Last month, James Cameron cut off the debate in Britain’s Empire magazine, saying: ” I don’t want to hear anyone complain about the length [3 h 12] of Avatar – The way of water when you sit and watch a series on TV for eight hours! In the line of fire of the American director, binge watching (a practice that involves watching several episodes in a row) on streaming platforms, which does not seem to pose any problem for subscribers. Some of its peers choose the miniseries format for the big or small screen in order to constitute a single (very) feature film: as Mariano Llinas i the flower (2018), with a duration of 1:32 pm, peter jackson i The Lord of the Rings (2001-2002-2003), a marathon of 11 h 46, by Claude Lanzmann and holocaust(1985), a 9:26 documentary.
Soap opera at 7.20 h
We note, however, that films (especially from the United States) have tended to be longer lately: 3:09 per Babylon 3:01 am by Avengers-Endgame (2019), 2 h 57 per The Batman (2022), 2 h 43 p.m Dying can wait (2021), 2 h 39 p.m elvis(2022)… While superheroes stand out as record holders in this field, the others are among the exceptions that have always marked the history of the 7th art.
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Starting with Louis Feuillade who signed in 1915 the vampires , a soap opera at 7:20 in the morning, while the cinematograph was invented just twenty years earlier by the Lumière brothers who were shooting 50-second short films in 1895! Trend confirmed by the great classics: The wind has taken it away (1939) and its 3:58, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and its 3 h 42, the godfather (1972) and its 2 h 55… Even Walt Disney deviated from his golden rule of not exceeding 1 h 30 with Mary Poppins (1964) and 2:19 in the morning. So much ado about nothing? Remember that the all-time greatest hit in France remainstitanic(1997), which totaled 21.7 million admissions despite being 3:14.
Source : Le JDD
