You don’t become one of the most successful directors in Hollywood without a deep love of film and cinematic history. That’s certainly true of Denis Villeneuve, who’s ascended to superstardom with films like “Arrival,” “Blade Runner 2049,” and most recently, “Dune” and “Dune: Part Two.” At a recent “Dune 2” screening I attended at the Directors Guild of America in New York, Villeneuve made an appearance and spoke briefly about the production process. Of course, being the huge fan of cinema that he is, he also made time at the end of the discussion to promote another film that made a huge impression on him recently, and it’s not exactly what you might expect.
The film in question is “The Clock,” a 2010 film from artist Christian Marclay that’s currently part of an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. You might wonder what kind of movie would qualify as a modern art exhibit, and the answer is one that’s 24 hours long and comprised of shots from all across the long history of film. “The Clock,” which has never been released for home viewing, is essentially a day-long montage, but it’s also much more, and it clearly made a huge impression on Villeneuve.
“I’m a bit late in the news,” the director joked, as the film has existed for a decade and a half at this point. “I was blown away last week by this film.”
The Clock is an experimental love letter to filmmaking
“The Clock” isn’t just a collection of shots from famous films. Each section of footage refers back to the core concept of time, progressing through 24 hours with shots of characters checking their watches, looking at clocks, or announcing the time. Gary Cooper glancing at the clock as the tension builds in “High Noon?” That’s there. So is lightning striking the clock tower in “Back to the Future” at 10:04 pm. The night hours can feature dream sequences, the morning sections show characters waking up and getting ready for the day, and so on. Everything from James Bond movies to the works of Ingmar Bergman, old Western classics, and more modern films like “V for Vendetta” plays across the screen, creating a mesmerizing audiovisual display that pays homage to cinema history while also centering its own artistic themes.
It’s no wonder that a filmmaker like Denis Villeneuve would be so taken with the movie. “I encourage you to go,” the director told the audience at the DGA, referring to the current exhibit at the MoMA. “You can walk in the theater, you can stay there 10 minutes, or four hours.” Villeneuve even dug into the thematic material of “The Clock” a bit, praising Marclay’s reflections on a time as a unifying concept. “Each shot is linked with the idea of time and we see it through the history of cinema,” he said. “The shot of a watch, of a clock, the suspense, the tension, the beauty of time. So you watch, for 24 hours, time. And it’s super entertaining, I swear. Go.”
Those in the greater New York metropolitan area can check out “The Clock” for themselves at the MoMA through February 17, 2025.
