And I definitely appreciate the appreciation!

Thanks for the explanation. I hate that excuse which people used to give when I'd say I want to see a film in its correct ratio.

"Go see it in the cinema, then!"

Erm... it's long out of there. So I can't. Bloody idiots

SILENT SOULS premiered OAR on BBC 4 last night, much as expected. And the OAR version of MAN FROM GOD'S COUNTRY got another outing on 5 USA.

Trouble is in modern cinemas with digital projectors and no projectionist, I have often seen 2.39:1 films shown on a 16:9 screen and vise versa. When I complained even the manager didn't really know what I was getting at .... Grrrr

I get that sometimes with the Odeon. However, I was eventually put in touch with a guy there who knows his stuff and we exchanged a few emails where I was able to gleam, for example, that Man of Steel would be shown with an IMAX 15/70 print, but that while the adverts can only be shown with their digital projector, they can switch between the two, so ads would still have been shown on the IMAX screen, which was a source of my annoyance when I'd seen a number of films on there without the ads (and which became a benefit of IMAX) but then turned up out of the blue before The Hobbit (which was already a bladder-busting 3hrs WITHOUT 30 mins of crap before it)

Anyway, on the plus side, for the two cinemas I visit, I was able to get a list of auditoriums and their screen dimensions, plus a list of which screens are 1.85:1 and which are 2.35:1.

Am I right in thinking that, as with the case of Riddick (last Thurs, before it started a full week proper), as that was a 2.35:1 film on a 1.85:1 screen, am I losing vertical resolution because it's not using the full height of the screen? From Friday, it was in a 2.35:1 auditorium.

The Indian film ABHAAS is screening on C4 Wednesday night (early hours of Thursday, actually), and while most 'Bollywood' films from around this period were shot in scope, I haven't been able to confirm this one for certain, so I've left it off the list. We'll find out one way or the other when it goes on-air!


(Unless otherwise indicated, all films in the following list were projected at 2.35:1 prior to 1971, and at 2.39:1 thereafter)

* = May not be screened in all areas (check your local listings).

Scope and 3-D movies across the Freeview platform for the coming week (14 - 20 September):


Saturday (14 September)

• Arlington Road (5 USA)
• Battle Los Angeles (C4)
• DragonHeart (ITV 2)
• Expired (BBC 2)
• How to Train Your Dragon (CBBC) [3-D]
• I Am Legend (ITV 1)*
• Keeping Mum (Film 4)
• Lost in Space (5*)
• Matilda (Movie Mix)
• Maverick (C5)
• Mirrors (Film 4)
• Night Passage (ITV 4) [Technirama]
• Unforgiven (C5)
• The X Files (C4)


Sunday (15 September)

• Blade (ITV 4)
• Changeling (ITV 3)
• Did You Hear About the Morgans? (C5)
• Eragon (C4)
• First Men in the Moon (Film 4)
• Hancock (C5)
• Heavenly Creatures (BBC 1)
• Man From God's Country (5 USA)
• Matilda (Movie Mix)
• Moon (BBC 2)
• Paul (C4)
• Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (5*)
• Titanic (Film 4)
• Unstoppable (Film 4)
• X2 (5*)


Monday (16 September)

• The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Film 4)
• Hot Fuzz (ITV 2)
• Kingpin (Film 4)


Tuesday (17 September)

• Anna and the King (Film 4)
• Dragonfly (BBC 1)
• Failure to Launch (Film 4)
• Kidnapped (C4)
• Law Abiding Citizen (Film 4)
• Limitless (Film 4)
• The Return (ITV 1)*


Wednesday (18 September)

• Carlito's Way (ITV 4)
• Cliffhanger (ITV 4)
• Death Race (5*)
• Knights of the Round Table(C4) (Film 4) [2.55:1]
• Transformers (Film 4)
• X-Men: The Last Stand (E4)


Thursday (19 September)

• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (BBC 3)
• Love Lies Bleeding (Movie Mix)
• Shooter (Film 4)


Friday (20 September)

• Alien³ (Film 4)
• Changeling (ITV 3)
• Crossing Over (C4)
• Jumper (Film 4)
• McLintock! (C4)
• The Merchant of Venice (BBC 2)
• Miami Vice (ITV 1)*
• Piranha (C5) [3-D]
• She's Out of My League (BBC 1)
• Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew From London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (Film 4) [Todd-AO] [2.21:1]
• Titanic (Film 4)

Papillon in OAR & HD on BBC Two.

Indeed. And can anyone confirm that THE IPCRESS FILE played OAR on BBC 4 the other night? I'd recorded the programme before it, and just at the very point when the film might have switched to 16:9 (the opening scene and credits were all properly framed), the recording ended. In the immortal words of Dick Dastardly: "Curses, foiled again!"...

It was, nice print.

Thanks for that confirmation. And you're right - it DID look much better than the 16:9 print they've been running for years.

Now, if they could just do the same for CIRCUS WORLD...

As expected, The X-Files and the premiere of Battle Los Angeles (which was like Call of Duty with alien robots) were OAR. I presume I Am Legend wasn't, as they've never shown that OAR before on ITV.

Expired, on BBC2, was OAR. It must've been on before as I'd set up a reminder on Digiguide for it ages ago, so must've missed it back then. So when it was flagged up this time, I recorded it to watch later.

