Studios push back on theaters for putting a pee break in Killers Of The Flower Moon
Indie theaters have reportedly been reminded that unofficial intermissions violate their licensing agreements for Scorsese's three-plus hour epic
Aux News Killers Of The Flower Moon
Filmmaking’s ongoing war against the human bladder continues apace this week, as THR reports that studios Apple Original Films and Paramount have pushed back on independent theaters for inserting an unofficial intermission into Martin Scorsese’s new historical epic Killers Of The Flower Moon. And while, on the one hand, it’s hard to fault the studio request that theaters not tamper with Scorsese’s vision by inserting a break he didn’t want in his movie (if nothing else, the precedent it’d set would be decidedly troubling), on the other, the film is 216 minutes, and we have to acknowledge that it can get kind of difficult, ’round about minute 200, to contemplate the ugly banality of evil and greed when half your brain is calculating how many fellow cineastes you’re going to have to shank to get to the toilets as soon as the credits roll.
It’s not clear how many theaters (all of which were reportedly independents, not chain-based)were taking it upon themselves to insert the break. THR talked to people at at least a few different movie houses that have since discontinued the practice, though, after the film’s team reminded them that unauthorized intermissions constituted a violation of the film’s licensing agreements. (One anonymous employee quoted moviegoers who enjoyed the respite, saying, “I wish we would have had it for Oppenheimer.”)
The history of the intermission is a long one, dating back to live theater , but the practice had mostly been phased out in Western film by the middle of the 1960s. (Although Wes Anderson stuck one in this year’s Asteroid City, despite the film only running a spritely 105 minutes.) They’re still a major part of movie-going in a few countries, though, notably India, where most movies have a break built-in, and a number of Hollywood films have one forcibly imposed upon them. Interestingly, it was in a conversation with the Delhi-based Hindustan Times that Scorsese addressed the length issue himself recently, remarking that, “People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours. Also, there are many people who watch theatre for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect, give cinema some respect.”
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“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours. Also, there are many people who watch theatre for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect, give cinema some respect.”And you know what I do when I watch TV for 5 hours? Pause and go pee.
Yeah, that’s a weird quote. I don’t think I’ve ever sat and watched TV without ever leaving the room, nor do I know anyone that has. At least once you’re getting up for the bathroom or a snack. Come to think of it, I can’t recall any time being somewhere for 5 straight hrs where I couldn’t go to the bathroom if I needed to. Maybe some long drives, but I’ll usually pull over somewhere. There were some long exams in college, but you know what they had after 2 to 3 hrs? PEE BREAKS. It’s totally reasonable for a long movie to have an intermission.
Scorsese seems bizarrely unaware that TV also has these things called commercials.
I think I’ve seen late night movies on network TV where they left the intermission in, even though it had commercials.It was annoying, since it was back in the day before Fast Forward, and like i said, there were already commercials.
Hello, fellow old person, as I know EXACTLY what you’re talking about. I remember even as a kid wondering why that shit was still in there when there were commercials throughout.
This! I remember seeing Lawrence of Arabia on TV one weekend and in addition to all the commercials, it had the intermission too.
Sometimes you just have to cut through the bullshit and call a spade a spade–well done.
I’ve never been to a 3.5 hour play that didn’t have at least one intermission, and many had two.
I’ve never been to a play over 2 hours that didn’t have an intermission. Theatre audiences are generally older, so they definitely have a pee break.
I think it’s a byproduct of (most) plays having natural breaks between acts–best spot for the theaters to make money, since they don’t want people coming and going while the play is going on.
Yeah, nobody watches tv 5 hours straight without a break. He’s so full of it.
Also I feel like a lot of those people are not giving the TV their undivided attention. They’re also on their phones or making dinner or something, so it’s not a great comparison.
Theater production almost always have one or sometimes two intermissions as well.
And you know what I do when I go to a 3+ hour stage performance and need to pee? I wait for the fucking intermission and go then.
