Telephones - Christian Marclay (1995)


"It is a dark and stormy night, and a man hustles to a phone booth and furtively dials. Cut to another man, also dialing, the motion of his hand betraying a certain anxiety. Cut to a succession of others, many of whom are immediately recognizable--Cary Grant, Tippi Hedren, Ray Milland, Meg Ryan, Humphrey Bogart--dialing or stabbing Touch-Tones in various states of expectation. Drawn into this anticipatory mood, we are startled when, in the next shot, a phone actually rings--as, in real life, when we are jolted by that unexpected call. Cleverly conceived and artfully edited, Christian Marclay's 7 1/2-minute video, Telephones, comprises a succession of brief film clips that creates a humorous narrative of its own in which the characters, in progression, dial, hear the phone ring, pick it up, converse, react, say goodbye 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."
Christian Marclay's Telephones
Christian Marclay by Ben Neill BOMB 84/Summer 2003
YouTube: Telephones, 1995

2008 September: Christian Marclay, 2010 July: Christian Marclay Festival, 2010 October: Night Music, 2011 March: Christian Marclay - Part I: Race to ‘The Clock’, 2011 July: Christian Marclay's Video Quartet, 2011 August: Cyanotype, 2012 July: Fred Frith at Cafe Oto, with Christian Marclay, John Edwards, and Mark Sanders, 2013 October: Record Player: Christian Marclay (2000).

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