Cinemascope

CinemaScope is a widescreen cinematography and projection process introduced in 1953 by 20th Century-Fox. It was designed to compete with television by enabling a much wider image on standard 35mm film, creating a more immersive theatrical experience.

The core idea of CinemaScope is the use of anamorphic lenses. In filming, an anamorphic lens compresses the horizontal dimension of the image by about a factor of two so that a wide picture can be recorded on a conventional 35mm negative. In projection, a complementary anamorphic lens unsqueezes the image, producing a widescreen aspect ratio. The resulting format is typically around 2.35:1, with later prints commonly referenced as 2.39:1 due to cropping during projection.

History and development: The technique drew on earlier French anamorphic concepts associated with Henri Chrétien, which Fox adapted and refined for commercial use. The Robe (1953) was the first feature released in CinemaScope, helping to popularize the format and spur a wave of widescreen productions throughout the 1950s. CinemaScope competed with other widescreen systems such as Cinerama and later influenced the development of lens-based approaches like Panavision.

Impact and legacy: CinemaScope helped redefine cinematic presentation in the 1950s and beyond by offering a more expansive visual canvas without requiring large-format film. It established a brand and set of production practices that many studios adopted during the era’s widescreen boom. Although newer formats emerged and many films later switched to other systems, CinemaScope remains a landmark in the history of film technology and widescreen cinema.