Follow the link. The Scorsese quote is not in response to a question about intermissions. He was not asked about intermissions in the interview. He’s defending the decision to make a 3.5 hour theatrical release, not complaining about the issue at hand, theaters putting in a pee break. I don’t know why the quote is included in this article.
“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours…”Not without hitting pause a few times. At least most of us I’d imagine. I believe it’s not even healthy to sit that long without getting up and walking around briefly. Though admittedly I’m mostly basing this on an episode of The Office.
Reasons to hit pause on a long ass watch at home:
1. Hungry
2. Thirsty
3. Need to cook something
4. Need to order something
5. Receiving an order
6. Receiving a phone call
7. Bathroom break
8. 2nd bathroom break because you’ve been sitting there for so long
None of this can be avoided for five hours without a requirement of death or self harm.
So unless Scorsese is rich enough to afford an all access tube stuck to his body, he can go to hell with his remarks.
9. Nude scene.
10. Advancing one frame during the nude scene (repeat as necessary)
This is why my pause button is worn out
Is that what you call your willy?
damn frame lines!
You can easily avoid drinking/eating for 5 hours at home (we Jews do a 24 fast ever year). That said I’m totally on board with pausing to get up and grab and snack or drink as desired.
So basically what you’re saying is you’re only supposed to subject yourself to that torture for religious purposes.
This is exactly why I don’t like Scoreses’ comments, he’s not even a film god.
The Russo’s are.
you missed feeding or letting the dogs out 😄
wait . . . who let the dogs out?
The Baha men did 23 years ago. They have been punished ever since
YES! Sorry, my doggy passed away recently and it’s hard to process the chores I no longer have to do.
so sorry ,
He was a funny Schnauzer, he was a blessing, and that’s all we could ever deserve 🙂
Sometimes I have to pause to look up something from the show on my phone–where else have I seen that actor, what is that statue I just saw in the background, is what they just said about raccoons true, etc.
Yes! Because that it is a wonderful delight to suddenly watch an actor you were surprised to catch that you like or curious about.
Which is why TV is such an important experience itself, and I’m fairly sure Scorsese was also one of the director’s rallying against TV when it was taking viewers away from films.
Pulmonary Embolism (PE).
Oh, for fuck’s sake, just do what I did and piss yourself in the theater. It’s not like they don’t have people to clean it up!
I used to call the usher over to piss in their mouth, but you can’t do anything these days.
Name checks out. Also, if you get a big drink then I guess you could make do with that…
Your theater cleans it up?!? Fancy
see how the other half lives?
I remember Titanic had an intermission back in 1997, though that was probably unofficial.
I know ours didn’t, I remember this because as a youth I ordered the biggest damn Mountain Dew they offered and by the end that ship could not sink fast enough.
Hahaha! Water water everywhere and not a pot in sight.
Yeah ours definitely didn’t either when I saw it the first time in December 97 or again in early 98.
One of the first bar movie theaters I went to use to put them in any movie over two hours. It was great for the great but long as hell Lord of the Rings movies
Eh, I have all the respect in the world for the man and his films, but Scorsese can fuck himself on this one. Build in a goddamn intermission. If every scene of your film is so important that it has be 3.5 hours long, then your choice is either building in an intermission or expecting theatergoers to miss several minutes of your movie to relieve themselves. Your choice.
And btw, “People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours. Also, there are many people who watch theatre for 3.5 hours. There are real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that respect, give cinema some respect.” No, we don’t. Unless he’s only thinking of people in nursing homes that don’t have a choice, we have to get up now and then. I’ve never known anyone that wasn’t hooked up to an IV to watch five consecutive hours of TV without pausing or getting up at least a couple times. And I’ve seen a lot of live theater (including a bunch of Broadway productions), and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a play longer than 2 hours that didn’t involve an intermission.
Something tells me that a movie that pushes aside people of color to make white people the heroes may not exactly be the most rare and unique Hollywood ending ever.
I couldn’t even stay in my seat for all of Endgame, and that movie makes me wish that when I die, my intro to heaven is the battle scene where they all walk up to Thanos.
