I forward this from Nick Wrigley, a former member of our group, with
his permission. Craig is right about Nykvist; I saw that same doc too,
which by the way is quite interesting even for someone like me who
isn't all that interested in Bergman. I'm certainly willing to believe
the Begrman and Nykvist were framing for 1.37:1 (which is the correct
aspect ratio for 35mm. "1.33" is a kind of shorthand some use for all
such 1.33 or 1.37 ratios).Perhaps Bergman himself can be contacted
indirectly in the way Craig suggests. And I'm willing to bet many at
Svensk Filmindustri will be able to read and reply in English. But this
also raises the question of what other directors were framing in the
late 50s, 60s, and 70s for the old ratio, which goes brings us back to
my proposed research project.

- Fred

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Bergman boxset
Resent-Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 13:19:47 -0600
Resent-From: f@...
Resent-To: fc@...
Date: Sun, 1 Feb 2004 19:27:42 +0000
From: Nick Wrigley <kwoy@...>
To: Fred Camper <f@...>



Hiya Fred,

Nick from MoC here ( www.mastersofcinema.org )

A friend passed on your recent email about the Bergman boxset (which
I've replied to below):

> From the Web site it looks as if the images have been cropped from
> 1.33:1 to 1.62:1. But isn't that what theaters all over the world have
> been doing since the 1960s?

I've spoken to three people in the last two days who have seen the
films in question theatrically, numerous times, in 1.37:1 Academy
ratio. I've seen the recent restored HOUR OF THE WOLF theatrically and
it was 1.37:1. It's likely that these films have been shown wrongly in
theatres all over the world at 1.66:1 but it's no excuse for MGM,
particularly as these films seem tightly framed at 1.37:1!

Remastered versions appear on UK BBC4 as 1.37:1 and the remastered
French DVDs are 1.37:1.


> Bergman's longtime cinematographer, Sven Nykvist, is still living, no?
> Why doesn't a member of this group take on a worthwhile research
> project
> and try to contact him with some questions?

I believe Nykvist has a degenerative disease which has rendered him
unable to speak. I don't know exactly if he's well enough, but I'll ask
around.

Thanks!

-N>-