Unless it is Sky it hardly matters as the films on FTA channels are nearly all airings of the same stuff that's been on umpteen times. It is a bit like Groundhog Day.

I'm not sure who you were responding to, but I agree with this assessment. If I have to type the word's 'crocodile' and 'dundee' in the same bleeding sentence ONE MORE BLOODY TIME!!...

Ahem! Nurse, the screens...

I totally agree and I am not going to let it go. A have a theory why not more are complaining. When I complained last year I was told there was a fault and it shouldn't have happened. I think a lot will assume it is broken so not complain and others told it is broken. I know some, like my partner didn't even notice but for me the first 20 minutes of the film was spoiled as it look like a pop up cinema were they hadn't aligned the screen right.

A senior manager is contacting me so I am told

They replied saying they are unable to tell me why they are doing it. I have said that I know their screen 3, their biggest is THX certificated and that it is licenced and that the audatoroam has to be set in a certain way to get the licence so I am reporting them.

I wonder if all Vue do this now.

What in the name of bloody hell is a "floating screen"? I don't even understand their answer. The sound as proficient in 110% bullshitting as a BBC marketing drone on Points of View!


I'd love to hear the outcome of your reporting them.


I know there's a Vue in the Lowry at Salford Quays, but I haven't been. I usually go to the nearby Odeon at the Trafford Centre, a couple more stops down the M60, but I'm not keen to try Vue based on this experience you've had.

I will let you know. I can't imagine it is saving them much money. It must be laziness. Hopefully reporting them will work. Worth trying anyway.

Watched A Bronx Tale last night on BBC1, looked like it was in 1.85:1 and it was horribly distorted - I know it was shot in that way but there was definitely something off about it, almost as if a 4:3 pan and scan version was being shown stretched to 16:9

Are you sure you weren't just watching with the TV set to 16:9 (or 'Full')? That may seem like an obvious question, but even if the Beeb's print was cropped 4:3, it will still appear stretched on a 16:9 display unless you alter the settings manually to 4:3. Hope that helps!

No I make sure my TV is set to auto at all times. It looked that way on a few different TVs in the house and as well as the live stream on the website so god knows what they did

I was surprised to see Reservoir Dogs being shown on 5USA in a really crappy 4:3 print and not widescreen, especially as they show Rush Hour 2 in full letterbox format.

(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 (3 - 9 May):


Saturday (3 May)

• Air America (ITV 4)
• Black Snake Moan (Film 4)
• The Bone Collector (C5)
• Code 7 Victim 5 [Victim Five] (movies4men)
• Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (Movie Mix)
• The Fighting Fist of Shangai Joe [Il mio nome è Shangai Joe] (movies4men)
• A Good Year (Film 4)
• Green Zone (C4)
• Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan: Lord of the Apes (C5)
• Justice [Seeking Justice] (5 USA)
• The Life of David Gale (ITV 3)
• Man of the House (Movie Mix)
• Payback (ITV 4)
• Peter Pan (ITV 1)
• Predators (E4)
• Sands of the Kalahari (C5)
• The Spiderwick Chronicles (Film 4)
• The Star Chamber (True Entertainment)
• Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (ITV 2)
• The Vikings (C5) [Technirama]
• What Just Happened? (BBC 2)
• Young Winston (BBC 2)


Sunday (4 May)

• 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Film 4)
• The Boston Strangler (Movie Mix)
• Breakout (movies4men)
• Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (C5)
• Far North (Film 4)
• Gunfight in Abilene (5 USA)
• House of Flying Daggers [十面埋伏] (Film 4)
• I, Robot (Movie Mix)
• Licence to Kill (ITV 1)
• Man of the House (Movie Mix)
• Open Season (C5) [IMAX DMR 3-D] [1.85:1]
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Film 4)
• Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed (movies4men)
• Shiner (movies4men)
• Stargate (C5)
• Star Trek (Film 4)
• Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (ITV 2)
• Underworld: Awakening (C4) [3-D]


