Friday, December 14, 2007

The Way Things Go

I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine. You know the kind of e-mail I mean - obviously been making the rounds, a fair amount of hyperbole, etc. It was about this "Fantastic Machine" that took these people 13,029 hours to build, blah, blah. After looking at it, I was pretty sure it was fake, and sure enough, it was; no such machine exists. But, it reminded me of a great film called "The Way Things Go" made in 1987 by Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss. It's about half an hour long and the whole thing is just a Rube Goldberg type experiment. It has no point or function, but it certainly is fun. I give it two big, enthusiastic, well-lubricated thumbs way, way up. To see the whole thing, you have to buy or rent it. Or get it from your local library. Here's a little clip:

1 comment:

Suzy said...

What was that I was just saying last night about the number of clubs you've played in that have burned down?

But seriously folks, I want to comment on this video. We've become so accustomed to cgi animation and are so wowed by it, and then many people seem to confuse it with reality. The imagination and expertise that it took to do "The Way Things Go" is so much more impressive, in my mind. And the fact that you have to wait for each thing to happen in its own time, makes it that much better. This is a definite must see.

And if you have young kids? Help them learn the patience to enjoy the unfolding of things. Slow moving is OK. Black and white is good.