These cinematic eyefuls will rouse you from the slumbering ennui you’re surely feeling these days, brought on by too many binge sessions watching Netflix during the hot days of August.

Peter O’Toole in 1965’s “Lord Jim.” One of the films screening in the Somerville Theatre’s 70 mm Widescreen Festival.

By Peg Aloi

Fanfare please! Starting today, The Somerville Theatre is presenting a 10 day 70 mm and Widescreen Festival (through September 25) that is dedicated to screening classic films in a lush, visually exciting format. Only a handful of cities nationwide have the means to show films this way;  Boston’s serious movie lovers should be falling all over themselves to attend. As explored in Peter Flynn’s recent (and excellent) documentary The Dying of the Light, theatrical presentations in film — as opposed to digital video — are becoming increasingly rare. This way of seeing films may soon go the way of the dodo.

But extinction won’t carry the day on Somerville Theatre’s watch. This movie house, as well as a handful of other enterprising cinemas, is bucking the depressing trend toward digital format projection. Why go see these movies (such as tonight’s 70 mm screening of Lawrence of Arabia), you may ask. Can’t I buy these flicks on DVD? Won’t they show on Turner Classics sometime soon? Sure, maybe. But, sitting on your couch in front of your flat screen, will you be able to see the tiny dust motes spinning in the beam of light as it hits the screen? Might not the color quality be truer than what you see on that brand-new pricey TV of yours, the one on which most lawns look about as green as an artificially flavored lime popsicle? Will you hear the faint flickering sounds of the projector as the film movies through the machine? Well, you’ll only hear that if you’re sitting close to the projection booth, but the point is you could hear it if you wanted to. Film is not video — and you just can’t pretend otherwise.

Ernest Borgnine, Janet Leigh, and Kirk Douglas in “The Vikings.” Prepare to be dazzled.

The tragedy is that, because the experience of seeing films projected has become such a rarity, many filmgoers can’t tell the difference between film and video. But, rest assured, there is a significant aesthetic difference. The outstanding selection of films projected in 70mm and 35mm onto the big screen in this Somerville Theatre series (many are Hollywood classics infrequently broadcast on television and/or hard to find on DVD) will give audiences a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compare and contrast visual experiences. Prepare for splendors, cinematic warhorses bounding about like frisky ponies: Lawrence of Arabia, The Ten Commandments, and Spartacus among them. Sci-fi fans will no doubt enjoy Tron, Interstellar, Star Trek: The Voyage Home or Stanley Kubrick’s epic fantasia 2001: A Space Odyssey. There’s the sublime musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet — West Side Story, music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim. This film has fallen out of critical favor because of its ethnic stereotyping and tame street gang violence, but it’s one of the great Broadway musicals. You’ll really regret it if you don’t go see it.

Western fans can drool over stunning prints of Silverado, Ride Lonesome, and The Wild Bunch. A fabulous looking action film called The Vikings will screen in a 35mm Technirama print. Like me, you may barely know what that term means, but I know you want to find out. (Seriously, it’s a process invented by Technicolor, similar to CinemaScope but sharper and less grainy) Then there’s Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, and It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. (The entre program schedule can be found here.)

Don’t wait until the last minute to purchase tickets for this outstanding festival; discounts are available for multiple ticket purchases. These eyefuls are worth your time and money. The experience will rouse you from the slumbering ennui you’re surely feeling these days, brought on by too many binge sessions watching Netflix during the hot days of August. Autumn’s afoot. Time to wake up and venture out to the big screen.

Peg Aloi is a former film critic for The Boston Phoenix. She has taught film studies for a number of years at Emerson College and is currently teaching media studies at SUNY New Paltz. Her reviews have appeared in Art New England and Cinefantastique Online, and she writes a media blog for Patheos.com called The Witching Hour.