Bill Forsyth

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connor
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 2:03 pm

Re: Bill Forsyth

#26 Post by connor » Fri Sep 14, 2018 10:47 am

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.

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Bill Forsyth

#27 Post by Calvin » Fri Sep 14, 2018 12:28 pm

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.

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colinr0380
Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK

Re: Bill Forsyth

#28 Post by colinr0380 » Sat Sep 15, 2018 3:54 am

That does sound something that Mark Kermode should get onto ASAP as his next project, if such a thing were possible.

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whaleallright
Joined: Sun Sep 25, 2005 12:56 am

Re: Bill Forsyth

#29 Post by whaleallright » Sat Sep 15, 2018 4:33 am

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?

Calvin
Joined: Sun Apr 10, 2011 11:12 am

Re: Bill Forsyth

#30 Post by Calvin » Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:13 am

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.

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MichaelB
Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
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Re: Bill Forsyth

#31 Post by MichaelB » Sat Nov 18, 2023 8:04 am

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.)

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: Bill Forsyth

#32 Post by beamish14 » Sat Nov 18, 2023 4:48 pm

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

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DeprongMori
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: Bill Forsyth

#33 Post by DeprongMori » Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:26 pm

Calvin wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 6:13 am
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.
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.

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therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: Bill Forsyth

#34 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pm

beamish14 wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 4:48 pm
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
My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: Bill Forsyth

#35 Post by beamish14 » Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:43 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pm
beamish14 wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 4:48 pm
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
My 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…

pistolwink
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:07 am

Re: Bill Forsyth

#36 Post by pistolwink » Sun Nov 19, 2023 5:47 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pm
beamish14 wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 4:48 pm
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
My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy
Or perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...

beamish14
Joined: Fri May 18, 2018 3:07 pm

Re: Bill Forsyth

#37 Post by beamish14 » Sun Nov 19, 2023 6:19 pm

pistolwink wrote:
Sun Nov 19, 2023 5:47 pm
therewillbeblus wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pm
beamish14 wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 4:48 pm
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
My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy
Or perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...

That’s a great suggestion. It seems like someone at NYU or the Library of Congress leaked Martin Brest’s Hot Dogs for Gauguin

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:25 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: Bill Forsyth

#38 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Mon Nov 20, 2023 1:23 am

pistolwink wrote:
Sun Nov 19, 2023 5:47 pm
therewillbeblus wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 7:33 pm
beamish14 wrote:
Sat Nov 18, 2023 4:48 pm
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
My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy
Or perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...
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
Joined: Thu Dec 12, 2013 3:07 am

Re: Bill Forsyth

#39 Post by pistolwink » Mon Nov 20, 2023 6:18 pm

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.

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