'The Last Emperor'

“The Last Emperor” (Criterion, 1987, Not Rated): “The Last Emperor” famously won an impressive nine Oscars, including Best Picture, so one might have assumed a director’s cut wasn’t necessarily in order. One would have been right. While a longer version of the already pretty long “The Last Emperor” did eventually surface, including extra footage filmed for TV broadcast, director Bernardo Bertolucci never blessed it as his preferred version.

Either way, both the theatrical and extended versions of this odd epic are included on Criterion’s four-disc special edition. But what’s missing is any cut of the movie in its original aspect ratio, as legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro had this new transfer cropped slightly. Sure, he did this with Bertolluci’s permission (and had previously done the same for DVD editions of “Apocalypse Now”), but any set aiming for definitive status should really forget messing around with the film’s fundamentals, especially since everything else in the set is so wonderfully packaged, produced and presented.