Your ideal length of a film

i can't at all rationalize getting a nice TV and/or Blu-Ray, but it sure would be nice

I got mine way back just before the Bears were in the Super Bowl and a lot of the stores had ridiculous sales that January. I was needing a new TV anyway, just had gotten a raise at work, and the deals were fantastic so I treated myself. Great decision. The only reason we got the Blu-Ray is because we got a PS3 for our wedding.

whichever Pirates of the Carribean film it was that had the Kraken drove me nuts. Big advantage of watching at home - you know exactly how long's left in a film. Big disadvantage of watching at home: you know exactly how long's left in a film. I'M ONLY HALFWAY THROUGH??

I'm too stubborn when it comes to starting what I've finished (the other day I watched Jack from beginning to end ffs, and then, even worse, towards the end realised that this was something I'd done before). I have to take some tips from the folks in the 'films you left unfinished' topic.

o yeah the topic at hand. About 90 minutes is nice, so 90-110.

Okay, using the very scientific method of selecting the films I had bothered to put up on my facebook info and checking imdb runtime listings, it seems my ideal film length would be 112.65 minutes long. I did have to discount two short films, though, but I think that separation is necessary.

For posterity, the longest film was The Saragossa Manuscript at 182 minutes, and the shortest was Daisies at 74.

I walked out halfway through Pirates of the Caribbean 2. That meant an hour waiting in the lobby for my friends who were driving and who refused to join me, but I'm pretty sure I had a better time flirting with pink haired popcorn girl than they did watching the film.

A shit film is a shit film regardless of length but any movie is going to struggle to convince me that it needs to be longer than 100 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLRLKq-GQ5E

Was Daisies that short?? It seemed soooo looooong the first time we watched it in class. Longest film I've seen is Satantango but we broke it up over 3 nights I think

daisies feels long coz no plot iirc

ideal length = 12hrs 40mins

http://www.reverseshot.com/files/images/pre-issue22/out_1_leaud.preview.jpg

As long as it takes.

(ie, not voting)

otm

of course Daisies has a plot wtf

While that's the correct answer, I still voted 70-90 minutes 'cause I miss terse little films.

Daisies reminded me of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, but I couldn't really tell you what the plot to that one is either (the having to give a history report or they won't become rock messiahs is more of a bogus formality than actual plot device)

is daisies the one about the two czech chicks? tbh i haven't seen it in nine years. not exactly overflowing with plot iirc but who can say.

Sherlock Jr is perfect at around 40 minutes, Berlin Alexanderplatz is great at 13+ hours.

BA is a tv series

yeah, we know

Yeah, one is blonde (Bill) and the other is brunette (Ted). They have a food fight, which I remembered reading was controversial because they wasted perfectly good food? Was it Czech or Polish, though?

It's Czech. I am both bemused and amused at the Bill & Ted comparison.

if a film is good, it doesn't really matter to me how long it is.

+1 for whoever sd 80 min is the perfect length for a movie

Yeah, I might have actually sat through an 80-minute Gone With the Wind.

70-80 is a sweet spot

My concentration at home is totally shot, thanks to the internet. At least I'm FORCED to watch the damn thing in the theatre (which makes me resent the bloated running times).

in a theater i don't mind any length, really but if i'm watching at home, I get antsy for anything over 90 minutes, so I voted 90-110

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, March 9, 2010 8:02 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

i cosign this 100%

when i get a movie from netflix and it's like 130 mins i'm always like *grooooaaan*

years of smoking have made it p much impossible for me to watch a 120+ movie in the theater

at least long films in the olde days had entr'actes in the middle so you could break for the day or whatever

90-110, always kinda pissed if I see it's over 2h on the DVD case/movie listing, even if it's something i can't wait to see.

long movies at home > long movies in the theater

can take it at your own pace / don't miss key scenes in the inevitable bathroom breaks / watch the rest tomorrow / etc.

That would be easier if I didn't get the itch to go on ILM, check email, Facebook, etc every ten minutes.

i can usually stash the computer for the length of the film -- i pretty much can never not fall asleep tho

ILM, check email, Facebook

I have no problem doing this + watching the movie at the same time

but I am part of generation ADD

I don't mind long movies so much at home because I can always pause them and take a break to go do something else if I want to, but hate getting stuck at the theater with a long movie.

pausing/resuming movies after more than a few minutes kind of gets me out of movie mode.. loss of momentum etc..

I do like skipping past credits and trailers. It offends me when I have to sit through'em in the theatre.

trailers are the work of satan; i like a good ol' opening credits scene, though. gotta go for The Full Effect

As long as it takes.

(ie, not voting)

― Fusty Moralizer (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 9 March 2010 18:13 (3 hours ago) Bookmark

hey, there's the >150 option.

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ADD

http://img532.imageshack.us/img532/3251/josemourinho6.jpg

(my vote for 130-150 btw)

that screenshot from satantango is great, i thought i could never get tired of narcoleptic long takes of desolate hungarian plains but jancso managed it in 'the round up' (95 mins)

the relation between runtime and boredom isn't always obvious

what the actual blazing fuck, 25 of you savages

NAME ME 10 ALL-TIME MOVIES OTHER THAN LIKE VIDEODROME THAT FALL INTO THAT CATEGORY

110 mins pls

1. Killer of Sheep

2. Bicycle Thief (93 minutes total, but who watches credits?)

er Thieves

7. Persona

8. Rashomon

Detour's pretty good I guess, not sure about 'all-time'

oh wait I forgot Bergman, also iirc 'Alphaville' is quite short and an all-timer of mine

9. Breathless

lol @ godard convergence

His Girl Friday is 92

10. Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2

ok you are not savages

but you're still wrong :D

I probably would have voted 90-110, but definitely would have voted 80-100.

would have voted 100-120 but can perfectly understand a vote for 80-100 - the number of A++ movies that fall between 90 and 100 minutes is frankly huge

One of Fantastic Mr Fos's many virtues was its 80 minute length. More, please!

*Fox

Pickpocket, L'argent, Mouchette, Lancelot du lac, Los olvidados, Viridiana, L'atalante, Umberto D., Sullivan's Travels, Palm Beach Story, 39 Steps, Cabinet of Dr. Calgari, Lift to the Scaffold, Pickup on South Street, Show Me Love, Lady From Shanghai, Battleship Potemkin all purty good

ok there is no doubting there are classics in the 70-90 range, but what I am saying is that there are enormously more in higher ranges

however, i guess the question is 'how long would you most often like a film to be' so all 25 of you just like films to be shorter maybe

There's some perfect 3-hour films but they're just gonna sit in my stack at home getting resented for weeks before i get to them. i checked out Petrified Forest last week - that little "82 minutes" on the back cover makes my face look like i'm about to tap some ass.

Novels should be within 50 pages/however many words that is of The Great Gatsby, btw.