Applause that lasted more than 10 minutes made headlines after this year’s Venice Film Festival. 11 minutes was given to the film Queer, 13 minutes to The Brutalist, which since Gold Lion winner Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door beat with its 17 minutes.
Film critic Jan Lumholdt, who visited the film festival for the 25th year in a row, says that the length of the standing ovation lost its news value a long time ago. The Guardian’s film columnist wonder if it’s all part of a PR machine. Although the phenomenon has been somewhat laughed at by critics, Lumholdt does not believe that the length of applause will be shortened in the future.
– Those who think it’s funny to laugh about it will continue to do so, those who don’t understand at all that it’s something to joke about will continue to stand there and clap their evening dresses. Just like Ferdinand the bull under the cork oak. They are so happy, says Jan Lumholdt.
The non-stop clapping at gala premieres sometimes lasts as long as an episode of Friends. When Pan’s Labyrinth was screened in 2006 during the Cannes Film Festival, people stood and applauded for 22 minutes.
In the clip above, you get answers to why people can imagine standing up and clapping for so long and what that actually says about the film’s rating.