Thelma Schoonmaker has said cinemas showing Killers of the Flower Moon with an intermission are in "violation" and that it "is not right".
The legendary editor, who has won three Oscars, is concerned by reports that some cinemas have decided, of their own volition, to put a break into Martin Scorsese's latest picture, which is almost three and a half hours long.
One cinema in Colorado advertised to patrons that it had inserted an eight minute intermission into the film, which stars Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCapio and Lily Gladstone and has earned rave reviews.
Schoonmaker once again reunited with Scorsese for the film, and was speaking shortly before giving final sign-off on the captions for the hard-of-hearing version of the film.
Speaking to the Standard, as part of a wider conversation on the ongoing Powell & Pressburger season by the BFI, Schoonmaker, who has worked on every Scorsese film since 1980's Raging Bull, expressed her displeasure.
She said: "I understand that somebody's running it with an intermission which is not right.
"That's a violation so I have to find out about it."
Such was the backlash on X, formerly known as Twitter, the film fan who publicised the theatre which showed the intermission decided to delete the post.
Scorsese has defended the length of the film, which deals with the 'Reign of Terror' when oil-rich Osage Native Americans were brutally murdered by white interlopers to seize the 'head rights' - access to the oil. It is based on the best-selling non-fiction book of the same name by David Grann.
During a recent interview with the Hindustan Times, Scorsese defended the lengthy run-time.
“People say it’s three hours, but come on, you can sit in front of the TV and watch something for five hours,” he said.
“Also, there are many people who watch theater 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.”
Killers of the Flower Moon is out in cinemas UK-wide now. Read the Standard's review here.
Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger is an ongoing celebration of the works of the two directors and runs until December 31 at the BFI on South Bank and in cinemas across the UK.
