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Miss Pettigrew postscript - the DVD extras
Sunday, 3 May 2009 21:42After re-watching the film yesterday afternoon, I followed up this morning with the DVD extras. That's not normally something I would expect to want to blog about - but it turns out there were three deleted scenes included on the DVD that really would have made a massive difference to the film if they'd been left in. So now I feel the need to write about how silly I think it is that they were cut, and how much clearer and stronger the film would have been if they'd been retained.
The first two scenes both come from the beginning of the film, when Miss Pettigrew is wandering the streets of London at night between being dismissed from Mrs. Brummegan's house and reporting to Miss Holt's agency in the morning.
( Obviously they are spoilery, not only for the deleted scenes themselves but also for the rest of the film which they relate to )
The third comes later on in the morning, when Nick is on his way up to the apartment, and Miss LaFosse is in the lift with Phil, frantically trying to stop either of them from seeing one another.
( And again with the spoilers )
So why all that had to go is beyond me. Between them, those three scenes add up to about another 10 minutes of footage between them, while the film as released was only 88 minutes long - hardly an epic by today's standards. Possibly they were cut for the sake of the overall pacing, since all three come quite early on in the film, and maybe it was felt that the action needed to move forward more quickly. But is that really so important that it is worth leaving two major loose threads hanging, weakening the characterisation of Miss Pettigrew and causing actual confusion in the cinema audience for the sake of it? Obviously I still enjoyed the film as it was released, even without these extra scenes. But now that I know about them, I find it absolutely criminal that it could have been treated so badly by its editors. If anyone can explain the thinking behind this sort of decision to me, I am all ears!
Click here to view this entry with minimal formatting.
The first two scenes both come from the beginning of the film, when Miss Pettigrew is wandering the streets of London at night between being dismissed from Mrs. Brummegan's house and reporting to Miss Holt's agency in the morning.
( Obviously they are spoilery, not only for the deleted scenes themselves but also for the rest of the film which they relate to )
The third comes later on in the morning, when Nick is on his way up to the apartment, and Miss LaFosse is in the lift with Phil, frantically trying to stop either of them from seeing one another.
( And again with the spoilers )
So why all that had to go is beyond me. Between them, those three scenes add up to about another 10 minutes of footage between them, while the film as released was only 88 minutes long - hardly an epic by today's standards. Possibly they were cut for the sake of the overall pacing, since all three come quite early on in the film, and maybe it was felt that the action needed to move forward more quickly. But is that really so important that it is worth leaving two major loose threads hanging, weakening the characterisation of Miss Pettigrew and causing actual confusion in the cinema audience for the sake of it? Obviously I still enjoyed the film as it was released, even without these extra scenes. But now that I know about them, I find it absolutely criminal that it could have been treated so badly by its editors. If anyone can explain the thinking behind this sort of decision to me, I am all ears!
Click here to view this entry with minimal formatting.
