by Graeme Stirling
This trailer is, in all honesty, exactly what you’d expect it to be. A film spanning 720 hours – or 30 days – accompanied by a short 72-minute teaser is clearly going to be less of a narrative and more of an immense, possibly overblown visual art project.
Those familiar with director Anders Weberg’s work will have seen this coming. Weberg refers to himself primarily as an artist and an experimental filmmaker. Over the past twenty-odd years he has produced 300 separate projects, each one addressing the moving image as a means of expression. Ambiencé is set to be his last ever film and, it seems, will epitomise this ponderous view.
This trailer is, in all honesty, exactly what you’d expect it to be. A film spanning 720 hours – or 30 days – accompanied by a short 72-minute teaser is clearly going to be less of a narrative and more of an immense, possibly overblown visual art project.
Those familiar with director Anders Weberg’s work will have seen this coming. Weberg refers to himself primarily as an artist and an experimental filmmaker. Over the past twenty-odd years he has produced 300 separate projects, each one addressing the moving image as a means of expression. Ambiencé is set to be his last ever film and, it seems, will epitomise this ponderous view.
From the outset, it looks more like something you’d find in the screened-off little room of an exhibition or in contention for the Turner prize. The images are opaque and heavily filtered, some black and white and some a watery wash of colour, all accompanied by long, droning background notes from a far-off keyboard stack. The human body, Weberg says, lies at the heart of much of his work. In this case we see a child exploring the grounds of a windmill and a long shot of a nude woman pirouetting under water whilst partially wrapped in a silk sash. There are landscapes, too – fields; trees; fences; buildings. After a while it’s difficult to keep track. Not that Weberg will mind. He aims, he says, to mix various methods in order to explore the potential of audio visual media.
Moreover, those who are potentially interested in the mammoth project will have the chance to go back and give it another look. So momentous is the task of producing Ambiencé – apparently the longest film ever made – that the full-length version will not be released until 2020. On the day it surfaces, according to Weberg’s website, it will be screened concurrently across each continent and then promptly destroyed. This is intended as an epic swan-song, a speculative memoir in film form that appears to be a deeply personal matter for its creator.
We will, however, get another look or two, each one following Weberg’s vague numerical theme. This year has seen the release of a 72-minute preview (as he calls it, the short teaser). In 2016, a second trailer will be unveiled, this one clocking in at seven hours and twenty minutes (the short trailer). Only the third preview is described by Weberg himself as long, due for release in 2018 and spanning 72 hours.
All in all, it sounds like heavy-going. Ambiencé is not really a film at all, at least not in the way we’ve come to know the term, and it’s hard to imagine any significant number of viewers finding themselves enthralled by what he calls a surreal dream-like journey beyond places with an abstract nonlinear narrative.
Indulgent? Certainly. Overdone? Quite possibly yes. Worth the effort? Only time – a lot of it – will tell. All relevant information and updates can be found on Weberg’s website. In the meantime, let us know what you think – we really have no idea.
Moreover, those who are potentially interested in the mammoth project will have the chance to go back and give it another look. So momentous is the task of producing Ambiencé – apparently the longest film ever made – that the full-length version will not be released until 2020. On the day it surfaces, according to Weberg’s website, it will be screened concurrently across each continent and then promptly destroyed. This is intended as an epic swan-song, a speculative memoir in film form that appears to be a deeply personal matter for its creator.
We will, however, get another look or two, each one following Weberg’s vague numerical theme. This year has seen the release of a 72-minute preview (as he calls it, the short teaser). In 2016, a second trailer will be unveiled, this one clocking in at seven hours and twenty minutes (the short trailer). Only the third preview is described by Weberg himself as long, due for release in 2018 and spanning 72 hours.
All in all, it sounds like heavy-going. Ambiencé is not really a film at all, at least not in the way we’ve come to know the term, and it’s hard to imagine any significant number of viewers finding themselves enthralled by what he calls a surreal dream-like journey beyond places with an abstract nonlinear narrative.
Indulgent? Certainly. Overdone? Quite possibly yes. Worth the effort? Only time – a lot of it – will tell. All relevant information and updates can be found on Weberg’s website. In the meantime, let us know what you think – we really have no idea.
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