Jeanne Dielman (to intermission or not?)

[Ryan Gallagher]

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

This one seems constantly debated. Anyone know if original theatrical release ever had an intermission?

Janus Films
Runtime: 3h21m51
Packaged as a single DCP:

Via Deluxe:
JeanneDielman_FTR-1_F-166_FR-en_INT_10_2K_JAN_20221221_DLX_IOP_OV
UUID: a17db95e-a833-4b96-8b97-1d01be14df11

STUDIO: Janus Films
RUN TIME: 03:21:51
CREDIT START TIMECODE: 03:20:11
CRAWL START TIMECODE: N/A
TOTAL PACKAGE SIZE: 245 GB
IMAGE FORMATS: 2D 2K Flat
AUDIO FORMATS: 1.0 Mono

I get the sense that HollywoodHalfTime is lying to me and referencing the VHS breakpoint. It is kinda supposed to be a brutally monotonous film to watch? But the rest of the internet is not much help, and intermissions may have been more popular in 1975. Apparently it's been done both ways since then.

I did find a UK venue that is presenting with Intermission (intended or not):
https://www.electricpalacecinema.com...erce-bruxelles

Deluxe dropped the ball on this delivery, it got overnighted today, with luck I'll have time to look for a hard-locked intermission before showing it... but I'm only expecting to find the blue card that says "End of Day 2" at that point, and no hard coded intermission, to match the Criterion Blu-Ray which we grabbed today as the emergency backup.

How have others done it? Or rather what is closer to the intended presentation?

[Marcel Birgelen]

Intermissions seem to be sort-of taboo in the United States, ever since the big roadshow presentations disappeared.

It's quite common to have an intermission in about every movie in quite a few places around the world, but it's often a regional thing. In the UK, it seems to be more of a rural thing, I've not seen it done in London for example, at least not if it wasn't already in the movie. In the Netherlands, if you go to a cinema outside of the big cities, it's also quite common to have an intermission in almost every movie. In Belgium, it seems to be a regional thing confined to the province of Limburg. Indian theaters also seem to put intermissions in almost all movies, including movies that have none, like most western movies. In Turkey, most cinemas also seem to put in an intermission. In Germany, it's only common in very long movies, even if it doesn't have an official intermission. I've not found any official data source, so this is all based on my own observations.

The last movie I viewed that had an intentional intermission was The Brutalist and I can tell you, that one really was a welcome one. I'd say that a movie with a runtime of 3h21 really would warrant an intermission... Maybe the studio and filmmaker doesn't want you to put in an intermission, but I'd say there are limits, both technically and mentally...

If they really want people to sit through 3.5 hours of movie in one stint, maybe the filmmaker should sponsor free diapers...

[Mark Ogden]

The one time I saw Jeanne Dielman in a cinema there was no intermission. But it is a very very slow moving film, where there are a lot of extended takes of the lead character just puttering around the kitchen, sitting and having a cup of tea, that sort of thing. A person could get up and go to the pot or visit the concession stand and not miss much at all. In fact, I would say that if you were to insert some sort of intermission, you'd probably find a lot of people leaving. This is not an exciting picture.

[Ryan Gallagher]

The one time I saw Jeanne Dielman in a cinema there was no intermission. But it is a very very slow moving film, where there are a lot of extended takes of the lead character just puttering around the kitchen, sitting and having a cup of tea, that sort of thing. A person could get up and go to the pot or visit the concession stand and not miss much at all. In fact, I would say that if you were to insert some sort of intermission, you'd probably find a lot of people leaving. This is not an exciting picture.

Haha yeah. The film programmer and my TD are both inclined not to insert one. I’m coming around to it, soundtrack is basically enhanced field recording, if that “experience” includes the mundane noises of people in the lobby or getting up to hit the can, it’s just more field recordings! Lol

I’m even gonna make those that arrive early sit in a music free room and just listen to their own noises, except for one 4’33 piano tribute to John Cage that will serve as the “we are getting close” surprise.

Our historic seats are not that butt friendly either, this is going to be uncomfortable on so many fronts.

That is unless I get the DCP in time and find a hard coded intermission.

[Jim Cassedy]

We ran that here about a month ago, without an intermission. I don't
recall there being a hard-coded intermission in the DCP we got. I wasn't
there the day it actually played, so I don't know what audience reaction was.

[Ed Gordon]

I found these remarks in a Reddit post:

That said, folks watch movies differently, so I don't think there's any shame in taking breaks if that's what you need to get through the movie and you're enjoying it otherwise. If you're going to take a break and you want my recommendation: I'd suggest doing so at the title card for "fin du premier jour" (end of the first day). The majority of the film is still ahead of you at that point (I'm being deliberately vague about timing, since relieving the anticipation would in some ways be an experiential spoiler), but by that point, you should have a good idea of whether you're jiving with the movie, and watching the rest of the film in one go will still allow you to experience the full force of the repetition and variation.