I haven’t seen it yet, but by all accounts–and more importantly, enough accounts, the movie doesn’t push aside the Osage people. I mean, it was his first instinct and he had to rewrite the it, but it’s not the FBI who are the leads at all…
They are not the heroes, at all. Maybe watch the film before making a scathing review
That is not an accurate description of the contents of the movie.
For fuck’s sake, get over yourself with that kind of bullshit
braindead commentary.
Something tells me that a movie that pushes aside people of color to make white people the heroes yeah, so you clearly haven’t seen the movie…
In what world does the movie make white people the hero?
Seriously! If you make a 3-hour movie, put in an intermission. Movies used to have intermissions. You’d think that a film historian like Scorsese would know this.
Movies used to have intermissions. You’d think that a film historian like Scorsese would know this.
Exactly, maybe he’s the one who should be respecting the history of cinema.
Yeah, that’s why this exists.
Yeah, the man is a fucking god when it comes to film, no doubt, but surely even he realizes that the theater model as we know it is going away, so if he wants people to watch his fucking four hour epic then maybe bend for the theaters just a bit. Especially considering has last four hour epic came straight to Netflix, and I was totally okay breaking it up over a couple of nights.
I don’t care for his films and even though Marvel films are functionally competent at best (and hence I’m far from a flag waving stan for them even when I was still watching them), I found his take on them and what he thinks cinema is and is not in general sucked (and yes I know the context of his remarks).
No! No!! “Respect the cinema!” It’s got feelings or something!
Scorsese and James Cameron seem to be fighting this imaginary battle with streaming shows (like Stranger Things) where they see younger people binging Netflix and they think that means they can make 5 hour films. It’s fascinating.
Yeah. Love Marty, and he should make movies as long as he wants. But this is simple biology. If I walk into a 3+ hour movie with a drink in hand, which most of us do, I’m not making it to the credits without needing to pee. So either put in an intermission, or I’m going to have to disrespect your art by missing a few minutes.
or we could just start pissing in the theater on the floor. And I’m speaking as someone who worked cleaning the theaters after the movies. It’s how I learned a bunch of Frozen songs. I bet people will get there early to get the back or top row seats!
lol I was gonna say he’ll need to start reimbursing the theaters for all the pee they’ll have to clean up.
Your bladder is really that small that you can’t sit somewhere for a little over three hours without going to the bathroom? That honestly baffles me.
Add in the likely lunch/dinner before the movie and a drink for during the movie?Yes. When you experience extremely long movies in the way most people do, you need to pee after a few hours.
Nope, I don’t have to immediately piss out the drink I just had. Guess I’m weird.
Considering your apparent ability to instantly absorb an entire meal, drink, and another before a showing, yeah. That’s pretty weird. Most people usually spread that out over an hour or more before and during the movie, but you do you.
?? It baffles you that some people have smaller bladders than you have? Or hell maybe they’re on the heavy day of their period and need to change a tampon every two hours? Or have incontinence issues? Or kidney issues? Or a bladder urgency problem? Or just drink a lot of water? It “baffles” you that some people might need to pee more often than you do? Are you just generally easily baffled, or…?
If your movie is 3.5 hours long odds are you can cut at least some stuff.
He sounds absolutely insane. I mean…legit insane? Who thinks like this? Theater plays have an intermission *precisely because* they want to respect the work and not have people getting up to pee at random times throughout the play. What kind of hubris is this to hold people hostage for well over three hours just to force them to “respect” your work? Is he serious? And on top of that, he wants people to see movies in theaters, but theater owners are making their money off of concessions as well, and no one’s gonna buy that Big Gulp if they aren’t going to be able to pee, so he’s screwing theaters over as well.
I haven’t seen it yet, but when I do I just KNOW that I’m going to walk out and say “it was good, but there were at least 4 scenes that could have been chopped out and the movie would have been better for it”Bring back the intermission.
