posted by Mike S.
In this beautiful era of binge-watching, where locking ourselves inside to devour the latest season of Game of Thrones is commonplace, it’s curious to note that feature films with longer running times still have a stigma surrounding them. Disk after disk of Homeland flies through our DVD players, obliterating entire afternoons, but if a movie reaches the three-hour mark we recoil in abject terror.
I would like to highlight some long films that deserve our attention just as much as our latest episodic obsession. Speaking of attention, if you need further incentive to check out the following, consider these films valuable boosts to our attention spans in this fast-paced age of fractured thoughts.
At seven-and-a-half hours, Bela Tarr’s 1994 film Satantango can certainly seem daunting but this hypnotic depiction of life on a commune weaves a potent spell. The rhythms of the movie, like the novel that inspired it, are based on the movements of the tango.
Speaking of community, in 2000, director Peter Watkins strove to educate contemporary France about its government’s failings by comparing it to their past with La Commune (Paris, 1871). Using mostly non-professional actors and shooting in a documentary style, the film clocks in at 5 hours 45 minutes. While the running time is long, the production took place over a mere 13 days. You work fast when you want to catch lightning in a bottle.
While other five-hour films like Fanny and Alexander and The Best of Youth certainly deserve a mention, they were originally created for television, not cinemas, and therefore warrant an asterisk in my completely arbitrary ruling. Instead let’s close this with a recommendation for the relatively brisk Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which runs a paltry 3 hours 20 minutes. Over those 200 minutes we watch the titular housewife make some lunch, sit on a bench, turn a trick, and repeat, before a shocking finale in this singular achievement from director Chantal Akerman.
What’s your favorite film over three hours in duration? I know mine.
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