Taking sides: La Belle Noiseuse Divertimento vs. Apocalypse Now Redux

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Specially for DG.

Do "Director's Cuts" that add scenes in fact add anything at all? Is bigger ever better? Are there in fact any good Director's Cuts at all apart from Blade Runner? (Actually, I think "Redux" works quite well - such an overblown movie anyway that the longer running time seems justified, and there are nice moments in most of the added scenes.)

― Jeff W, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blade Runner DIrectors cut is pants. I don't know what is going on. Give me the voice over any day.

The worst Directors Cut ever is Dances With Wolves.

― Pete, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Or just talk about Emmanuelle Beart's a... cting if you prefer.

― Jeff W, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I agree with Pete - boo hiss to Blade Runner director's cut (though not a great film either way). I think that's the only director's cut I've seen though.

― Tom, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I will only see Redux if people call it Re-Ducks. Martin Sheen called it Re-Doo yesterday which made me choke on pear juice.

― Pete, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have only ever seen BR director's cut and had to go on the web to find out what on earth was happening. a bad thing.
i'd like to see the directors cut of Brazil though to find out what was actually meant to be in it.

― Bill, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But nothing is cut from theatrical version of La Belle Noiseuse! What, is the director's cut shorter, does it feature something outlandish, like editing? Because that would be revolutionary. Though not as revolutionary as Emmanuelle Beart's brea...kthrough performance. La Belle Noiseuse is so much the better film than Apocalypse Now, in any version.

― Otis Wheeler, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have to disagree, I wuv the director's cut of Blade Runner and can understand perfectly what's going on, and indeed it is one of the few 'canon' films I actually like.

― DG, Friday, 23 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Voiceover, schmoiceover. Pete, you are wrong wrong wrong.

― Josh, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Divertimento' is a re-edited for tv version of the full-length 'Belle Noiseuse', w/different scenes etc. Rivette makes something of a habit of this (recutting his films) - 'Out One: Spectre' is a 4h 20m 'abridged' version of the 12h 40m 'Out One', and his 'Jeanne La Pucelle' also exists in quite different long and short(er) versions. I actually preferred his recentish 'Secret Defense' to 'Belle Noiseuse' - which despite its length and obv. 'qualities' strikes me as one of Rivette's most conventional films - and gorgeous and pouting though E. Beart may be, she's not half the actress that Sandrine Bonnaire is.

When I 'did' film studies 'Blade Runner' was the standard 'postmodern' film text, and I think a great deal of its (critical) popularity stems from the fact that you can read into/onto it any old wiffle you like abt pastiche, blankness, simulation and simulacra etc. But of course PKD got there first, and did it sooo much better.

― Andrew L, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I saw 'La Belle Noiseuse' with my parents before I started my Masters (it was on a reading/viewing list) - I had no idea that it mainly consisted of Miss Beart posing in the buff for 4 hours. I can't help thinking of that movie without thinking about me and my Dad (a simple man, bless 'im) being held rapt for the whole movie, while my Mum stormed out of the living room and did the washing up in a sulk.

Er, innovative use of editing, btw, excellent praxis of Deleuzian cinematic time frames mumble mumble...

― Will, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

anyone who thinks that a. blade runner is not a classik and/or b. the original is superior to the directors cut is a MENTALIST SUPREME (or worse, a REPLICANT?! pete = roy batty? which, would be very cool in its own way, as you would see freighters on fire off the moons of blah blah...but 4 yr. life span = not cool at all. pris = rowr and punXor however.)

― jess, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"pete = roy batty?"
Pete is a batty boy?

― DG, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blade Runner and Brazil, directors' cuts: genius. Pete tells fibs.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 24 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

saw redux last night, and for the most, the new scenes with women add nothing except the jerk-off fantasy that war seems for so many straight boys...fucking marty sheen sucking on the opium pipe, ad whoosh he's back on the boat..yawn...liked the contextualisation of the french plantation, plus the surfboard theft and brando looking as fat as fat can be without being a pound of butter on the big screen, plus the sounds of choopeers invading, but yeah. i mean, no.

― geoff, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What is that plantation scene all about anyway? It seems to have got the critics in a lather.

― DG, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

plantation is about putting the war into an imperialist understanding/context, but the opium smoking french ckick who fucks martin sheen? i know nothing...

― geoff, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have only seen the full-length version of each film, and am of the opinion that Blade Runner is a bit rubbish and La Belle... is bloody fantastic.

I don't know generally if I have seen many directors' cuts of anything, come to think of it.

― Ally C, Sunday, 25 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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