Contents
The top 10 includes the longest films in the world in the history of cinema. The list does not include series that are obviously designed for a long show. All of the pictures below were filmed with the expectation of a holistic demonstration. The duration of some of them is absurd and not justified, but that is the will of the directors who decided to stand out from the crowd.
10 War and Peace
«War and Peace“(1965) – the longest film in Soviet cinema, directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. All the stars of the Soviet stage took part in the feature film: Sergei Bondarchuk, Lyudmila Savelyeva, Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Oleg Tabakov and others. The screened epic of Leo Tolstoy was a huge success and was awarded an Oscar as the best film in a foreign language. In addition, the feature film is included in the list of the highest-budget films in the history of cinema: it took about 8 million rubles to create, which was a fabulous amount by the standards of Soviet times. The investment paid off: in 1966, the film gathered a record number of viewers: 58 million people in the USSR alone. The shooting of the film lasted for six years.
9. Filipino Family Evolution
«Filipino Family Evolution” is one of the best and longest Filipino paintings with a running time of 9 hours. The film was made in 2004 and directed by Lav Diaz. The film was to the taste of film critics, who left rave reviews, describing it as a monumental masterpiece of cinema. The version shown at the festival is 1,5 hours longer than the one that reached the audience. At the center of the unfolding action of the picture is a small group of Filipinos leading a desperate struggle in a time of political chaos in the country. Canadian audiences have included a masterpiece creation in the top ten best films of all time.
8. outside 1
«outside 1(1971) is the eighth longest film in the world. The film is based on Honore de Balzac’s The Human Comedy. The duration of the film creation is 12 hours 36 minutes. “Outside 1” includes eight episodes with a duration of 90-100 minutes. The idea of director Jacques Revite was to combine several stories that have a subtle connection with each other, and the author of the feature film was quite able to embody this.
7. Journey
«Journey” directed by Peter Watkins is one of the longest documentaries in the world with a running time of 14 hours and 30 minutes. Filming took place over several years on different continents. In the 80s, the film was shown at the Austrian Film Museum. The Journey was rarely shown to the general public. The main storyline is connected with power, the production of atomic weapons and the numerous costs of it.
6. Berlin-Alexanderplatz
Artistic picture “Berlin-Alexanderplatz”is one of the longest in the world of cinema. It was filmed in 1980 by Reiner Fassbinder and ran for 15 hours. This is a long story of the former pimp Franz Bieberkopf, who served time in prison for the murder of a prostitute working for him. Having been released, he begins to search for himself in this world. The hero makes a promise to himself that he will no longer turn off the right and honest path. But this is not easy to do in a country mired in unemployment and crime. The plot unfolds against the backdrop of the 20s of the last century in Germany. Berlin-Alexanderplatz is based on the novel of the same name by Alfred Döblin. In 2007, a restored version of the drama was filmed.
5. The longest and most pointless film
«The longest and most pointless film‘ lives up to its name. The tape was filmed in 1968 by Englishman Anthony Scott in a new direction called underground. The picture is unique only in that it has absolutely no plot and lasts for 48 hours – 2 days. No special filming was done for the film. It was “glued together” from advertising clips and film frames that did not get into the films. “The Longest, Most Meaningless Movie” is “cinematic trash” and has absolutely no value. The painting was shown in 1968 in London, and then it was presented at the Experimental Art Festival.
4. Insomnia treatment
«Insomnia treatment(1987) is the fourth longest film in the world. The author of the plotless picture was John Henry Timmis. In 1987, the film with a duration of 87 hours (3,5 days) was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest film. There is no plot in the picture, and L. D. Groban, reading his poems, becomes its main figure. At moments the reading is suddenly interrupted by inserts of heavy metal clips that have erotic content. The film was created with the aim of reprogramming the minds of people suffering from insomnia. The “medical” film saw the light of day in 1987, when it was shown by the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.
3. Matryoshka
«Matryoshka“(2006) – a feature film directed by Karin Heler opens the top three. The total duration of the longest German film is 95 hours or 4 days. The entire film has no soundtrack and is built on one photo. The frame shows events that are loosely related to each other. “Matryoshka” was presented in 2006 at the festival in Frankfurt on a giant screen canvas with an area of 100 square meters.
2. Cinematon
«Cinematon“(2010) – Gerard Courant’s artistic painting is one of the longest in the world. Filming of the film lasted more than thirty years (1978-2010), and its duration was 154 hours, which is almost 6,5 days. “Cinematon” includes more than two thousand silent episodes with a duration of three minutes. The heroes of the episodes were celebrities, acquaintances and friends of the director, who were engaged in the allotted time on camera, whatever they please. For example, Gerard’s friend Terry Gilliam ate a banknote during filming. Russian stars also got into the frame: Inna Churikova, Lyudmila Kotlyarova, Yuliana Semenova and others. It is very curious to observe people who do not act according to a written script. The film received positive reviews from film critics.
1. Modernity forever
«Modernity forever” (2011) – the longest film in the world, shot by the Danish art group Superflex. The film shows the world’s largest headquarters of a lumber company in Helsinki, which is gradually being destroyed due to the disappearance of humanity from the face of the Earth. The film was shown at the Helsinki Festival of Contemporary Art. It will take 240 hours to watch the movie in its entirety, or to be more precise, 10 days.