Ari Aster's 'Midsommar' Director’s Cut Premiering in NYC in August
Shall we call it "Longsommar"? Ari Aster's extended director's cut of his bright and colorful horror film "Midsommar" is debuting in one month.
The world premiere of the director's cut, which runs about 30 minutes longer than the initial theatrical version (for a total of three hours), will take place at Lincoln Center in New York City on August 17.
The "Hereditary" director first mentioned a new, longer edition during a Reddit AMA.
Aster's first cut of the horror film clocked in at three hours and 45 minutes. He took out 90 minutes to get the movie to its 147-minute theatrical runtime.
In "Midsommar," Dani (Florence Pugh) and Christian (Jack Reynor) are a young American couple whose relationship is crumbling. But after a family tragedy keeps them together, a grieving Dani joins Christian and his friends on a trip to a once-in-a-lifetime midsummer festival in a remote Swedish village.
In an interview with GameSpot, Aster described one scene he debated keeping in.
"“There [was] a very big argument between Dani and Christian in the middle. That was the only time that we see Dani fight back and argue with Christian, and that was a big debate in the edit room, about whether we keep that or lose that," Aster said.
"If you told me that I would have cut that scene before we went into production, I would have told you that you were crazy.”
Another scene that was cut or trimmed heavily depicted a more overt version of Dani's psychotic break after discovering Christian was cheating on her.
As Aster told USA Today, “There were a lot of scenes that were cut, and probably a few that helped illustrate she was losing her grip on her sanity, which you hopefully still see."