Re: multiple versions (3 responses)

From: "Frank, Michael" <[email protected]>

a [subversive] question:  aren't multiple versions [now including the infamous "director's cut"] the rule rather than the exception??

mike

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From: Rodney Wallis <[email protected]>

The US version of Stanley Kubrick's 'The Shining' is some 30-40 minutes
longer than the version seen everywhere else in the world. There are scenes
discussed in the documentary film 'Room 237', which examines a bunch of
different theories about hidden meaning in 'The Shining', that much of the
world have never seen.

Rodney Wallis

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From: Leo Enticknap <[email protected]>

If by 'the phenomenon of releasing multiple versions of the same film to
tailor it for different audiences' that includes multiple versions that
were the result of censorship (i.e. scenes cut, added or shot with
subtle differences to meet the requirements of local censors), there are
literally thousands of examples from Hollywood and Europe alone. James
Robertson, 'The Hidden Cinema', details a number of case studies of
Hollywood films that underwent partial re-editing at the behest of the
BBFC.

As an anecdotal, when the late '90s remake of 'The Mummy' came
out, there were multiple complaints of poor image quality during 'some
early scenes' in the film. This is because reels 1 and 3-6 were prints
that were imported from the US after the theatrical run there and then
cleaned, whereas the copies of reel 2 were specially made for the
British market, because the BBFC demanded extensive changes to one
violent scene in order for the film to get a 12-certificate (the
distributor wouldn't accept 15 - no good for what was supposed to be a
family film), that involved having to re-do some of the CGI sequences to
tone the gore down. The lab that printed the British reel 2s screwed up
the grading (it was a rush job to make the opening date, after
last-minute negotiations between the censors and the distributor), which
was too dark throughout, hence multiple audience complaints.

This
example sticks in my mind, because I was working as a theatre manager
and projectionist at the time and had to field multiple complaints after
virtually every screening. But these sorts of changes are done to a
significant proportion of Hollywood films released in the UK and, I
suspect, many other overseas markets (espically China with any movie
that contains any even remotely political content, I'd have
thought).

Added to which, and apologies for the shameless plug, my
forthcoming book 'Film Restoration: The Culture and Science of
Audiovisual Heritage' covers the implications of the practice of film
restoration on the analysis of film as historical source and evidence,
including the existence of multiple versions resulting therefrom
(published on 13 September by Palgrave).

Leo

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