Changing time (quickly)

Germany, 1988

Artwork

We see the celebration of New Year’s Eve with fireworks in 1988, repeated exactly in 1923, in 1908, and in munitions explosions in 1812, as well as an air attack in World War II and there is no difference in the image. Meanwhile, a group of women tries to remember the words of the third stanza of Schiller’s lyrics to Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. Freeways, clocks and the solar system form categories which shape experience, while Lenin’s lying in state reminds us of the previous one we saw of Gardel. Martin Heidegger and Hannah Arendt are philosophers of the city, which is visualized as a gigantic clock. Finally, Freder in Metropolis tries to hold back the hands of the enormous clock/machine anticipating the turn of the century.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

creator

Alexander Kluge

Duration

00:25:00:00

Production places
Germany
Production dates
1988

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

B1000113

Languages

English

German

Audience classification

unclassified

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Black and White and Colour

Object Types

Artwork

Materials

Single channel moving image, black and white and colour and audio

Holdings

Digital Betacam [PAL]; Master

Digital Betacam [PAL]; Sub-master

VHS [PAL]; Reference - timecoded

MOV file ProRes4444; Digital Preservation Master - overscan

MPEG-4 Digital File; ACMI Digital Access Copy - overscan

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/107941--changing-time-quickly/ |title=Changing time (quickly) |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=5 May 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}