Hey, would you look at that — turns out that Sam Levinson shot the upcoming third season of “Euphoria” entirely in VistaVision.
Listen, I’m no expert on the format, but wouldn’t streaming compression (even in 4K) cause you to lose much of VistaVision’s extra resolution and subtle texture? Just asking.
It’s already expensive to use VistaVision — the cameras are bulky, which means shorter takes. For a weekly series, that’s a major logistical and financial headache. This might very well be a case of Levinson hopping on board the current VistaVision trend spreading through Hollywood.
Yes, after more than 60 years of dormancy, the VistaVision film format made a comeback last year with Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” marking the first time since Marlon Brando’s “One-Eyed Jacks” (1961) that a film had been fully shot using VistaVision cameras.
Yorgos Lanthimos somewhat kickstarted this trend by shooting select scenes of 2022’s “Poor Things” in VistaVision, but not many noticed or even reported it at the time. For some reason, it was Corbet’s film that truly kick-started the trend this decade.
To say VistaVision has re-emerged with a vengeance would be an understatement. Now, at least six films shot in VistaVision — from Greta Gerwig, Emerald Fennell, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Yorgos Lanthimos, and M. Night Shyamalan — have been slated for release in 2025 and 2026.
In case you’re wondering, VistaVision isn’t just a relic — it’s a widescreen 35mm format shot horizontally to capture twice the negative area, giving films — most iconically “Vertigo” — their hypnotic clarity and depth. What seems to be driving these A-list directors to use it is the cameras’ promise of delivering tactile precision and luminous grain, creating a beauty that digital cameras might struggle to match.
It’s unclear if this signals a lasting revival or just a temporary trend, but for now, VistaVision is all the rage. Despite only a handful of VistaVision cameras actually existing in the world, that hasn’t stopped the biggest filmmakers from using their clout to shoot in this old-school format.
There's a lot of talent. Julianne Moore, Elle Fanning, Josh Hartnett, Emma Thompson, Sally Hawkins, Danny Huston, Robert Aramayo and Chloe Pirrie will all be part of the sprawling ensemble.