“It could be half an hour shorter…”

“Well, not even seven Oscars for Oppenheimer. Three hours of film, if we wanted that much information, we'd be watching a documentary…”

“Scorsese lost it. After The Irishman, we aged to the end, another three-and-a-half hours with Killers of the Blooming Moon. Without anything happening. . . .”

“The second Dune is out, right? So will it be like the first? Two-and-a-half-hour trailer?”

“You're crazy Rohtko. I mean, was it worth all the fuss to be unable to move for four hours instead of five minutes from your seat?”

Somewhere, somehow, with someone or some people, I recently had this conversation. Either as a debater representing the side of repression or defense, or as accomplices in a crime “What did everyone get into that made them so big?”mostly talks about movies and plays (certainly not the restaurant parts).

First of all, it's true. Progressing. The duration has increased. This is a relatively arbitrary search, but it is also quite heuristic It shows that The 50 Best Films of the 2020s are the longest-running films of the decade from the 1970s onwards (average duration 130 minutes, 17 over 80 seconds). But we also know this experimentally, without opening the xcel file. Airless Napoleon Ridley Scott took 157 minutes, including the gentle ones Winter kids Reached 133, c Barbie Two o'clock arrived. Even in the allergy triad (We are all strangers, our past lives, after the sun) In the past two years, you will not find a movie whose duration does not exceed 100 minutes.

Maybe this is the main reason Monopoly on superhero movies (with a few two-hour exceptions) which has swallowed up smaller productions anyway – what we have been offensively taught to call “indie cinema” – and is a regular outlet for Generation Z culture. This in turn may have led to content creators turning to platforms – e.g. Netflix bought credibility, got in the awards and took away some of the “DV Club” buzz, and the Scorseses and Cuaróns of this world gained complete artistic freedom, sometimes even losing their temper because they didn't have to serve the rules of cinematic food. String for example. Movie theaters lose tickets when they have to support three-hour movies.

Returning from Hollywood to Athens, we were transported from the big screen to the stage. This season: doctor Katerina Evgelatos in 140 minutes, o Nawras Dimitris Karantzas in 135, c Marriage broker In the National 150', the Apacheides of Athens The one played until January was three hours with an intermission Berlin Alexanderplatz Livathinos which was also repeated this year at 150 minutes Rohtko Soldered again after last May (waiting for six o'clock Republic In Malaga in June) We have dedicated eight hours of our lives to Vasilis Besbekis in the past five years (Of mice and men and red lights, crime and punishment).

But that is not what is meant. Of course, periods are not always justified, they are often talkativeness, neglect, and paranoia. The issue goes beyond, so to speak, the boundaries of art, and returns to the modern way of life. We are slowly getting to a point where… The basic criterion for evaluating artistic workIt doesn't matter, high or low, popular or avant-garde, becomes its duration; And if that's the case, between us, isn't that a bit sad?

We surrendered ourselves to iCulture in our living room, with our smart TV and mobile phone within easy reach, and became addicted to on-demand entertainment. With minimal effort and a golden memory, everything we see, read or hear is erased in record time. But it wasn't always like this. The movies, shows, books, and music that shaped us, that ultimately made us who we are, are our favorites because we gave them hours of our lives. Maybe she's on another path with fewer commitments, worse technology, and more alarm clock snoozing. now We go from FOMO, the Friday night clips of another hellish week, to watching a four-hour show or a three-hour movie The one everyone talks about and of course “doesn't talk to us”. But how can he talk to us? Friday night late capitalism people over 35 won't be talking either Revelation now! (147 minutes in the 1979 version, if you were wondering). It's not the work that's humbling, we're tired (and… It is almost never concentrated). Great art does not adapt to us, we adapt to it.

the “Attention economy” It changes artistic creativity. Songs no longer have long intros to be compatible with TikTok and cannot be skipped on Spotify (playback is counted at 30'). If you're not Scorsese, Netflix will give you (almost) as much money as you want as long as you get to the point quickly, here's how Roman Gavras Turn an impressive opening scene into a controversial one Athens). Even the commercials are getting smaller to fit our screen as we sink another night into the YouTube hole.

Theater again. A night in Epidaurus, last year at the National (115 minutes if you ask), directed by Nikos Karatanos. The inside joke in Lena Kitsopoulou's script was that guy who said “Nice show but he wanted half an hour less…”.

Do we really want to be that guy in real life?