I’ve been a hardcore aspect ratio fanatic my entire life so I when I notice something unusual or striking about the masking of a new film, you can pretty much take it to the bank. I was in a local AMC plex last night, and impulsively decided to pop my head into a theatre showing … Read more
No, you probably didn’t. Not until I mentioned it. But 1.66:1 was totally standard in England and Europe back in the day. Which is why I’ve long claimed to have seen a 1.66 version of Rosemary’s Baby in Paris back in the mid ’70s. Like Dr. No and Goldfinger, From Russia With Love was shot … Read more
HE nemesis Bob Furmanek, the film scholar and restorationist who is responsible for persuading many Bluray distributors to remaster and release 1950s-era films within the dreaded 1.85 aspect ratio: aspect ratio, has been working on a Kino Lorber Bluray of Those Redheads From Seattle, which was the first feature composed for 1.66:1. The Redheads Bluray … Read more
Here’s an open-letter proposal addressed to the Academy, Quentin Tarantino‘s New Beverly Cinema and the programmers of the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian and Aero theatres to devote seven days to the glorious 1.66:1 aspect ratio. They don’t have to call it the Hollywood Elsewhere 1.66:1 Celebration Festival, but seriously…who else has stood up for 1.66:1 like … Read more
Ask any 1.85 fascist (like occasional HE commenter Pete Apruzzese) to explain the basic aspect-ratio laws and you’ll hear the same thing time and again: All non-Scope films released after the fall of 1953 should be presented at 1.85 unless otherwise specified by the director. They’ll allow for exceptions among some 1950s and early ’60s … Read more
Author, former Variety guy and renowned cineaste Joseph McBride has revealed that he’s written George Stevens, Jr., with whom he co-wrote several AFI tribute specials in the ’80s, and told him he’s wrong about having contributed to the presentation of his father’s western classic, Shane, in a 1.66 to 1 aspect ratio on the forthcoming … Read more
Last night director William Friedkin tweeted that the much-hungered-for, long-stymied Bluray of Sorcerer, his brilliant 1977 remake of Henri Georges Clouzot‘s Wages of Fear, is finally in the works. “The original negative is in good condition [and] it’s now being budgeted to make a new digital master,” Friedkin said. He added that the Bluray will … Read more
Every time I get a Bluray of an older film that’s been Bob Furmanek-ed (i.e., arbitrarily cleavered into a 1.85 aspect ratio), a little part of me dies inside. But an older film that’s been 1.66 aspect ratio’ed always brightens my day. I haven’t time to watch this now as I have a triple-header tonight … Read more
There’s one thing you can pretty much depend upon when it comes to movie reviews, and it’s this: The vast majority of critics will never announce that a film in question was shot within a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. Olivia Wilde and Adam Newport-Berra‘s The Invite uses this a.r., and I may be the only critic … Read more
I think that all Platner ads should be framed in 1.66:1, the aspect ratio that most exemplifies a lack of pretension along with a kind of old-school integrity. I have never once been to Maine…not once. We all know it’s not Massachusetts — it’s a working-class bubba state. You know what I love about the … Read more
I’ve been waiting nearly a year for Criterion to reveal a date for their 4K Bluray of Stanley Kubrick’s Lolita (‘62). The digitally upgraded 64-year-old film played at the 2025 Venice Film Festival, and now, finally, Criterion has announced that their bumped-up Lolita (overseen by Warner Bros.) will be included in a big fat 4K … Read more
I saw it again tonight, and holy moley…it was shot in 1.66:1. A result of the European sensibility of dp Lucasz Zal (Ida, Cold War, The Zone of Interest). Chloe Zhao agreed, I’m guessing, because 1.66 is an older a.r. (European “flat”, common in France and England in the mid 20th Century) and this seemed … Read more