Christian Marclay - Telephones, 1995

Christian Marclay’s “Telephones” (1995), a 7 1/2-minute compilation of brief Hollywood film clips that creates a narrative of its own. These linked-together snippets of scenes involve innumerable well-known actors such as Cary Grant, Tippi Hedren, Ray Milland, Humphrey Bogart and Meg Ryan, who dial, pick up the receiver, converse, react, say good-bye and hang up. In doing so, they express a multitude of emotions—surprise, desire, anger, disbelief, excitement, boredom—ultimately leaving the impression that they are all part of one big conversation.

The piece moves easily back and forth in time, as well as between color and black-and-white, aided by Marclay’s whimsical notions of continuity. A shot of a woman decked out in ’70s tiger-patterned clothing is followed by one of Whoopi Goldberg talking on a zebra-striped phone. A man saying “I haven’t been able to think or concentrate on anything but you” segues to another man’s perplexed reaction: “I see,” he says. The individual soundtracks are surprisingly successful in setting a mood even in such minute segments, and Marclay uses them, along with other inherent effect—dialing, ringing, beeping, voices, the receiver being dropped or slammed down—to create a rhythmic tone poem.
source: Carol Diehl


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Telephones, 1995 - Christian Marclay (07:17)
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