ile film nerds: name your favorite medium-length (35- to 70-min) movies!

NOT tv episodes!

name your favorite movies that are in that weird length between short and feature... what the french call the "moyen metrage"...

I want to say La Jetee, Meshes in the Afternoon, Un Chant D'Amour, Scorpio Rising, and Window Water Baby Moving but think none of those are over 35.

Maybe Les Maitres Fous?

simon of the desert

the trial of joan of arc

superstar: the karen carpenter story

i think maybe scorpio rising is 35-40 mins?

anyway, don't forget all those val lewton horror movies, most are under 70 minutes

and the red balloon

A ton of 30's b-movies would fit here; apparently you could only fit 68 minutes of film into a typical film reel mailer, and if your film went even a minute over you had to pay to mail a second container (which held 3 reels iirc) for just one extra reel.

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1993) 60 min

British stop-motion. Hard to believe it was released 17 years ago.

Tons of early comedies: the Marx Bros' Duck Soup, Keaton's Sherlock Jr, WC Fields' It's a Gift.

OH MY GOD it's only 21 min but seriously, Street of Crocodiles by the Brothers Quay is SO EFFING GOOD

Tetsuo : The Iron Man
The Act Of Seeing With One's Own Eyes (kind of a documentary though)
Cremaster 1, 4, & 5

L'Age d'Or

^^^

+ Simon del Desierto, Tetsuo, plenty B-movies

vernon florida
feel like samuel beckett's film would be a good answer but i've never seen it
decasia's pretty short?, maybe not >70

feel like samuel beckett's film would be a good answer but i've never seen it

It would be but it's too short

zero for conduct

http://img89.yukle.tc/images/3951partie_de_campagne.jpg

Dumbo
Night and Fog
Detour

Oh, and if direct-to-video movies count, then this one too.

Was gonna say Detour but really I haven't seen enough films of this length. As discussed on a Bunuel thread, I need to see L'Age D'or again, and Simon Of The Desert for the first time.

imdb has the james whale FRANKENSTEIN at 70 mins (the superior BRIDE comes in at 75 mins)

is jour de fête cheating?

renoir's Partie de campagne (40 mins)

A Walk Through H

'the war game' (made for tv but only shown in cinemas, originally.)

Electric Dragon 80000V (Sogo Ishii, 2001)
Le Roman de Renard aka Tale Of The Fox (Ladislaw Starewicz, 1930)

Le Roman de Renard aka Tale Of The Fox (Ladislaw Starewicz, 1930)

this movie is totally badass.

Detour
The Set Up
L'Age D'Or

Oh wait - IMDB says "The Set-Up" is 72 mins.

antoine et colette

the trial of joan of arc

― nakhchivan, Sunday, April 25, 2010 11:28 PM (Yesterday)

so much love for this film

antoine et colette is 32 mins.

oh, thought it was just about 35 mins. my bad. still good though!

Chaplin's The Kid

Van Der Keuken's "The Mask" and Deborah Stratman's "O'er The Land" - both around 50-60 minutes, I think.

And The London Nobody Knows - 53 minutes.

hey, i'm not going to be pedantic. 32 minutes, 73 minutes, it's all good. but let's not get crazy and start including 30 minute or 75 minute films.

hey, what van der keuken film should i start with? the one everyone mentions is amsterdam global village but it's like six hours long. i got places to be, people to see and stuff.

Based on one viewing long ago, Zero for Conduct. I don't think I've seen that many films that fit the parameters.

Chaplin's _The Pilgrim_ is also funny (1923, 59 min.) some more that i don't think have been mentioned specifically: Todd Browning's _Freaks_ (1932, 64 min.) & Tourneur's _I Walked with a Zombie_ (1943, 69 min.) Vertov's _Man with a Movie Camera_ (1928, 68 min.) is historically/theoretically important. and in full-on docu mode there's Scorsese interviewing his parents in _Italianamerican (1974, 59 min.), and Henry Chalfont's early look at NY graf for PBS, _Style Wars_ (1983, 69 min.)

