Boxy aspect ratios are making a comeback
Movies using unorthodox aspect ratios like 4:3 and 1.66:1 have surged in recent years. Notably, this trend has grown beyond arthouse and festival circuits into mainstream releases like Longlegs, Maestro, and The Holdovers.
For the right movie, boxier ratios convey intimacy, making the shift both welcome and long overdue. The narrower and taller frame mutes the impact of landscapes, moving action, and large ensembles of actors. Characters take center stage, and this focus can make them loom larger than life. This approach harkens back to the classic 1.5:1 aspect ratio of 35mm photography, a format especially flattering for portraiture and full body shots. As director Andrea Arnold notes, who has favored the 4:3 ratio for her films, people are “not small in the middle of something.”
It’s understandable that several of my favorite recent films using 4:3 or 1.66:1 feature humble, low key character studies. For example, Perfect Days follows the routines of a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. The Holdovers presents a holiday-set chamber piece featuring a college professor, a few of students, and a school cook. All We Imagine As Light centers on the lives of two nurses in Mumbai.
But a shakeup in aspect ratio benefits more than small scale stories; it’s also an effective visual signifier of history. The 4:3 ratio originated in television and early studio films like Casablanca and The Third Man. When Osgood Perkins shoots Longlegs in 2:39 for present day scenes while setting flashbacks in 4:3 with rounded corners, he cleverly nods to seventies and eighties VHS horror. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro captures the Leonard Bernstein’s early days in 4:3 and black and white, matching the cinematography of the era.
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