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Does anyone know if a director's cut even exists of Being Human? The released version doesn't work, but it's very effective moment-to-moment.

I believe that Forsyth's initial 160 minute cut was shown to test audiences, but whether or not it still exists in Warner's vaults is another matter. Were they in the habit of throwing out deleted material in the early 90s? Either way, I suspect it would take someone like Criterion or the BFI to be interested in order for us to ever see it.

That does sound something that Mark Kermode should get onto ASAP as his next project, if such a thing were possible.

I just can't imagine there are enough people with enough interest in seeing Forsyth's cut of this film to fund a reconstruction and rerelease, though I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

Having read the script (which is a fascinating read— it's quite consciously literary, with very long descriptive passages, much of them suggesting interior states of characters), I think the legend of the studio having "hacked [the film] to pieces" is overblown. True, there's an entire other historical episode that's missing from the released version (was this even filmed?), but otherwise it is pretty close. Most of the beats that simply don't work, don't work in the script either, and the overall conception remains, to my mind, pretty flaky in script and film. That said, there are enough lovely moments, and the film is strange enough, to make it well worth watching.

It strikes me that Bill Forsyth may, at the time at least, have undervalued what made his work special—not just his humor but a kind of unforced lyricism and limpidity—and sought to make a very different sort of film (and out-and-out art film; at times Being Human reminds me of The Piano—similar trappings in the score and production design for sure), one he frankly wasn't particularly good at making.

On a separate note, Local Hero would seem to be a no-brainer for Criterion, no?

I've got no idea what the source could be (as far as I can tell it hasn't been re-broadcast) but Forsyth's Andrina can now be 'found' on the internet.

The version of Ken Russell's Dance of the Seven Veils that leaked was covered with familiar-looking BBC timecode, so it clearly came from there!

(A shame, as the BFI's version has much better colour - but although I had the ability to leak it once upon a time, I'd have been rumbled in seconds and most likely fired.)

I really think there are some renegade BBC, BFI, and Paley Center employees who are leaking stuff like this, Woody Allen’s Men of Crisis, and Robert Downey’s Sticks and Bones

Now if someone from the BFI can get us Lindsay Anderson’s Foreign Skies…

Calvin wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 10:13 am I've got no idea what the source could be (as far as I can tell it hasn't been re-broadcast) but Forsyth's Andrina can now be 'found' on the internet.

Thank you for that. So glad I’ve finally been able to see it. Surprised I was only the sixth person to ever log it on Letterboxd.

beamish14 wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 8:48 pm I really think there are some renegade BBC, BFI, and Paley Center employees who are leaking stuff like this, Woody Allen’s Men of Crisis, and Robert Downey’s Sticks and Bones

Now if someone from the BFI can get us Lindsay Anderson’s Foreign Skies…

My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy

therewillbeblus wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:33 pm

beamish14 wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 8:48 pm I really think there are some renegade BBC, BFI, and Paley Center employees who are leaking stuff like this, Woody Allen’s Men of Crisis, and Robert Downey’s Sticks and Bones

Now if someone from the BFI can get us Lindsay Anderson’s Foreign Skies…

My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy

It’s out there! That certain site which hosts a lot of these films has it…

therewillbeblus wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:33 pm

beamish14 wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 8:48 pm I really think there are some renegade BBC, BFI, and Paley Center employees who are leaking stuff like this, Woody Allen’s Men of Crisis, and Robert Downey’s Sticks and Bones

Now if someone from the BFI can get us Lindsay Anderson’s Foreign Skies…

My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy

Or perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...

pistolwink wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2023 9:47 pm

therewillbeblus wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:33 pm

beamish14 wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 8:48 pm I really think there are some renegade BBC, BFI, and Paley Center employees who are leaking stuff like this, Woody Allen’s Men of Crisis, and Robert Downey’s Sticks and Bones

Now if someone from the BFI can get us Lindsay Anderson’s Foreign Skies…

My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy

Or perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...

That’s a great suggestion. It seems like someone at NYU or the Library of Congress leaked Martin Brest’s Hot Dogs for Gauguin

pistolwink wrote: Sun Nov 19, 2023 9:47 pm

therewillbeblus wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 11:33 pm

beamish14 wrote: Sat Nov 18, 2023 8:48 pm I really think there are some renegade BBC, BFI, and Paley Center employees who are leaking stuff like this, Woody Allen’s Men of Crisis, and Robert Downey’s Sticks and Bones

Now if someone from the BFI can get us Lindsay Anderson’s Foreign Skies…

My white whale is Paul Almond's Journey - the last film of a fascinating trilogy

Or perhaps someone at the AFI library could get to Malick's Lanton Mills...

Not sure how true it is, but someone told me that Terrence Malick pulled all the copies of it out of the AFI so that no one can ever watch it. Not sure the validity of that info. It was apparently don le around 2018.

That wouldn''t surprise me at all. Perhaps 10 or 15 years ago someone managed to watch a copy at the AFI and wrote up a reasonably thorough plot summary online. I wonder if that raised Malick's ire.