Discuss Was vom Tage übrig blieb
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Best scene was Deleted
posted by DroochSTAFFMOD on April 24, 2017 at 2:17 AM
Check out the final scene here (starting at 7:30) where Stevens finally comes to terms with his wasted life, in an amazing performance by Hopkins, and the meaning of the story's title becomes clear.
Hopkins couldn't believe the new screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala removed the most pivotal scene when she was brought in to write the final draft. He made the director promise to film it and reinsert it, James Ivory agreed, but cheated Hopkins in the final edit.
It's as if Jhabvala despises him, and denies him even the painful realisation of his tragic flaw, she can only see him as an irredeemable fool who repeatedly hurts Ms Kenton and never even understands why.
A baffling decision that will always keep this film just out of reach of greatness, and likely cost Hopkins a well deserved second Oscar. Nice one Ruth.
Reply by Fergoose
on May 20, 2021 at 6:01 PM
I think that deleted scene would have been horribly out of keeping with the character portrayed in the rest of the film. A man who didnt show visible emotion at
spoilers 1) the death of his father 2) being told he is a bastard by his father on his deathbed 3) having to entertain Nazis and fire jewiwh girls 4) being humiliated in public by a dinner guest who was showing the ignorance of the common man
Yet, he'd break down in the middle of nowhere, sober(?), in public, speaking to a fairly distant acquaintance. I'd probably have got very emotional at any of the four points above but would never have broken down like that.
Stevens and Kenton had a close shave. He would have been driven mad by her invading his personal and professional space and regular need to play mind games, plus it would have ruined one or both of their jobs. Whilst she would have been driven mad living with a man who had no courage of his convictions, didn't air anything he was thinking, didn't challenge evil and showed a capacity to be a complete git by pointing out her shortcomings when she is in tears (after entering her room without knocking, heaven forfend!).
An epilogue with the pair sitting in icy silence after exchanging brusque passive aggressive conversation would have in their own inevitable Cold War would have brought the dovetail with current affairs to a neat conclusion and given me a laugh.
Very decent film, but not as good as Howard's End. Like a Room With a View the central relationship struck me as somewhat unconvincing (whilst accepting that people that are attracted to each other and repressed can make a career of cutting their nose off to spite their face, and the film captured that well). They struck me as being terrified of being old and alone rather than anything more positive. Plus it was established that Stevens had a roving eye for any fair lass, undermining any suggestion of deep attraction to Kenton. In one scene he is actually gawking at a house servant whilst standing right infront of Kenton. Head over heels he was not (unlike his father).
7/10