Why is the DVD 1:85?
When you see the trailer, the original aspect ratio is 2:35, and deservedly so. It looks much better in anamorphic as it complements Chinatown's cinematography quite nicely.
shareI saw this film in its original release and it was 1:85. Are you talking about the trailer on the DVD? Perhaps I've never looked at it. Odd if it's 2:35.
EDIT: I just had a look at the trailer from the link on the title page. It appears to have been vertically cropped; there's more "head room" in the film than appears on the trailer. I can't imagine why this would have been done, but apparently it was.
Poe! You are...avenged!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=K7hg3bHutuY
Yeah, maybe it was cropped. I think it looks quite better cropped than 1:85.
Some people find the 'scope aspect ratio more naturally pleasing; I think it depends on the film. In the case of the footage in the trailer, it kinda depends on the shot. Some of them look good cropped to 2:35, but others don't quite work, like those from the scene in which Jake enters his office and finds Mickey and Liberty waiting for him (tops of heads cut off) or the one in which Lillian "allows" Jake to "seduce" her (during the kiss, the lower half of their faces aren't visible).
Beginning in the 50's, and all through the 60's and the 70's, some films were shot and printed full-frame, but intended to be projected at 1:85, and others were printed exclusively at 1:85, and could only be projected that way (if you held the film strip up, what you saw on it was actually a 1:85 frame). When I was in the biz (25-plus years ago), the lab people called these "soft matte" and "hard matte," respectively (I don't know if they still do).
When the first-generation home-video systems came along (Beta, VHS, LaserDisc), a lot of films which were shot "soft matte" were mastered for video at 1:33, and look just fine that way (THE CAINE MUTINY is an example), while others appeared to have pointless blank space above actors' heads, or perhaps boom mikes or even lights and the tops of sets sneaking into shots (NORTH BY NORTHWEST, for instance). Now, in the age of DVD, Blu-ray and HDTV, viewers are more cinema-literate and discriminating, and more of an effort is made to master films in their originally intended aspect ratios.
Sorry if that's all TMI - or perhaps IGOWTL (I go on way too long) - but it just seemed related to the general subject and I thought I'd throw it in.
Poe! You are...avenged!
>Sorry if that's all TMI - or perhaps IGOWTL (I go on way too long) - but it just seemed related to the general subject and I thought I'd throw it in.
no, not at all. i actually like soft matted films and yearn for them nowadays. especially when it gets the bergman or powell/pressburger treatment.
Oh, boy...Powell & Pressburger; you said the magic words. 'Course, most of their best stuff was produced when 1.33 was the only aspect ratio, but - wow - what groundbreaking, stylish work they produced.
Poe! You are...avenged!