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Cinématon (1978)

Cinématon (1978)

Documentary
Release Date: 1978, December 20
Directors: Gérard Courant
Countries: France
Production: K.O.C.K. Production, Les Amis de Cinématon, Les Amis de Cinématon
Cast: Julie Delpy, Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Serge Merlin, Rosette, Jean Douchet, Anzhelika Nevolina, Charlotte Véry, Noel Godin, Mireille Perrier, Ultra Violet, László Szabó

Overview:

Cinématon is a 156-hour long experimental film by French director Gérard Courant. It was the longest film ever released until 2011. Composed over 36 years from 1978 until 2006, it consists of a series of over 2,821 silent vignettes (cinématons), each 3 minutes and 25 seconds long, of various celebrities, artists, journalists and friends of the director, each doing whatever they want for the allotted time. Subjects of the film include directors Barbet Schroeder, Nagisa Oshima, Volker Schlöndorff, Ken Loach, Benjamin Cuq, Youssef Chahine, Wim Wenders, Joseph Losey, Jean-Luc Godard, Samuel Fuller and Terry Gilliam, chess grandmaster Joël Lautier, and actors Roberto Benigni, Stéphane Audran, Julie Delpy and Lesley Chatterley. Gilliam is featured eating a 100-franc note, while Fuller smokes a cigar. Courant's favourite subject was a 7-month-old baby. The film was screened in its then-entirety in Avignon in November 2009 and was screened in Redondo Beach, CA on April 9, 2010.