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List of projection and projectionists in film

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Revision as of 17:32, 24 October 2021 by Mhm (talk | contribs) (Added "Demons" (1985))
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It's fun to see ourselves on screen!

Title Director Year Type Notes
Bergman Island Mia Hansen-Løve 2021 Featured
The Other Side Of The Wind Orson Wells 2018 Featured Excellent projectionist & booth moments throughout
24 Frames Per Century Athina Rachel Tsangari 2013 Featured Tsangari's short film was made to commemorate the 70th Venice International Film Festival and features two projectors facing the sea and speaking to each other.
Chillerama Adam Rifkin, Tim Sullivan, Adam Green, Joe Lynch 2011
Stella Days Thaddeus O'Sullivan 2011 Featured An Irish priest starts a community cinema and feels conflicted.
Hugo Martin Scorsese 2011 Featured
Cinema-Komunisto Mila Turajlic 2010 Featured A documentary about President of Yugoslavia Josip Tito as told through his personal projectionist. He claims to have screened a film for Tito every single night for over 30 years.
A Useful Life Federico Veiroj 2010 Featured
Maurice Patrick Brice 2010 Featured Short documentary on a Paris porno projectionist.
Road, Movie Dev Benegal 2009 Featured
Inglorious Basterds Quentin Tarantino 2009 Featured
Daddy Longlegs Josh & Bennie Safdie 2009 Featured A man struggles to watch his two young sons while working as a projectionist in New York City.
Zodiac David Fincher 2007 Incidental No actual projection booth scenes, but one of the main suspects in the Zodiac murders case is a projectionist who works in a silent film house named Rick Marshall. Marshall doesn't appear in the film as a character, but there is a scene where Jake Gyllenhaal's character visits the house of a friend of Marshall's ( a silent film organist) and sees his creepy basement film collection.
Janji Joni Joko Anwar 2005 Featured
Reel Paradise Steve James 2005 Incidental
John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns John Carpenter 2005 Featured A film collector (and projectionist) dies a gory projector-related death!
A Muslim Childhood Moumen Smihi 2005 Incidental The cinema plays a formative role in the life of a teenage boy growing up in Tangier. One brief shot of a projectionist (and turret).
Goodbye,Dragon Inn Tsai Ming-liang 2003 Featured
Bulletproof Monk Paul Hunter 2003 Featured
Porn Theatre (also: "Glowing Eyes", "La chatte à deux têtes" Jacques Nolot 2002 Featured
Fight Club David Fincher 1999 Incidental One of the more well known projectionist scenes in film, Brad Pitt's character shows us how cue-marks work and how he spends his time splicing porno frames into regular films.
La Cité de la peur Alain Berbérian 1994
Last Action Hero John McTiernan 1993 Featured
Matinee Joe Dante 1993 Featured Climax ends in the projection booth, John Goodman operates a third projector from behind the screen.
Come See the Paradise Alan Parker 1990
Apartment Zero Martin Donovan 1989
Cinema Paradiso Giuseppe Tornatore 1988 Featured
Anguish Bigas Luna 1987 Incidental A killer in the booth!
Coming Up Roses Stephen Bayly 1986 Featured When the cinema where they work closes the projectionist and concessionaire attempt to start a mushroom growing business in the auditorium. Set and filmed in Wales.
Dead End Drive-In Brian Trenchard-Smith 1986 Incidental Set at a dystopian drive-in where no one can leave. Trenchard-Smith's films are seen on the screen, one very brief projection booth moment, and the manager walks around carrying Goldberg cans in several scenes.
Demons Lamberto Bava 1985
Desperately Seeking Susan Susan Seidelman 1985 Featured Aidan Quinn plays a projectionist, two scenes are shot in the booth (the now closed Bleeker Street Theater in New York City). Also some criminals break into Aidan's apartment and dump all his reels of film on the floor!
Night of the Comet Thom Eberhardt 1984 Incidental a high school girl shacks up in the booth with her projectionist boyfriend, leaving her as one of the sole survivors after a comet eradicates most of humanity.
Gremlins Joe Dante 1984 Incidental The gremlins gather in a movie theater to watch Snow White. Chaos ensues!
Man of Iron Andrzej Wajda 1981 Featured Long scene in a very well decorated projection booth about 35mins in.
The Muppet Movie James Frawley 1979 Incidental Animal is the projectionist as the Muppets watch a cut of The Muppet Movie. Needless to say, some film frames burn.
Kings of the Road Wim Wenders 1976 Featured One of the most beautiful films featuring film projection, Kings of the Road follows a projector repairman and his suicidal cohort as they visit various theaters in Eastern Germany.
Projection Instructions Morgan Fisher 1976 Featured Morgan Fisher's Avant-garde films often touch on film as a medium and projection. A good description of some of his films can be found here
Small Change François Truffaut 1976
The Spirit of the Beehive Víctor Erice 1973 Incidental A traveling cinema comes to a Spanish village and screens Frankenstein
The Projectionist Harry Hurwitz 1971 Featured
Targets Peter Bogdanovich 1968 Incidental A drive-in movie theater projectionist is shot by a sniper through the projection port!
Casino Royale John Huston, Ken Hughes, Robert Parrish, Joe McGrath, Val Guest 1967
Masculin Féminin Jean-Luc Godard 1966 Incidental Jean-Pierre Leaud yells at the projectionist for messing up the aspect ratio!
Persona Ingmar Bergman 1966 Incidental Film opens with beautiful images of film running through a projector. See here
Contempt Jean-Luc Godard 1963 Incidental Watch an angry Jack Palance smack a pile of film cans out of the hands of a very dejected looking projectionist.
Cléo from 5 to 7 Agnès Varda 1962 Featured Cléo and her friend Dorothée deliver a print to Dorothée's boyfriend Raoul, a projectionist at a Paris cinema. They all watch a short film (starring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina) from the booth.
The Tingler William Castle 1959 Featured Much of the film is set at a movie theater, and there's a significant scene during which a projectionist meets THE TINGLER! Also features an early depiction of LSD ingestion.
The Blob Irvin Yeaworth 1958
The Smallest Show on Earth Basil Dearden 1957 Featured Peter Sellers as a drunk (yet committed!) projectionist working at a struggling theater
The Bad and the Beautiful Vincente Minnelli 1952
Clash By Night Fritz Lang 1951
Mother Goose Ray Harryhausen 1946 Featured A goose projectionist!
Hellzapoppin' H. C. Potter 1941 Incidental
She Was An Acrobat's Daughter Friz Freleng 1937 Incidental A duck projectionist has some technical issues.
This Way Please Robert Florey 1937 Featured A musical comedy set in a movie theater, features a musical number and a fight scene both in the projection booth.
The Death Kiss Edward L. Marin 1932 Featured
Sherlock,Jr. Buster Keaton 1924 Featured Buster Keaton as a projectionist who falls asleep on the job and enters the frame himself...
His Nibs Gregory La Cava 1921 Featured Set in a rural theater run by an elderly projectionist nicknamed "His Nibs," featuring a film within a film that the projectionist narrates because someone cut out the title cards. The film includes number of projection related gags.
Luke's Movie Muddle Hal Roach 1916

See Also