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 and his first in six years, splitting an originally longer shoot into two volumes at Harvey Weinstein's urging. The film reasserted Tarantino as a director of genre synthesis, pulling from Japanese revenge cinema, spaghetti westerns, and Shaw Brothers kung fu to build the story of The Bride's rampage through her former assassin colleagues. Uma Thurman's performance and the film's stylized violence made it an immediate touchstone of early 2000s American cinema, restoring Miramax's cultural cachet during a period when the studio still shaped serious conversations around auteur-driven genre work.
This piece preserves the opening title card, the frame that first announces the picture before a single act of violence unfolds. Title cards from theatrical release prints are prized by collectors precisely because they carry no character performance, only typography and studio branding fixed to celluloid, making them artifacts of the film's identity rather than its narrative. Holding the Kill Bill card means holding the moment the audience first understands what franchise they have entered, the threshold before The Bride's story begins.
Authentication Findings8 checks
Consistent with a 35mm theatrical release print of Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003).
Gauge
35mm, four perforations per frame visible on both edges; the strip holds three frames.
Perforations
Four per frame on both edges, evenly spaced, cleanly punched with no torn or deformed holes visible.
Soundtrack
A variable-area optical track is visible running along the lower edge beside the picture area, with what appears to be a DTS timecode line adjacent to it.
Edge print
Not visible in this capture; no legible key numbers, manufacturer text, or SAFETY FILM legend can be read.
Base & colour
Base appears with a slight blue-teal tint at the edges; the picture area is deep black with strong red dye, consistent with a colour print stock.
Projection history
Several fine longitudinal lines are visible across the lower portion of the strip, consistent with a projected print.
Picture
Positive image; all three frames show the same title-card content, consistent with a title sequence from Kill Bill: Volume 1.
Era check
The combination of a variable-area optical track, DTS timecode line, and colour print stock is consistent with a 2003 theatrical release print of this title.
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 000062982
Original Film CaptureAs received
Photographed on the light panel at intake, before encapsulation — tap to open full size
Tap to enlarge
