{"id":369727,"date":"2025-11-10T18:16:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T18:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/369727\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T18:16:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T18:16:16","slug":"bugonia-nails-the-35mm-photography-aspect-ratio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/369727\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Bugonia’ Nails the 35mm Photography Aspect Ratio"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a>Jesse Plemons playing Teddy in \u2018Bugonia\u2019. | Photo by Atsushi Nishijima\/Focus Features <\/p>\n

It\u2019s very strange to watch a movie in 3:2 or 4:3 aspect ratios. As photographers, those are kind of our aspect ratios, while Hollywood\u2019s have traditionally been the ultra-wide 2.39:1. But rules are made to be broken. <\/p>\n

Of course, it wasn\u2019t always this way. Hollywood started out in 4:3 (technically 1.37:1), and some of the early 20th century\u2019s most famous movie productions are shot in the almost square format, \u00e0 la Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and The Wizard of Oz.<\/p>\n

But as a child of the 1990s and 2000s, when I first watched a modern film set in modern times in 4:3 \u2014 Saltburn (2023) \u2014 I spent most of the film dumbfounded by the shape of the picture I was watching. Saltburn had a limited theatrical release as it was made by Amazon MGM. Most people, including myself, watched it on television, which is ironic because it was the advent of TV that prompted Hollywood to ditch 4:3 for ultra-wide in the first place. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But this past weekend, I watched Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s Bugonia in a theater and, well, I was blown away. The film is shot in 1.50:1, which is 3:2 \u2014 the same shape as a classic 35mm camera. If you aren\u2019t familiar with Greek filmmaker Lanthimos, he is an accomplished photographer<\/a> as well as one of Hollywood\u2019s hottest directors. <\/p>\n

Teaming up with cinematographer Robbie Ryan, Lanthimos uses his photographic eye to quite brilliantly execute shots in Bugonia. With Saltburn, I felt the 4:3 format was there to emphasize the shocking nature of the film. But with Bugonia, Ryan and Lanthimos use the tall aspect ratio to exquisitely include details in the top and bottom of the frame. <\/p>\n

Lanthimos describes Bugonia as \u201ccontained.\u201d Indeed, much of the film takes place in a basement, which plays to the strengths of 3:2 as what\u2019s happening beneath or above the actors is often more important than what\u2019s happening to the side of them. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Bugonia borrows another format from the 20th century that is making a strong comeback<\/a> in the 2020s: VistaVision film. Ryan tells Variety<\/a> that although the format achieves spectacular resolution, color, and texture \u2014 it is also difficult to work with. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe camera pushes the film horizontally through the gate instead of vertically,\u201d Ryan says. \u201cSo you get brand new problems that I didn\u2019t know existed, which is camera jams. We ended up using it in the film. It\u2019s interesting looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryan adds that, \u201cif you know Yorgos Lanthimos films, you will probably recognize that he loves quite a low angle for most of his shots.\u201d The cinematographer says that Lanthimos\u2019s style has rubbed off in him. \u201cIf there\u2019s ever a shot at normal height, he\u2019s like, \u2018What\u2019s this about? It\u2019s horrible\u2019.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lanthimos, who hails from Athens, is known for his surreal movies that play on themes of authority, society, and human behavior. Bugonia, a sci-fi film that is kind of about bees, touches on all of these topics, as well as some that are pertinent to 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jesse Plemons playing Teddy in \u2018Bugonia\u2019. | Photo by Atsushi Nishijima\/Focus Features It\u2019s very strange to watch a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":369728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[117870,178400,178401,648,1032,178402,99580,51610,1033,171,40368,178403,67,132,68,178404],"class_list":{"0":"post-369727","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-35mm","9":"tag-3x2","10":"tag-4x3","11":"tag-arts","12":"tag-arts-and-design","13":"tag-aspectratio","14":"tag-bugonia","15":"tag-cinematography","16":"tag-design","17":"tag-entertainment","18":"tag-motionpicture","19":"tag-moviemaking","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-yorgoslanthimos"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115526775187165214","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}