Betty Blue (1986)

What editions are available?

  • Theatrical Cut (121 min.)
  • Extended Director’s Cut (185 min.)

The Academy Award nominated French drama Betty Blue, or 37°2 le matin as it’s known in France, was released in a extended director’s cut in 2005. Both the theatrical cut and the extended director’s cut are available on DVD and Blu-ray. Alex Simon with The Hollywood Interview interviewed director Jean-Jacquest Beineix in 2009 where he talked about the longer cut of Betty Blue:

“My rough cut of Betty Blue was four hours long. I had been so traumatized by the experience of doing Moon in the Gutter, which I’d recut, and recut, I just decided to play it safe and cut it down to a “reasonable” length, which would serve the action, that would make the distributors happy and allow them to have one or two extra showings per day. It’s interesting, after I did the director’s cut of Betty Blue, I approached Gaumont and said that I’d like to do the same thing with Moon in the Gutter, because I thought I could improve the movie. They said no, because they’d destroyed everything: all the doubles, the negatives, all the footage that was excised from the final cut, is now gone. That was the worst thing in my career that has happened. It enrages me sometimes when I think about it, then it goes away, then it comes back. But I’m very happy with the three-hour cut of Betty Blue that you’ll see on DVD. I think it’s much better.”

Source: Jean-Jacquest Beineix: Divas and Lions and Moons, Oh My! By Alex Simon, The Hollywood Interview

The director’s preferred edition: Extended Director’s Cut

Comparison of the editions with courtesy of Movie-Censorship.com

List of different editions with courtesy of DVDCompare.net: DVD | Blu-ray

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