The intermission card –which is played half way through the film– addresses the spectator directly and exclusively, as the consumer of a spectacle or a cinematic event. Therein lies the other potential role of this intermission. This difference distinguishes the realm of entertainment and consumption –to which the spectator belongs and participates–, from the realm of the story, which has to do with survival in 16th century feudal Japan. The intermission highlights the existence of a gap or a difference between the audience’s reality and the reality depicted by the film. Indeed, there is something curious –if not striking– in thinking that an audience already enjoying leisure time might need a break, especially against the backdrop of what is happening onscreen. While it awaits the second part of the film –enjoying the pause or being annoyed by it–, the audience is offered the opportunity to experience a certain discrepancy.
The intermission may yet play another role in this particular film, even if inadvertently. Gif animation of an excerpt from the intermission card posterized in two tones to enhance variation in brightness from one frame to another. If only for those technical artefacts, the intermission in Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai could be said to be an experience in cinematographic continuity. So does the subtle pulse of halo surrounding the kanji character for “intermission” (a pulsing that found its way in Criterion’s digital transfer) 5.
#Intermission gif registration
The slight jiggling of the intermission card resulting from imperfect image registration as the film passes through the projector’s gate testifies of the ongoing projection. The intermission was not meant to allow for a change of reels, but rather for some other exhibition purposes: for the spectators to stretch their legs and maybe for the exhibitor to get a chance to sell some merchandise 4. A 5-minute-long strip of film (roughly 450 feet) with an almost-static intermission card is presented along with a music score. The intermission in Seven Samurai is built-in: the story is interrupted, but not the projection. The premise of this argument –which I won’t dive into– suggests a distinction between the mere story (if for a moment we can fathom the idea that it could exist by itself) and the experience of storytelling which brings together, in a shared process, the story and the audience experiencing it. In other words, the story may be interrupted for five minutes, but those five minutes participate to the cinematic experience as a whole. In what follows, I explore the idea that the film’s intermission may be an interruption of the story, but that as such –as an interruption– it nonetheless remains an integral and important part of the storytelling 2. At the time of writing, it can be watched on YouTube.Īt 207 minutes, Seven Samurai is considered Kurosawa’s longest project 1.
It lasts approximately 5 minutes and is accompanied by a music score by Hayasaka Fumio. This intermission card arrives 107 minutes in Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai. Intermission card from 01:46:45 to 01:51:46, Criterion Edition. ☛ Seven Samurai ( Shichinin no Samurai) by Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1954.
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