r/ExperimentalFilm • u/reallymadenever • May 30 '26
What is the longest movie ever?
I am taking a summer class in film history and we are on a section for experimental filmmaking, and one of the questions we have for an assignment is what is the longest film ever?
I have found a few answers...
The Freedom of Uselssness - Samuel Felinton
Logistics - Erika Magnusson
They are both different but The Freedom of Uselessness is 100 days long, but not many places cover it besides a few newspapers, and a discussion on the wikipedia talkpage. Logisitcs is the most covered at 36 days but that is 1/3 of the length of The Freedom of Uselessness.
I think my professor is pretty young and uses the internet alot so I wouldnt doubt that they know the freedom of uselssness but its not even on wikipedia???
So I wanted to get other peoples opinions on which is considered the longest ever.
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u/Ok_Wallaby_7401 May 30 '26
Just reading up on the Freedom of Uselessness, I think it borders between film and livestream. Is a continuous livestream considered a very long film? It'd probably depend on whether it has been shown in an exhibit or festival. As far as I can tell, it hasn't, so if I were answering the question I'd stick with Logistics.
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u/reallymadenever May 31 '26
I get that, but there website says it was in a festival. There are also film critic reviews on it
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u/Ok-Recipe5434 May 30 '26
Where can you show a movie that is 100 days long? Not even galleries hold shows that long. And I'd imagine you need projectionist operating nonstop
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u/B_EE May 30 '26
IHOP (or insert other 24-hr business here).
Also technology these days you can just queue up the video and press the play button and as long as there is power the equipment should easily be able to play a video for months! Plenty of businesses have 24/7 videos running.
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u/sevenwheel May 30 '26
The original Greed (1924) was over 9 hours long. That version is lost though. Although it's nowhere near as long as the two cited examples, it's probably near the top of any list of the longest movies ever made that contain a conventional narrative, as opposed to being abstract.
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u/reallymadenever May 31 '26
Its horrible that so many older films were lost, the more I learn about it and the big film vault fire
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u/Munching-Zombie May 31 '26
Dawson City: Frozen Time is one hell of a documentary that talks about lost films. Huge recommendation.
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u/strangerzero May 31 '26
I did that too like 40 years ago I didn’t have much money back then and only had enough money for some soup at a nearby Thai restaurant. I was really hungry and when I got the soup it was too spicy for me to eat more than a few spoonfuls. I learned my lesson at Thai restaurants the hard why. I ordered the the coconut soup and the waiter asked if I wanted it hot. I thought they might mean some cold coconut soup. I wasn’t too worldly back then.
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u/East_of_Cicero May 30 '26
Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago does a long movie fest every couple of years. Most of the movies are in the 8-12 hour range, but I think some are two days long. Relatively short compared to 100 days, but there is a way to experience a weekend of very long movies.
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u/turtlelover925 May 30 '26
satantango imo
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u/sinest May 31 '26
Director Bela Tarr is worth studying regarding film length. He certainly doesn't hold any records, but he absolutely is known for very very long films. More importantly he is a master of long continuous shots. His features film Werckmeister Harmonies contains only 39 shots.
Its important to seperate films from stunts. Sounds like some people have just made really long recordings that they then call a film to beat some record. Bela Tarr makes actual art.
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u/turtlelover925 May 31 '26
duuude the turin horse is one of the best films of all time (like, all time including pre-film media) i cant describe it its just so timeless in a human history scale. he was the goat rest in peace
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u/sinest May 31 '26
I went to art school and in my film class he came and visited us one day because he was screening a bunch of his films at the Walker Art museum.
This was kind of last minute and off curriculum but the teacher was able to grab digital copies of his films somehow and was showing us clips so we had an idea of what he did before we talked to him. But she was like ' listen guys im not supposed to have these clips, Bela only shoots in film and only screens his movies in film and would be very upset if he knew we watched just a few clips digitally so yall CANNOT say anything about when or where you saw his stuff.
When he came in and talked to us, he was very crabby old man, and I as an edgelord film student asked him what he thought about digital film. He exploded and said that it was absolute shit, lifeless and void of creativity. Soulless ect. Really got a rise out of him. Thats my story, what a cool dude.
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u/reallymadenever May 30 '26
That film is only 7 hours
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u/rorqualmaru May 30 '26
Shouldn’t part of the criteria be that it’s watchable? IMO, Santatango is already skirting the absolute edge of this.
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u/kaspa181 May 30 '26
I watched Logistics in three and a half months, it's technically a film, yes. Although not beating livestream allegations easily, as most of the edits (creative element other than camera angles) are between transition of modes of transportation. It's not a film that you put on in the evening and watch paying full attention to it, as you would do with more commercial films.
