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.
Originally Posted by Libretio:
“• Barabbas (C5) [Technirama]”
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.
Originally Posted by Libretio:
“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).”
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!