More Than 30 Minutes Cut from Michel Gondry's 'Mood Indigo'

As if it's somehow a brand new issue, the editing down of foreign films has become a hot button topic for cinephiles of late. Harvey Weinstein took some flack for trimming 20 minutes off Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster, and fans got riled up at the mere hint that he'd do the same to Bong Joon-Ho's Snowpiercer. And now another major international release is going under the ax, but you can't blame ol' Harvey Scissorhands for this one.

While Michel Gondry's dreamy adaptation Mood Indigo has already played at a couple of film festivals in its unedited form, Dark Horizons received notice from Australian distributor Vendetta Films that the cut released outside of France will be 36 minutes shorter. Early reviews on the film were mixed, with many noting that the over 2 hour run time was a definite issue, so maybe this is an attempt to improve it before hitting other territories. It's not clear whether this was a decision by producers or Gondry himself, but the memo does say the cut amounts to "a looser adaptation" of Boris Vian's novel and a "very different film experience".

Mood Indigo stars Romain Duris, the lovely Audrey Tautou, and Omar Sy in the story of a rich man who falls for and marries the love of his life, only to have her become ill from a water lily in the lungs. As her condition deteriorates, he spends his vast fortune keeping her surrounded by fresh flowers to treat the illness, but their relationship begins to sour nonetheless. It looks like a return to surrealist form for Gondry, at least judging by the trailers, so it won't be surprising if there are some who are up in arms over this. Of course it may not matter here in the States as the film has yet to gain distribution. Whether it ever hits our shores, hopefully we can get the complete version of it on Blu-Ray at some point.