Academy Museum to Bring VistaVision Back in All Its Widescreen Glory
The article centers on institutional voices (Academy Museum, Paramount Pictures history) and corporate stakeholders without critical distance, adopting a celebratory tone toward a cultural institution's programming. Language is neutral and enthusiast-oriented rather than investigative or analytical—terms like 'cause for celebration' and 'as rare as it is essential' reflect promotional framing. The piece functions largely as event coverage aligned with the Academy Museum's interests, with no counterbalancing perspectives or critical examination of access, cost, or broader industry dynamics.
Primary voices: corporate or institutional spokesperson, media outlet
- This article does not address ticket pricing or accessibility barriers to the screening series
- This article does not examine why VistaVision projection infrastructure remains so costly and limited nearly 70 years after the format's creation
- This article does not discuss the commercial or preservation incentives driving recent VistaVision revival among high-profile directors
Framing is event-tied and unlikely to shift unless technical or attendance outcomes emerge post-August 2024.
Corporate-sourcedEstablishment framingNeutral language
VistaVision has seen a resurgence in interest in recent years thanks to directors like Brady Corbet (“The Brutalist“) and Paul Thomas Anderson (“One Battle After Another“) shooting their films in the format, which was created by Paramount Pictures in 1954 to compete with CinemaScope but fell out of favor (aside from visual effects work) after Marlon Brando’s “One-Eyed Jacks” in 1961. Even with the success of Anderson’s Oscar-winning epic, however, the opportunity to actually see films projected in true VistaVision is extremely rare.
That makes the Academy Museum’s upcoming “Presented in VistaVision” series a cause for celebration, and an event that’s worth cinephiles making the trek to Los Angeles for this August. The Academy will be installing a VistaVision projector in its David Geffen Theater in order to project rare VistaVision prints of “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral,” “The Ten Commandments,” “White Christmas,” “Anything Goes,” and “We’re No Angels” — as well as “One Battle After Another,” which previously only screened in its native VistaVision in four theaters around the world.
Most prints of “One Battle” — and all prints of “The Brutalist” — were extracted from the VistaVision negative but projected in more common formats like IMAX, 35mm, and 70mm (as well as, of course, DCP). That’s because true VistaVision projection entails a projector that, like the VistaVision cameras, is turned on its side to double the surface area of the image and thus provide increased resolution and texture. It’s costly and complicated to retrofit contemporary theaters for the VistaVision technology, which makes the Academy Museum’s program as rare as it is essential.
In addition to the VistaVision prints, the Academy Museum will screen 70mm restorations of films shot in VistaVision like “The Searchers” and “North by Northwest,” as well as DCP presentations of “One-Eyed Jacks,” “To Catch a Thief,” and other classics, many of them taken from new 6K digital scans of the VistaVision negatives. In all of these cases there is no better way to appreciate the artistry of the films in all its precision and detail — and in a communal experience on the huge Geffen screen.
“Presented in VistaVision” runs at the Academy Museum from August 20-31. For the full program and ticket information visit the Academy Museum’s website.
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