Thelma Schoonmaker is speaking out against theaters inserting intermissions into Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon.
According to a recent article by Variety, multiple theaters in both Europe and the United States have added their own intermission into Killers of the Flower Moon, a 206-minute-long epic released on October 20, 2023, that is directed and co-written by Scorsese.
Variety’s article states that at least two European cinema chains, UCI Cinemas and The Vue, and a handful of independent theaters (The Lyric, in Fort Collins, Colorado, and The Movies Haarlemmerdijk in Amsterdam) were offering showings of Killers of the Flower Moon with an intermission partway through the film.
Apple and Paramount Pictures have begun to reach out to theaters inserting an intermission into Killers of the Flower Moon to tell them they’re violating their contract, with some of these venues having since removed the infused break as a result.
Thelma Schoonmaker speaks out against Killers of the Flower Moon intermissions
Schoonmaker, who has collaborated with Scorsese on many films and edited Killers of the Flower Moon, told The Standard, “I understand that somebody’s running it with an intermission which is not right. That’s a violation so I have to find out about it.”
Scorsese hasn’t specifically addressed the situation regarding inserted intermissions in public; however, he’s defended the film’s 3.5-hour runtime in past interviews. He told the Hindustan Times, “Killers could play on a small screen, but in order to truly immerse yourself, you should take out the time. 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.”
Killers of the Flower Moon — which stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone, and Robert De Niro — is currently playing in theaters.
