Woman of the Dunes revised

I have seen bootlegs of the "extended" version for sale on ebay, but I am glad I held off from buying. The British Film Institute has recently issued the 141 minute letterboxed version of this fine 1964 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara. This supplants the 123 minute widescreen version that was on Image Entertainment, now out of print. This movie won the Special Jury prize at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for a couple of Academy Awards, so when it was released, it was recognized as a great film. The movie is about a teacher who while out on a trip, misses the last bus home, and is offered shelter by the local villagers. It so happens they live in a valley where the only access to it is by climbing down a rope ladder. He spends the night at a woman's house, and the following morning discovers that the rope ladder is gone and there is no way out. Plus, the valley is more like a sand pit, where the woman's house is under constant danger of being run over. He ends up helping the woman remove the sand, but it keeps on coming, no matter how much they remove during the day. The hopelessness of their situation draws them closer and they become lovers, though the teacher becomes obsessed with escaping this pit. The movie is gorgeous - black and white, full of minimal and abstract images of the shapeshifting land, closeups of the lovers deep in passion, the darkness and feeling that they are below the earth. Music was done by Toru Takemitsu, a celebrated film composer, who accentuated this otherworldliness. BFI dvds are of high quality, like Criterion, and this is a must buy. I will report on what has been added, as I have the Image dvd.