Our CinemaScope program, now in its fifth round, seems to be more beloved every year, due to the sense of a very precious achievement of cinema being ever more distant from our daily lives. In spite of the tragic difficulty with the most fascinating prints of the original epoch – those of the 2.55:1 aspect ratio -, we can offer exeptional thrills thanks to fine old prints from our fellow archives and the admirable restoration work going on.

The original response reported an enigma: the very first Scope films seemed to lack interest as narrative – but they were still intriguing and fascinating. Thus, according to Jacques Rivette, even a flawed film like The Robe “manages to sum up a certain style” and involves a true perspective: “If certain documentary images are superior, it is because it is in the logic of things that the genius of the machine bursts out in advance of the creator’s genius.” For Eric Rohmer, CinemaScope was the true avantgarde of the epoch. The earliest films of our selection, masterly films from “artisans” like John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock) and Henry Hathaway (Prince Valiant) signal the way CinemaScope fulfilled that promise. Great masters of the form followed: Kelly & Donen’s It’s Always Fair Weather, Samuel Fuller’s House of Bamboo, Budd Boetticher’s Ride Lonesome. And with Antony Mann and Man of the West, we are on the highest peak of Mount Olympus… Our small series is a chance to relive the moment where CinemaScope was collectively – by spectators and filmmakers alike – experienced as a gateway into a “greater future”.

Our pleasure dome is the wonderful cinema Arlecchino – a theater originally designed for CinemaScope and “other more spectacular materials”. One very special landmark of CinemaScope – now restored to its French original version by La Cinémathèque Francaise – will be seen at the Piazza Maggiore. Lola Montès, Max Ophuls’ final masterpiece, was originally a film maudit, defended by the great collegues of the film world, and now simply a miracle, emanating its philosophy of history and its observations about culture via a sensational, European sensibility of widescreen.

Peter von Bagh