As someone who can pretty easily go 8-10 waking hours without peeing, I don’t need intermissions, but I wouldn’t necessarily mind them. I certainly don’t see how independent theaters choosing to hit pause for their customers is a violation of anything. It feels like any language in the licensing agreement being used to stop this would have been written to prevent theaters from editing parts of the movie out themselves, or somehow shaving off bits to squeeze more showings in for the day. It’s one thing to bemoan people’s “disrespect” of cinema by getting up during the film, but if the ersatz solution to the problem prevents that, it seems ridiculous to then change tack and complain that stopping the film so you don’t miss anything is also disrespectful.
As someone who can pretty easily go 8-10 waking hours without peeing…That…doesn’t sound right. Are you drinking enough liquids?… Honestly, I’m concerned.
I have a very Immortan Joe outlook on water.
That dude was fucked up tho
He probably peed a lot to demonstrate conspicuous consumption. The guy owned all the water — he had to flaunt it somehow. George Miller just didn’t show those scenes.
They will cover it in the prequel
I would be much more concerned about someone having to pee every three hours…
Don’t do that, i used to and it f*cked me up.
You think you’re tough now, well, here’s a preview of what’s going to develop:
It’s going to feel like you’re peeing out Rambo’s knife, every…time.
I wish I could relate to this, as I am constantly thirsty, and after being up for a couple of hours I am constantly peeing. I may be over-hydrating, but the dangers of that are largely under-reported and I ain’t goin’ looking.
Are you diabetic? I say this because I am and I recently had a problem with extreme thirst and constant urination. When I had it checked out my glucose level was so high I was rushed to the emergency room. Once they lowered my blood sugar (which took most of a day) the initial problem went away.
I am constantly thirsty, and after being up for a couple of hours I am constantly peeing
In all seriousness, please get tested for diabetes. Those are the exact symptoms that led to me finding out I was diabetic.
I’ve been tested several times over my life and have been referred to as ‘borderline’ diabetic, but never ‘full-blown’–I get a physical every year (getting old is fun!) and so far I’m okay, but it’s always something I ask about when it comes up again. I’ve done the thirsty/constant pee thing since I was a kid. It’s not debilitating by any stretch–I CAN go hours without a drink if I have to, but most times I have at least one drink open and nearby…thank goodness I like soda water, as that’s far healthier than the sodas I used to drink (I wish I liked to drink water, but meh)
Dihydrogen monoxide is a killer!Joking aside, I’m totally with you. While it’s not always water, I’m constantly drinking something (not booze, to be clear) and I wear a pathway to the toilet as a result.I have to consciously prepare myself if I’m going to be in a situation where regular pee breaks won’t be available, like a long drive.
You have to drink a lot of water in short period of time for water toxicity (hyponatremia) to kick in. If you’re drinking throughout the day, and eating regularly, you’re probably OK.
As someone who can pretty easily go 8-10 waking hours without peeingI can except when I go to the cinema and the psychosomatic need to urinate goes into overdrive. I have to make absolutely sure everything is emptied out from my bladder (and a recent development my bowels too which is great) so that way I can tell the urge to go (which does still happen) to push off. It’s all incredibly annoying.
I’m usually pretty good about not needing to pee all the time, but give me a half-gallon of caffeinated sugar water to suck on during the show, and odds are pretty high I’m gonna need a break sooner than later.
This is me before yoga class. I drink a lot of water because I practice hot yoga, and I always pee before leaving the house, then again when I get to the studio, but as soon as I lie down my body panics again and I have to run to pee. Any time I’m in a situation where I know I won’t be able to go for a while my bladder is like oh no!
Eh, the legal side is very straightforward. You have to present it as is, and even a pause is an edit.
is that why they call you ‘Yellowfoot’?
Same. I often go the whole day without peeing, even after a coffee in the afternoon + beer at night. I guess people here have small bladders?
People here don’t have small bladders. People here have regular bladders. Yours is either exceptionally large or you are severely dehydrated. Most people pee 6-7 times a day.
Are you chronically dehydrated? What’s going on here?
