kéttekercses

Kéttekercses is a Hungarian term that translates to "two-reel" in English. This descriptor is most commonly used in the context of historical film formats. Early motion pictures were often produced and distributed on reels of film that were significantly shorter than modern film reels. When a film was too long to fit on a single reel, it would be divided into multiple reels for projection and storage. A film designated as "kéttekercses" would therefore be a film that was distributed on two separate reels of film.

The length of a standard film reel varied over time and with different film gauges, but generally, a single reel might contain anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes of footage. Therefore, a kéttekercses film would typically have a running time of between 20 and 30 minutes. This length was common for short films, comedies, and early feature-length productions before the advent of longer and more standardized film formats. The term highlights a practical aspect of filmmaking and distribution in the silent era and the early days of sound cinema, referring to the physical packaging of the film content.