Netflix has been a boon for independent filmmakers everywhere, making it easier for people to discover smaller films that don’t reach any significant level of critical recognition or make enough waves to rake in tons of money. It turns out, though, that one indie filmmaker is none to pleased with the streaming giant anymore.
In a plea released on French Canadian director/actor/writer Xavier Dolan’s Twitter feed, he posts a letter he’s written to Netflix saying they "shut down the emotional capacity" of a scene in his 2014 film Mommy. So, what did Netflix do to anger the director? They altered the aspect ratio of the film.
Xavier Dolan is indeed upset with Netflix. In order to show Mommy, apparently, they forced what he calls "a permanent pillar-box on the film," which doesn’t allow for the aspect ratio of one scene to open up from an aspect ratio of 1:1 (which is a square for the film to appear in) to a temporary widening to 1:85 during one scene in question. His complaint also states that the change in aspect ratio "disregarded the narratively-crucial sentiment of social oppression elicited by this ratio" and "made the end credits look cropped."
I know that you’re probably wondering what all this aspect ratio stuff means for the way the film is shown on Netfix. Essentially, since Xavier Dolan filmed his movie with the 1:1 square in mind for the presentation of the movie (with that one scene briefly becoming wider) the film is no longer able to change from one aspect ratio to another, the way he intended. The "pillar-box" effect he talks about refers to a technique used to show non-widescreen films on widescreen displays. It adds black bars (also known as masking or mattes) to the sides of the film so that the picture takes up the full widescreen display.
The director goes on to say that he is "shocked" by Netflix’s "lack of judgement," their "poorly thought-through choice," and what he considers to be a disrespect for the intelligence of the audience and his film. Xavier Dolan is, in short, irked that the movie he directed, wrote and produced was changed by a third party that had no part in the production of the movie.
Well, I can certainly see the point of the director here. It’s incredibly difficult to make any kind of movie at all, much less one like Mommy, which has won a whopping 44 awards worldwide from organizations like the Cesar Awards (the Oscar Award of France) and the Cannes Film Festival. The one thing that remains to be seen is whether or not this was a mistake on the part of Netflix, or if the aspect ratio change was done intentionally. A reply to the tweet from the streamer notes that they’re looking into the issue, which can hopefully be resolved to Xavier Dolan’s liking. I’m sure he’ll go public with any news however this turns out.
