Summary

Director Martin Scorsese conducted a satellite-linked virtual press tour on behalf of widescreen HDTV, facilitated by a Philips Electronics donation to his Film Foundation. Scorsese argued against the 4:3 pan-and-scan editing of films for conventional TV, releasing a top-10 list of movies best viewed in widescreen format.

Source document circa 2001 preserved as-is

Saturday, June 9, 2001

Scorsese stumps for HDTV's future June 8, 2001 12:00am Source: Cahners

Daily Variety: Just when it appeared high-def TVs were becoming the 21st Century version of Ford's Edsel, here comes a product pitchman packing a credible promo punch: Martin Scorsese.

The famed helmer and artists-rights advocate recently waxed eloquent on behalf of widescreen TV and, more indirectly, high-def television sets.

Philips Electronics made an unspecified donation to the Film Foundation and supplied a satellite hook-up so Scorsese --- as prexy of the nonprofit foundation --- could conduct a virtual "press tour" to discuss with assembled journos merits of high-def television's 16:9 aspect ratio.

"There was a donation made for his Film Foundation, but he was in no way doing an endorsement of the Philips product," a spokeswoman for the consumer electronics giant said.

Like most helmers, Scorsese loathes the way conventional television's 4:3 aspect ratio forces the editing of motion pictures to make images fit TV screens. To underscore what viewers are missing after such "panning and scanning," Scorsese distributed a list of his top 10 picks for movies to be viewed in a wide-screen format, including "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Zulu."

Copyrigtht 2001. All Rights Reserved