Criterions “Die 120 Tage von Sodom / Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom” [I / F 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini] DVD wurde vor einiger Zeit bereits bei DVDBeaver mit anderen DVD-Veröffentlichungen verglichen.

Folgendes war in der Kritik zu lesen:

It is cleaner and smoother – damage removed but is still missing the short 25-second sequence at 0:42:24 during the first wedding ceremony, where one of the masters quotes a poem by Gottfried Benn. The sequence is intact on the Region 2 BFI DVD.

Criterion hat sich nun per “On Five”-Blog im Artikel “Because You Can Never Have Enough …” zu der angeblichen Kürzung geäußert.

He confirmed that our new HD transfer was made from an interpositive (IP) off of the original camera negative, which exists at Technicolor in Rome. An IP is usually the preferred source, especially when made from an original negative, since it’s wet-gated and contact-printed, and typically safer then using a cut original negative. Lee also confirmed that the missing scene is not in the IP.

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In this case, I first went to Roberto Chiesi, head of the Pasolini Foundation in Rome. He checked his archive and confirmed that their prints did not contain the scene.

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Next on my list was Gideon Bachmann, a close friend of Pasolini’s who was on set during the filming. He was puzzled too. And hoping to cover all bases, I got in touch with Sergio Toffetti, who worked on a special version of Salò for the Venice Film Festival in 2006 that included deleted scenes. Unfortunately, he was not familiar with the scene either.

Meanwhile, Lee touched base with James White, the technical director at the BFI, who was in Rome this summer working on a new transfer of the film for their upcoming rerelease. James used original film materials in Rome that didn’t contain the scene either. He said he didn’t know where the BFI got the print with the extra footage.