I am one of those who liked the film as it was. You really CAN NOT delete the scene where Mike asks Irma "What happened on the Rock". Miss Lambert is right, when you release a movie is not your anymore: it's a masterpiece belonging to the audience
I think that Weir completely misjudged his audience, who have grown up with this film, and loved it for what it was. That relationship we developed for it was blighted by his cuts. When I want to see this film, I always borrow it from my library so I can watch their old vhs version ,and in it's proper original form.
I prefer the original one, because in director's cut, Weir cuts several main scenes: 1. end of breakfast (Blanche kisses Miranda); 2. Irma meets Albert to thank him for the rescue, but he says he didn't save her, it was Michael; 3. Irma meets Michael and they both begin to go out; 4. scene into the lake on a small boat, when Irma says words about starts and ends pronounced by Miranda, and then Michael asks her what had happened on the Rock; 5. and scene into the Church when Ingrid starts to cry while all the girls of the College are singing anthems; so, too many cuts made by "director's cut", it's an unfortunate and lame version of the film, I really felt so dissapointed when I re-watched it...
Fortunately I keep a copy of the old version released on Spanish TV in 1990 (unique time it was released in Spain, translated to Spanish language)recorded in VHS and then brought into DVD. Not good screen quality, but now it is unavailable...
Honestly, I don't understand why they didn't/don't release both versions as a collectors set, that way both parties would be happy. I that I would like to see the movie, in its entirety. They did release the deleted scenes, but only in the British release I believe. Wish there was a way to purchasing the original in region 1 or 0.
The Second Sight, 3 Disc DVD release (Region 2) contains the original version but the picture quality isn't all that great. The Pathe DVD has the Director's cut.
The Director's cut was the first version I saw and I think it's the better version. I saw the original version later on and I didn't think it was as good...I can understand why those scenes were taken out. Although I liked the scene with the girl in the church...would've been nice to have that left in. :) P.S. Mrs Mangle from Neighbours as Miss McCraw. Lol.
"them not contacting, them not connecting" is such a weird move on the part of Peter Weir, almost unnatural to a sense. Those deleted scenes were a part of how people reacted emotionally to some events that came to pass, and indeed, as Anne Louise said, there was a relief in watching them. I watched "theater cut" first, and then, after many years, I saw the "Director's cut". There was a sense of loss - I thought I dreamt of the missing scenes, and only later learned what happened.
I'd like to see the original version. I feel there's something lacking with Michael just becoming a quiet passive dreamer for the remainder of the film and not reaching out to the girl he helped rescue from Hanging Rock. If I only I had watched this film years ago or if only Weir had just allowed the original cut to remain included in the boxed set like the way they've included the alternate cuts of Blade Runner and The New World on their boxed sets.
I think the scenes should stay. Yes it's more dreamy and so on for Irma to slide gracefully from the bed scene back to her school but it seems a step too far to believe she'd leave without saying a word to Michael. The scenes work because of Michael's inexperience and how deep down he's still tortured by the mystery, particularly by Miranda it seems. It also makes Irma less angelic and mysterious and more human to spend some time with Michael and then get her heart broken when he announces he's leaving.
Peter Weir tampered with a masterpiece and diminished it in the process. For example, by removing the scenes with Michael and Irma, they never have a conversation. Terrible misjudgment.
I think the problem is that he released this director's cut so long after the original. That screws with the memories of the people who watched it originally. We all saw, and some (like me) fell in love with the original which I saw at an age where Miranda, Irma, Marion & Edith seemed like the "big girls" As a child I attended an all girl's school. I felt connected to the world of Picnic and wondered what happened to the girls, where they had gone and would I and my friends meet "eternity" if we were to visit a place like Hanging Rock. I went back over and over to see it at the cinema. Now, at 57, this attempt to eradicate the version that colored my childhood and adult life, really, feels just pointless and contributes no improvement. Picnic was not supposed to be some tightly paced, tension filled whodunit. Joan Lindsey actually wrote, in the original story, words to the effect that the shadow of what happened that Valentine's Day on the rock spread over and colored so many things that happened afterward (not a direct quote of course) But that was shown very clearly by watching Ingrid, who hadn't even accompanied the girls on the rock, break down weeping in chapel, or seeing Irma, all her dignified young lady manner lost, as she ran away from the boathouse and Michael. These scenes showed, clearly, that wherever Miranda, Marion and Miss McCraw were, they had left behind a world of deep unease, anxiety and helpless frustration. In their own ways, these scenes that were cut said as much about the effects of that picnic on the survivors, as the scenes of Mrs. Appleyard's repeated recourse to booze to deal with the new reality. The disappearances played havoc with the emotions of nearly everyone involved long after the girls could have been reasonably presumed dead. The mood built up the mystery and in my view Picnic was all about mood...and being carried along by a force too big to comprehend. Anyway, I must support Ms. Lambert's viewpoint. Miranda IS one of the big girls, after all.
@@fabianpatrizio2865 I wonder what has gone wrong with Weir....He had a maximum exposure to how the author saw the story. WHY overwrite it now that she's long gone. Unethical and probably illegal.
I really do like the director's cut. In my opinion, he was right to cut out those scenes that just drag down the film. I prefer it that way with some tension remaining all along.
Finally this is all beginning to make sense to me. I saw both versions and was stunned at the omissions. But many omissions still seem to be strangely unnoticed. What about the repeating image of rocks with the red smoke? Did I hallucinate That? Other strange supernatural images. Wasn't there a scene with the tough young guy in a room where the whole room mysteriously turns white?
OMG! I seem to "feel" I remember something about Albert being in a room that kind of was washed in light at some point. I can't say I remember it for sure but when you said that an image surely came to my head. He was in bed, wasn't he? On his bed at any rate. Oh god. I saw this over and over but I saw it at the York Theatre in San Francisco within years of its release when I was like 12 or 13 so my memory of it is hazy. Since then all I have seen is the director's cut version and until I saw the scene on film had totally forgotten about the scene with the girls in church though I did remember Michael and Irma and Irma running away was an image that stayed with me. It was such a real, sincere, stumbling run of a girl just desperate to get away. I really felt for her.
What was this documentary for? Part of the advertising for the director's cut version? If so, what an odd way to promote it, they all seem so upset about it.
3 disc Second Sight dvd has both versions..i got it from amazon uk. It's great..make sure ya have multi region player...i have criterion dvd too...it doesn't have A Dream Within A Dream...there's more supplements in th import...it's def worth owning both!..🌋😊...love this film!
BIG mistake! "...a bit odd..." More than a bit odd - a crime. To delete such beautiful scenes makes no sense. It's as crazy as Leonardo de Vinci painting out one of Mona Lisa's eyes. And Blu Ray's all seem to have the cut version. It's a disaster.
Do I detect in his facial expressions and manner that he KNOWS he has made a complete arse of himself, that he has made cuts which were totally unnecessary, and that he has enraged a lot of people, including stars of the film, and now he is doing his damndest to to try and justify those cuts and convince people they WERE necessary. He doesn't convince me. 8.20 UK
I'm with Anne Lambert on this. I still love what we have been given but I far prefer the original. I miss the whole Michael/Irma storyline. For me it's a dryer finished product now.
Daniel Sparrow He may have been the director, but he was not the only one involved in its production. It was a team effort, and she is correct that once it was released and out there, it was no longer his. It was a group project that had already been completed and presented to the world and had become a piece of culture. It would be like if Frederic Bartholdi (the man who designed the Statue of Liberty) went and singlehandedly made changes to the statue because he decided he wasn't satisfied with the design, even though he wasn't the one that built it and it had already become a celebrated cultural icon.
