What does it mean when a movie is 'unwatchable'? Often it can be as simple as the movie lost in time, a piece of lost media that has yet to and may never resurface. Other times, the movie may be available in some form, but not as originally intended. Sometimes we just use the term figuratively to describe something we hated. Other times, a movie may actively create barriers to make the viewing experience uncomfortable.
It is perhaps this last characteristic that is so fascinating about art and experimental film. These movies, so different from what we think of when we think of movies, are deliberately hard to enjoy in the traditional sense. These are not films to watch passively, but rather experiences to meditate on larger themes of time, capitalism and humanity.
The clock(2010)
The clock is a 2010 art film created and directed by Christian Marclay. In The clock, Marclay and his team clipped together 24 hours of footage from the film and television past, using only clips with references to time. Wherever The clock is displayed, it is synchronized with the local time so that the time on the screen is equal to the free time. But what emerges isn't just a collection of disparate clips; rather, as Britain's Tate Gallery said, it is "the story of time and how it develops throughout the day."
As the subject suggests, Marclay uses this piece to reflect on temporality. Speaking to the Los Angeles Times, Marclay said, "I've always thought of this play as a giant memento mori." The filmmaker argues that films are traditionally intended as entertainment, distractions, on-screen dreams that obscure the reality of the relentless progression of time. The clockhowever, tries to emphasize this reality. Marclay continued, saying, "You're constantly reminded that you've wasted an hour of your time, and you're constantly reminded that you're trying to figure it out: time."
rich(1965)
Where movies like The clock are strange and nonsensical, like Andy Warhol's rich are a bit like watching paint dry, yet in a hypnotic way. rich is eight hours and five minutes of footage of the Empire State Building, taken from the 44th floor of the Time Life Building across the street. The camera never moves; the subject never changes.
But when looking at the stationary building, viewers find themselves noticing the smaller details surrounding the building: the slowly darkening sky, the floodlights igniting, the flash at the top signaling the passing of each hour. Movies like rich are about using these details as a means of meditating on the passage of time.
Blue(1993)
Derek Jarmans Blue isn't unappealing for its length like some of the other movies here. In fact, it's only 76 minutes long. What makes Blue a difficult watch is that there is nothing Unpleasant look, but that hardly means it has nothing to say. Derek Jarman was just one of many victims of the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s, and the complications of the disease partially blinded the filmmaker. Only months later Blue's release, Jarman died.
Blue is a blue screen for the entire duration. Against this monochromatic background, Jarman imposes stories about his reflections on his life and what became of his body when it was ravaged by AIDS. Jarman narrates part of the film and other parts are read by friends and collaborators John Quentin, Nigel Terry and Tilda Swinton.
What appears to be a rather dull hour and change becomes a gripping story of a man struggling with his untimely and unfair demise. Without the typical visual stimuli, the film forces the viewer to listen to a struggle that they may not have direct experience with, but which they still need to understand. For the curious viewer, this one is on YouTube.
The Flicker (1966)
While most of the movies on this list are at least partially unwatchable due to their length, Tony Conrad's is one The Flicker chooses a different approach. Coming in in just 30 minutes, The Flicker is quite short, and yet perhaps the most difficult of these films to watch.
There are technically only five frames in the movie (movies are generally 24 frames per second), though viewers usually see two: one black, one white. The film consists of two frames that alternate back and forth at different speeds until a strobe effect is created. Optical illusions abound, as colors, lights, and patterns seem to appear in the film, but are merely the result of the flickering in the viewer's eyes.
This one can be literally impossible for some viewers if they struggle with harsh visual stimuli. The Flicker is captivating for its effects and its place in the world of experimental film, but viewers need to know themselves and their limits.
Logistics (2012)
Logistics is the longest movie ever made, and that's saying something considering the company on this list. Directors Erika Magnusson and Daniel Andersson wanted to ask, "Is it possible to trace the source of the things we consume?" The result was a "37-day road movie," as the filmmakers put it, set in real time.
Starting with a store in Stockholm, Logistics takes the audience on the reverse journey of a pedometer, what the filmmakers call the "anonymous clutter everyday life is full of". From Stockholm all the way back to the birthplace of the pedometer in a factory in Bao'an, viewers can expect to see a lot of cargo doing a lot of nothing.
Logistics is not watchable in the sense we normally think of for movies. It just can't. Logistics is a work of art about time, and the fact that viewers literally can't sit through the whole thing is part of the point.
Matryoschka (2006)
Like several other movies on this list, Karin Hoerler's Matryoshka has an extremely long running time and not much in the way of narrative structure. Very little actually happens in Matrjoschka. The film opens with a single shot of a boy riding a bicycle through a neighborhood. Slowly, so slowly that it is almost imperceptible, the image transforms, from which new images emerge.
95 hours of this doesn't make for particularly compelling content on its own, but Hoerler's vision reaches for a curious concept nonetheless. The film's title refers to what are commonly referred to as Russian nesting dolls, the small wooden figures that open to reveal a smaller, similar figure inside. The film also functions in this way, albeit much more slowly: each image unfolds from the other. Matrjoshka is a reflection on time, more specifically the way time tumbles forward incessantly and often unconsciously.
The Longest Most Meaningless Film in the World (1968)
The movie with perhaps the most honest title on this list, The longest most meaningless film in the world was once the longest film in the world. At exactly 48 hours, this film is exactly the test its name implies.
Nothing was shot for this movie; instead, filmmaker Vincent Patouillard reuses footage — stock videos, newsreels, outtakes, even undeveloped film clips — into a veritable medley of unrelated sounds and images. The longest most meaningless film in the world does what it's supposed to do, but that doesn't make it the sort of thing worth spending your time on.
La Region Central(1971)
Surprising for a film this long as Avengers: endgame, La Region Central is one of the shorter films here. La Region Central is 180 minutes of landscape shots from a mountaintop in a remote location in Quebec. The camera is always moving, always changing something to reveal a new perspective of the seemingly unchanging landscape.
There is always something to see one way or another La Region Central, even if it is not obvious at first glance. It could be something moving in or out of frame that wasn't there before, including the camera's shadow. Director Michael Snow had a camera specially designed for creating La Region Central, one that can be programmed and controlled remotely. As the sun sets, the camera's shadow is revealed to the audience, hovering ominously across the landscape.
Writing for the Art Canada Institute, scientist Martha Langford describes the experience of looking La Region Centralas "dizzying, hallucinating and defining the technological sublime." The camera pans and turns to reveal perspectives previously unseen to the human eye, and the fact that the slow reveal of the camera as a driving force puts into perspective how modern technology would come to loom over the natural world.
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