Roosevelt theatre at Kanakakkunnu

The inaugural film of the 17th International Film Festival of Kerala (IFFK), ‘The Ring’, is getting ready to offer a real reel effect to the viewer from varied angles.

 Arrangements are on to recreate, on the Kanakakkunnu Palace entrance, the frontage of the Roosevelt Theatre in Los Angeles, where the Alfred Hitchcock movie was premiered. A three-dimensional arch will recreate the ambiance of the theatre in the 1920s such as its ticket counter, poster screen and street light.

 The theatre, which is a hotel at present, is kept as a monument for cinema. “The old equipment in the theatre are now used for decorating the hotel. It has kept several rooms exclusive for cinema, such as editor’s room, cinematographer’s room and the like. The street that leads to the hotel keeps the footprints and hand prints of eminent film personalities in cinema with their signatures,” says film-maker T K Rajeev Kumar, who came up with the idea.

 A life-size frontage of the theatre is recreated by art director Sabu Sivan. The arch will be 35 feet tall. So as to maintain originality, the overall tone is sepia.

 The screen at Nishagandhi auditorium is also being set in the old style where the stage curtains would split apart for the movie to begin. For ‘The Ring’, a 72-minute silent movie, the accompaniment of live orchestration of a new score created by British Jazz artist Soweto Kinch and his sextet during the screening will be another noteworthy feature.

 “The live orchestra is arranged in honour of the 75th year of the first talkie in Malayalam,” says K Manoj Kumar, secretary of the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.

 In the melodrama movie, the plot revolves around boxing and the screenplay was also written by Hitchcock. Jack E Cox is the cinematographer. The cast includes Carl Brisson, Lillian Hall-Davis and Ian Hunter.