I would certainly hope this is not true, especially since I've seen it in widescreen on IFC (or perhaps it was Sundance?). Buena Vista has been pretty good with their Miramax catalog titles. Even though they almost never have extras, they have been doing 16:9 transfers for films that cannot possibly have a big audience and selling them cheaply. (I was floored to pick up "Ethan Frome" in a new anamorphic transfer --- I half expected I was the only person in the country to be excited it was coming to dvd!)
I went to dvdempire.com to see if they had boxart posted for these titles for next week, but they do not. I was looking to pick up "Ridicule", "Unzipped", and "The Lovers On The Bridge" in the upcoming weeks, but I'll pass if they aren't widescreen transfers.
due to the inability to determine if they were 1.33:1 or OAR. If reviews indicate they are in the correct A.R. I'll pick them up later, but as of right now just three more lost sales.
I would trust info from the marketing site run by the distributor long before I'd trust any of those e-tailers. I've never been steered wrong by video.com when it comes to specs for BVHE DVD releases.
If BVHE is the Buena Vista website, then I wouldn't necessarily trust it. Last year, it wrongly claimed that "Belle de jour", "Purple Noon", and one other film were 16x9 enhanced when they turned out to be letterboxed (Belle de jour was simply a port from a previous LD transfer). There was the same pre-release speculation, as some retailers were listing these titles as "letterboxed", and most of us trusted the Buena Vista site... to our detriment.
"Microcosmos" is 1.33:1. That's it's intended aspect ratio (the LD was 1.33:1). I think it was made for French television. Sonatine SHOULD be widescreen as the Rolling Thunder LD was.
I just got back from a business trip and Ridicule had arrived while I was away. I just put it in the player and can confirm that it is most assuredly 16x9 enhanced. Hopefully we won't see another PURPLE MOON-like release from Miramax-ZOË.