Othello Again - A Holy Grail, Perhaps...

[chrissie]

Been real busy and out of touch with the board for a couple of months, so if I owe anyone an e-mail, I'll be getting to it shortly...

But I really wanted to mention that it appears my quest for the 1982 BBC2 Othello broadcast might have paid off. I've heard from someone who appear to have a tape of it, and confirms it has the spoken credits, etc.

Quite exciting! More if anything positive develops.

[chrissie]

Right, so I should be getting this shortly (maybe tomorrow), and I'm told the recording, though 23+ years old, is in great condition. Out of interest, as I assume most people here who've seen this print only know it in its French-dubbed incarnation, he sent me these notes on how it differs from the 'official' version in terms of dialogue, etc.:

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- Iago's "twixt my sheets" dialogue, and Roderigo's reference to Othello as "the thick-lips".

- Iago's "If thou wouldst kill thyself, do it a more delicate way than drowning".

- The scene that introduces Iago's wife, Emilia: Othello orders Iago to bring Desdemona, and Iago tells Emilia to "Bring Desdemona after us".

- A shot of a dog disturbing some pigeons.

- Shots of boats approaching Othello's house.

- The line "Ere I would say I would drown myself for the love of a guinea-hen" becomes "Ere I would say I would drown myself for love" in the restoration.
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[Roger Ryan]

Of course, this earlier version has a significantly different spoken word title sequence and expanded scenes in Venice (including the boat and dog shots referenced in the note). Also, this version should contain a startling close-up of the dead Desdemona. I wouldn't have noticed any differences in the dubbing (apart from the dropped Iago line when Othello's ship arrives in Cyprus); it would be interesting to compare the two versions to see what changes were made in the dialogue.

[chrissie]

Well, I got it today. I have got the French-dubbed version, but knowing only a tiny bit of French I found this prohibitively distracting personally, so I haven't actually sat through it. I've only yet glanced the opening scenes here, but obviously the editing directly after the spoken credits is massively better than on the US print, which is rather choppy and confusing. I will have to sit down and watch this properly over the weekend. I'll try to post a screen grab later... quality is very good, really, for a 20+-year-old VHS source recording. (Which is to say, better than, for instance, the copies of Filming Othello and the OW Show that are in circulation.)

Needless to say, I can make copies, though I don't have time enough to burn dozens of 'em. I'll assume that getting a couple of copies out there will ensure it gets passed along, ultimately, to anyone who wants to see it. Until a pristine copy gets released officially (yeah, right), I'm quite happy!

On another note, I also got 14 mins of Dreamers footage and Portrait of Gina...

[Roger Ryan]

Well, I got it today. I have got the French-dubbed version, but knowing only a tiny bit of French I found this prohibitively distracting personally, so I haven't actually sat through it.

So, I assume the differences in dialogue noted by the trader is due to the fact that it is translated into French. That makes a side-by-side comparison less interesting, I guess.

[chrissie]

No, I meant someone sent me the French version ages ago. The differences above are noted from the English.

[chrissie]

Okay, here's a screen grab:



But perhaps of greater interest:

Extra dialogue snippet

(Which I will be deleting after a couple of days to save my bandwidth, so grab it while y'can...)

[Terry]

You shouldn't have to burn 16 copies of anything. If you made two copies for people with DVD burners and one for a person without a burner and mailed them off, and if each of the burners made the same three copies and mailed them, then everyone on the board with interest would get a copy within about two months. I would suggest arranging such things off the board (via PM) but there should be some way of doing it. I do the same thing frequently on the Yes board. The band allows free trading of unreleased live recordings and radio broadcasts. They call the process "weeding" and the copies are called "weeds." Other boards call them "distros." I see no reason why our community here can't do the same thing.

[chrissie]

Yeah, I was on a (music) list where they called it seeding, but same thing. I don't mind doing a few, and I'm not especially looking for trades, either, as I have most of the OW material I was specifically looking for... I think this is important material and I don't wanna go, 'Mwahhh, all mine!' It's probably not going to get a legitimate release (at least, anytime soon), so it's nice to get it out there in some form.

[Roger Ryan]

Sorry, I misunderstood the intent of your posting, Chrissie; I thought you were saying you received the French-language one again! Thanks for the audio snippet; as a treat for the board, would you consider posting a screen grab of the close-up of the dead Desdemona's face or something unfamiliar from the Venice sequence?

[chrissie]

Yeah, I'm a bit busy for a couple of hours, but I'll try to grab one or two other images later tonight.

[Terry]

Wow, that's sure a different exchange of lines between Iago and Roderigo...

This may be the definitive version of the film.

(Though maybe BWS could fix it up a little. )

[chrissie]

Didn't do any grabs yet, but here's an interesting thing... as far as I can tell, it's 100% the same as the French-dubbed version BUT... 'that' shot of Desdemona's face isn't there! Everything else is, but that one's gone. Presumably, it fell victim to the censors back when it first hit the shores of the UK. (It is rather gruesome, I guess...)

[Roger Ryan]

Strange...At least the English language print shown in Locarno last August retained the deceased Desdemona close-up.

[Terry]

Where is the shot? In the beginning or in the murder scene? I'll check my copy of the French version. All I remember is the fuzzy enlargement used for a somewhat close-up in the US version...