Search results for query: *

Presumably digital projection being all but ubiquitous has enabled this? As everything is projected in 1.85:1 or 16:9 with black bars at the sides or top and bottom as appropriate, all manner of non-standard ratios are possible. And a good few films in the last decade or so have been in Academy...

What this comes down to is that certain distributors simply assume that all UK films of the 1960s or 1970s which aren't in Scope are in 1.66:1 unless absolutely proven otherwise, and not even then. As you can see from that graph, 1.66:1 was not used that much and hardly at all from the early...

Oh dear, I'm going to be arguing with the BFI again. I'm currently watching the films on their Children's Film Foundation Volume 3 set (out on DVD on 23 August) and all nine films, dating from 1953 to 1985 are presented in 1.33:1. The earliest one, The Clue of the Missing Ape is from 1953...

Autumn 1953, Another piece from Gavin Lambert, interviewing Mel Ferrer about the shooting of Knights of the Round Table in CinemaScope (and simiultaneously in "flat"). Also, this by Penelope Houston on Shane:

I'm currently looking through old issues of Sight & Sound to see if they made any references to aspect ratio changes. There's a four-page article by Gavin Lambert, "Report on New Dimensions" in the Spring 1953 issue, which is too long to post here, and I'd no doubt be breaching copyright if I...

Another one from the BFI. I've just received a checkdisc of Red White and Zero, which they're releasing on 10 December. I haven't done more than glance at it, but the aspect ratio is 1.37:1. That does seem odd for a 35mm feature from 1967 intended for commercial cinema release, even if only the...

I've received a Blu-ray checkdisc of DEATH LINE (US title: RAW MEAT) which is out soon from Network. It's transferred in a ratio of 1.85:1 and what's more the disc has a PDF of the US pressbook, which specifically says that that is the aspect ratio. Another Network release of a UK horror film...

My Digital Fix review is now live. First off, apologies to Andrew Mollo, who is still with us - the last sentence above would apply to him as well. This Blu-ray was the first time I saw It Happened Here since that time at the NFT in 1994 (not 1993). just for clarity that was the first public...

While I'm on the BFI, another one they've announced for July is It Happened Here. In this case I suspect 1.37:1 is the correct ratio. I first saw this at the National Film Theatre in 1993, shortly before the film was released on VHS. As it turned out, this was the first public showing of the...

My first review of the BFI's Woodfall set (Look Back in Anger) is now live at The Digital Fix, and I do mention the fact that the trade press of the time indicated the ratio should be 1.85:1. I'm still working on my review of The Entertainer and will do the same there. Another thing the BFI...

I now have Blu-ray checkdiscs of the BFI's Woodfall set - or rather the seven discs which aren't repackagings of previous releases. As I think we've already guessed, they are all 1.66:1.

The Dam Busters was resubmitted to the BBFC for this release, and the previous U certificate raised to a PG. The BBFC's listing says "widescreen".

Bergman was making films in 1.37:1 well into the 1960s - PERSONA, from 1967, is very definitely in that ratio. In London, that opened at the Academy Cinema in Oxford Street, which definitely could show it correctly. That cinema - which had three screens - regularly had long runs of THE SEVEN...

And according to a thread in another forum, the actual research done in this thread and elsewhere is "someone finding old film mags in a garage". As mentioned in that thread, StudioCanal recently released eight 1970s Hammer films on Blu-ray, all in 1.66:1, but I suspect that's another can of...

And if that isn't evidence enough, here are the cinema listings from The Times for 18 May 1955, the day after the "repeat premiere" (as the listings had it).

Thanks very much Doug, that's great. I'll keep this in mind when the discs arrive as I'll be reviewing that set. Bob, my comment about 1.66:1 was sarcastic - it obviously didn't come across that way!

I've found the aspect ratios of several BFI releases questionable, and I have questioned them in the past in my reviews for The Digital Fix. When I did that with SYMPTOMS (transferred in 1.37:1) back in 2016, I had a reply from the BFI which I added to the review and posted in here. Fair...

I believe previous French discs were 1.33:1 as well, and I suspect Artificial Eye simply released what they were given. (I reviewed all the Artificial Eye Truffaut releases and had, and still have, all of them on previous French DVDs in three box sets - except for this one.)

I would guess 1.66:1 as that's the ratio Truffaut seemed to favour, other than for his Scope films. (IIRC Fahrenheit 451 is 1.85:1 but I don't have anything to check that on hand, but in that case that's an English-language film so more likely to play outside arthouses in the UK and USA.) We...

I found this while searching for something else, but some evidence of early adoption by British (London) cinemas of widescreen projection. From The Times, Monday 20 July 1953. Have a look at the listings for the Odeons Leicester Square and Marble Arch and the Plaza.

In the case of THE MARQUISE OF O, we have a primary source for the aspect ratio - Nestor Almendros. The filmography in his book A Man With a Camera gives aspect ratios for all the features he shot, and all of the ones directed by Rohmer are 1.33:1 except for PAULINE AT THE BEACH, which is...

And with a 5.1 soundtrack oddly enough. While I'm not doubting that ON THE WATERFRONT is a widescreen film, I can see why people could be uncertain about that from watching the film. There are quite a few shots which do have things such as people's heads at the top of the frame. There's one...

Oh well, thanks for checking. BBC2 is showing ON THE WATERFRONT this coming Saturday, following the documentary LISTEN TO ME MARLON. The BBC are showing it in HD and widescreen. I wonder which ratio they'll be showing it in? (It's probably the same copy they last showed in 2015, but I didn't...

Does anyone have a definitive for the aspect ratio of THE LONELINESS OF THE LONG DISTANCE RUNNER? I watched it again today on Mubi UK - it expires there at midnight tonight. Mubi's HD copy is in a ratio of 1.78:1 - which I gather is the same as the BFI Blu-ray, which I don't own. IMDB says the...

The BFI's new Blu-ray of PSYCHOMANIA is out on 26 September and I have a checkdisc here, The aspect ratio is 1.66:1. I suspect 1.75:1 or 1.85:1 to be more likely correct for a British film made in 1973, but I haven't watched the feature through yet. By the way, last weekend at Frightfest I saw...

I think he's been mentioned before, but add Rainer Werner Fassbinder to the list of Western European directors making 35mm features in 1.37:1 into the 70s. I have Arrow's Blu-ray box of ten features (on seven discs) all from 4K restorations done by the Fassbinder Foundation. The following are in...

With several others of Southampton University's Film Society I went on a tour behind the scenes of the NFT in the mid-80s and remember they had twelve aspect ratios available to them, judging by the buttons used for changing the screen masking. Bearing in mind my London filmgoing dates from the...

"Most British cinemas would be able to screen Academy Ratio in the 1970s. 1.37:1 Academy Ratio was still adopted regularly in British Cinemas for archive feature films, 16mm features (Permissive for example), newreels, Children’s Film Foundation screenings and more... Projectionists were...

Rgearding Symptoms, I did review it and questioned the aspect ratio. The review is here. After the review went up, I had a reply from the disc producer at the BFI, which I've included in the review, but I'll paste it in here though: "Most British cinemas would be able to screen Academy Ratio...

For what it's worth I have seen Carnival of Souls projected in widescreen. I can't remember what ratio it was projected in (this was London in 1989), but if it had been Academy I'd have noticed it.