open with encoding(utf8) takes forever

[Erik Sandblom]

Hi,

I'm trying to open a utf-8 file with a long line, 2000 characters or
so. It works with the top method, but the second method gags when it
hits the long line:

open FILE, "gc.html";
open FILE, '<:encoding(utf8)', "gc.html";

Here is my whole script; I confess that utf-8 and I don't get along
very well:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use utf8;

open FILE, '<:encoding(utf8)', "gc.html";
while ($line = <FILE>) {
print $line;
}
close FILE;

# gc.html is http://www.greencargo.com/templates/NewsListPage.aspx?id=31
# long line is on line 56

many thanks in advance,
Erik Sandblom