Sources: Wikidata · OpenAlex. The record of the motion picture, not an assessment of this cell.
FILM NOTES
Kill Bill: Volume 1 arrived in 2003 through Miramax as Quentin Tarantino's fourth feature, a genre homage split into two volumes at Harvey Weinstein's suggestion. Shot with deliberate reverence for kung fu cinema, Japanese swordplay films, spaghetti westerns and grindhouse aesthetics, it reestablished Tarantino as a director unafraid of stylistic excess in service of story. The film also marked a defining collaboration with Uma Thurman, whose performance as the lead became inseparable from the era's action cinema conversation, and its release renewed interest in genre pastiche as serious filmmaking.
This cell carries the name The Bride, the film's central figure, a former assassin driven by vengeance after being betrayed and left for dead. Collectors seek her image because she anchors the entire two-volume saga, embodying its themes of retribution and resurrection. A cell marked simply with her name suggests an identifying or introductory frame, the kind used in trailers or credit sequences to fix a character in the audience's memory before the story unfolds around her.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced; punched edges appear clean with no visible tearing.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along one edge beside the picture area, consistent with an analog stereo print; Dolby Digital data blocks appear present in the inter-perforation gaps on the same edge, and a thin DTS timecode line is also discernible along that edge.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture at sufficient resolution to quote any text or key numbers.
Base & colour
Base carries a warm amber-brown cast overall; dye image appears shifted toward orange-gold tones, consistent with a projected release print rather than a fresh unscreened element.
Projection history
Faint longitudinal lines are visible running the length of the strip, consistent with projection wear; no splices or cue marks are seen.
Picture
Positive colour image; all three frames appear to be consecutive frames from a single shot, and the content is consistent with a release print of Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003).
Era check
The combination of analog variable-area optical track, Dolby Digital inter-perforation data blocks, DTS timecode stripe, and warm-shifted colour dye stock is consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print from the early 2000s, matching the 2003 release date 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 000062980
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
