In the midst of the era of ephemeral, vertical, and "story-friendly" content, Juan José Campanella stands firm with a passionate defense of traditional cinematic language. While directing the final scenes of Parque Lezama and celebrating the return of his works to the theater, the Oscar-winning Argentine director makes it clear that filming vertically is not for him.
"It turns out everyone is scolding me because I film horizontally and not vertically, as they say you have to film for Instagram," Campanella complains in a video posted on social media. The criticism, beyond the humor, reveals a firm aesthetic stance: "The vertical format not only gives me a feeling similar to nausea, but it's also unnatural."
For the director, cinema has biological reasons for being horizontal. "Eyes see wide, nobody looks from top to bottom. The width of the visual arc goes from one side to the other," he explained, defending the panoramic frame as an extension of the way we perceive the world.
In the same tone, he jokes about modern technological habits: "It was very hard for those who made the phone, or those who invented Instagram, to tell people to tilt the phone instead of keeping it upright. It wouldn't have been hard at all, and it would've been much better."
