Intermission (film technology)
Intermission is the name given to the not very common interruption in the middle of a feature film to separate two film parts from each other and also to give the viewer e.g. B. to give the opportunity to go to the toilet or to get food. In the case of Western films, these are comedies shot in the early 1960s and films with long lengths such as B. The Lord of the Rings .
This break is introduced by the fade-in of the word “Intermission”, after which a musical interlude of the music from the film is performed for about five to fifteen minutes . Since the intermission has to be planned into the film, it has an impact on the course of the film. In Eine total, totally crazy world (1963), the chaos just before the intermission increases to almost unbearable, only to begin deceptively calm afterwards. At Forty Cars Westward (1965), before the intermission begins, there is a major clash of all of the groups in the film.
In Indian films with intermission this interruption is also used dramaturgically . In the first part of the plot, the tension is usually built up until the dramatic turn. In the part that follows after the intermission, the hero usually begins to stumble into chaos, so the second half is often the more action-packed. The intermission is an essential film structuring tool.
In the case of television broadcasts , the intermission is usually cut out for reasons of time or news programs inserted.
The intermission originally comes from the theater and opera sector and means there the regular break from the theater, of which there can be several, especially with operas.
In the comedy The Knights of the Coconut (1975), an intermission is faded in as a fun element for a short time as the characters are crossing the bridge of death.
Films with intermission (excerpt)
- 1939 Gone with the wind
- 1954 Murder on call
- 1956 The Ten Commandments
- 1959 Ben Hur
- 1960 Spartacus
- 1961 El Cid
- 1962 Lawrence of Arabia
- 1962 That was the Wild West
- 1963 55 days in Beijing
- 1963 A totally, totally crazy world
- 1965 The daring men in their flying boxes
- 1965 Doctor Zhivago
- 1967 Doctor Dolittle
- 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey
- 1968 Zebra ice station
- 1970 Woodstock
- 1970 Patton - rebel in uniform
- 1971 The Cowboys
- 1971 Nikolaus and Alexandra
- 1974 The Godfather II
- 1975 Barry Lyndon
- 1977 Hitler, a film from Germany
- 1979 Torah! Torah! Torah!
- 1980 Heaven's Gate
- 1982 Gandhi
- 1984 Once upon a time in America
- 1990 Dances with wolves
- 2004 Alexander (The Final Cut)
- 2005 Kingdom of Heaven (Director's Cut)
- 2015 The Hateful Eight