Bank Holiday Monday

• 27 Dresses (Film 4)
• Alpha and Omega (5*) [3-D] [1.85:1]
• Arthur and the Invisibles [Arthur et les Minimoys] (5*)
• Breakout (movies4men)
• A Bullet for the General [El Chucho: Quien sabe] (movies4men)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Film 4) [3-D]
• I, Robot (Movie Mix)
• Man of the House (Movie Mix)
• The Matrix (5*)
• National Treasure (BBC 1)
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (BBC 2)
• St. Trinian's 2: The Legend of Fritton's Gold (Film 4)
• Suicide Commandos [Commando suicida] (movies4men)
• Tekkonkinkreet [鉄コン筋クリート] (Film 4)
• U-571 (5 USA)
• Underworld (ITV 2)
• Wanted (Film 4)
• Zookeeper (ITV 2)


Tuesday (6 May)

• Billion Dollar Brain (ITV 4)
• Blade: Trinity (5*)
• Blitz (5 USA)
• Bridesmaids (Film 4)
• "Crocodile" Dundee II (E4)
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (ITV 1)
• The Prince and the Pauper (Film 4)
• Son of Rambow (BBC 1)
• Tin Cup (ITV 4)


Wednesday (7 May)

• Backdraft (ITV 4)
• The Boat That Rocked (ITV 1)*
• Cattle Empire (More 4)
• Earth Girls Are Easy (Movie Mix)
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend (5*)
• Solomon Kane (Film 4)
• The Undefeated (Film 4)
• Vantage Point (5 USA)
• With You, Without You [ඔබ නැතිව ඔබ ත්එක්ක] (C4)


Thursday (8 May)

• Air America (ITV 4)
• Billion Dollar Brain (ITV 4)
• The Book of Eli (5*)
• Gunfight in Abilene (5 USA)
• I Dreamed of Africa (Movie Mix)
• The Life of David Gale (ITV 3)
• Monsieur Lazhar (Film 4)
• The New World (Film 4)
• A Reason to Live A Reason to Die [Una ragione per vivere e una per morire] (ITV 4)
• Unknown (Film 4)


Friday (9 May)

• Breakout (movies4men)
• The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (Film 4) [3-D]
• Definitely, Maybe (More 4)
• Frozen (Film 4)
• GoldenEye (ITV 1)*
• How to Train Your Dragon (CBBC) [3-D]
• Killer Elite (5*)
• Machine-Gun Kelly (movies4men)
• Oldboy [올드보이] (Film 4)
• Predators (E4)
• Spy Game (ITV 4)

I wasn't. It's the only print I've ever seen on there.

• Dirty Mary Crazy Larry (Movie Mix) is 16:9 but The Boston Strangler on the same channel is widescreen.

I've been meaning to mention this, so I'm glad you pointed it out.

TBS is a classic, not least because it aims - and largely succeeds - in combing star-driven entertainment with grim, documentary realism. It's also pretty blunt for 1968, with allusions to some of the crime scene details that weren't really the norm for its time (but given the seriousness of the subject, it got away with it - except in the UK, where some material was censored).

However, some of the details are wince-inducing for a modern audience: Since the cops are looking for a sexual deviant, all the various potential suspects are viewed as degenerate in one form or another, or at the very least kooks and fruitcakes. This allows the George Kennedy character to use the word 'fag' in at least one scene, which shows what some of the police think of the people they're investigating. In that sense, it's difficult to know whether the film is simply reflecting reality, or tacitly condoning this particular view of the world.

Nevertheless, a complex, gritty film, with Tony Curtis giving a career-best performance, and a cinematographer who uses every inch of the wide, W-I-I-I-D-E screen (see it in 16:9 and watch the amount of pan-scanning needed to get everything into most of the shots).

Sorry I haven't posted earlier - came back from Easter weekend with a huge backlog of things to do, only just getting to the end of it.

I saw THE VERY EDGE. It was shown in the National Film Archive 35mm print, with a BBFC A certificate at the front. There was a rather dupey-looking section in the first reel which I presume is there to reinstate the cuts the BBFC made at the time (in the scene where Jeremy Brett attacks Anne Heywood in her home). It's an interesting and certainly watchable film, though flawed by melodrama and overemphasis in places. You can see some feminist subtexts working away in Elizabeth Jane Howard's script, and given that A certificate the film is rather frank for its time about sexual dysfunction.

The film is definitely in Scope, though it's rather hard to tell if it was shot anamorphic or spherical, given that a lot of it was shot with wide-angle lenses with quite deep focus. I think it was spherical though: some of the shots with out-of-focus backgrounds weren't squeezed. There's a scene late out which looks out of a window at nighttime, with unsqueezed streetlights visible.

