Filmmaker Alexander Payne believes there are “too many damn long movies these days”.

While in conversation at the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia over the weekend, the Sideways director, 62, railed against lengthy runtimes.

“You want your movie to be as short as possible,” he declared. “There are too many damn long movies these days.”

The Oscar-winning screenwriter then clarified his point by citing several classics as examples.

“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,” he 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 judgement about length.”

Payne didn’t accuse any film in particular for having a prolonged runtime, however, his comments came on the opening weekend of Martin Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour picture Killers of the Flower Moon.

“Film is a constant search for economy,” the Downsizing director concluded. “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’s forthcoming comedy-drama The Holdovers, starring Paul Giamatti, will be released in U.S. cinemas on 10 November.

© Cover Media