Talk:List of VistaVision films

The Japanese "VistaVision" films

It's always struck me as odd that a handful of Japanese films from the '60s and '70s are referred to as VistaVision productions, since they were produced well after the format was abandoned elsewhere (except for SFX work) and they don't seem like the sort of thing that would generally lend itself to the format. (Death by Hanging, for example, was a low-budget independent production.) I've come across a couple of items that seem to clear up the issue.

1) The booklet included with the Criterion DVD/Blu-ray of Death by Hanging states the following:

Although a variety of sources assert that Death by Hanging was filmed in Paramount Pictures' proprietary 8-perforation VistaVision widescreen format, Criterion has determined, after much research, that an alternate 4-perforation Japanese "Vista" format was employed instead; thus it was the 4-perf Japanese Vista negative that was used as the source for our transfer.

So we can say fairly definitively that Death by Hanging, at least, is not a VistaVision film.

2) The Japan-based film critic/historian Stuart Galbraith IV writes the following in his review of the White Christmas Blu-ray:

Wikipedia lists several Japanese films as being shot in VistaVision: Vengeance Is Mine, In the Realm of the Senses, etc., but this is incorrect. In Japan 1.85:1 widescreen is advertised as "VistaVision size," referring to the screen shape, not the negative format.

Indeed, the Japanese Wikipedia article on screen formats explains that the phrase "ビスタ・サイズ" ("Vista size") originated with VistaVision but is now used to refer to any film employing matted widescreen. (Anecdotally speaking, I have seen the word ビスタ "Vista" used frequently on Japanese DVD packaging for films in 1.85:1, including many that are unambiguously not VistaVision productions.)

Perhaps some Japanese films were produced in the actual horizontal 8-perf VistaVision process, but in light of the above information, I think all the Japanese productions on the list should be removed unless evidence is found that these films were actually shot in the 8-perf process—preferably from Japanese sources, since the use of "Vista size" for matted widescreen seems to be exclusive to Japan and non-Japanese sources clearly conflate it with VistaVision. -71.42.151.123 (talk) 03:25, 21 February 2017 (UTC)