Should more movies have intermissions? The Brutalist cast weigh in

Oscar-favourite The Brutalist is bringing back the intermission, with a 15-minute break built into the 3 hour, 35 minute story to break up the first and second half and give viewers a chance to stretch their legs, replenish their snacks or use the loo if they so wish.

Brady Corbet was very keen for his epic to use this old school tool, which isn't often seen in movies nowadays. It's used to great effect in the movie, seamlessly blending into the story of Hungarian Jewish immigrant László Tóth's (Adrien Brody) desire to chase the American Dream after surviving the horrors of the Holocaust, giving the movie two distinct chapters.

Actors Guy Pearce and Felicity Jones, who play millionaire Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr and László's wife Erzsébet respectively, tell Yahoo UK it was always "written in the script" which made some of the movie's backers nervous.

"The intermission was written in the script at that same point," Pearce explains.

Jones adds: "It's so funny, I think Brady's had to defend the intermission and then suddenly you put it out to the world, and that becomes the feature that everyone just adores."

"Everyone loves it, there were a lot of financiers I think and producers saying to him 'you don't need [it], take the intermission out. Just keep it moving, keep it moving.'"

When asked about whether they think it's a feature that more movies should include in the future, Jones goes on: "I think you've got to make sure they're pretty compelling though to keep people. It's kind of a test to the filmmaker because you've got to keep the audience interested into the second half."

"Yeah and it's it's got to be there for a reason," Pearce chimes in. "It shouldn't just be a an ad break for the sake of it."

Jones adds: "There's something nice about [how] it makes it your whole evening, that it becomes a real event and a real moment to go and see the film. There's something quite special about that, particularly as more and more people want to go to the cinema with friends, and they want to make it into a kind of spectacle in some way. I feel like the intermission helps with that."

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Intermissions in films aren't new to the world of cinema. Classics like 1939 film Gone with the Wind — which is a staggering four hours long — was screened with an intermission, and its DVD release was split between two discs with an intermission built in.

During the Golden Age of cinema through to the 1950s and 1970s, and less so in the 1980s, movies would have an intermission in cinemas to allow viewers the chance to take a break, and it was also used as a good way to drive business to a cinema's foyer.

Movies that had intermissions in cinematic history include Stanley Kubrick's iconic 2001: A Space Odyssey, Lawrence of Arabia, and Ben Hur.

Watch a trailer for The Brutalist

Intermission screenings have been added to more recent films too, including Wicked, which is two and a half hours long, and Martin Scorsese's 198-minute Killers of the Flower Moon having a break. The director spoke how it wasn't too difficult for his three and a half hour epic to be seen in one go, telling Hindustan Times: "People say it's three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours.

"Also, there are many people who watch theatre 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."

The Brutalist premieres in cinemas on Friday, 24 January.