With the arrival of large formats came the stereophonic soundtrack as well. Fox had equipped CinemaScope with a system called MagOptical, consisting of four magnetic tracks and one optical support track. The magnetic tracks offered a wider, more ample range as well as a more full-bodied sound, but the cost of laying and recording the tracks was quite high. Indeed, the large companies that followed Fox in the use of the widescreen format found it prohibitively expensive to equip themselves with magnetic track stereophonic sound equipment. Perspecta Sound simulated a stereo effect using a single optical track. Through sub-audible (imperceptible) control signals, the audible sound was reproduced during projection by three amplifiers placed behind the screen, which were set to handle frequencies around 30 Hz (left), 35 Hz (center), and 40 Hz (right). Paramount was the first major to use Perspecta Sound in White Christmas (1954), which was also the debut of Paramount’s widescreen system VistaVision. Among those films made with Perspecta Sound, in addition to The Barefoot Contessa, were High Society, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, The Ten Commandments and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Despite its reduced cost and compatibility with normal projection equipment, the system was abandoned in 1957. This copy of The Barefoot Contessa has a Dolby Digital soundtrack which reproduces the effects of the original Perspecta sound.

Federico Magni

Here is how to explain the main character of this film, ideally played by the beautiful Ava: frigid according to the pigs, a nymphomaniac according to the Puritans, she is everything the spectators are not; she is above all the woman they will never hold in their arms, these brothers of the male characters in the film, even if they are not aware of it. Perhaps in a pinch they could disguise themselves as chauffeurs, guitarists, bohemians. But we can bet that their dignity won’t let them; and anyway they will not long fool the woman who prefers not to wear the slippers they give her, because everyone is secretly an Italian count.

Claude Chabrol, in “Cahiers du cinéma”, n. 49, 1995