A picture, inevitably, has its limitations. The frame, its shape and aspect ratio is seemingly invisible as the viewer rarely realises it. We usually become aware of it once the author decides that we ought to – by using the possibilities of the conventional format to the full, by applying an untraditional format or by refusing to be bound by the solid “technical” frame.

Lexicon is a newly introduced section that will from now on focus on particular technical and aesthetic phenomena or means of expression, exploring the ever-evolving cinema language and using example films to make various filmographic terms comprehensible to regular cinemagoers.

This year, the section is dedicated to the issue of the film picture’s format, demonstrating the possibilities of particular formats as well as invention of filmmakers who have fulfilled them or even ventured beyond them. Our selection includes, inter alia, a film with a rounded format, a contemporary film that has been shot in once ordinary but now rather rare academic format or a film that used the potential of panoramic screen to the fullest. This motley collection of motion pictures is tied together by their creators’ thorough awareness of the issue of film frame and their refusal to accept the conventional aspect ratio as an inevitability that is not worth contemplating.

Tomáš Hudák

Curator of the section