Però se esce solo in 4K non so che farmene.
C’è anche il bluray
Ah, ok.
Just to confirm:
These are the two versions of the film we already know exist, and have from Blue Underground previously, but now available in 4k scans - Correct?
Yep! 
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Thank you.
I also believe of the Behind The Scenes footage from Super 8mm, this was available via Giampaolo Lomi’s YouTube channel previously (though they have now been made private I see).
Perhaps, for me personally, this release is not essential — but I will still likely pick it up 
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Visto che ancora continuano con la falsità della versione lunga come versione originale, immagino non abbiano recuperato né il doppiaggio italiano passato su Mediaset né le scene tagliate il cui negativo fu confermato come ancora presente alla Technicolor di Roma. Peccato, ma almeno lo vedremo come Dio comanda.
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@Kakyoin or other Italians of GDR:
Would you be able to kindly point me in the direction of this establishment and/or it’s contact details at all please?
Sta uscendo anche in Francia per ‘Le chat qui fume’, in BR e UHD “in versione integrale”.
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Would anyone be able to translate this document for me at all please?
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It’s a censorship visa from 1994 regarding what is probably the Mediaset version that aired at night up to the late 2000s. From 1990, Italian broadcasters couldn’t air movies with a “Forbidden to Minors” rating, which included pornography, so broadcasters had to resubmit their library to the censorship board in order to get a lower rating. There is a list of cuts, and it doesn’t include any scene which we don’t already know about, and a pretty standard letter of appeal to the censors.
They call it “Zio Tom” as the later, longer re-issue but was submitted as a 1318mt 16mm copy so its original length was approximately 2h.
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This film is equally frustrating, but immensely interesting, to someone like me wanting to try and decipher it all and the many different versions available.
From what I have heard, been told, or read over time I hope to establish some sort of timeline of the different versions available and see if we can create a comprehensive list of the essential (and non-essential) viewing perhaps so that we have a definitive list compiled for fans of the genre.
My own understanding, and feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, is that the film went to censorship for the first time on September 6th 1971. The recorded footage was 3690 meters, which equates to 135 minutes and a few seconds?
I believe that there was then a modified version by March 15th 1972 as the result of issues around the films title, which also had some scenes removed / cut / trimmed (and others added) so that the footage became 3838 metres or 139.40’.
I’ve seen heard that a version exists which is 3210 metres, or 118mins long, that may have been acquired from the Technicolor di Roma. This particular one is interesting to me as the IMDB page for the film (though I never assume this to be completely accurate) states that
Could the 118 min version be the same referred to here? It’s possible, but I would like to see this for myself to be able to analyse it and see the differences.
I hear that there is a copy preserved at the National Cinema which is said to be 3554 meters (129’).
I have also heard from those who saw the film play in cinemas at the time that the timed duration was 128’.
Now, with all that said, I also have an Australian version from the Video Classics Gold VHS which runs at 1.58.30
I then also have a version from the Korean laserdisc which runs at 1.52.08 in total BUT this does include introductory titles, Samsung logo, and then a brief trailer for some sort of Korean animation cartoon which takes us to approximately 58 seconds before the movie begins with helicopters in flight.
FURTHER POINTS OF INTEREST:
- The version shown by Nicholas Winding-Refn at BFI London is said to have had a run time of 105 mins. Quite what this version actually contained, and which version it may be, still remains unknown to me. It’s certainly shorter than a lot of the above, and seemingly shorter than even the 118 min version stated above. This was said to contain footage of additional slave revolt scenes, a plantation burning, as well scenes of an Underground Railroad.
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The German DVD release of the film Il Decameron Negro has a 30 min special feature supposedly of Addio Onkle Tom from the German Super 8mm. I do not currently know what this footage contains, or if there is anything new on there, but it remains of interest.
-
There is a German Super 8mm version of the film which a contact of mine has, I have not viewed this yet but eventually once my friend is able to make it available to me, I will be able to check this release also for any differences.
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These scenes are shown in the Australian trailer, under the title Farewell Uncle Tom, but do not appear in either the English version nor Directors Cut versions of the film.
I can only assume these were intended to be used during the 2.15 Directors Cut version of the film - but they do not appear. I surmise that they may possibly be deleted scenes, used in the trailer but not the film itself, or they may possibly have been removed by the Americans after initially intending them to be screened. The mystery deepens.
