Bill Forsyth
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- Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:03 pm
Re: Bill Forsyth
Does anyone know if a director's cut even exists of Being Human? The released version doesn't work, but it's very effective moment-to-moment.
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- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am
Re: Bill Forsyth
I believe that Forsyth's initial 160 minute cut was shown to test audiences, but whether or not it still exists in Warner's vaults is another matter. Were they in the habit of throwing out deleted material in the early 90s? Either way, I suspect it would take someone like Criterion or the BFI to be interested in order for us to ever see it.
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Re: Bill Forsyth
That does sound something that Mark Kermode should get onto ASAP as his next project, if such a thing were possible.
- whaleallright
- Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am
Re: Bill Forsyth
I just can't imagine there are enough people with enough interest in seeing Forsyth's cut of this film to fund a reconstruction and rerelease, though I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
Having read the script (which is a fascinating read— it's quite consciously literary, with very long descriptive passages, much of them suggesting interior states of characters), I think the legend of the studio having "hacked [the film] to pieces" is overblown. True, there's an entire other historical episode that's missing from the released version (was this even filmed?), but otherwise it is pretty close. Most of the beats that simply don't work, don't work in the script either, and the overall conception remains, to my mind, pretty flaky in script and film. That said, there are enough lovely moments, and the film is strange enough, to make it well worth watching.
It strikes me that Bill Forsyth may, at the time at least, have undervalued what made his work special—not just his humor but a kind of unforced lyricism and limpidity—and sought to make a very different sort of film (and out-and-out art film; at times Being Human reminds me of The Piano—similar trappings in the score and production design for sure), one he frankly wasn't particularly good at making.
On a separate note, Local Hero would seem to be a no-brainer for Criterion, no?
Having read the script (which is a fascinating read— it's quite consciously literary, with very long descriptive passages, much of them suggesting interior states of characters), I think the legend of the studio having "hacked [the film] to pieces" is overblown. True, there's an entire other historical episode that's missing from the released version (was this even filmed?), but otherwise it is pretty close. Most of the beats that simply don't work, don't work in the script either, and the overall conception remains, to my mind, pretty flaky in script and film. That said, there are enough lovely moments, and the film is strange enough, to make it well worth watching.
It strikes me that Bill Forsyth may, at the time at least, have undervalued what made his work special—not just his humor but a kind of unforced lyricism and limpidity—and sought to make a very different sort of film (and out-and-out art film; at times Being Human reminds me of The Piano—similar trappings in the score and production design for sure), one he frankly wasn't particularly good at making.
On a separate note, Local Hero would seem to be a no-brainer for Criterion, no?
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- Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am
Re: Bill Forsyth
I've got no idea what the source could be (as far as I can tell it hasn't been re-broadcast) but Forsyth's Andrina can now be 'found' on the internet.
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
- Contact:
Re: Bill Forsyth
The version of Ken Russell's Dance of the Seven Veils that leaked was covered with familiar-looking BBC timecode, so it clearly came from there!
(A shame, as the BFI's version has much better colour - but although I had the ability to leak it once upon a time, I'd have been rumbled in seconds and most likely fired.)
(A shame, as the BFI's version has much better colour - but although I had the ability to leak it once upon a time, I'd have been rumbled in seconds and most likely fired.)
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- Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm
Re: Bill Forsyth
I really think there are some renegade BBC, BFI, and Paley Center employees who are leaking stuff like this, Woody Allen’s Men of Crisis, and Robert Downey’s Sticks and Bones
Now if someone from the BFI can get us Lindsay Anderson’s Foreign Skies…
Now if someone from the BFI can get us Lindsay Anderson’s Foreign Skies…
- DeprongMori
- Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
- Location: San Francisco
Re: Bill Forsyth
Thank you for that. So glad I’ve finally been able to see it. Surprised I was only the sixth person to ever log it on Letterboxd.
- therewillbeblus
- Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm
Re: Bill Forsyth
My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy
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- Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm
Re: Bill Forsyth
therewillbeblus wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pmMy white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy
It’s out there! That certain site which hosts a lot of these films has it…
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- Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:07 am
Re: Bill Forsyth
Or perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...therewillbeblus wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pmMy white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy
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- Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm
Re: Bill Forsyth
pistolwink wrote: ↑Sun Nov 19, 2023 5:47 pmOr perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...therewillbeblus wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pmMy white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy
That’s a great suggestion. It seems like someone at NYU or the Library of Congress leaked Martin Brest’s Hot Dogs for Gauguin
- The Elegant Dandy Fop
- Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:25 am
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
Re: Bill Forsyth
Not sure how true it is, but someone told me that Terrence Malick pulled all the copies of it out of the AFI so that no one can ever watch it. Not sure the validity of that info. It was apparently don le around 2018.pistolwink wrote: ↑Sun Nov 19, 2023 5:47 pmOr perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...therewillbeblus wrote: ↑Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pmMy white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy
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- Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:07 am
Re: Bill Forsyth
That wouldn''t surprise me at all. Perhaps 10 or 15 years ago someone managed to watch a copy at the AFI and wrote up a reasonably thorough plot summary online. I wonder if that raised Malick's ire.