Polyvision

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Polyvision was the name given by the French film critic Émile Vuillermoz to a specialized widescreen film format devised exclusively for the filming and projection of Abel Gance's 1927 film Napoleon, its three-projector format predating Cinerama by 25 years.^[1]

Polyvision involved the simultaneous projection of three reels of silent film arrayed in a horizontal row, making for a total aspect ratio of 4:1 (1.33×3). Polyvision's extremely wide aspect ratio was the widest aspect ratio yet seen, even though it is technically just three images side by side. In 1955, the Walt Disney Company developed Circle-Vision 360° for use in Disneyland theme parks which used nine 4:3 35 mm projectors to show an image that completely surrounds the viewer.

This configuration is considered to be a similar precursor to Cinerama, which would debut a quarter of a century later; however, it is unlikely that Polyvision was a direct inspiration for later widescreen techniques, as the triptych sequence of Napoleon was cut from the film by its distributors after only a few screenings and was not seen again until Kevin Brownlow compiled his restorations from the 1970s onwards.