Anti-Clock
Anti-Clock (also known as Anti-clock: a Time Stop in the Life of Joseph Sapha) is a 1979 British experimental psychological science-fiction drama film directed by Jane Arden and Jack Bond.[1][2] It was written by Arden and produced by Bond. The film, which stars Arden's son Sebastian Saville, was shot on film and video in colour with black and white sequences.[3] PlotThe film mixes pioneering video techniques with pin-sharp colour footage in order to create a densely woven, dream-like narrative which explores issues of personal identity and social conformity. The story takes Joseph Sapha though the shadows of his past to confront that mirror image of the self. Cast
ProductionFilming locationsThe film was shot on location in London and Norfolk, England (per film credits). MusicArden sings the songs "Sleepwalking" and "Figures in White", for which she also wrote the lyrics. ReleaseThe film opened the 1979 London Film Festival but was never picked up for British distribution: its only other public British screening was at the National Film Theatre in 1983 as a tribute to Jane Arden, who committed suicide at the end of the previous year.[citation needed] The film remained unseen since then. However, it had a modest theatrical release in the US, where it received considerable critical acclaim.[citation needed] After Arden's suicide in 1982, Bond withdrew the film from circulation.[3] ReceptionVariety wrote: "As with many faddists and hoaxers, the filmmakers take scientific principles and draw absurd conclusions from them out of context. In Anti-Clock, the theories of physics formulated by Heisenberg and Einstein to explain the properties of subatomic particles are fatuously applied to issues of human behavior. This gives Arden and Bond license to rail out against sexism and materialism, but their 'we are all one' philosophy is strained. Despite contributions by some talented cameramen, film is a technical shambles."[4] Sight and Sound Claire Monk wrote that the film: "merits a place in moving-image history as a conceptually ingenious experiment in making a 'video movie' at a time when this was a genuinely new and cumbersome technology."[5] For The Quietus, Anthony Nield wrote: "The tone is reminiscent of early Cronenberg (particularly the black and white miniatures of Stereo and Crimes Of The Future) and JG Ballard: bleak, clinical, of its time and out of time. The seventies are there in the background, but they barely impinge on proceedings."[6] Home mediaThe film was restored by the British Film Institute for DVD and Blu-ray and released on 13 July 2009. References
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