On Christian Marclay's The Clock

I visited New York City for a long weekend to watch Christian Marclay’s The Clock, which I’ve wanted to see since it last appeared in New York over a decade ago.

The Clock is a 24-hour film montage of movie and television clips referencing time, mainly with a clock or watch in the frame. If you’re watching the film at 3:42 PM, the clock in the clip is set to 3:42 PM, and Agent Dale Cooper announces that it’s 3:42 PM.

This clever concept is more than enough to hook me, but Marclay goes further, not only matching up the times from films but often similar scenes and settings: a variety of robbers at 10:35 AM, people among castles at 1:20 PM. (Maybe it was cafes. I was taking notes in the theater.)

The film often plays on the pressures of time: missed trains, ultimatums, and explosions tend to occur right at the top of the hour. Marclay plays off the passage of time throughout the film. My son hoped I would see a Spider-Man in Times Square, instead I saw Peter Parker intercut over 10 minutes or so, failing to deliver a pizza on time and getting fired from Joe’s Pizza.

I watched all seven hours of The Clock available to me at MoMA. (The museum was open from 10:30 to 5:30.) I went directly to the museum from the airport and spent three hours there. The next morning, I went back at the opening and watched another three. On the third day, I went at midday and watched the hour I’d missed, plus a little extra on the edges.

There has been writing about The Clock that says it changes your relationship with time. I started writing this newsletter thinking The Clock was an ecstatic experience, but not one that changed my sense of time.

But I noticed that when I was distracted by a noise outside the theater or someone hunting for a seat, time passed me by quickly. When I was lost in the film, time slowed down — Marclay often edited five to ten film clips into each minute.

After the briefest reflection, I’ve been swayed. The Clock seemed to make me more aware of how I feel time.

I began and ended my experience with The Clock just before 3 PM, allowing me to watch twice what may be cinema’s most iconic clock scene: Harold Lloyd dangling from a high-rise clock in Safety Last, gripping the minute hand.

-Adam, IKEA Cafe, 12:33 PM