unrated version?

Is there an unrated version of this. The version I rented was not as explicit as I had been led to believe.

There are two versions, at least of the Antonioni segment. Here's a description from a review at DVD Talk (www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/20029/eros/) comparing the Region 1 Warner DVD and the Region 0 Mei Ah DVD:

Most shockingly, the entire short film has been dubbed into Italian [on the Warner DVD] even though it was originally shot with the actors speaking English. It has also been edited differently, with a little over two minutes of footage removed, including some erotic content. The scene of the sexy neighbor girl rolling around on the bed fingering herself has been truncated by 30 seconds, and the subsequent scene of she and the main character having sex is a minute shorter. No specific objectionable acts were "censored", per se; it's just that both have been condensed. Two later scenes have had their order shuffled (the new structure actually works a little better), with some minor trimming as well.

I did not see Eros theatrically and cannot confirm which version played in theaters. In comparison to the [Mei Ah] DVD, I'm of mixed feeling about the changes here. Although the dubbing is very obvious and distracting, the original actors were so bad that the dubbing performances are slightly less awful. As for the footage removed, anything that makes this Antonioni film end faster may be a blessing. Then again, the nudity is pretty much the only thing enjoyable about it in the first place, so it hurts a little to see some of that go.

Having only seen the version in Italian, I can't beleive that the film could possibly be improved by lengthening the two cut scenes (the one with the woman fingering herself, and the subsequent sex scene). For my money, the thing would be better with those scenes cut out entirely. They are anything but erotic as far as I am concerned.

The version in Italian was the one released theatricaly in the U.S. It's an improvement over the version in English (which was originally shown at film festivals), at least according to the Chicago Tribune's Michael Wilmington (chicago.metromix.com/movies/review/movie-review-eros/159512/content):

I saw "Eros" at the Toronto Film Festival, where the critical hostility first seemed to surface. There was a reason: "Threads" was then in very awkward, seemingly dubbed English. Supposedly written by the film's scenarists, Antonioni and longtime collaborator Tonino Guerra, the dialogue sounded like a translation from another language; it was a big mistake. For this release, the conversation has been put into Italian, a huge improvement.

By the way, there is a remnant of the English-language version of the Antonioni segment in the U.S. trailer, which is on the Warner DVD. There we get the line, "My name is Linda," in English, rather than in Italian.

-- TopFrog

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