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Lost scenes
The
Cathedral
Larry whisks Isabel off on his motorcycle to show her the sights and sounds of Paris.
There was an interesting scene that was cut from the finished film, in which Larry takes Isabel to a cathedral to witness a well documented phenomenon that draws visitors from all over the world.
John Byrum says:
"There is a sequence I cut that I have regretted cutting for years. The film was just running too long, and at the time I didn't think the scene advanced the plot, but it was one that Bill was adamant about shooting.
It's just him and Catherine Hicks, strolling through a large church (supposedly Paris, but we shot it in a real church in England). He talked about how his quest for God had filled him with ideas, how they'd inspired him. He pretty much improvised the whole speech, which he gave while he and cathy walked through this cathedral.
It was an enormous shot to light and shoot, it took all day, and every take was different, improvised by Bill, as though he were doing improv at Second City or Saturday Night Live, which is the kind of acting he's always done best. As our film was a huge flop anyway, I've always regretted cutting the scene. Bill loved it, it was kind of weird, and one of the great things about a flop is you couldn't have saved the movie anyway, why not say and do whatever felt important to you when you shot it."
53 INSIDE THE CATHEDRAL
Larry is pacing off steps on the massive stone floor. Isabel watches him, perplexed. His eyes are wild and shining. A small group of MONKS and PEASANT PILGRIMS are gathering near the spot that Larry walks.
LARRY
Okay -- 1700 by 240. Two to one, twenty-one, the mythical Golden Mean.
The Golden Rule. From the transept to the radial of the transept, due
Northeast.
(counts)
One, two, three, four, five.
He stops over a small piece of lead imbedded in the floor. High above it towers a huge rose-colored window. Larry points, rattling off words with an enthusiasm so manic it is frightening.
LARRY
Now, you see that? The same guys who built that window, that window
and this arch put that little piece of lead in that piece of stone on
the floor. And they knew seven hundred years ago that on this day of
the year, the summer equinox, at exactly 1:21 P.M. --which it will be
in thirty seconds -- the sun, at the furthest point in its revolution
around the earth, will shine through a hole in that window up there
and hit the piece of lead.
It will happen one year from today, fifty years from today and it should happen five hundred years from now, they seem to be keeping up the joint.
Before Isabel can say a word, the sunlight breaks through the window in a single pink shaft. It bathes the lead in a little pool of light. The monks and some of the pilgrims kneel in prayer. Isabel looks at Larry. He is standing perfectly still, but he is buzzing.
Larry looks at her.
LARRY
Isabel, think about it! Just think about it! That twenty ton window
hangs up there with no understandable means of support. This arch holds
up a roof that is heavier than the walls. This ain't the Army Corps
of Engineers. The bozos who slapped this place together are the same
people who managed to build the Mont St. Michel in the middle of a riptide!
Their ancestors came hundreds of miles on donkeys to a cave two hundred
feet beneath that alter to worship a statue of a black virgin a thousand
years before this church was built. They knew something I want to know
what they know, and they know I want to know what They know!
He is so excited he is shouting. The monks and pilgrims are staring at him. Isabel looks at them, embarrassed. Larry turns to them. The peasants laugh at the wild American. He laughs back and turns to Isabel. She alone is not laughing. It has finally occurred to her to become scared.