To hear other people tell of it, apparently, but honestly I’ve tried “regular” hydration, maybe somewhere in the realm of 8 cups a day (I probably drink half that if I’m not focusing on it) and probably went a little more but still didn’t find myself desperate every couple hours. And I didn’t feel significantly better either. But while I don’t make a point of holding it as long as I can, I can safely say 8-10 hours because I’ve definitely worked thousands of regular shifts at those hours, and many times just never bothered to go between when I woke up right before work, and when I got home. It wasn’t a conscious thought or a habit, and most days I would go at least once, but it wasn’t a rare occurrence if I didn’t.I really just think most people train their bodies to have limits they think are right. Most people I’ve asked can’t even hold their breath for a full minute, and even as a child I could hold it for 2-3 minutes. The reaction to a “full” bladder is probably not that unlike that of a body being deprived of oxygen, and I think a lot of people learn to misinterpret signals that are “first notice” as “final warning” and panic. Do it often enough and you train your body to give in earlier than it technically needs to. The same sort of psychological effect that “breaking the seal” has when drunk.
I mean…I guess all that’s fine if it works for you (and you have discussed with your doctor because it really seems like it can’t be good for the kidneys), but it’s interesting to me that you phrase it as “the body giving in,” like it’s a weakness to have to pee. I don’t feel like it’s an emergency when I get the signal to go. I just go because why the heck not? They don’t give out prizes for holding your pee the longest. The other poster is giving that same vibe.
Well, I just mean it in the sense that you’re not necessarily doing your body any favors if you learn to hold your breath for 10 minutes, but if you do so, there’s a lot less panic going on in your head when you hit minute three, even though most people would have long since given up by then. I didn’t set out to learn how to hold my bladder for a long time, but since I have, I can feel a sense of urgency that might have some people scurrying, and know that I can still last hours yet if I need to for some reason. Of course, we’re discussing one example of the benefits of that, but for the most part you’re right that there’s very little reason to do so. If my prize is that I can watch four hour movies in the theater without sweating it, I’m glad to have it, but I’m not trying to brag about my super bladder. I also get lost easily and can’t keep track of time, so swings and roundabouts I guess.
Maybe Scorsese also has trained his bladder in this way and that’s why he doesn’t think he sounds unreasonable. lol
Where can you see a three hour theatre performance that doesn’t have an intermission? Who sits in front of the TV for five hours without a pee break?It’s a real shame that old age dementia appears to have turned Marty Scorsese into a rambling imbecile. (If that’s not it and he’s just like that, he should go fuck himself.)
If you read the original interview where AV Club pulled the quote from, you’ll see that Scorsese is not complaining about intermissions. Intermissions are never brought up. He is answering a question about whether Killers of the Flower Moon should have been released in theaters at all because of the length. The article presents this quote like it bears directly on the topic at hand, but it doesn’t.
Just give me an empty drink cup and I’ll be fine. Maybe two.
Here’s a great story that includes Lawrence Tierney peeing in a cup in a crowded theater:https://www.eddiemuller.com/tierney.htmlSoon Tierney whispered, with urgency: “Do me a favor, will ya? Go get me a cup.”“A cup of what?” I asked, confused. “Just a cup,” Tierney implored, “An empty cup.”I returned a minute later with a jumbo-sized plastic Prince of Egypt soda cup. Without a moment’s hesitation, Tierney stood up, dropped his trousers, and dispensed a jetstream into the capacious Dreamworks souvenir. I wished Spielberg-Katzenberg-Geffen could have been there. Never has a piece of shoddy, superfluous mass merchandising been put to such immediate and beneficial use. Of course, Tierney’s relief did not go unnoticed. Even to uninitiated ears, the sound of a man pissing in a plastic cup isn’t easily mistaken for anything else. Yet one woman in the row before us, for some unfathomable reason, required visual confirmation.“What the fuck are you lookin’ at” Tierney groused at the saucer-eyed spectator. “You never seen a cock before?” Sufficiently chastened, the woman redirected her gaze to the screen.
