Why are Some Kubrick films only available in the “full frame” aspect ratio (1) on VHS video, DVD and Laserdisc?
It seems to have been Kubrick’s preference for his films to be shown in the 4:3 or “full frame” aspect ratio, because, according to his long-standing personal assistant Leon Vitali, that was the way he composed them through the camera viewfinder and if it were technically still possible to do so, he would have liked them to be shown full frame in cinemas as well. As Vitali said in a recent interview (2): “The thing about Stanley, he was a photographer that’s how he started. He had a still photographer’s eye. So when he composed a picture through the camera, he was setting up for what he saw through the camera – the full picture. That was very important to him. It really was. It was an instinct that never ever left him. […] He did not like 1.85:1. You lose 27% of the picture, Stanley was a purist. This was one of the ways it was manifested.” The decision to release Kubrick’s back catalogue as full frame only has been very controversial. The problem for Vitali and other defenders of th
