Melbourne cinema fears Titanic will be buried in film archive 'red tape'

A cinema in Melbourne, The Astor, says moving a rare 70mm print of the film to Canberra's National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) after its last showing last week now means 'Leo' may have died permanently.

The cinema fears it will be buried in "red tape" at its new home.

"There is the red tape of dealing with the NFSA's own internal systems of managing film print loans, then there are the NFSA access fees, then the freight both ways to Canberra," The Astor's George Florence said.

The St Kilda cinema has been one of the few in the country that shows the 70mm print which is understood to weigh 150 kilograms. It has been stored locally at Chapel Distribution, a classics movie library.

The studio, 20th Century Fox Film Distributors, have opted to ensure the film is preserved by moving it to the archives. Tara Judah, the programming and content assistant at The Astor, said it was "extremely rare."

Ms Judah said Wednesday was a "very busy night" with local cinephiles flocking to farewell the print.

According to website IMDbPro, Titanic was released on 35mm and then blown up to 70mm.

The larger format allows for finer picture quality for very wide screen movies.

Mr Florence said "the problem for us as a commercial exhibitor is that the logistics and costs associated with extracting film prints from the NFSA make the exercise [of transporting the print back to Victoria] virtually unviable."

Meg Labrum, senior curator at the NFSA confirmed they would be receiving the print after its last showing in Melbourne on July 23, and have no immediate plans to screen the film.

Mr Florence said the film delivered a "poetic and emotive connection" for viewers and that "digital just does not have the depth, colour rendition nor the hard to define 'life' of film."

Many great classics such as Spartacus were filmed on the 70mm format. "It is still better that it's preserved than it is junked," Ms Judah said.