Jeanne Dielman is definitely the type of movie to watch in one sitting. As intimidating as that may sound, the film itself is very rhythmic and after the first 30 minutes, you will get sucked into its style and it will actually go by pretty fast. Like many slower filmmakers (Tarr, Weerasethakul, Reichardt), Akerman's films take some getting used to as they force you to literally watch movies differently, but once you're in you're in and it's an incredible experience.

If this may inspire you at all: if memory serves me correctly, there is an intermission around the half-way point.

Dielman does not have an intermission, afaik. The 35mm print I saw did not have one, and I've never read mention of one... Maybe you're thinking of the day-marking intertitles?

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/c...lman_any_tips/

[Ryan Gallagher]

Clear as mud. LOL. I don't think it had an intended one, but in various European theatres it was probably shown with one (and is still being shown with one apparently in many places).

[Ryan Gallagher]

We ran that here about a month ago, without an intermission. I don't
recall there being a hard-coded intermission in the DCP we got. I wasn't
there the day it actually played, so I don't know what audience reaction was.

Thanks, we got the CRU in time, about to jump to that 2 hour mark and find out!

Edit: nothing there except the day change cards that were expected. Marathon it is.

[Leo Enticknap]

If you think Jeanne Dielman is a barrel of laughs (I remember having that inflicted on me as a student in the early '90s, and it's not a pleasant memory), please feel grateful that you have not been called upon to project all 22 reels of Frederick Wiseman's Near Death. I kid you not: it's an almost six hour long, fly-on-the-wall documentary about people dying of cancer in a hospital. I actually admire many of Wiseman's movies (especially Model and Missile), but this was just well and truly too much. One of my co-workers dared me to play Another One Bites the Dust for the walkout music, and I was sorely tempted (but in the end wussed out).

[Ryan Gallagher]

If you think Jeanne Dielman is a barrel of laughs (I remember having that inflicted on me as a student in the early '90s, and it's not a pleasant memory), please feel grateful that you have not been called upon to project all 22 reels of Frederick Wiseman's Near Death. I kid you not: it's an almost six hour long, fly-on-the-wall documentary about people dying of cancer in a hospital. I actually admire many of Wiseman's movies (especially Model and Missile), but this was just well and truly too much. One of my co-workers dared me to play Another One Bites the Dust for the walkout music, and I was sorely tempted (but in the end wussed out).

Oh for sure, i'm very thankful this is a DCP. I was speculating maybe 11 or 12 reels if it was 35mm.

Walkout music is something I have not added yet, we do it all the time for live shows, but "most" films have a couple songs during credits anyhoo, except "The End" classics. Most of our audience jets... a walkout track would be even more just for me than my walking playlists are.

I also chickened out on this one, rather than interrupt the silent walkin with a single John Cage reference, I left it silent for all of it. They were gonna get a bad enough jolt as it was when our season bumper played. I asked if we could skip a section of slides and the bumper on this one and use the main rag. I was voted down. I tried!

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

I never considered "Near Death" as a continuous watch. Maybe because it came in DVDs. Yet, I wouldn't agree with that person on reddit calling Bela Tarr a "slow" film maker. His camera is not static, even on the long-lasting shots. "Satantango" was a faster-paced movie than Jeanne Dielman, even if it was twice as long. Having seen the last only at home, I would suppose that the big screen and the dark auditorium would be a better place to get sucked into the cutting rhythm of Akerman.

[Leo Enticknap]

If Frederick Wiseman had been born in, say, 1990ish, I think he would really have struggled to produce what are now considered his masterpieces (Hospital, Basic Training, etc.). His approach was to accept what was then considered the lower image quality, but lower cost and higher versatility of 16mm, to shoot a ton of fly-on-the-wall footage of whatever he was interested in, and then craft a story out of it at the Steenbeck later. While 16mm didn't impose as much of a limitation as 35, it did impose some. I suspect that if he'd had an iPhone, he'd have sat down to the editing task with 2,000 hours of footage rather than 200, which would have made the project fundamentally unmanageable, even if he did have an outline in his head as he came back from the field. Likely the best case outcome would have been more 5 to 10-hour movies along the lines of Near Death, rather than the 100 to 150-minute movies that hold the viewer's attention so well, because we want to know what happens to the characters he introduces in the first few minutes (I'm thinking of Hospital and Model in particular), and a couple of hours is within the envelope of most viewers' attention spans.

[Abraham Robinson]

This quote from Wiseman provides a nice connection between his work and Akerman’s film.

“There's a lot of drama in ordinary experiences. In Public Housing, there was drama in that old man being evicted from his apartment by the police. There was a lot of drama in that old woman at her kitchen table peeling a cabbage.“