Talk:The Chess Players (film)

Running length
I checked out a copy of the Kino International DVD from the local library.

At the beginning of the film is a notice from India's Central Board of Film Censors. It says the film is 33mm gauge and 3434.18 meters long (14 reels). Date of issue 3-10-1977, date of expiry 2-10-1987. I'm guessing that's in d-m-yyyy format. IMDB reports the release date as 3 October 1977 (India). I have not done the math to translate from meters into minutes/seconds.

The DVD extras has a Production Note that states
 * The Kino DVD release of Satyajit Ray's The
 * Chess Players runs 115 minutes, which is in
 * conflict with other sources (including IMDB
 * and Vincent Canby's New York Times review)
 * that state the original or "festival" length
 * as 129 minutes.


 * Through research, Kino discovered defini-
 * tively that Ray himself cut the film to 124
 * minutes after its festival screenings in 1977.


 * Of less certainty is when additional edits
 * were made, but it is possible that, due to
 * criticism by Indian distributors in 1978, Ray
 * made further cuts.


 * Suresh Jindal, the producer of The Chess
 * Players, states with certainty that there was
 * only one cut "115 to 120 minutes long."


 * Kino is confident that this DVD represents
 * the version of The Chess Players that was
 * shown in its theatrical release in 1978.

The DVD itself has
 * 0:00:00 Kino International logo
 * 0:00:12 "Films Sans Frontières" / présente
 * 0:00:22 visa d'exploitation n&deg; 57.803
 * 0:00:25 Notice from "Central Board of Film Censors"
 * 0:00:31 Start of film
 * 1:54:01 Start of ending credits - the film continues behind the credits
 * 1:55:05 the background action freezes while the credits continue to scroll
 * 1:55:44 the last of the credits is scrolling off with about 1/4th of the screen left. A fade to black starts.
 * 1:55:46 fade to black completed
 * 1:55:48 end of film

The film on this DVD is a few seconds over 115 minutes. IMDB still reports 129 minutes. This IMDB thread talks about the length - nothing conclusive other than another company, Artificial Eye, also made a DVD and it's 115 minutes long. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 04:48, 29 April 2013 (UTC)
 * A film length issue came up for another article and so I did the math here too. 3434.18 meters translates into 125 minutes, 11 seconds. Here's the math using Excel:
 * {| class="wikitable"

! Field !! Formula !! Value
 * Frames per foot || align=right| 16 || align=right| 16
 * Frames per second || align=right| 24 || align=right| 24
 * Feet/second || =B2/B1 || align=right| 1.50
 * Meters || align=right| 3434.18 || align=right| 3,434.18
 * Feet/meter || align=right| 3.2808399 || align=right| 3.2808399
 * total feet || =B4*B5 || align=right| 11,267
 * Seconds || =B6/B3 || align=right| 7,511
 * Minutes || =B7/60 || align=right| 125.2
 * time || =B7/(24*3600) || align=right| 2:05:11
 * }
 * At least, we now have a source for 125 minutes and an explanation for why the videos we are ever likely to see are all 115 minutes. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 04:20, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
 * total feet || =B4*B5 || align=right| 11,267
 * Seconds || =B6/B3 || align=right| 7,511
 * Minutes || =B7/60 || align=right| 125.2
 * time || =B7/(24*3600) || align=right| 2:05:11
 * }
 * At least, we now have a source for 125 minutes and an explanation for why the videos we are ever likely to see are all 115 minutes. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 04:20, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
 * time || =B7/(24*3600) || align=right| 2:05:11
 * }
 * At least, we now have a source for 125 minutes and an explanation for why the videos we are ever likely to see are all 115 minutes. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 04:20, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
 * At least, we now have a source for 125 minutes and an explanation for why the videos we are ever likely to see are all 115 minutes. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 04:20, 27 June 2013 (UTC)