That story is a bit of a disappointment, because given the Dreamworks mention, I was dearly hoping he was in a screening of Shrek that he just couldn’t bear the idea of missing a few minutes of.
I missed Lawrence in the first sentence, so when I started reading the story, until I got to “dropped his trousers”, I was picturing Gene Tierney asking for the cup.Now that’d be a story.
Tierney was a fucking piece of work. Thankfully he didn’t ask for a pack of cigarettes and a short length of hose.
Indecent exposure and making your friend miss several minutes of the movie. Also verbally harrassing a woman.
Haha classic Tierney!
After I looked him up it sure seems that way!
Maybe I’m misinterpreting your reply but like… did you somehow get the impression I was condoning his behavior?
Absolutely not. It’s an interesting story; I just responded to the information in it. I couldn’t resist Googling the guy after reading your comment since I’d never heard of him. It sounds like something he’d do – insist his friend miss bits of the movie so that he wouldn’t. :O
Lawrence Tierney played Elaine Benes’s dad in Seinfeld. He only appeared once because the cast were anything from uneasy around him to straight up scared of him. Also played the person who put the heist together for Reservoir Dogs.
Gotcha. Yeah he was a real maniac. I assume you read how he stole a knife off the Seinfeld set for some reason and put it in his pocket. He really freaked them out.
Tierney really was out there like a real life Quentin Tarantino character. Although QT wasn’t amused when he cast him in Reservoir Dogs and filming had to be paused after Tierney was jailed after drunkenly shooting at his (Tierney’s) nephew and eventually even QT had to fire him.
More like Tierney created the “character” and Tarantino appropriated it for his work
“Can I get an extra jumbo tankard of tonic and an extra extra jumbo tankard, please? No, just put the soda in one.”
I saw one of the Transformers movies in India and an intermission was jammed in the middle. First sound cut out mid conversation then it just stopped like a VHS tape. I thought the tape was broken but then we were informed to go buy some snacks.The intermission is totally due for a comeback. All the Australian cinemas have allocated seating and digital projectors so it’s hardly a difficult ask these days to facilitate. Assuming most western cinemas are similar.
Pretty much is standard in the US. I’m actually surprised when I hear people complain about assigned seating. Along with being able to get a beer at pretty much any theater now, it’s the best thing to happen to movie theaters
I’m just going to assume American theatres want to extact every single cent from customers because, for the sake of intermissions, they lose running time for the whole day’s movie playing line up. Move them in and move them out.We aren’t even paying for convenience anymore.
I appreciated the intermission in the 70mm roadshow screening of The Hateful Eight and that was almost 30 minutes shorter.
This has nothing to do with artistic vision and about getting the most show times
Eh, they’re already losing 1-2 showings per day due to the extended runtime. I don’t think a brief intermission would cause them to drop another showing.
Easy to say for an octogenarian but those of us who don’t have to wear Depends prefer not to start just to watch an entire movie.
Those things are just for bladder leaks. They cannot handle a loaded bladder. You wouldn’t believe how many times I had to change my diaper during Endgame.
What about those diapers that that crazy astronaut lady wore to haul ass across the country so she could attack her ex’s girlfriend?
Yeah.I totally should have worn those to Endgame.
Wtf, what a retarded practice. They’re seriously mad about the intermission? Is Scorcese trolling?
I fully support intermissions, for all kinds of things.
I recently saw Tool, who I remind you have a long show with a lot of long songs. Since they kind of don’t bother with the usual rock show pageantry of an encore, they just put in a proper intermission before the final songs (which, combined, usually take half an hour). The band walked off stage, a little timer came up on the big screen, everyone got a chance to pee or get a fresh beer, and they were back in their seats by the time the clock ran out.
As for movies, I remember sincerely struggling when I saw The Batman last year. And bear in mind, I really liked The Batman. But simple fact, I don’t wanna sit in a movie theater for three hours.
