MovieChat Forums > La grande bouffe (1973) Discussion > What was cut from the DVD?

What was cut from the DVD?

posted 19 years ago by kaream
9 replies | jump to latest

IMDb shows the original running length as 135 minutes, while both RottenTomatoes and Netflix list the DVD as 130 minutes. Netflix also carries a subscriber comment complaining that the movie "has been cut and edited so that there is NO explanation for the characters motives and actions. Also some of the culinary scenes have been removed." Does anyone know specifically what was cut out? Dvdcompare doesn't list the title at all. I haven't tried the DVD yet, and my recollection of seeing it in a theater 32 years ago is pretty fuzzy.

[–] mysteryskeats 19 years ago

this was shown on broadcast tv in the uk 6 or 7 years ago, and was the full version. From everything i read about it there appear to be very few negatives of this in existence (situation could have changed now) so maybe netflix disc comes from an inferior source. the BBC version was a great print too, one of the more obscure classics they've screened. El Topo was a good idea too.
makes me hungry just thinking about it!
(Netflix currently list this title as "unknown status" so who knows what the heck is going on)

[–] kaream 19 years ago

In the meantime,

1) Netflix again has La Grande Bouffe available for rent now;

2) IMDb has changed their run time from 135 minutes to 130 minutes. I'm not sure whether this is correcting a previous error, or if they've changed it to reflect the timing of the only version now available; and

3) I've subsequently seen the DVD (from a different rental source, but the same 130-minute version listed at Netflix and Rotten Tomatoes), and was not aware of anything missing from what I recall having seen in a theatrical screening when it was first released. (In my mind's eye I had been remembering a considerably more profuse spread of diarrhea on the balcony than was shown, but this scene didn't appear to be cut at all, so I suspect my recollection was faulty.)

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jediknight_1969 16 years ago

We need more diarrhea! ...I mean... Cowbell!

Zed's dead baby... Zed's dead...

[–] puppet-master4 18 years ago

Is this DVD release PAL?
Conversion from cinema video rate (24fps) to PAL DVD (25 fps) requires it to be read faster, for the same total amout of frames.
So the PAL DVD duration is 24/25 of the original cinema duration.
135*24/25=130 (rounding to the closer integer)

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] uVSthem 18 years ago

The American DVD is rated NC-17 so there is no reason it should be cut.

[–] michael-brooke-613-494546 9 years ago

The running time of the original camera negative run at the correct theatrical speed of 24fps is 129 mins 48 secs, which is both the theatrical running time and that of the upcoming Arrow Blu-ray (I produced the latter, which is why I can be so certain of my facts).

I suspect the IMDB's "135 minutes" is the result of someone mistakenly assuming that 129 minutes is a video running time after PAL speedup, and applying an unnecessary "correction" - you would indeed get about 135 minutes if you did that. But in actual fact, PAL videos should run about 124 minutes - which does indeed appear to be the case with previous European releases.

[–] kaream 9 years ago

Thanks for the explanation, Michael.