We are all curious to see how Ari Aster’s three-hour director’s cut of “Midsommar” will look like. If you’ve been reading this site you would know about my theory that an additional 30 extra minutes of footage may very well improve Aster’s movie , which, it’s no secret, had tonal and narrative inconsistencies which were ignored by many as just being part of the puzzlingly surreal disjointedness of the film. I think a lot of what’s in “Midsommar” is excellent, but it is a completely shapeless movie.
This year’s 12th edition of the Scary Movies festival at Film at Lincoln Center will feature the world premiere of Aster’s extended version of “Midsommar.” Clocking in at nearly three-hours, the extended version will be shown for the first time ever on August 17.
Aster had announced that his polarizing horror-drama-comedy would have a director’s cut which would include 30 minutes of additional new footage [via Reddit AMA]. “Working on extended cut now,” Aster confirmed on Reddit. “Won’t be 1 hour and 20 minutes longer, but will be at least 30 minutes longer.”The theatrical cut clocked in at 147-minutes — A 177 minute cut of “Midsommar” is more than welcome, hell, I would even bet, it could potentially be the better movie.
Aster had also mentioned in the past that a few of his favorite scenes went to the cutting room floor: “There were a lot of scenes that were cut, and probably a few that helped illustrate she was losing her grip on her sanity, which you hopefully still see.” [via USA Today].