MovieChat Forums > Monsieur Hire Discussion > DVD Runtime 75 minutes? Cuts?

DVD Runtime 75 minutes? Cuts?

posted 19 years ago by propaganda21
8 replies | jump to latest

Monsieur Hire is one of my all time favourite movies.

Finally, it's been released on DVD in the UK. I have a VHS Palace Classics release that I picked up in London a few years ago (I'm in NYC but I'm totally multi regional and multi formatted). It has a run time of 81 minutes. Can anybody tell me why the UK DVD release is only 75 minutes? Did they cut it? What's missing?

I'd really like to replace my almost worn out VHS copy.

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[–] Eric-1226 18 years ago

Just to add more confusion: I've got an old movie catalogue (from about ten years ago) from a mail-order movie outfit that's since gone out of business. Anyway, they list "Monsieur Hire" as being available on VHS, with a run-time of 88 minutes.

Puzzling, to say the least...

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[–] mathew5000 10 years ago

Some reviews from when the film was released in US cinemas (June 1990) also give the runtime as 88 minutes:

http://articles.philly.com/1990-06-29/entertainment/25913704_1_monsieu r-hire-french-director-patrice-leconte-murder-mystery
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/monsieur-hire-1990

To me, nine minutes is quite a significant discrepancy between the original theatrical release and the DVD relase (http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews22/monsieur_hire_dvd_review.ht m). I wonder what the explanation is. I wish I had the 1989 Toronto film festival official programme (or that of Cannes 1989), to see what the running time is there.

[–] laimisas 17 years ago

i have xvid version with 75 minutes and 29 seconds

[–] LCShackley 15 years ago

On Netflix instant view, the timing is 1:19:12.

[–] mathew5000 10 years ago

Monsieur Hire is one of my all time favourite movies.

Finally, it's been released on DVD in the UK. I have a VHS Palace Classics release that I picked up in London a few years ago (I'm in NYC but I'm totally multi regional and multi formatted). It has a run time of 81 minutes. Can anybody tell me why the UK DVD release is only 75 minutes? Did they cut it? What's missing?

I'd really like to replace my almost worn out VHS copy.

Hope you don't mind me responding to this nine years late, but the running-time difference is attributable to "PAL speed-up". Google that phrase or read this explanation on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/576i#PAL_speed-up

Also have a look at this detailed comparison of the UK DVD version with the DVD for the US market: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDReviews22/monsieur_hire_dvd_review.ht m

I don't know why IMDb (and several other sources) list the runtime as 81 minutes, when the Kino DVD (whose transfer is also used on Netflix, I think) has it at 79 minutes.