The Way I See It: Directors’ Cuts

While the auteur theory and the concept of director as star had afforded filmmakers new power and prestige in the 1970s, the increased corporatization of film studios and financiers meant that there would be a lot more second-guessing and contractual meddling. The attendant creative drama often played out in the cutting room, but the advent of the DVD and the switchover to digital cinema have encouraged preservation and restoration of footage thought to be lost. Whether defiantly reassembling preferred versions of their work with memories still fresh or thoughtfully revisiting a project some years later, filmmakers have sought to make clear their original artistic intent—sometimes for audiences’ edification, sometimes for posterity, and/or sometimes just following their own quixotic impulses. There is always a frisson when a viewer experiences a director’s cut of a movie—especially one boasting previously unseen footage. From beloved hits to risky epics to deeply personal stories, the Quad offers you a series of films that reveal themselves to be at once as you remember them—and yet different.

Past Screenings