That’s actually pretty awesome. A lot of time intermissions are just done at the half way point which means for those with smaller bladders or other issues by the end they are itching to go again and may not enjoy it as much. A pre third act/last song intermissions is a great idea
Rush kind of did a halfway thing in their later years, since they also stopped bothering with opening acts and encores. They’d play the first set (of about 12 songs or so), take a break, play the second set/finale, and show’s over.
just get up and go the bathroom when you have to go
I do. Thank god for the pause button. Thanks Hollywood, for giving me a great reason not to watch a movie in the theater!
So what are theaters supposed to do, then? Replace the seats with toilets?
Give the ushers buckets and turn them into piss-boys, I guess.
no-no, it’s not a Mel Brooks movie, .. it’s a Scorsese… not as entertaining..
Trucker bottles
NOW we got an Idea Man here!
I mean, they’ve already replaced the standard seating with recliners in many theaters, so it’s not out of the question.
I’ve been in some theaters that felt like a toliet
The thing is, even back in the heyday of the Hollywood epic, intermissions were comparatively rare. You had them during initial roadshow releases, when the film would play in top tier theaters in major markets, often with reserve seating and ticket prices at a premium. These high prices compensated for the loss of a screening time due to the accumulation of three or four intermissions over the course of a day.But when the movie went into wider, “general release” in secondary markets at reduced ticket prices, the intermission was often removed, and the film itself frequently trimmed down, precisely so the studio could fit in another screening. This is why so many of the epic length pictures of the 50s and 60s subsequently needed reconstructing by archivists, because they were so often altered. Even Lawrence of Arabia was pretty drastically cut down. It was just understood that long films would as a matter of their shelf life, be reduced in duration, and often times, the director would participate. The TL;DR of it is, there has never been an ideal solution. The studios want to maximize their revenues, and either you shorten the film, or you increase the ticket prices.Personally, I favor the latter. I’d be happy to pay more, if I knew I was getting a premium experience, complete with intermission, overture, etc. That’s what worked well with Oppenheimer, which essentially mirrored this roadshow method by offering a premium film experience at a premium ticket price.
The only general release film I recall seeing that had an intermission was Gandhi in 1982.
Our local theater had an intermission for The Return of the King, but that’s the only one I can think of.
Good lord, facts and common sense. Shouldn’t you be shrieking at Scorsese for something he never said?
I reserve my internet vitriol and rage for up-and-coming actors and filmmakers who have the audacity to make a super hero movie for money.
I’m old and intermissions are rare. You go take a piss, miss maybe 3-5 minutes of a film, and you live with that burden. ffs
I had to get up in the middle of The Irishman for a pee break (incidentally, I later fast-forwarded through it on Netflix to see what I missed; not much!), but I’m very proud of myself for making it through Killers without the same compromise. Unfortunately I overestimated how long the trailers would last and missed the first minute or so of the movie. What a waste.
opened with the Osage.Still processing the movie, the trial felt disconnected, and Ernest being played for gags wasn’t as effective as I think Scorsese thought. Mostly didn’t love the choice of putting the violence of the Osage women on screen, easily could have just done the image of their bodies prepared for burial, didn’t need the visual of them being brutalized.
My last pee emergency was Knives Out. I can usually go 2 hours and 10 minutes just fine, but I foolishly didn’t empty my bladder beforehand and it’s really not a movie you want to miss any part of, so the last 20 minutes were excruciating. I rocketed out of the theater as soon as the screen faded to black, which is a shame because I missed those cool Clue-inspired end credits.
I’ve adopted a policy of standing outside the theatre door until the trailers are over. I don’t suppose it’s for eveyone, but I can’t sit through all of that (and the audio is on max).
I do think we should have intermissions, I think it’s a nice way to signal to people that we’ve hit the midpoint, it gives them a chance to stretch their legs and decompress for a few moments before going back into the movie.But at the same time, you guys have some seriously weak bladders if you actually can’t go three hours without taking a leak. I went to the bathroom right before Flower Moon, and I was perfectly fine. Admittedly, I didn’t have a drink during the movie, but it really isn’t that hard. Same went for Oppenheimer and Avatar 2 (both of which I went to see twice).
