What films are longer than the events depicted?

September 30, 2012 2:32 AM

What films are longer than the events depicted?

Can you think of any films which are longer than the events depicted? They would need to show the same event from multiple viewpoints (or repeatedly), or include slow motion.

I think 11:14 might qualify, as it shows the same evening from 5 viewpoints. (It has been a while since I saw it, so I'm not sure if the film is actually longer than the evening depicted. Can anyone clear that up?)

There are plenty of "real time" films, where the events shown are the same duration as the film (lots of Hitchcock, I think, and others like United 93), but can you think of any which are longer than real time?

posted by richb to Media & Arts (27 answers total)

Best answer: Empire.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 2:38 AM on September 30, 2012

How do you interpret the passage of time in films with time travel? If a large portion of the movie is a dream or flashback, are you counting real time passage, or perceived? How long was Dorothy out in the Wizard of Oz?
posted by WasabiFlux at 2:40 AM on September 30, 2012

Best answer: Run, Lola, Run depicts three slightly different versions of the same scene, which unfolds in real time.
posted by Jabberwocky at 2:44 AM on September 30, 2012 [9 favorites]

Response by poster: @M.Caution - Empire definitely qualifies, but I was looking for mainstream/pop films.

@WasabiFlux - Time travel / flashbacks really complicate this. The way I'm thinking about this, the time spent in Oz comes under "events depicted", so the Wizard of Oz wouldn't qualify.

@Jabberwocky - great example, thanks!
posted by richb at 2:48 AM on September 30, 2012

Hero recounts two different versions of the same events; but I'm not sure about the timeframe so don't know if it exactly qualifies.
posted by Coobeastie at 2:53 AM on September 30, 2012

You're probably familiar with this film, but for others who find this discussion, Rashomon (imdb) is the classic film for depicting the same event from multiple perspectives.
posted by victory_laser at 3:11 AM on September 30, 2012

If multiple viewpoints are allowed, then Rashomon is obvious. Go and Living in Oblivion also apply, I think.

And just because I have to cheat, Noises Off… contains a play(Nothing On), which is performed several times.
posted by Su at 3:13 AM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Also, Jacob's Ladder gives an alternate approach to how a film might be longer than its events, given the true nature of what comprised most of the movie.
posted by Su at 3:19 AM on September 30, 2012 [6 favorites]

Probably: Amores Perros and/or Synecdoche, New York?
posted by KMB at 3:25 AM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Clue! We first watch the evening's events, and then we watch three different takes on the murder scenario.
posted by mochapickle at 3:32 AM on September 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

Best answer: Source Code shows the same 8 minutes again and again.
posted by caek at 3:37 AM on September 30, 2012 [4 favorites]

Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown
posted by HeroZero at 3:39 AM on September 30, 2012 [3 favorites]

Vantage Point
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:41 AM on September 30, 2012

Gus van Sant's Elephant shows a school shooting (based on Columbine) from multiple viewpoints.
posted by Infinite Jest at 4:40 AM on September 30, 2012

Memento, runs backwards and contunually replays the first few moments of the last scene sometimes from a slightly different camera angle.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:56 AM on September 30, 2012

I don't think Hero works for this, if only for all of the (unseen) travel time between the various locations shown in the film, whether or not the travel actually happened. Even if there was only a single meeting, it would still have taken Li's character a long time to reach Beijing, even with being able to glide through the air.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:12 AM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Memento isn't in real timem if I recall right - it's a traditional movie with cuts and edits (when asleep, using the bathroom, some travel).
posted by muddgirl at 5:52 AM on September 30, 2012

Inception!
posted by Tom-B at 6:24 AM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, with all of the dream-time, I feel like Inception qualifies. And depending on time-stretching, you might also be able to include Pleasantville and the first Back to the Future. Also, the episode "The Inner Light" from ST:TNG.

Not sure if any of those are disqualified under "events depicted" though.
posted by zombieflanders at 6:37 AM on September 30, 2012

Possibly Titanic? I'm sure that the movie itself is longer than the time between collision and sinking, but I doubt that the part of the movie between collision and sinking is longer than the real time.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 6:46 AM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

zombieflanders writes "And depending on time-stretching, you might also be able to include Pleasantville and the first Back to the Future."

Back to the Future starts at 8 in the morning Friday and advances to late that night/early Saturday morning before the time travel then after the time jump both ways Marty is back to Saturday early morning and advances into the late morning Saturday. Probably 26-30 hours total ignoring the time spent in 1955.

Also Run, Lola, Run does incorporate flash backs and flash forwards for the events depicted aren't entirely contained within the ~20 minutes of the run.
posted by Mitheral at 8:03 AM on September 30, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'd second "Source Code," which is an excellent SF movie (don't let the star power fool you) by Duncan Jones, who also made the superb "Moon." Eventually it does leave that important 8 minutes, but not by more than 30 minutes or so, as we learn the outcome of an event.

Also, not so fast on the Big Bang. Every doco on the big bang shows the outcome in the form of a light-transparent universe, and I just read the other day that that took over 400,000 years.

Can we include the entire season of Dallas that was all a dream?
posted by Sunburnt at 9:41 AM on September 30, 2012

Waking Life is about a dream world that exists in the last few moments before death.
posted by Phssthpok at 4:43 PM on September 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks all, I'm enjoying this. Suggestions from above which don't count for me:

• Hero covers many days of events
• Synecdoche, New York covers many days of events, even years
• Source Code seems like it might qualify, but I think they cover more than a couple of hours worth of events in the final wrapping up, so that would disqualify it.
• Inception shows more than one day's worth of events at the top level (they edit out some travelling time)
• Titanic shows many days of events (we see them boarding several days before the sinking)
• Jackie Brown shows more than a couple of hours worth of events, I'm pretty sure
• I haven't seen Amores Perros, but it sounds longer than the film to me -- wikipedia mentions one sequence which sounds like more than a couple of hours: "El Chivo is hired by a man to kill his business partner, and Chivo is about to make the kill when the film's central car crash interrupts him"
• I haven't seen Elephant, but the IMDB plot sounds like it covers a whole day
• It has been ages since I saw Go, but I think it covers a whole day, from mid afternoon to early the next morning, which is more than its 103 minute run-time

Ones which I don't know enough about:

• I haven't seen Rashomon, so I don't know.
• I haven't see Clue -- does the whole evening depicted last less than 94 mins?
• Perhaps Run, Lola, Run is disqualified as per Mitheral's comment.

So the only definite winner is the slow-mo deliberately unwatchable Empire, and 11:14 and RLR _might_ come close. Any others?
posted by richb at 8:08 AM on October 1, 2012

I would disqualify Clue because the retellings are actually retold by a character in the story, so during that part of the film the characters are standing around listening to Wadsworth tell them what happened. I don't think the characters could have had pre-dinner drinks, had dinner, had post-dinner drinks, and explored the house all in 90-some-odd minutes (and still had time to murder each other).
posted by mskyle at 10:24 AM on October 1, 2012

Nick of Time is a real-time movie that is longer than the events depicted due to a character being knocked unconscious for a few minutes; the dream is shown on screen and is longer than the length of the unconscious span of time in the movie's internal clock.
posted by JDC8 at 4:26 PM on October 1, 2012

Groundhog Day
Crash (takes place over a day or two, but from several different characters' lives)
posted by mtphoto at 10:53 PM on February 7, 2013