Criterion Picnic At Hanging Rock...what's been cut?

[feverpitch96]

I am aware that this Director's Cut of the film is actually seven minutes shorter than the original because Weir cut that much out for this edition.

Can anyone (using spoiler warnings, of course) fill me in on what is missing, because it's a long time since I saw the original and the Director's Cut is seemingly the only one around now...even here!
:confused:

[Gary Couzens]

The details of the cuts are in my DVD Times review (http://www.dvdtimes.org.uk/reviews/other/picnicathangingrock.html) .

Or rather they will be when DVD Times is back up and running!
So here's the relevant extract:

Picnic at Hanging Rock ran 116 minutes on its original release. Criterion's DVD contains Weir's preferred version, which is one of the few director's cuts which is shorter than the original. (Lawrence of Arabia and The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith are two others.) At 1:25, just after the scene where Michael (Dominic Guard) believes he's seen Miranda in the woods, Weir has removed a six-minute sequence showing a tentative closeness between Michael and Irma, whom he had rescued from the rock,
and her refusing to tell him what had happened at the picnic. Weir cuts directly to a shot of a "Missing Presumed Dead" poster, then deletes a lengthy shot inside a church at the memorial service, cutting to the remaining girls leaving. These cuts do tighten a rambling last half-hour, but also have the effect of sidelining Michael's character in the narrative. Considering how completist Criterion usually are about their DVD releases, it would have been good to have these scenes on the disc as an extra,
particularly as they are part of the version of this film that most people are familiar with.

[feverpitch96]

Cheers Gary. I remember those now. :)

But, erm, you gave a time there of 1:25...that's way too early in the film, surely? :)

I've read elsewhere this afternoon that
the early scene where the girls come downstairs in the morning and spend some time celebrating St Valentine's Day has also been significantly shortened...?

Also, as an afterthought, can anyone tell me if the currently available US V*S tape version of this is the Director's Cut or the original?

[Gary Couzens]

That's 1 hour 25 mins - but I take your point. Also that's a timing on Criterion's NTSC DVD, so it will be different on a PAL video.

As for the opening sequence, I'll check it tonight. (I still have the original version in its UK video release.)

[feverpitch96]

I've finally got myself a copy of this in the recent CDNow sale (didn't take me long to catch up with this one, did it?):rolleyes:

Gary, I have a few questions. Your review says the disc is dual-layer, but if so it must be a very clever layer change! Normally I wouldn't be too bothered either way, except that the copy of the disc I have here has a small uneven blackish ring around the inner edge of the centre ring. As the printed design on the disc's face is a silver-and-black photo, could this be part of the label print?

Is there another, nastier possibility; that, as this is now a three- or four-year-old dual-layer DVD, I could be seeing an extreme and unusually visible case of our old friend "DVD rot"? I was hoping that this was a DVD-5 because that would rule it out immediately, but re-reading your review...?

:( :confused: :(

(Oh, and maybe I'm being really picky, but I'd say the opening ten minutes or so of the film are riddled with (very minor) artefacts in the form of many small dust-flecks...)