Flat spherical refers to the process of creating a matted widescreen image on regular 35mm film that is Academy ratio in its native format. By basically masking off the top and bottom edges this creates a rectangular widescreen image inside the original squared frame. The common ratios were 1.85 for the US, and 1.66 for Europe. Some films can be viewed with the full aperture, called open matte, and this will reveal most of the time if the widescreen shape was intended or not when shot.

I still think the Bonds are better as flat films. They seem more focused and down to earth. On the big screen, the scope photography is spectacular but it does seem to lose a certain something.

Silver, I think LALD and TMWTGG were shot flat as a cost cutting measure. This was the point at which Saltzman's financial troubles were at their peak, and the budgets had to suffer heavily as this crisis dragged down the partnership before its dissolve.