Hello filmmakers,
I startet a discussion in "Anamorphic Shooters" on FB on this topic, but we couldn't come up with a definitive answer… some said I might have better luck here especially with input from @David Mullen that has very good Panavision insights.
When the golden area Bond movies started using anamorphic lenses with "Thunderball" and "You Only Live Twice" the anamorphic characteristics are very much muted. Of course, it was the fashion of the time to work with high f-stops to make the lenses "bite" and get deeper DoF… flares where mostly considered a flaw and where avoided when possible. All that is possible given enough light when using the 100 iso film stock of that time.
But then, there are scenes like the attached image shows. Considering the low sensitivity and that it is impossible to light the street all the way that must have been shot relatively wide open… why the hell do the distant lights don't fall off into oval shapes?!? It is definitely an anamorphic lens used here as the (very muted) flare proofs.
That seems to be true for all shot… elongated highlights are rare and very muted. The Panavision C that where supposedly used for "You Only Live Twice" (even though they where introduced a year after the movies release?!?!) have quite expressive anamorphic features. Blade Runner was shot on them too… (in an updated, altered version of course)
If you will… please enlighten me