MovieChat Forums > Female Trouble (1976) Discussion > Fake Widescreen!

Fake Widescreen!

posted 16 years ago by dangerous-women
4 replies | jump to latest

I am very upset about the DVD release. It's not true widescreen, so the black bars are actually cutting off the top and bottom of the screen. I cannot believe John Waters actually approved this! This movie, as well as Pink Flamingos, was shot in full-frame. So there are many parts of the movie you don't get to see, such as: Taffy laying on the floor dead after Dawn strangles her, and a lot of Gator's penis as he's sitting on the bed, etc. The whole point of widescreen is to show you the entire frame of the film. Giving the illusion of widescreen while actually cutting off parts of the frame is completely pointless and asinine!!!

I never thought I'd say this (since I hate fullscreen), but I hope there will be a fullscreen release of this DVD in the future so I can see the movie the way it was actually filmed. There should be a special edition DVD anyway since there is supposedly a long behind-the-scenes documentary that was made during filming.

John, if you ever read this...FULL-FRAME NEXT TIME!

[–] Borowczyk76 15 years ago

I completely agree with you! Had I known the DVD was a fake widescreen, I would have avoided it (well that's not true, since it's the only way to have it for now). I have the old VHS tape as well and you're missing A HUGE PART of the image on the DVD. You're even missing a few jokes! Dawn's butt crack as she first sits on Gator's chair at "Le Lipstick", the "Look at my leg!" bit.

There are MANY scenes on the DVD that I had never seen on my old VHS tape (and it certainly wasn't censored, let me assure you). The scene where Ida is released from her cage is completely different on my VHS version and I've noticed that the music has been remastered on the new DVD version as well.

I don't understand why Waters approved of this version either and I hope something will eventually be done about it! So sad that such a twisted flick received such a crappy treatment (no pun intended).

[–] hippie_on_strike 15 years ago

I suggest getting the newest VHS of Female Trouble released in 2001 from New Line. It has all the same scenes from the DVD (and the same front cover) that were missing from previous versions. It's also in it's true Fullscreen version.

[–] orchidclub 9 years ago

There's no such thing as "fake widescreen". Most movies are shot open matte and are then cropped to widescreen when they are shown in a theater. That's how Female Trouble was screened in theaters and is why the DVD is cropped. The information at the top and bottom isn't meant to be seen. The reason it's kind of problematic in the case of Female Trouble is that John Waters probably didn't frame the shots for widescreen. So when it was cropped for theatrical exhibition and for the DVD, hairdos get cut off and the framing looks bad. But that doesn't mean it is "fake" widescreen. That is the way the movie is supposed to be seen.

[–] Aunt-Peg 8 years ago

John Waters' has stated that what he didn't like about cutting the top and bottom off for widescreen cinema release was that some of the hair-do's couldn't be fully seen.