Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Kill Bill: Volume 1 arrived in 2003 from Miramax, Quentin Tarantino's first feature after a six-year gap since Jackie Brown. Split into two volumes for release, it announced itself as a genre collage, drawing on samurai cinema, spaghetti westerns and Hong Kong action to build a revenge story told out of order. The film reestablished Tarantino as a director working at the height of his stylistic control, and it introduced a soundtrack and visual vocabulary that became instantly recognizable and widely imitated across the decade that followed.
This cell carries the name given to Uma Thurman's character, the former assassin known only as The Bride throughout the picture, her real name withheld as a running device across both volumes. She is the film's center of gravity, the figure around whom every other character orbits, and pieces bearing her name are sought for that reason alone. A cell identified simply this way, without a scene attached, functions as a character piece, a fragment meant to stand for her presence in the film rather than any single sequence.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003).
Gauge
35mm, confirmed by four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges; spacing appears even and the punched holes have clean, rounded corners throughout the strip.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the bottom edge beside the perforations, appearing as two wavy white lines consistent with a dual bilateral or stereo variable-area format; Dolby Digital data blocks are also visible in the inter-perforation gaps on the bottom edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to read manufacturer codes or key numbers.
Base & colour
The base shows a light cyan-teal tint consistent with a colour print stock; the dye image reads as a rich, saturated colour positive with strong blue and neutral tones, showing no visible fading or red shift.
Projection history
Light horizontal abrasion lines are visible across the frame area, consistent with a print that has passed through a projector gate.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single continuous shot, and the subject matter is consistent with Kill Bill: Volume 1.
Era check
The combination of a cyan-tinted colour print base, dual variable-area optical track, and Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks is consistent with a theatrical release print from the early 2000s, matching the 2003 release of the film on record.
Read from the original intake capture shown below. Observations only — film is authenticated, not graded.
This original motion picture film element has been examined and authenticated by Crown Grading in partnership with National Film Vault, and encapsulated for archival preservation.
Why so little survivesRelease prints were leased to theaters, not sold. When the run ended they went back to the distributor to be destroyed, and most were. What collectors hold today came from the prints that escaped that order, and no new 35mm prints of these films are being struck.
CROWN SERIAL 000062975
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
