MovieChat Forums > Lucrèce Borgia (1937) Discussion > present version is cut from original

present version is cut from original

posted 16 years ago by kaream
2 replies | jump to latest

Concerning the comment made by dbdumonteil, "it is a relatively short movie and I wonder if the current version is complete", and the remark about this being rather "tame and timid" given Gance's predilection for including orgies and rapes -- it's obvious that at least some of the nudity has been cut out. The 93 minute Image DVD uses a still for its main menu showing a very bare-breasted dancer, but this shot has been removed from the dance sequence in Cesare's party for Lucrezia at the pool. A similar shot of the same dancer shown reflected in the water is left in.

It's disappointing that IMDb provides no information on the film's original length (and even more disappointing that the complete film is not available). You have to wonder what else may have been chopped out.

[–] BrightVibes 11 years ago

The DVD version I got from netflix was 2 hours and 4 minutes. I contained the nudity and orgies. I was really shocked to see this in a movie from that time period.

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Bright Vibes

[–] kaream 11 years ago

Thanks - that's interesting to know. Netflix currently has this on "very long wait", so it will be hard to check. Their description gives the movie as being 126 minutes long.

I have the Image Entertainment release of this, which has the same cover as shown at Netflix. Lucrezia Borgia is 93'33", Au Secours! is 23'05", and La Folie du Docteur Tube is 10'41". Altogether these add up to the 126 minutes specified by Netflix.

The movie does contain some hints of nudity and orgies, but gives the definite impression that a good deal more has been cut out. I'd appreciate your re-checking the timing of yours. Also, re-check the photo used for the main menu, where the center dancer is wearing only a skirt, and the woman at the left has on a very diaphanous see-through top. (This same picture is used for the DVD cover, but all the bare breasts are painted over to make it appear that both women are wearing opaque tops.) Neither version of this still is included in the Image release of this dance scene.

I doubt if Image would have cut it; rather, most of Gance's more risqué shots probably would have already been cut from the print they found to use for their DVD. IMDb presently shows the runtime as only 93', which matches the Image version; but also mentions a scandal caused by Lucrezia being shown naked, which does not. Nor is there any "female full frontal nudity" as mentioned in the Plot Keywords here.