THX 1138 "preservations" + the 'THX 1138 Italian Cut' project (Released) — Page 14

Some stuff they say over the microphones is just random, jaw-droppingly random. When I watchedthis film in Italian (in my teen years) I remember the film as being quite confusing and now I totally understand why. You still get what's happening but the nerve of these translators!

I don't know if some of the plot alterations have been requested by Warner (who, we may assume, re-cut the film in this order before presenting it to the dubbers) however I can list some of the main differences, plot-wise:

1) the hologram is a projection of THX's mind, in Italian they call it "transfert di pensiero" which I translated as "transference" (it's a term from psichology also used in paraphsychology). They are very clear about the fact that THX generated this hologram. In the English version I think it was much more vague and if I'm not mistaken, the hologram coming into the real world had nothing to do with THX's mind.

2) there's a lot of talk about "germs of thought" which can infect society. THX is almost a biological hazard on the run.

3) THX at the trial is considered curable and will be eventually put back to work. Even while he's escaping, they tell him over the radio that he can still get his job back

4) in one screen it is said that SEN corrupted THX. While LUH is only accused of sexual violation. The trial is only about that (after they have sex in the white limbo) - reason why the trial sequence was placed afterwards.

It's all very confusing I know, it seems that Warner wanted a slightly different plot. Some pieces are cut away alltogether.

5) minor plots have been deleted. Totally absent from the translation the fact that someone made a mistake starting a mindblock while he was working at something very dangerous. Then control room declare itself not responsable for the mistake. Another is the scene when THX is in the limbo and operators move him through a mind control equipment. This was changed with the operators talking about THX situation and danger he brings to society instead of being an operator teaching to a trainee how to operate the mind-control equipment (from what they say they weren't controlling him at all, making some of Duvall's spasms totally not understandable... part of which were also cut away)

If I can remember any other difference I'll post it here

My pleasure.

I just finished but give me some time to re-check everything. I also need to relisten a couple of words which are not very clear due to the quality of the audio.

In the end Donald Pleasance is credited as JEN instead of SEN (in the film they say SEN so they made a typo). Not a lot of care was put into this film.

Anyway, from this description (sorry, in Italian) http://www.cosedaunaltromondo.it/product.php?pId=1403&printp=1 I see that whoever reviewed it watched the very same version I have because it refers to "germs of thought" and that gender differences have been abolished because they lead to unhappiness (same stuff that the added voices in the background say)

After some researches I also found that:

1) the Italian poster http://www.cosedaunaltromondo.it/english/tipologies_dettail.php?tId=80 was designed by Averardo Ciriello. PRINTER was GRAFOPRESS, 1976, ROME. DISTRIBUTOR:
SOCIETA' ITALIANA DISTRIBUZIONE FILMS, 1976, ITALY

2) "Società Italiana Distribuzione Films" is also the distributor written at the end of the movie I have

1+2= this version that I have was the first available (1976) and distribuited. So I can safely assume now that this is the standard pre-DVD Italian version.

Why is this film rare then? Because the version available on peer2peer and torrent websites have been "made" using the English video and adding the Italian audio. Someone must have had some troubles re-cutting all the pieces because of the missing scenes, the extended scene and the prologue were lost in the process.

After 2004 you can only find the DVD version (which is a new dub, horribly done but accurate to the "original cut") so this is really getting rare to find... and the last chance to preserve SEN extende scene

erri_wan, thank you very much for offering your comments about this.  I have always been fascinated with non-U.S. versions of the films I treasure.  Thanks!

I've just got confirmation from a Laserdisc collector in Italy and he says that THX on Laserdisc only exists in English NTSC (from US) and PAL (from UK). There are no Italian, German or French version of the film on Laserdisc.

So the best we can find is a tape that has not deteriorated. We can forget a high quality version of the recut.

Sorry guys, the person who told me he had a THX laserdisc perhaps didn't say that it was only in English.

Kenobius Prime said:

erri_wan, thank you very much for offering your comments about this.  I have always been fascinated with non-U.S. versions of the films I treasure.  Thanks!

Wait till you watch it subtitled then! Plenty of differences.

Partially due to Warner's plot choices, partially due to a lousy localization of the Italian dubbing team.

I've just re-checked the subtitles. I'm quite happy with the work. I also understood more of the unintelligible voices in the background (after hearing them dozens of times some made finally sense!).

Subtitling is 99.9% completed.

I noticed some localization mistakes but execpt for the "reassigned name: foetus" I didn't correct any, as per request. It's really minimal stuff anyway.

Sorry, another correction that had to be made was to this "approaching Expressway 300" dubbed as "approaching Expressway 3%" (I guess they didn't understand that it was the Expressway number 300, and not a degree of approach. Using the percentage doesn't make sense anyway)

Yes, I asked this guy only about French Italian and German laserdiscs so he didn't mention the Japanese release.

Does anyone have the UK laserdisc here?

I've downloaded free software Subtitle Workshop and it seems very easy. I've started to sync the subtitles. I'm at 30 minutes in the film. I know it was your job msycamore but I thought it would be easier if I did it, being the audio in Italian it might be harder for you to sync everything.

SilverWook, could you give me the transcription of that extended scene? So I can use it for my English subtitles for the Italian version.

At this point I suggest the following idea:

disc 1: English version of the film (without extended scene) and extended scene in English (from SilverWook grainy film) as an extra in the disc. Due to its poor quality I doubt we could add it to the laserdisc video, the difference would be imediately noticeable.

disc 2: Italian(/European?) cut as planned, subtitled in English also in the extended scene.