Agree with a lot of these, but am going to rep for Humphrey Jenning's A Diary For Timothy (1945, 38 min.)

Van Der Keuken - Amsterdam Global Village is great but maybe start with Eye Above The Well (which is just beautiful) or I <3 $ or The White Castle.

My favorite film of this ilk is Illusions (Julie Dash 1982...although I thought it was 1980). But apparently it's one minute short of 35 mins. However, these fit:

Apart From You (Mikio Naruse 1933)
The Argyle Secrets (Cy Endfield 1948)
Avalance (Mikio Naruse 1937)
Beauty #2 (Andy Warhol 1965)
The Black Cat (Edgar G. Ulmer 1934)
Blood Money (Rowland Brown 1933)
California Frontier (Elmer G. Clifton 1938)
Call Me Madame (Francoise Romand 1986)
Camp (Andy Warhol 1965)
La Cicatrice intérieure (Philippe Garrel 1972)
The Circle (Frank Borzage 1925)
Cowards Bend the Knee (Guy Maddin 2003)
Crimes at the Dark House (George King 1940)
The Curse of the Cat People (Gunther von Fritsch and Robert Wise 1944)
The Deadman (Peggy Ahwesh and Keith Sanborn 1989)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer (Thom Andersen 1974)
Eat (Andy Warhol 1963)
Exterior Night (Mark Rappaport 1993)
A Family Finds Entertainment (Ryan Trecartin 2005)
Film Ist (Gustav Deutsch (1998-2004)
Flaming Creatures (Jack Smith 1963)
Flunky, Work Hard! (Mikio Naruse 1931)
From the Notebook of... (Robert Beavers 1971/1998)
The Girl From Chicago (Oscar Micheaux 1932)
The Girl in the Rumor (Mikio Naruse 1935)
Guru, the Mad Monk (Andy Milligan 1970)
La glace à trois faces (Jean Epstein)
Handsworth Songs (John Akomfrah/Black Audio Film Collective 1986)
Hedy (Andy Warhol 1966)
Hell's Highway (Rowland Brown 1932)
Hideko The Bus Conductress (Mikio Naruse 1941)
Horse Feathers (Norman Z. McLeod 1932)
The Hours and Times (Christopher Munch 1991)
The Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting (Raul Ruiz 1979)
Inside A.M.G.: The Athletic Model Guild (probably Bob Mizer 1970)
Kunst Life (Roger Jacoby 1975)
The Life of Juanita Castro (Andy Warhol 1965)
Lonesome (Paul Fejos 1928)
Lost Book Found (Jem Cohen 1996)
Lost In The Thinking (Damon Packard 2005)
Mammame (Raul Ruiz 1987)
Mirrors Facing Mirrors (Adam Cooley 2010)
Mix-Up (Francoise Romand 1985)
(nostalgia) (Hollis Frampton 1971)
Notes of an Early Fall (Saul Levine 1976-77)
One Way Boogie Woogie (James Benning 1977)
The Oyster Princess (Ernst Lubitsch)
Page of Madness (Teinosuke Kinugasa 1926)
The Passing (Bill Viola 1991)
Pink Narcissus (James Bidgood 1971)
Pointed Heels (A. Edward Sutherland 1929)
Radio Ranch (aka Men With Steel Faces) (Otto Brower & B. Reeves Eason 1940)
Rock Hudson's Home Movies (Mark Rappaport 1992)
Sally in Our Alley (Maurice Elvey 1931)
The Seventh Victim (Mark Robson 1943) - One minute over but deal - a masterpiece of concision anyway.
Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton 1924)
Side/Walk/Shuttle (Ernie Gehr 1991)
Sluts & Goddesses Video Workshop (Annie Sprinkle and Maria Beatty 1992)
The Song of Home (Kenji Mizoguchi 1925)
SpaceDisco One (Damon Packard 2007)
Standard Gauge (Morgan Fisher 1984)
The Star Witness (William A. Wellman 1931)
Symphony for a Sinner (George Kuchar 1979)
Tales of The Valley of The Wind (Damon Packard 2009)
The Target Shoots First (Chris Wilcha 1998)
Tearoom (William Jones 2007)
That Night's Wife (Yasujiro Ozu 1930)
The End (Christopher Maclaine 1953)
A Time for Dying (Budd Boetticher 1969)
Twice A Man (Gregory J. Markopoulos 1964)
Valley of Hunted Men (John English 1942)
Vinyl (Andy Warhol 1965)
Water and Power (Pat O'Neill 1989)
Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman 1933)
The Wishing Ring (Maurice Tourneur 1914)
Young America (Frank Borzage 1932)

