Why did you shoot this film in CinemaScope?


I had to. It turned out to be an interesting experience. I discovered how difficult it is to work in CinemaScope. When we used the normal format, every time we wanted to show a skyscraper, or a tree, anything tall, we were always unsatisfied – we wanted a taller screen. Then, someone suddenly came up with a wide screen. If you think of famous paintings… I only know of one in that format, and it’s “The Last Supper”. But Mr. Zanuck was convinced of providing the answer to three dimensional films, and thus came CinemaScope. In my opinion, Vistavision was a lot better.

Then do you really believe, as you said in Le Mépris that “CinemaScope is only good for funerals and snakes”?


Yes. For example, it was hard to shoot someone sitting at a table because you either couldn’t show the table, or the person had to stay too far back from the table. And you ended up with empty spaces on both sides of the screen that you had to fill with something. When there are two people, you can fill the screen by making them walk, making them pick something up somewhere, etc. but when you only have one person, you have a big head in the middle of the screen, and nothing to the right or left.

Fritz Lang, interview by Peter Bogdanovich