Yes indeed. It showed how (for better or worse) the director liked really short lenses. And it did a good job (for SD) of catching the grain other optical qualities of the process.

So good on them.

I'm a big fan of Sidney Furies (and DP Otto Hellers) whacky angles and lens on Ipcress File. Some "serious" reviews tend to be a bit huffy, talking of it being gimmicky and flashy. Give me the 60s over contemporary shakey-cam.

I'd prefer films to be shown in their original aspect ratio. I hate it when films are cropped.

And Furie was still indulging in wonderfully expansive (and strangely-angled) compositions as late as 1981 when he directed THE ENTITY, which is full of such imagery! Great stuff!!

And I could not agree more about the qualitative differnece between the clean compositional style of the 60's and the godawful shakey-cam crap of today ('Filmed in WobbleScope' doesn't have quite the same ring as Ultra Panavision 70, does it?!)...

Was that an OAR terrestrial 'premiere' of HEAVENLY CREATURES on BBC 1 the other night, I wonder? It hasn't been on for a while, so I don't recall if any previous screenings were similarly framed.

Yes, I think it was. I remember it being 16:9 before.

Was Expired an OAR premiere, too?

Can't answer that one, I'm afraid. In fact, I had to check the Radio Times just to see if this had been on before at all, and it has.

DRAGONFLY gots its OAR 'premiere' last night, too.

(Unless otherwise indicated, all films in the following list were projected at 2.35:1 prior to 1971, and at 2.39:1 thereafter)

Scope and 3-D movies across the Freeview platform for the coming week (21 - 27 September):


Saturday (21 September)

• The Awakening (BBC 2)
• Carlito's Way (ITV 4)
• Failure to Launch (Film 4)
• The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (Film 4)
• The Great Escape (C5)
• Iron Man (C4)
• Lost in Space (5*)
• Man on Fire (C4)
• Runaway Bride (More 4)
• StreetDance (BBC 3) [3-D] [1.85:1]
• They [Ils] (Film 4)
• Vera Cruz (5 USA) [2.00:1]


Sunday (22 September)

• 1941 (Movie Mix)
• Anna and the King (Film 4)
• Conan the Barbarian (C5) [3-D]
• Drive Angry (C5) [3-D] [1.85:1]
• Evan Almighty (ITV 2)
• Franklyn (Film 4)
• Happy Feet (ITV 2)
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (BBC 3)
• Limitless (Film 4)
• Lone Star (BBC 1)
• Ocean's Eleven (C5)
• Pitch Black (ITV 2)
• A Single Man (BBC 2)
• Spartacus (ITV 4) [Super Technirama 70] [2.21:1]
• The Spiderwick Chronicles (C4)
• The Wiches of Eastwick (ITV 3)
• X-Men: The Last Stand (E4)


Monday (23 September)

• The Hunt for Red October (C4)
• The Joneses (Film 4)
• Om Shanti Om [ओम शान्ति ओम] (C4)
• The Thomas Crown Affair (C5)
• Transporter 3 [Le Transporteur 3] (Film 4)


Tuesday (24 September)

• 1941 (Movie Mix)
• Comanche Station (More 4)
• Hart's War (BBC 1)
• Hombre (Film 4)
• Into the Wild (Film 4)
• Knights of the Round Table (Film 4) [2.55:1]
• The Mask of Zorro (5*)
• Whiteout (Film 4)


Wednesday (25 September)

• Bridget Jones's Diary (ITV 2)
• Green Street (ITV 4)
• In the Line of Fire (5 USA)
• Jumper (Film 4)
• Million Dollar Baby (Film 4)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (BBC 3)
• Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew From London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes (Film 4) [Todd-AO] [2.21:1]
• The Wrestler (Film 4)


Thursday (26 September)

• 20000 Leagues Under the Sea (C4) [2.55:1]
• Blade Runner (BBC 4)
• The Enemy Below (Film 4)
• Green Street (ITV 4)
• The Lovely Bones (Film 4)
• Sleepers (ITV 4)
• Tears of the Sun (Movie Mix)


Friday (27 September)

• Air America (ITV 4)
• Firefox (ITV 4)
• Hombre (Film 4)
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (BBC 3)
• Panic Room (More 4)
• Pitch Black (ITV 2)
• The Rare Breed (Film 4)
• Reservoir Dogs (C5)
• Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed (Movie Mix)
• Salt (Film 4)
• Shrooms (5*)
• Unbreakable (ITV 2)

Sometimes this is OAR, sometimes it's 16:9. I've only seen the sequel in 16:9 on BBC, though.

It was on last night in 16:9 which was annoying

For reasons unknown, C5 replaced PIRANHA last night with an OAR version of WAR, which isn't available OAR on DVD (a BR version might be different).

As expected, THE AWAKENING premiered OAR on BBC 2 last night, while SHE'S OUT OF MY LEAGUE played the same way on BBC 1 on Friday.

Again, as expected, CONAN THE BARBARIAN premiered OAR on C5 last night, though not in the original 3-D, which is a bit like watching a cropped version of a scope movie - you're not actually seeing the film as it was meant to be seen.

Ocean's Eleven was also on Channel 5 yesterday in OAR.