egafd.com

I know/hope someone here is likely to know the answer to this so here goes.....

As a big movie fan i picked up a copy several years ago of Leonard Maltins movie guide and subsequently the equally brilliant moviehound guide. What i noticed is that 99.9 % of movies in the states are quoted as having runtimes exactly five minutes longer than their euro counterparts - this despite the fact that having studied melonfarmers and other cuts resources etc i can for the most part find no reason for this - i.e. the US and Euro versions should be the same. I do remember reading somewhere that US runtimes will always be five minutes longer but rather unhelpfully no reason was given for this. Interesetingly/confusingly the same phenomena doesnt always necessarily seem to apply to porn releases. Help!!!

I always thought this was due to the NTSC & Pal issues.
Running at different frame rates etc.

Perhaps I'm wrong.

Do you mean "exactly" 5 mins. The PAL/NTSC difference would depend on the actual length of each movie and would be bigger if the film was longer. Are the running times given for Cinema or TV anyway.

Mart

As an example look at the folowing info from melonfarmers on 8mm:-

1999 US thriller film by Joel Schumacher
The film was heavily cut in the US to gain an R rating. No further cuts were required by the BBFC for the UK release.

Joel Schumacher's audio commentary on the DVD makes some fascinating observations with asides to censor cuts all over the place. Seems the MPAA really butchered the film and yet Schumacher ends up defending the censors.

Sex throughout was toned down. Eg background sexual activity was trimmed under the no more than two buttock-thrusts rule.
A lot of the conversation between Phoenix and Cage was removed because a bank of TV monitors in the background were showing hardcore.
Sequences in the underground sex club were trimmed to remove shots of enema porn
Machine's cutting of Phoenix's throat suffered the wrath of the censors.

Despite this the UK film runs at 1:58 as opposed to 2:03 in the US i am inclined to agree with Holden - format diffs would depend upon total run times and would vary accordingly.

cinema version by Columbia Tristar Films (UK) =123m 8s 03/16/1999
(2hr 3mins 8s)


video 07/28/1999 Columbia/Tri-Star Home Video 118m 9s
(1hr 58mins 9s)
'When a film is transferred to video the running time will be shorter by approximately 4% due to the differing number of frames per second'

Yes mate I have noticed something similar, for example look at Texas Chainsaw Massacre which is now supposed to have been passed completely uncut by the BBFC. But the site says the USA version Is a "few" minutes longer? Maybe It Is to do with trailers and legal notices? I have noticed that at the end of the USA Weakest Link there Is loads of legal crap that appears, whilst the British version has hardly any. That argument would make sense In the most litigious country on Earth. Also If It Is to do with the formats then does this count for the same with DVDS, which Is what I have been looking at? Peace....

i.e. 25 f.p.s. rather than 24 f.p.s.
Difference 1 f.p.s as %age is 1/24X100 = 100/24 = 4.1666...

OK, nobody likes a smart-arse.

Mart