In the credits it says that Summertime was filmed in 1.85 : 1 which would indicate a wide screen film. http://vimeo.com/videoschool/lesson/6/glossary-of-common-video-terms
On all copies I've come across though they are always in 4:3. Is this a mistake on imdb or am I missing something?
Films are not shot in 1,85:1. They are shot in full rame (at least back then) and then matted to the intended aspect ratio. For 1955 1,66:1 seems the likely intended ratio but 1,37:1 or 1,85:1 are not out of the question. The main thing is that you are not losing any picture information with a full frame presentation, though it's possible that the composition is not optimal. No doubt it was presented in a wide variety of aspect rations in cinemas around the world because widescreen was still a very new thing in 1955.
shareThank you. So what you are saying then, is that the versions I'm seeing today are at the correct aspect ratio or at least how they were originally filmed and there are probably no others with a different aspect ratio available. Is this correct?
shareIt is as it was filmed but may not be how it was supposed to be seen.
It comes down to whether the cinematographer composed for 1,37:1 or 1,66:1 or 1,85:1.
I certainly don't know the answer.
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I had the impression it was framed for full frame. There is so much vertically to be seen in various scenes: Piazzo San Marco, the church (San Simeone Piccolo, I think) from the vaporetto (water bus), the views of the narrow alleyways, the view of the canals from the hotel patio, many others. I personally would have fought to keep the vertical content and not matte it off.
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The story is king.
It certainly looks good the way it is now. Some movies can look kind of dull in full frame but I never get that feeling with this one.
shareWe will be screening this in June from a BFI 35 mm print. I asked the BFI yesterday and was told that the correct aspect ratio for this film is 1.66.
I watched this on my home cinema setup with the screen matted at 1:66:1 and the composition looked perfect to me, plenty of headroom, lines of perspective look good, etc.
share1:66 seems to be the correct ratio. I watched the japanese Blu-ray and zoomed the image to get the 1:85 ratio. And it worked too. No heads or important elements were cut off.
I hope there will be another BD in the correct ratio 1:66. But it looks good in full frame too.