Posted by The Man With No Name on 04/11/06 01:46

<honuscc@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:20060410124337.389$t5@newsreader.com...
> sindaco@iaciners.org.invalid (un fake di Alberto) wrote:
>> The Man With No Name <none@none.com> wrote:
>>
>> > <honuscc@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>> > news:20060407133027.075$dS@newsreader.com...
>> > >I saw a listing for this on eBay which indicates 'unedited' version.
>> > >I
>> > > didn't know there was more than one. There was a U.S. release
>> > > running at about 150 minutes. Is there a different one that is
>> > > longer? This film has
>> > > a little bit of everything. I hate to think I was still missing
>> > > something?
>> > > Someone clarify this?
>> >
>> > Basically, it's probably the same 150 minute version released in the
>> > US (and Australia) on DVD.
>> > The 'unedited' part being the scene of incest which was originally cut
>> > to avoid an 'X' rating (with today's more lenient ratings, it could
>> > easily get an 'R' and in Australia the DVD is even M15+ (marginally
>> > harder than an American PG13)
>> >
>> > There are various reports of quite a bit having been cut for time and
>> > pacing reasons (with rumors of versions as long as 3+ hours,) but none
>> > of these versions have ever been released on video or DVD (and it's
>> > uncertain wether or not the footage even exists anymore.)
>>
>> Has anything been cut besides what was cut in the original Italian
>> version? I have an old interview to Visconti claiming he actually only
>> was asked to cut a very little bit in the incestuous scene between
>> Martin (Helmut Berger) and his mother Sofia (Ingrid Thulin). Visconti
>> said (translation mine): <<If it is as they said, then there's incest
>> between Hamlet and his mother, but between them there's lots of things
>> but the incest; Hamlet never actually has intercourse with his mother
>> and even in my film I was able to convince [the censors] that the scene
>> was very elliptic. However, when I showed them the film with the tiny
>> cut, they asked for a much longer cut, one which would have eliminated
>> the whole scene, so I refused and stuck to it (...) I sais I could have
>> cut more of that scene, but that I would have been forced to insert a
>> counter-camp, and I said it would have made everything more graphic,
>> because you would actually see a naked man and a naked woman on a bed.
>> So I cut this counter-camp in and I showed them the film again, and we
>> went back to that only one tiny cut>>.
>>
>> Which is to say, unless more cuts were made for foreign markets, cuts
>> were far from being "quite a bit". I'd be glad to double check on my
>> Italian DVD for any details you'd like to check.
>
> I actually have the Italian 150 min version in PAL format, but the timings
> listed on the US version show 157 minutes so that's why I'm a bit
> confused.
> I saw the film in the theaters and on VHS and Italian DVD but never
> remember much difference between them. There was never any actual sex
> scene between mother and son, just the strong suggestion.


That difference would be entirely due to PAL speedup (PAL plays 4% faster
than NTSC)

I should further clarify, when I talk about 'quite a bit' being cut, I'm
refering to scenes which were supposedly in early test-screenings, or scenes
which were film and then didn't make the final cut. Just about every film
every made has scenes which were filmed and didn't make the final cut, but
in the case of The Damned, I heard there was more than usual (I think I read
this on the IMDb board.)

Incidentally, what does 'counter-camp' mean?

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