The Greatest Movie Ever Made?

Well, maybe. To be honest I haven't seen it yet, but that's what a good friend of my proposed after going to the Paula Cooper Gallery and watching "The Clock" for several hours.

stills from "The Clock"

"The Clock" is a 24 hour film of clips from movies and television edited together to show clocks and watches that display and correspond to the actual time so that it is as if you are watching a real clock, if you will. It sounds like something that could be incredibly boring or at the same time incredibly addicting, like some sort of cinematic feats-of-strength. According to the NY Times in an excellent article about the movie, "...“The Clock” was hailed as a masterpiece when it made its debut at the White Cube gallery in London last fall." It doesn't seem to be playing anywhere at the moment that I can see, which means we'll all have to wait to see it elsewhere to find out where it ranks on our "greatest" list. So it's hard to tell if its one of the greatest movies ever made, but it's certainly one of the longest.

still from Histoire(s) du cinéma

The idea of "The Clock" reminds me of a movie Jean-Luc Godard completed in 1998 called, "Histoire(s) du Cinéma", which was made almost entirely of clips from films (as well as sound) that overlap so that you see several movies at once. It was his history of cinema that was almost 5 hours long. I have yet to see this movie as well, so it's ranking among the great works, along with "The Clock", will have to rest with those lucky enough to have seen them.

still from Histoire(s) du cinéma

more stills from "The Clock"