CE3K at Forty

Last week, I attended a special screening of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" at the Cinerama Dome for the movie's 40th anniversary.  Before the movie, a guy talked about this being in his top two movies (the other one is "Bladerunner").  Prior to the film being shown, they showed some footage of the filming which I think will be on the next DVD.  There was a panel discussion afterward with film editor Michael Kahn A.C.E., Steven Spielberg publicist Marvin Levy, John Williams soundtrack producer/historian Mike Matessino, and author Michael Klastorin.  They also held a trivia contest with pretty cool prizes.  I did not win any prizes, nor did I know any of the answers.

• I would have loved to see this movie at the Devils Tower screening, but this venue was cool in its own ways.  Not only is the Dome a great place to see movies, it was also the place of the initial premiere of the movie.  They showed a little snippet of premiere day and there was the Dome, looking pretty much the same from the outside as it does now.
  
  
  
  

• They showed someone's collection of memorabilia in the lobby.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• I actually don't remember seeing this at the movie theater, but I probably did.  I'll have to ask my parents about that.  But I've loved this movie for a long time.  It probably scared me as a kid, though.  Or I thought it was creepy.  I don't know.

• "Toys!"
• Spielberg commented that he does not consider this to be a science fiction movie, but rather a movie about regular people in our world, and their reaction to an amazing event.  Makes sense to me: the focus is on the human characters, and I love watching Richard Dreyfuss in his role as Roy because he balances the comedy and drama well.
• "Who are you people?"
• That opening scene of Jillian looking for Barry in the woods is quite similar to "Keys" searching for "E.T."  I wonder if the latter was an homage to CE3K.
• I love that one of the universal languages besides math is music.  Give a piece of music to a musician, and they can read it and play.  (Well, except for those that play by ear, but you get the point).
• Editor Michael Kahn has never seen this movie.  He doesn't watch any of the films he's worked on after he's done, so that he won't be influenced by them in his next one.  He came in to the theater toward the end of the film, only because one of the other panel members wanted to go inside and watch it.
• We did not see the added footage inside the spaceship.
• Spielberg also talked about the inspiration for the film coming from "When You Wish Upon A Star" from Pinocchio.  He has several references in the film, my favorite of which is when it can be heard in the film score.
• Ah, that score.  Who doesn't think of the five tones when they think about this movie?  People who haven't seen the movie yet, that's who!  I love that score.  It will be remastered soon.  Another big announcement by the La La Land folks (whom were in the audience) is that E.T. The Extra Terrestrial is being released in September.  Oh, it's September now!  9 more days.
• I love the reference to the score from Jaws when the mother ship is communicating.
• Spielberg said that he was surprised by the fact that John Williams still had film score in him after doing Star Wars.  And then some, Steven.  :)
• John Williams' name can be seen in the newspaper on screen.  The paper also includes an article on Star Wars.
• The guy that answered a trivia question correctly about the Mayflower Project was wearing a shirt with that very logo.  Cool!
• 40 years later, this film holds up really well.  Still love it.  We got posters!

Thank you, Arclight, for holding this screening.  CE3K (or if we use the new hashtag #CEOT3K) is in theaters nationwide for one week.