In the Labyrinth (film)

In the Labyrinth (French: Dans le labyrinthe) was a groundbreaking multi-screen presentation at the Labyrinth pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It used 35mm and 70mm film projected simultaneously on multiple screens and was the precursor of today's IMAX format.^[1]

The film split elements across the five screens and also combined them for a mosaic of a single image. It was hailed as a "stunning visual display" by Time magazine, which concludes: "such visual delights as Labyrinth ... suggest that cinema—the most typical of 20th century arts—has just begun to explore its boundaries and possibilities." ^[2]

In the Labyrinth was co-directed by Roman Kroitor, Colin Low and Hugh O'Connor and produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Kroitor left the NFB shortly after to co-found Multi-Screen Corporation, which later became IMAX Corporation.^[3]

NFB animator Ryan Larkin also designed animated sequences for the film.^[4]

It inspired Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison to apply similar techniques to his film The Thomas Crown Affair.^[5]

Labyrinth pavilion

The Labyrinth consisted of three main chambers: Theatre One, which ran two 70 mm projectors in a unique floor-and-end-wall combination; The Maze, an apparently limitless series of mirrors and red "grain-of-wheat" bulbs; and Theatre Three, which projected five simultaneous 35 mm projections in a cross formation. The pavilion cost $4.5 million and attracted over 1.3 million visitors in 1967.^[3]

Post-1967

In 1979, the NFB re-issued In the Labyrinth in a single-screen format.^[6] In May 2007, the NFB and the Cinémathèque québécoise presented an exhibition on the Labyrinth pavilion, marking the 40th anniversary of Expo 67.

References

External links

• Watch In the Labyrinth at the NFB website
• In the Labyrinth at the Internet Movie Database
• Web page for Labyrinth and film
• Labyrinth pavilion