their last encounter. In the longer cut, Tyvian sits down and imme­ diately quits the game without playing, yet later dialogue indi­ cates he has just lost. This dis­ tracts us when it should be setting us up for the next, most important sequence. 3) The most vital omission:
the lengthy shot of Tyvian and Eva docking at his pier, where he cuts his hand, she laughs, he strikes her, and she rises angrily and says only her husband can do that. Then they go inside. The loss of this shot from the
“director’s cut” is crucial because it explains the film’s climax. Now we understand clearly why Eva is cold when Tyvian tries to make small talk (even though she’s suddenly in his house), why she orders him not to come near her, and why he meekly accepts this invasion of his bedroom. Then Francesca returns and the rest
is fate. In other words, we know Eva came to the house expect­ ing to sleep with him, but the mood was spoiled and he be­ came penitent. Without this shot, the rest of the sequence is an unmotivated series of irrational events between an inscrutable femme fatale and wimpy lover; the sort of thing that might serve a misogynist reading of Eva but not a complex, believable one. Eva is not a siren-cipher leading our hero to his doom. She’s what he can’t handle: an independent woman who sees through him. 4) The shorter version also
clarifies the final scene and its relation to the beginning, thanks to the shot of Branco reminding Tyvian that it’s been two years since Francesca died, which ex­ plains his earliest remarks about “why we’re here.” Ty- vian’s response (“She’s dead, isn’t she? Does she need a
wreath?” ) echoes Eva’s earlier remarks to him about his brother; he has moved toward adopting Eva’s hardness. This shot is a much more sensible inclusion than what the longer version inserts in its place: a bit of dry comic dialogue between the McCormicks, who don’t seem to know that Tyvian is around. However, the longer cut does add a gratuitous shot of Branco glow­ ering and retreating without a word after Eva says “Bloody Welshman!” Since the audience of this version had no idea of Branco’s presence, and since we might have been expecting a reaction shot from Tyvian in­ stead, this is a confusing de­ tail. Evidently he came with the McCormicks, who now seem to be here for no reason, and the audience doesn’t need to be fig­ uring out this puzzle in the film’s final moments.
Reporter Edward J. Malone (Lloyd Hughes) hammers out his daily report in THE LOST WORLD.
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