Regarding movie runtimes, Alexander Payne apparently likes short and lean and “sharklike” in their efficiency. IndieWire reports that the director of “The Holdovers” had some choice words about inflated runtimes of recent film releases at the Middleburg Film Festival last weekend. And he admits that even he’s guilty of the crime.
“You want your movie to be as short as possible,” explained Payne during a conversation at the festival. “There are too many damn long movies these days.” It’s not that Payne is against all movies that are three hours long, but rather longer pictures that lack narrative economy. “If your movie’s three and a half hours, at least let it be the shortest possible version of a three and a half hour movie,” the director explained. “Like “The Godfather Part II” [and] “Seven Samurai” are super tight three and a half hour movies, and they go by like that. So there’s no ipso facto judgment about length.”
Payne then preached what he prefers to do in his films: give the movie a good rhythm, and make it as short as you possibly can. “Film is a constant search for economy,” Payne continued. “You want the screenplay as short as possible. You want the acting as brisk as possible, given whatever the basic rhythm of that film is. And then in the editing you want it to be as short as it can possibly be, but no shorter.” Payne then admitted that “The Holdovers” is guilty of not being pared down enough. “It’s still a little long,” the director said of his new feature. “We started screening it, and [at] the first couple festivals, I was looking at the program, and it said 133 minutes. I had to call up the studio and go ‘I don’t think it’s 133 minutes.’ I thought we had gotten it down to around 124. ‘No, it’s 133 after the credits roll.’”
Payne was at the Middleburg Film Festival to receive the MFF Director Spotlight Award. During his conversation before “The Holdovers” screened, he did say, “I made only one film that isn’t a little too long somehow.” That honor goes to 1999’s “Election” with Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon. Payne explained that the screenplay for “Election,” “has got a very good metronome, sharklike.” And since Payne receieved his first Oscar nod for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, others recognized its “sharklike” efficiency, too. Maybe Payne’s sequel to “Election” will bear the same qualities, but “Tracy Flick Can’t Win” comes after a couple of other upcoming Payne projects.
“The Holdovers” starts its limited theatrical run this weekend on October 27.