‘The Brutalist’ is so long that it includes an intermediate of 15 minutes. And to the surprise of the director himself, people are delighted

Since we began talking about ‘The Brutalist’, Brady Corbet’s movie that It is nominated for ten Oscar And that is presented as one of the favorites to take the lists of the best of the year, all chronicles and criticism emphasized their duration, unusually long, three and a half hours. And also the even more unusual decision to be screened divided into two parts, separated by a fifteen minutes intermediate.

But why. Was the intermediate necessary? According to Corbet and his coguionist Mona Fastvold, yes. In An interview with Indie Wire They said that “he was always scripted, the intermediate. He is curious, in a way he has caught the attention of what we expected. I personally have trouble sitting still for three and a half hours, so I needed it. And it was a decision of face to the public “. And they added that “people feel at home and see between eight and sixteen hours of a limited series with small breaks, so if you apply that idea to this movie, you are zampando with a little break in the middle.”

Longer and longer movies. There is a very fashionable calculation in these times, in order to maximize the time we dedicate to leisure and that values ​​the profitability of cultural works: the longer, the more value we are giving our free time. In the video game industry, the number of hours needed to finish a game is a detail that is made public before it goes on sale. And the increasingly extensive films and series, guaranteeing the viewer that he can invest a good part of his day (or the whole day) in devouring a story. Only in that context are less and less extraordinary films such as’WICKED‘(160 minutes),’The Batman‘(176),’Oppenheimer‘(180),’ Avengers: Endgame ‘(182) … but none has intermediate. Of course, none lasts 215 minutes.

Before there were intermediate, but as you are young you don’t remember it. Decades ago the films passed several times: the change of roll in the projector demanded a pause that was soon eliminated, when the projectors arrived that did not demand to interrupt the projection for the change of roll. And then, the arrival of digital cinema was loaded with that characteristic flicker in the image and sound that the oldest of the place identified with analog cinema. That is, the intermediate of ‘The Brutalist’ is completely unnecessary (unless we have the need to go to the bathroom and stretch our legs, which is not little), and still is done. ‘The Brutalist’ also looks like a movie from another time.

A very thoughtful intermediate. The interesting thing about ‘The Brutalist’ is that it is not a cut, as was the case in old films, which happens when a film roll ends, or as it happened in some cinemas with the monstrous ‘also’The Moon Killer‘(206 minutes), when the room seemed convenient. It is a very thoughtful intermediate, which divides the film into two parts that differ in tone and style. The film is something in its first half, and after the intermediate, it is something else. The intermediate helps the viewer prepare for that change, and also reinforces the operatic quality of the film: because in the theater and opera they continue to be intermediates.

Everyone loves intermediate. This apparently inconsequential aesthetic decision has become one of the hallmarks most celebrated from the film. It is being said that it is a way of recovering cinema as a total experience, which forces us to comment on what we have seen, to consider what we expect from what remains, and see the film as more than a mere procedure of going to any room To consume passively. Along with his celebration of the mastodontic formats And his classic and precious style, ‘The Brutalist’ has become, beyond an admirable film, a cinephile party.

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