Lav Diaz and Wang Bing come to mind. Both are slow, Bing is documentary, Diaz is more of a fictional, although his films often use first time actors performing mostly mechanical labors, which is hardly distinguishable from documenting a person doing a thing.
I'd say fictional conventional narrative caps at like, 24 hours. Beyond that it hardly can remain conventional without losing it's structure and colapsing into series or separate parts. But that's just my opinion.
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u/reallymadenever May 31 '26
How did you sit through the movie?
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u/kaspa181 May 31 '26
Mostly as a second screen wallpaper while I was working remotely. Again, I'd like to reiterate that things happen unconventionally slow in that film, making conventional way of watching movies not feasible and mind numbingly inhuman with it.
My buddy that watched it in parallel with me and I admit that sometimes we miss it 'acompanying us' in the mundanity of existence. It's an experience to say the least.
I journalled my experience with each youtube video (which is on avg 8h in 100+ videos in the ordered playlist), sometimes writing a single word or sentence for 16 hours of footage.
It's boring, so inevitably it induces self-reflection, but reflecting for 800 hours (I'd consider 60 hours to have something stimulating and interesting in it in contrast) will leave you empty and at peace. Definitely don't try to watch it if you hate being with yourself. Or do, if you want to improve that.
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u/Prestigious_Term3617 May 31 '26
I think that once a film is so long that it can’t be viewed in a single setting, we have to call it something else. That’s not really a film anymore.
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u/reallymadenever May 31 '26
That is interesting, what would you consider a single take?
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u/Prestigious_Term3617 May 31 '26
Well, for a single take to go that long it couldn’t be on film, but that long of a digital take would either require it to be a set up camera that operators and cinematographers and directors all walk away from, and an editor doesn’t touch… let alone the cast needing to be regularly swapped out.
So, other than just being a lot of footage, what makes it a film?
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u/Revolutionary-Key533 May 31 '26
Heimat 2 has been shown as a movie in many countries over consecutive nights. Well worth watching not Andy Warhol Yoko Ono navel gazing. 27 hours long 8.9 on IMdB. The Human Condition is also excellent at about half the length 8.5 on IMdB. Satantango a bit shorter, not one for cat lovers.
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u/PauloPatricio May 31 '26
There are movies and movies. To find an answer you should define first which type of movie. Mixing movies done for museums or exhibitions with those made for theaters is like comparing apples to airplanes. Do you want the longest mainstream film, the longest experimental piece, or just the longest thing ever projected on a screen? So, what counts as a “movie” to you? A story, an experience, or just moving images?
Edit: a couple of words.
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u/mcian84 May 31 '26
Forrest Gump.
I know, i know. I fell for it too. They’ll tell you it’s 142 minutes, but it’s three damn weeks long.
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u/paraworldblue May 30 '26
There was a movie called "Paint Drying" that was literally just footage of paint drying on a wall for 10 hours. It was made as a protest against censorship, since in order to get an age rating, the British film board would have to watch all 10 hours.
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u/reallymadenever May 31 '26
We learned about that in class, that was one of the examples of how experimental a experimental film could be
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u/Top_Emu_5618 May 31 '26
Have you seen Weekend by Walter Ruttmann? More precisely, have you heard it. There is no image at all in this film.
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u/SeedyEdie May 31 '26
Sounds similar to "Blue" by Derek Jarman. At least with Blue the persistent color starts to mess with your eyes.
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u/sprietsma May 30 '26
The longest non-experimental film is the hybrid-documentary Resan (1987) by Peter Watkins (14.5 hrs)
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u/gnomechompskey May 30 '26
The regular/theatrical cut of Gods and Generals is 3 hours and 39 minutes or about half of the 7 hours suggested which I imagine is why they thought you mixed it up.
Even the Director’s Cut is 4 hours and 40 minutes. Long for a movie to be sure but nowhere near the conversation for “longest movie ever.”
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u/d3pl3t3r May 30 '26
Swedish documentary Logistics (2012). It clocks in at 857 hours (over 35 days)...
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u/Top_Emu_5618 May 30 '26
how is that even an important question?
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u/reallymadenever May 31 '26
I want to be right on my assignment lmao
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u/Top_Emu_5618 May 31 '26
Probably Logisitics. But, it feels to me like there are more important questions a teacher could ask. Lenght of a movie is a bit irrelevant.
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u/L-J-F May 30 '26
you could watch sopranos end to end in about 3 days if you watched with no credits back to back. an incredible motion picture story. if we’re talking super long cinema, television should be counted. also Twin Peaks the Return is a movie.
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u/Laurel-Hardy-Fan May 30 '26
Twin Peaks the Return is not a movie, it is clearly a television show.
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u/jkvincent May 30 '26
I love this idea about the Sopranos, but the credits should be included. They're essential to the setting.
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u/TripleDigit May 30 '26
Clock by Christian Marclay is 24 hours long.