| The Grandmaster |
The Grandmaster was originally released in China very early this year with a 130 minute running time. This version was well received by the Chinese critics and did well financially. A second cut of the film premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival at 122 minutes and was later released in some European countries, such as France. This version wasn't as well received but still admired. With only eight minutes taken from the film, there could not have been major differences. This weekend, the version that the Weinstein Company is releasing in the United States is only 108 minutes long, 22 minutes shorter than its Chinese release. This cut, like the Berlin cut, was overseen by the director Wong Kar-Wai. It was my understanding that Wong Kar-Wai was satisfied with the Berlin cut after having removed some excess from the movie. It became a surprise to me that the film was being edited again, especially after its international premiere in Berlin, one of the three most important competitive film festivals in the world.
Rumor is that the Weinstein Company decided that the film would not be easy enough or simple enough for the average American and that it would be more financially profitable for them to release the film in a major edit. I speculate that they told Wong Kar Wai that he either had the choice to release the movie in an edited form with his supervision or the movie would be released without any of his advice and be edited the way the Weinsteins wanted. Wong Kar Wai made the best choice possible in this situation, even though he had no good option besides possibly rejecting the Weinstein's aquisition of his movie in America. Apparently the distribution agreement stated the film must be under 2 hours long, but a twenty two minute cut is well below two hours. David Erlich of film.com has seen both versions, something most of us will not be able to, and believes the US version is a major butchering of the film. Its a shame that The Grandmaster has been cut, but its not the first or the last of the Weinsteins and their axe.
The Weinsteins are also releasing Snowpiercer either later this year or early next year for an American release. The movie opened earlier this year to great box office numbers in South Korea and includes many English speaking actors, such as Jaime Bell, Chris Evans, Octavia Spencer, Ed Harris, Allison Pill, and Tilda Swinton. The movie runs only 126 minutes and the Weinsteins want to cut twenty more minutes from the movie. Reports are that the they believe the movie will be too confusing for Americans and want to make the science fiction aspects of the plot disappear in favor of more action. It's not necessarily the foreign language at issue in this film, as English is the dominant language spoken in the movie. The question of cutting the movie is rather silly since it doesn't have a foreign language hurdle and is not very lengthy either, at a two hour running time before credits are added. It's also not known, as of yet, if Bong Joon-ho will have any overseeing in the process, but the prospects look don't look good.
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| Snowpiercer |
These two cases are not the only times when the Weinsteins have decided to cut their acquisitions and productions. They chopped up Zhang Yimou's Hero and wanted to touch Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke. They didn't get far with Mononoke, as Miyazaki sent the Weinsteins a samurai sword and a note stating not to cut any of the movie. Another recent movie of Weinstein butchering fame was Terry Gilliam's The Brother's Grimm which remained in post production hell for years. When the Weinsteins were in charge at Miramax, Harvey received the title of "Harvey Scissorhands" and it appears that the nickname may return. US indie darling director, Jim Jarmusch, had a large spat with the Harvey and stated that when many directors get films made, the one thing they tell their producers is to not give their movies to the Weinsteins. It makes you wonder why directors like Quentin Tarantino and Lasse Hallstrom have been so willing to work with the brothers in the past. Before we get ahead of ourselves in crucifying the Weinstein brothers, we should look at Michel Gondry's upcoming Mood Indigo.
Mood Indigo was released at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival earlier this year. While many critics appreciated and respected the film, they thought it too long. Recently, Gondry has caved to the request of his producers and decided to trim his movie from a lengthy 130 minutes to a much shorter 94 minutes. This is a substantial difference of 36 minutes. Gondry, like Wong Kar-Wai, is overseeing the edit of his movie. I'm not sure if he, like Wong Kar-Wai had the real choice in editing his movie. Maybe his producers pressured him or maybe Gondry was just unsatisfied with his cut. Regardless, Gondry still has had significant input in the editing of the new version of the movie and has not been left in the dark.
| Mood Indigo |
All three of these movies are notable upcoming films and it is quite saddening that they must undergo these edits, especially if their directors did not intend to have these edits. We've seen classics from the past be edited and changed drastically and the movies have never been seen in the same critical or thematic ways. It happened frequently in the past. Movies like The Magnificent Ambersons, The Leopard, Journey to Italy, and Brazil are three major examples of movies that were destroyed with their releases. We haven't seen anything to this level of editing in major films since The Brother's Grimm and Hero were released in the mid 2000s (Kenneth Lonergan's Margaret had many legal issues which may make it a special case). There is an even more recent film to receive a large edit, which is another Weinstein acquisition (surprise, surprise), Kon Tiki. The Danish film had been picked up for US distribution last year and was one of the nominees at the Oscars for foreign film. The movie was dubbed for a US release and cut over twenty minutes.
In this time of rapid and quick information it is much easier for us to watch the original versions of movies. It is possible to watch the original versions of these movies on a region free blu ray and hopefully the region 1 blu ray releases of these three movies will include their original cuts. The real dilemma comes down to whether to see them in theater. I really support all three directors and would feel sad to miss any of them in theaters. Regardless of whether the original versions or the re-cuts are the versions to see in theaters and whether these, it is still a shame and cinephiles and film lovers should be disheartened and outrage. The days of Harvey Scissorhands are back and he is carrying an axe. Directors should be again weary when they learn their producers are willing to let Harvey handle their films.
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