There have been reports of some movie theatres inserting an intermission into screenings of Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.” This seems to have angered Scorsese’s editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
In an interview with The Standard, Schoonmaker calls the insertion of an intermission at some screenings a “violation,” going as far as to mention that she’s looking into the theaters who are doing this.
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.
I’ve never been a fan of intermissions — they could easily disrupt the flow and momentum of a film. If I were you, I’d stay far away from any theater that has an intermission for ‘Killers.’ The film should be seen from beginning to end, uninterrupted.
Schoonmaker has edited every Scorsese film since 1980’s “Raging Bull,” which is also considered one of the best edited films of all-time. So, she knows all about Scorsese’s lengthy projects , having been a part of 3-hour epics (or close to it) such as “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “The Irishman,” “Casino,” “Gangs of New York” and “The Aviator.”
In a recent interview, Scorsese defended the length of “Killers of the Flower Moon,” saying “People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours.”
He added, “also, there are many people who watch theater 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.”
I thought ‘Killers’ felt like a 2-hour movie. It zipped by, thanks to Schoonmaker’s excellent editing. She deserves another Oscar for her work in this film. Schoonmaker is unquestionably one of the great editors of cinema.