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That’s correct. 3690 meters are 134 minutes and 30 seconds at 24 frames /sec (35mm., Ntsc system, Blu-rays) and 129 minutes and 8 seconds at 25 frames/sec (Pal system).
The exact date of the censorship approval is 1972 March 27.
This “second edition” is titled Zio Tom and its running time was now 139’54" (24 f/s) or 134’18" (25 f/s). This new edition had been re-edited, and the commentary redone.
The “third edition” was submitted to the censor’s office in September 1995 by Reteitalia with the aim of eliminating the ban on people under 18 and thus allowing the film to be broadcast on TV. The running time of this TV edition was 1318 meters in a 16mm. print = 120’06" (24 f/s) or 115’18" (25 f/s). In Italy these versions in which the ban is lowered from 18 years to 14 years after some cuts are called versioni derubricate (declassified versions).
I know nothing about this. And no similar fact appears from the official Siae documentation.
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Comincio a pensare che la versione originale arrivata in sala nel 1971 è andata perduta…
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The Lomi version (where does it come from?) is weird because its opening title is “Addio Zio Tom”, while it says “Zio Tom” in the closing credits.
Maybe the trims that were stored with the negative were actually present in the version first released in Italy? Lomi confirmed that there was a fully edited, scored and dubbed version of the LaLaurie scene, but I doubt that scene was 10 minutes long, so maybe there was more. I don’t know why Blue Underground and Le Chat Qui Fume didn’t include them, but they could have junked them when moving the negative from Technicolor Roma to who-knows-where.
In any case, the film is insane. I’m not black so I cannot judge in good conscience if it is offensive or not, for sure it did make me learn about things I didn’t know about.
I found Africa Addio to be exploitative (all those re-creations are so noticeable in HD versions), but I think Pauline Kael was right in saying this is an inciendiary movie, and I’m sure this was on purpose.
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Ho visionato rapidamente i dischi UHD della Blue Underground, qualità eccezionale ma purtroppo confermo che non c’è la traccia italiana nella versione corta.
Curiosissimo il trailer italiano, presumibilmente pensato per la versione corta: è la scena dell’intervista allo schiavo occhialuto inframezzata da spezzoni di brutalità che smentiscono quanto detto. Purtroppo mi ha perso alla fine quando, ripetendo almeno tre volte (!!) il take in cui lo insultano, insistono su termini della “contestazione” a mo’ di sfottò (“…assassino di Kennedy! Jacopettiprosperista!”) che non ha molto senso.
A soddisfare o frustrare il nostro animo feticista ci sono un sacco di inquadrature non presenti in nessuna versione del film, così a memoria mi sa di almeno una scena mai vista.
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I think the Lomi version is mine, I made him a copy from the first japanese dvd release. Later he told me that that version was the most complete
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Was it in Italian? It doesn’t seem to be DVD-sourced, it looks to me like an analog telecine of a release copy (complete with Primo Tempo and Secondo Tempo cards).
It’s a puzzling version because just after the reverend’s speech, you can hear music from another scene which is not included in that print (nor in the English version of the same cut). I think it’s the music from the scene that follows the reverend’s speech in the long version.
Another weird cut is right at the end: you can’t see the priest crushing the ball, and the credits say “Zio Tom”, as if they were lifted from the other version.
Troppe chiacchiere intorno a un film che francamente non merita tutta questa attenzione. Jacopetti e Prosperi erano due persone razziste, punto. Il loro punto di vista era totalmente europeocentrico. Le ragioni dei locali, giuste o sbagliate che fossero, per loro non esistevano. Per loro non esistevano i neri, per loro esistevano solo i negri. E per negri intendo dire quelli tipo ‘zi zignore’. Basta sentire il doppiaggio per rendersene conto. E non mi si venisse a parlare di politicamente corretto: qui è semplicemente denigrare un’intera razza solo in quanto tale. Poi possiamo stare a discutere sul fatto che i bianchi vengono comunque mostrati in maniera totalmente negativa, ma ciò non toglie che l’idea di fondo è quella che ho descritto sopra. Ecco, ora l’ho scritto.
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