Kunst Life (Roger Jacoby 1975)

Ok Canyon Cinema lists this as 25 mins. But it felt waaaaay longer (a good thing) when I saw it eons ago.

And if you're in the market for something compulsively watchable under 35 mins., get thee to How to Have a Moneymaking Garage Sale starring Phyllis Diller.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515TYSS251L._SL500_.jpg

that's an amazing list, KJB (even if i haven't seen about 90% of it)! big yes to 'a family finds entertainment' - for that matter, all of his 2009 videos fit this thread i think

Fall of the House of Usher (1928, 63 minutes)
Tales from the Gimli Hospital (72 minutes)
Daft Punk's Interstella 5555 (68 minutes)

That list is crazy, Kevin John Bozelka. Water And Power and Handsworth Songs are both fantastic. I'm not sure I quite share your enthusiasm for Damon Packard, though!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Heaven and Earth Magic by Harry Smith. I'm not quite sure if it's good or bad (or if such words are even adequate when describing it), but Heaven and Earth Magic certainly is an unique film, I haven't seen anything quite like it before or after.

"The Case of the Mukkinese Battle Horn" <----- only 29 minutes though

"Doin' Time in Times Square"
"Final Flesh"
"Take an Easy Ride"

(and Damon Packard is awesome!!!)

Shane Meadows's delightful Somers Town just misses the cut at 71 mins, but deserves a mention. I've not seen it yet, but his Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee is the same running time too.

Most of the great Kuchar Bros films are shorter, but I bet a few are 35-70.

also both of Laurel & Hardy's great features, Sons of the Desert and Way Out West.

Avalance (Mikio Naruse 1937)

Should be Avalanche obv.

Yes yes yes I said yes to Final Flesh!! Forgot about that one!!

Take an Easy Ride

This movie is craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy! Really in a class by itself. Great music too.

I always tell my students never to make a film in this range - too long for the festival circuit; too short for feature-length distribution. But then....well, look at this bounty. And 35-70 min. may be where the utmost in nuttiness happens in cinema.

Great idea for a thread btw, amateurist! I'd love to see periodic additions to it.

I stupidly forgot to post my most obvious answer, which I have been obsessed with for the past month or two:

Alex Bag's Untitled (Fall '95)

seriously how fucking great is this thing

"Doin' Time in Times Square" is the director of "Wild Style" pointing his video camera out of his apartment window (in the heart of Times Square in 1986) and just periodically shooting the action outside (which ranges from the obligatory prostitutes and street preachers to a full on assault and robbery in broad daylight with people milling past). It's horrifying, funny, utterly fascinating, hypnotic, and so much more - a crucial artifact. It's 39 minutes long.

"la libertad" (2001), which is truly amazing, just gets in at 69min

Are you sure? I looked into that and I thought it was a little longer. Great film, though!

my .avi is 69 mins, so prolly one of those 24fps–25fps things or whatever

Are you sure you aren't missing the shocking surprise ending??

tbh will forte was the last guy i expected to see show up, but no -- that bit made the cut

I always tell my students never to make a film in this range - too long for the festival circuit; too short for feature-length distribution.

My professors are always telling us this, but you can alway program two 45-50-ish minute films together or show them with two or three shorts. The film I'm working on now might be close to 40 minutes, no doubt it will be on this list in a year's time.

zorns motherfucking lemma, no?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhfvfEt7xpI

Equinox comes in at about an hour, right? So, that.

I looooove Desperate Teenage Lovedolls!! Great choice!! Never saw the sequel (there was a sequel, right?).

Yep, Lovedolls Superstar.