DP Michael Bauman on "One Battle After Another"

"Anderson's One Battle After Another continues a resurgence of VistaVision that now includes The Brutalist and Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things and Bugonia. The format, which uses 8-perf 35mm traveling through the camera horizontally rather than vertically to create a larger negative, gained popularity as a non-anamorphic widescreen alternative in the mid-1950s. It was used for everything from Biblical epics ( The Ten Commandments) to musicals ( White Christmas) to Alfred Hitchcock thrillers ( Vertigo and North by Northwest)."

"It was used for everything from Biblical epics ( The Ten Commandments) to musicals ( White Christmas) to Alfred Hitchcock thrillers ( Vertigo and North by Northwest). Marlon Brando's 1961 Western One-Eyed Jacks marked the last major Hollywood film of the era to use VistaVision as its main production format, though Vista did see a resurgence beginning in the late 1970s for special effects work."

Paul Thomas Anderson used VistaVision for One Battle After Another, his first contemporary-set film since 2002. VistaVision uses 8-perf 35mm run horizontally through the camera to produce a larger negative and served as a non-anamorphic widescreen option in the mid-1950s. The format supported Biblical epics, musicals, and Hitchcock thrillers before falling from mainstream use after the early 1960s. VistaVision returned for special-effects work in the late 1970s and now shows a broader resurgence. Cinematographer Michael Bauman, a longtime gaffer and Anderson collaborator, helped resurrect the format for the production.

Read at Filmmaker Magazine