When people race back from the restroom and then require a detailed summary of what they missed from their friends and, no, having to listen to that isn’t a distraction. Not at all.
(if nothing else, the precedent it’d set would be decidedly troubling),Naw, the precedent it set would not be troubling at all
Not everyone has the same bladder nor the same response to biological triggers. What the hell is the decidedly troubling precedent? Allow independent theatres and chains to insert pee breaks at their discretion, slippery slope to removing all sex, adult language, independent thought? Is the road to Nineteen Eighty-Four paved with uncontrolled potty breaks?
Considering how the flick has basically shot its wad at the box office:https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl629703425/The studio is making a big deal out of nothing…it’s done in the theaters.
So I saw “The Insider” in a country that could care less about licensing agreements. And when the (wholly unauthorized) intermission came around, my friend looked at me and said, “Damn, I need a cigarette.”
The first (and only) movie I’ve been to with an intermission was a 70mm screening of The Hateful Eight and it was a revelation to be able to stand up, stretch my legs and go for a wee. I don’t understand why it’s not simply the done thing for longer films.
Why are we comparing sitting at home where I can pause whenever I want and the theater where I have no control? And does Scorsese sit in one spot for 5 hours? If he has to pee does he just keep sitting there? Did he make Homer Simpsons toilet recliner? None of this makes the slightest bit of sense. If my choices are pause and go pee or hold it for 2 hours for no reason, I’m going pee. And probably getting a snack.
What a fucking prick.
Him and James Cameron love using Netflix binges to justify their need to create superlong movies lol
I will pee after my nap durning a 3.6 hr Scorsese movie.
Love Scorsese and really want to see this in theaters, but the length with no breaks is a bit much. I’m not adverse to long movies. For example, I’ve seen Satantango twice in theaters, but there were pee breaks about every 1.5-2 hours. Also, the comparison to theater is pretty ridiculous. When Angels in America was last on Broadway, each of the two plays were about as long as Killers of the Flower Moon. If you saw it all in one go on a weekend matinee, they provided two intermissions for each play and a longer dinner break in between the plays themselves.To be fair, part of the problem with the rogue intermissions is that it disrupts the flow of the editing carefully designed by Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker. On the other hand, if he planned on making a movie 3.5 hours long, he should have planned on coming up with a good place to add an intermission.
Also, there are many people who watch theatre for 3.5 hours. There are
real actors on stage, you can’t get up and walk around. You give it that
respect, give cinema some respect.The great thing about cinema is that it’s not the same thing as live theatre, and thus not beholden to the same limitations!There are many people who can run marathons. Is he gonna demand that I “respect” his next movie by watching it while running on a treadmill? For all the handwringing about the death of the cinema experience, I find it very weird that these same guys want to turn movies into some kind of endurance test. One of the many reasons I prefer home viewing is I can just pee whenever I want and not miss anything. Depending on the room, I can actually sit on the toilet and still watch the movie at the same time!
Seriously, I don’t miss the ‘big screen’. Plenty of people have enormous home tv screens. I don’t miss the crowds either.
‘”Interestingly, it was in a conversation with the Delhi-based that Scorsese addressed the length issue himself recently, remarking that, “People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours…“’Um, Marty? The thing about TV is that it’s got commercial breaks built into it which allow people to get up and guess what? Use the restroom. So by your own logic you should have intermissions built into your movie if not at least one intermission. And as far as streaming is concerned you can pause at any given point of time likewise with on demand viewing.
“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours.”Now you’re just being stupid, Marty.
“if nothing else, the precedent it’d set would be decidedly troubling”Would it? Troubling?“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours.”Who do you know who sits in front of the TV for five hours and never gets up to pee, Martin?“Also, there are many people who watch theatre for 3.5 hours.”THEATER HAS INTERMISSION. Sometimes two! Has he never been to a play?