Cinemascope

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A film presentation format known for its broad width, which transforms storytelling with enhanced visuals for the audience's immersion in the scene
2. A cinematic technique that expands the width of the screen to deliver a more visually engaging experience in motion pictures
3. A widescreen movie format that offers a very broad image by using an anamorphic lens during filming and projection

Etymology: CinemaScope was a widescreen format introduced by 20th Century Fox in 1953, with its first feature being "The Robe." It was built on a lens system developed in France by Henri Chrétien in the 1920s and 1930s, known as the Hypergonar, which squeezed a wide image onto standard 35mm film so it could be stretched back out in projection. The name is a blend of "cinema" and "scope," the latter from the Greek "skopein," meaning "to look at" or "to examine," which also gives us words like "microscope" and "telescope." The name was a commercial brand rather than a description of a general technique. Fox licensed the system from Chrétien's lens work and marketed it aggressively against television, which was then drawing audiences away from cinemas. The format's aspect ratio of roughly 2.55:1 became so associated with the name that "CinemaScope" was often used loosely for any wide-screen film, much as "Kleenex" became a generic term for tissues.