QueenZone discussion #1309351

pittrek wrote: The only GOOD version of the movie is the 2010 extended version which includes the Argentinian footage. The Moroder version sucks IMHO

Dane wrote: I don't think the Moroder version is about the movie.. ..more about the music. If you're a purist then the remaster with lost Argentinian footage is indeed the one to watch. I did buy this one: link Strangely enough it won't play in Europe.. odd for a German release.

tero! 48531 wrote:

Dane wrote: I don't think the Moroder version is about the movie.. ..more about the music. If you're a purist then the remaster with lost Argentinian footage is indeed the one to watch. I did buy this one: link Strangely enough it won't play in Europe.. odd for a German release.

It might have been a German release back in 1927, but it's not a German release in that link, is it? The production company of this edition (Kiono Lorber) has an address in Western Midtown of Manhattan... I would be surprised if they even know that blu-ray is available outside the continental USA. :P

emrabt wrote: Don't go round complaining about the 2010 cut if you think the *nazi censored version* (because that's all Moroder had to work from) is 'art in its own way'. Because that's what bothers me most about the 90-minute cut (alright, 87) - it's been brutally censored by the nazi's, who cut out all they saw as 'communist', 'anti-fascist' or 'pro-English' and 'pro-American'. They butchered Lang's masterpiece, and I don't think their insult to Lang should still be viewed. ========================== Wow way to take what i said and skew it, It is art is it’s own way, but I didn’t say anything about it being that way because it was cut to shreds. Hitler lobbied for it to be saved and left intact, he loved this movie, it actually supported his vision on the “weak race” rising up. in fact i wouldn't be surprised if his commanding mannerism were somewhat inspired by this movie, just compare Hitler during his speeches to robot Maria when she asks the workers to rebel. It was Alfred Hugenberg who cut the film to shreds. I think you will find America cut the film first, The writer Channing Pollock decided it was too hard for Americans to follow so made his own story line. Then the uk and Russia made cuts based on the American cut logs, because Paramount Pictures had editing control long before the Nazi’s got their hands on it (the German version became the shortest version.) The version Morodor used was the UK version, cut in the UK by MGM for being "too long", it was, for a long time, The longest print, including the deadly sins and having the basic storyline intact. Before the 2001 restoration all restorations were based on the UK print, and the German intertitles were translated from the English ones as they were closest to correct. Moroder's version doesn't use all the footage from the UK cut because he edited it to his music. The 2001 restoration uses a recovered Russian print, which was stored after being declared “not suitable for viewers”, this print is the only surviving negative, it has its missing parts filled in with the UK print, and for the 2010 restoration the 16mm duplicate of the original movie which was edited in Argentina for violence and anything too sexual. The Russian print had with it all the original documents too, including the list of things cut and the Original German intertitle texts, with precise locations of where they are inserted, this list was used during translation. And that’s the history, what we have now is a wonderful mishmash of different versions, with different takes and alternative shots, nothing like Lang intended, but it is a fine example of different countries working together to unite a massive jigsaw puzzle.

emrabt wrote: The third of three major acts of censorship was ordered by Goebbels in person, somewhere between 1934 and 1936 (the first, by Channing Pollock, immediately in 1927, was done *on German studio orders* and was primarily to do with the length of the picture [we should bear in mind that the average 1920s feature film was around 70 minutes], also in 1927, cut out all that was considered 'communist' - on explicit orders of Alfred Hugenberg, a German ultra-nationalist conservative who would help Hitler into power believing he could control Hitler - and was in fact working with all kinds of fascist groups in 1927, because the NSDAP only consolidated the far-right landscape in 1930). ====================== I’m not sure this second set of cuts or anything after it affected anything other than the German print of the movie, especially in 1934, with the uks relationship with German not being good at that point. Although there was a Nazi following in the US wasn’t there, maybe paramount was still on good terms with Goebbels and the German studio so the cuts got through? either way, I never tire of reading about the history of these movies, nosferatu is another good one that was rescued after being chopped to pieces and ordered destroyed. Fascinating isn’t it.