Movie with plot and running times that match

July 18, 2008 1:04 PM

Are there any non-documentary films where the duration of the plot matches the length of the film? For example, a 90 minute snapshot of a relationship, a journey, a battle... or whatever.
posted by punkfloyd to media & arts (27 comments total)

Run Lola Run
posted by perpetualstroll at 1:06 PM on July 18, 2008

High Noon
posted by kat at 1:09 PM on July 18, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Nick of Time
posted by parilous at 1:12 PM on July 18, 2008

Phone Booth seemed to run real-time from what my memory recalls.
posted by Static Vagabond at 1:13 PM on July 18, 2008

Tape

My Dinner with Andre
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 1:13 PM on July 18, 2008

Any movie that uses a single shot (or sufficiently mimics one)
Timecode
Rope
Russian Ark
posted by Gortuk at 1:15 PM on July 18, 2008

Before Sunset
posted by hydrophonic at 1:16 PM on July 18, 2008

The "real time" entry in wikipedia has a list.
posted by hydrophonic at 1:19 PM on July 18, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

Alfred Hitchcock's Rope.
posted by Static Vagabond at 1:20 PM on July 18, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

REC
posted by neblina_matinal at 1:25 PM on July 18, 2008

Conversations with Other Women
posted by jrichards at 1:32 PM on July 18, 2008

24.
posted by Gordion Knott at 1:35 PM on July 18, 2008

The running time of Cléo from 5 to 7 is only 90 minutes, but I've heard it described as depicting the plot in real time.
posted by bubukaba at 1:42 PM on July 18, 2008

Actually, Run Lola Run is three times as long as its plot.
posted by nicwolff at 1:44 PM on July 18, 2008

Run Lola Run does not meet the requirements. The action is in more or less real time, but the plot repeats, unfolding differently each time. Thus, the film is considerably longer than any one version of the plot.

88 Minutes comes close, but it's a terrible movie.

On Preview: nicwolff beat me to it.
posted by jedicus at 1:45 PM on July 18, 2008

REC covers a longer time period than it's running time... in the first half at least the camera is turned off several times

Phone Booth was the one I was I first thought of, as well as Time Code already mentioned

I'm sure there must be loads of short films it applies to
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:46 PM on July 18, 2008

And of course I missed someone had already mentioned Phone Booth...
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 3:47 PM on July 18, 2008

Cloverfield
posted by Ugh at 4:34 PM on July 18, 2008

Not Cloverfield. Hud, the guy with the camera, stops filming at several points in the film, skipping over sizable (though unimportant) sections of the story. See the walk in the subway tunnel, for instance. There are also a few scenes interspersed throughout the film that were recorded weeks and months earlier.
posted by Rhaomi at 5:58 PM on July 18, 2008

I haven't seen it in a long, long time, but I think Sorry, Wrong Number fits this description.
posted by marsha56 at 7:30 PM on July 18, 2008

Snake Eyes? Not 100% sure though. Some googling says yes, some googling says "near real-time".
posted by iguanapolitico at 7:40 PM on July 18, 2008

Not a film, but the episode of Doctor Who titled "42" would fit.
posted by you're a kitty! at 11:27 PM on July 18, 2008

Fantastic Voyage.
posted by w0mbat at 12:34 AM on July 19, 2008

As others noted Rope is in real time, but it is also a single scene. To get around the problem of only having about 20 minutes of film at a time, Hitchcock would pan to the back of a chair or a person, just as the camera was about to run out of film, and everyone would freeze until the film reels were changed. Then he'd turn the camera back on, resume the pan, and the action would continue, but the audience saw it only as a continuously moving camera.

The film came from a play, so the single scene was inherited from that, but that Hitchcock figured out how to do it, and pretty ingeniously. Most folks who've seen it aren't even aware it was a single scene.
posted by Toekneesan at 4:44 AM on July 19, 2008

Nick of Time is not real time--it was just advertised that way.

Before Sunrise.

Conversations With Other Women is a bit of a cheat--it's split screen with real time on one screen and, sometimes, flashbacks on the other. Good movie with excellent acting.
posted by dobbs at 6:51 AM on July 19, 2008

I thought of "The Red Balloon" (La Ballon Rouge) when I read your question. Have not had time to check through it but it certainly gives me the impression of being real time. The link is to a copy on Youtube which I'd recommend.
posted by rongorongo at 9:08 AM on July 19, 2008

12 Angry Men and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are each almost real time. The former has one scene at the end (and possibly one at the beginning? I'm not sure about that) which breaks the real-time convention. The latter breaks real-time when they travel to a bar and back, but the original play the movie is based on is real-time; in the play, the entire story takes place in George and Martha's house without the trip to the bar. The original play for 12 Angry Men is also real-time, IIRC. They're both excellent movies, too, so they may be worth your consideration depending on how rigorous about real-time you want to be.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:27 PM on July 19, 2008