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Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The world's longest film lasting 150 hours to be screened

The world's longest film which lasts 150 hours and has taken 30 years to make so far is to be screened in France.

Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam Photo: AP

Cinematon was started in 1978 and comprises three and a half minute segments of footage from celebrities, artists, philosophers and journalists, as well as young children.

It has been filmed by Gerard Courant, who wanted to capture the thoughts of his artistic friends.

For three minutes and 25 seconds, they can do exactly as they please in front of the camera.

The film, which is an ongoing project, will be screened in Avignon later this month and in Paris in January.

The subjects who feature in Cinematon include film director Ken Loach, actors Roberto Benigni and Samuel Fuller, chess grandmaster Joel Lautier and former Monty Python Terry Gilliam.

Gilliam was filmed in 1985 when Courant happened to bump into him at the film festival in Deauville, France.

"He started off to one (of the cameras), then came into the shot," Courant told The Independent. "He played with the frame, exiting and entering, and ate a 100 Franc note, making it into a little ball.

"He never stopped playing with the square, and never lost sight of the limit of the frame. The three minutes and 25 seconds with him is a true sketch."

Courant only intended to film 100 short portraits and edit them together for his project, but it proved so popular that he kept filming.

One of his favourite sketches is that of a seven-month-old baby: "It shows the whole spectrum of human emotion in less than four minutes."

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