BFI has been screening some of its best-selling movies – ranging from Avatar to The Dark Knight, Dune and Oppenheimer. Today, I got to see an IMAX 15/70mm print of Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. It was special to be reacquainted to what it arguably one of Nolan’s most underrated achievements. Having seen it on release at the Londo Science Museum on 15/70 and then again at home on 4K Blu-ray, for me, it reestablished that the BFI is the premium venue for cinema in the UK.
The clarity of the 15/70 images are quite astonishing, which is emphasised when the images transition back to 35mm sequences – they look markedly soft in comparison. The sound is just as impactful – being taut, clean and full of welly when it needs to. The images of the Spitfires crossing the landscape in 1.43:1 screen will stay with me for many years.
So, here’s to the BFI IMAX at 25 – and long may she reign.
