At once: full and empty, complete and incomplete; life and death, hospital and cemetery. Two halves. Two places. Two actions-situations-locations. Two screens. Two squares. The relationship is obvious, straight. It allowed us to underline the idea of simultaneity, neighborhood. And build another building’s architecture.
The reason for our ‘window’ was 2:1. That is, the length of the screen was twice its height. An unusual proportion in the cinema, but common in art history. I found a defense of the format signed by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. I saw that I was in good company.
The screen would not be all the time split in half. We would alternate squares with the elegant rectangle of juxtaposed squares. Two by one. One by two. There were also images that served both ways. And those whose rectangular framework suggested the division into squares.
HU Enigma 