“Avatar”, the film that revolutionized 3D, is back in theaters

The feature film Avatar, directed by James Cameron, released in 2009, marked a small revolution in the world of cinema and 3D at the time. Just ask a few moviegoers what was the first movie they saw in theaters with 3D glasses, the answers are often the same. “Honestly, I think it’s Avatar“, answers a young girl, “it may indeed be Avatar that I must have seen at the time“, abounds another passerby. Since then, the soufflé has fallen a little. To the opposite question, to know the last film seen in 3D, the answers are less precise: “3D is a long time ago“, “I do not remember“.

However, 3D still exists. The last part of Thor, a franchise from Marvel Studios, was offered this summer in relief on French screens. But we are very far from the tidal wave of 2009. “VSis exactly the kind of film that brings people back to the cinema“, enthused at the time the director, James Cameron, in an interview on France 2.

Other filmmakers before him had already tried 3D, such as Alfred Hitchcock, as early as the 1950s.”What changed in the relief is the fact that Avatar was shot digitally and not on film.“, Explain Julien Dupuy from the Capture Mag podcast. “This is what allowed them to have a 3D that is so efficient“, he adds.

Cinemas have therefore been equipped to embrace this revolution. It was a costly investment, ultimately leading to few good years in terms of attendance. But according to Marc-Olivier Sebbag, the general manager of the National Federation of French Cinemas (FNCF), there is nothing to regret. “Was that a good thing or a bad thing? In any case, it washe says.

“And it has also enabled a major technological transition in the cinema sector.”

Marc-Olivier Sebbag, Managing Director of the FNCF

at franceinfo

With this change, “cinema operators have switched to digital projectors and this has also allowed a lot of technical progress, flexibility in terms of distribution that did not exist before“, he insists again. Film releases therefore become technically simpler: there is no longer any need to transport reels.

This issue ofAvatar, Wednesday September 21, proposes another innovation: the HFR, for “high frequency”, that is to say no longer 24 images per second as before, but more, since there is no longer the physical constraint of film. “It’s a totally amazing experiencenotes Julien Dupuy. It’s a total rediscovery of the medium.” A technology already tested for a few rare films, such as The Hobbitin 2012, but which will offer its full potential in December 2022 with Avatar 2.

>> “Avatar 2”: a haunting and mysterious trailer for James Cameron’s next film

“The very essence of cinema is that it is a technological art, that is to say that sound came first, then color came after large formats.“, says Julien Dupuy. “Cinema has always managed to regain vigor through technological evolution“, adds the journalist of the podcast Capture Mag. And with this latest innovation, there is no need to change projectors. The release ofAvatar 2 is scheduled in France on December 14, 2022. Pas less than four sequels have already been announced, with the rate of one film every two years until 2028.