Telephones, 1995 - Christian Marclay

Christian Marclay's "Telephones" (1995), a 7 1/2-minute compilation of brief Hollywood film clips that creates a narrative of its own. These linked-together snippets of scenes involve innumerable well-known actors such as Cary Grant, Tippi Hedren, Ray Milland, Humphrey Bogart and Meg Ryan, who dial, pick up the receiver, converse, react, say good-bye and hang up. In doing so, they express a multitude of emotions--surprise, desire, anger, disbelief, excitement, boredom--ultimately leaving the impression that they are all part of one big conversation. The piece moves easily back and forth in time, as well as between color and black-and-white, aided by Marclay's whimsical notions of continuity.

• Category

  Entertainment

[Systematicer]

What I learned from this is that many people in movie-verse have pretty short telephone numbers.

[AmazingShoestring]

I think the best thing about this is that at least two of the parties involved in this call are Humphrey Bogart. . .

[Alex Arnold]

That awkward moment when your phone rings in real life while watching this and you dont notice.

[sleepyheadkl]

what movie is used at 1:17

[Jack Gimbert]

...these are 7 digits because I believe area codes were not entered

[meezocool]

This is pre-area code days.

[Melt Orange]

tippi hedren, i love her

[Lyrinda Snyderman]

Wonderful! Clever conceit. Brought back both memories of the early telephones and those wonderful movies. "Dialing" and hanging up cellphones just isn't that interesting. There's something about the ratchet dialing, the bicycle bell ring and the "thunk" of a hang-up[ onto the cradle that makes an old fashioned phone call so much more dramatic. Loved it!

[Davidius Doremouseius]

Considerably less than watching .

[Mike Janson]

how long did fast-forwarding & commenting take?

[Davidius Doremouseius]

If I didn't fast forward I'd have wasted 7:17 minutes of my life. Dumb ass crap.