Digitally restored to mark the 40th anniversary of its release, the director’s UFO blockbuster has lost none of its grand celestial magicThe lights in the sky have never appeared brighter. Beaming back into cinemas to mark the film’s 40th anniversary, this digital restoration of Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi touchstone reintroduces a genuine UFO: a blockbuster that operates with hushed stealth, expanding its sense of momentous events approaching from distant galaxies exponentially. No bolt-shooting pre-credits sequence here; for score, a carefully sequenced five-note motif; instead of screen-hogging CGI, a glimpse of something through a rear windscreen, then effects sculpted, more tangibly, from moulding clay and mashed potato. That backdrop remains a significant part of Close Encounters’ genius: the depiction of Earth is so credible that we readily take the same extraterrestrial leaps of faith as its protagonist. Either way, the view from the mountaintop remains remarkable: grand celestial theatre, in which the greatest storyteller in modern movies invites us to set aside any scepticism, look up, and believe.

Source: The Guardian September 13, 2017 15:00 UTC