Hour Long Features

Thanks, WildTrackDave. I've seen Following but I will check out Stereo for sure.

Hi David, I'm a little tired of the conventional length of features and I just wanted a taste of something shorter and snappier. When the film is good nobody complains about the length, but when it isn't I often find myself cursing at the duration. It seems to me that occasionally films just stretch to accommodate the norm and it makes me wish that there are more tiers in theatrical releases other than the short and the typically two hour long film. I'm a fan of the ninety-minute film, but I suppose I am also intrigued by the possibility of an hour-long film being treated as a "full" feature. As a filmmaker myself, I guess it has something to do with experimentation as well.
 
Thanks, Billy. I've heard of Hal Hartley but I haven't seen any of his work yet. Guess this is my chance.
 
The Decalogue (Dekalog) by Krzysztof Kieślowski - ten one-hour films, each of which represents one of the Ten Commandments. Two of them were expanded into feature films.

A sixty minute film I've seen on vimeo recently - Acrobats by Daniel Lavin

http://www.vimeo.com/13032170
 
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Dekalog series is amazing, British director Shane Meadows did an hour long film 'Somers Town', worth checking out some of his slightly longer features also - 'Deadmans shoes' & 'This is England'
 
I second Dance Party, USA and thrid Dekalog. Stereo was interesting. 100% voice over if I remember correctly.
 
Christmas in July by Preston Sturges (67 min)
Detour by Edgar G. Ulmer (67 min)
Killer's Kiss by Stanley Kubrick (67 min)
The Ox-Bow Incideny by William Wellman (75 min)
Pickpocket by Robert Bresson (75 min)
 
This is really great: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111735/

Don't read too much about it, in fact, don't read any plot description. The less you know about this film the better.

When I first saw it, I happened to swith the TV on JUST as it started and decided to watch it whatever it was. I had some really great surprises and it's got a great twist at the end.

It's out on DVD but you'd probably have to find a used copy on eBay or Amazon or something.
 
most of these are around an hour:
http://www.criterion.com/films/3560-the-golden-age-of-television?q=autocomplete

and a lot of them were done LIVE.
In Bang The Drum Slowly, Paul Newman messes up one of his lines.
There are some really cool scene changes where, for example, a character leaves a scene and then we cut to a new scene, and there he is in different clothes - he has to change clothes off-camera because it's all live.
Or there's one where they're in an elevator. When the elevator doors close, the elevator set rotates so that when the doors open we see a different set.
(which reminds me of Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind because it uses a lot of those kinds of tricks in long takes)
 
I just saw Tetsuo, the Iron Man. Kinda' like a Japanese Eraserhead, but somehow even more insane. It's only 67 minutes long.
 
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