So I don't know if "Cinevision" was a variant of Techniscope and shot 2-perf? (Are there any Techniscope films shot in black and white?) It didn't look especially grainy, and grain is a feature of Techniscope, or at least was in the days when the film was blown-up to 35mm release prints via an optical printer. Also, THE VERY EDGE was made in 1962 and Techniscope was developed in Italy in 1963. I don't know if anyone involved in the production can be asked. Director Cyril Frankel is still alive at age 92, though I have no idea of his state of health (or memory). The DP, Bob Huke, died in 2002.


There is a source (an article on the film's production in MOVIE COLLECTOR magazine several years ago, which I don't have to hand) which says that the crucifixion sequence was shot in 65mm, during a genuine total eclipse of the sun. I'd imagine that making sure to get those shots when you couldn't ask for a retake probably meant that depth-of-field issues with the anamorphic lenses used in the Technirama process were best avoided. The rest of the film was shot in Technirama, though.


Agreed. When I saw it, quite a few years ago on a Channel 4 OAR broadcast, I did notice that the use of split screen did have a rationale behind it (other than the fashionableness the film is often accused of) . All the police procedural stuff is in "normal" Scope, and the split screens are used for the sequences dealing with the Strangler's crimes and their impact on the public.

It's a film that has to be seen in OAR or not at all - that was clear from the outset when I saw it. Even though some of the split screens looked pretty tiny on my TV set, a smaller one than I have now!

I don't recall ever coming across any explanation for the Cinevision process, so it's impossible to know how the scope frame was achieved. And without the direct participants, it looks like we'll never know.


During my research, I believe I stumbled across at least one Techniscope film that was shot black and white, but it's buried in my filmog amongst thousands of other titles, so I can't say which film it is!! If I ever happen across it, I'll let you know.


I've heard this story, too, though I don't recall the details about which format was used for this particular sequence. The depth-of-field issues DO sound like a good reason for not using anamorphic, though.


I always assumed that Fleischer used split-screens to convey a huge amount of info in the shortest amount of screen time. Had he done it in a 'conventional' manner, it probably wouldn't have been as effective and would have extended the running time by over an hour! As it stands, the method really does convey the enormity of what happened in Boston at the time - not just the murders themselves, but the way it affected daily life in such a huge city. Similarly-styled police procedurals like SON OF SAM and (especially) ZODIAC are enormous drags by comparison.

YOUNG WINSTON and CODE 7 VICTIM 5! got their OAR premieres on Freeview yesterday, whereas THE FIGHTING FIST OF SHANGAI JOE (screened in a dubbed version, but with credits in Italian) was screened slightly letterboxed with a notable squeeze, which crushed most of the Techniscope frame into the 16:9 screen. You still got the 'full' picture, but not in a manner that anyone would have found especially watchable.

Sounds like the video of Die Hard, which was like having a 16:9-crop squashed into a 4:3 screen. Better than 4:3, but still cack. Still, it was all we had until widescreen videos eventually came along.

Am I right in thinking this is the first time Licence to Kill is airing in the right ratio? I thought ITV always cropped/zoomed to hell.

It was 16:9 apart from the opening credits. 2.35 : 1 is the correct ratio. Typically galling is that the bookend sponsor by Toyota is in widescreen!

I've seen C5 do that, too. Takes the proverbial!

Yep, noticed immediately as it came on, annoying but I still watched it because it's one of my favourites and if I wanted the right ratio I'd just watch it on Blu-Ray.

I think the thing that gave it away most was how it stayed in 2.35:1 for the first shot after the credits and then immediately zoomed to 16:9.

That's the worst! A film begins in 2:35:1 with credits and you think "finally!" and then with the first scene change/edit it goes 16:9

ITV didn't get where they are today by their management not being thick as pigshit.

With the introduction of a DOG last year, after 50-odd years without, you get the impression that the entire management board sit round the boardroom table wearing padded helmets and writing on the walls with crayon, with their feet, such is their decision-making skills.

The only thing I can presume is these are old prints (they are because they're the 2002 Lowry Imaging restorations and not the more recent 06/12 Sony ones) and ITV haven't bothered to get the newest ones with the right ratio.

The DOG doesn't bother me in the scheme of things, it's not that intrusive, but the aspect ratio changing from scene to scene is really irritating.