It was December 2001 when a group of 7-8 teenagers entered the newly built village in Rentis to see the first “Lord of the Rings” and fall in love forever; not only the epic about Peter Jackson, but also the cinema itself, which has the unique property of sending you to another world for two or three hours. Over the next two years, our Christmas rendezvous with Middle-earth resumed, the company grew, the second and third parts of the trilogy somehow sealed a bond that continues to this day. Two decades later, some getting married, others turning gray or having (much) more weight, we are getting ready to return to the darkroom to see “the Lord” more clearly and sharply than ever.

There will be a technical part. village cinemas provided 4K copies, edited by Peter Jackson himself and his team over the course of twenty years of the trilogy. Screenings will begin in Athens and Thessaloniki on 6 April with The Fellowship of the Ring, continue a week later (13/4) with The Two Towers, and wrap up from 27/4 onwards with The Return of the King. . With today’s mini-poll, it looks like roughly half of the seats (the “best”) in most screenings are already filled, but there are certainly many more spots for those who are interested.

It is worth noting that all films will be shown in extended versions, that is, 208, 223 and 251 minutes respectively, clearly marathon lengths, but “usual” for unrepentant fans of the Lord. But what will we see there? Mostly a significantly upgraded image, as Peter Jackson himself explains: “Special effects technology has evolved a lot over the past 20 years, and when the image became absolutely crystal clear with 4K processing, we realized that some shots weren’t “aged” so much. . Therefore, we took the opportunity to return and correct all the shortcomings. However, the challenge with 4K is not only achieving crystal clear images, but also maintaining the same cinematic aesthetic while everything becomes sharper.”

The funniest thing about The Lord of the Rings is that, despite being a huge hit in theaters and awards (only 17 Oscars), production was extremely problematic. And that’s because Jackson took on the now almost unthinkable task of filming all three films at the same time, but editing and finishing them separately. Somehow the first part was corrected using an old-fashioned photochemical process used before in cinema, and the next two parts were digitally processed.

At the same time, advances in special effects have allowed The Return of the King to be infused with sophistication that was simply not possible two years earlier. In the new version, Jackson promises exactly the same results, on the same level as his own follow-up Hobbit trilogy. For us, after dozens, if not hundreds, of Archon iterations over the years, visual differences may not matter much. On the other hand, the joyful smile of a friend in the twilight is more important.