Thanks, MichaelB. I was just floating the idea for those more knowledgable to either shoot down or support.MichaelB wrote:Dekalog was commissioned by and made for Polish television. At the time, the notion that the series might be screened in cinemas in its entirety would have been utter fantasy - and in any case, 1.37:1 was still a recognised theatrical ratio back then in Poland.
Now it's certainly plausible - indeed likely - that the two feature-length films were consciously protected for 1.66:1 at the time of shooting, but what would have been the rationale for doing this elsewhere? Especially given that different cinematographers worked on each episode? And why would the film have been cropped for broadcast when 4:3 broadcast was not merely the primary but at the time of production the only intended medium? This makes no sense to me at all.
There's been several made-for-TV productions, shot in the era prior to widescreen TV, that were shot in wide formats and adjusted to 4:3 for broadcast, e.g. Pride and Prejudice (1995). I was wondering whether this could potentially be the case here and that it was the original broadcast that was actually the travesty, as opposed to modern re-releases.