Days are long, but Years are short

December 31, 2024 10:55 AM

On this day over a dozen years ago, we talked about filmmaker Sam Klemke's decades-long record of year-end reviews, a series of "annual personal status updates" reflecting on the past and hoping for the future that eventually became a poignant documentary film. It's just one example of the surprising emotional power of the "time passing" montage, an under-discussed narrative art that has often been used in one form or another to convey a profound sense of the beauty, fragility, and transience of life. A reverse time lapse for your perusal: Soul (2020): Regular Old Living / Years and Years (2019) / A Ghost Story (2017) / Arrival (2016) / "A Boy and His Duck" (2015) / Interstellar (2014): Years of Messages / "If London Were Syria" (2014) / Here (2014) / Boyhood (2014): "I just thought there would be more" / Up (2009): Married Life and Stuff We Did / "Hello Halley's Comet" (2009) / Passage (2007) / The Fountain (2006) / Six Feet Under (2005): Finale / Home Movies (2004): "Brendan's Camera" / Five for Fighting - "100 Years" (2004) / Decasia (2002) / Futurama (2002): "Jurassic Bark" / Toy Story 2 (1999): "When Somebody Loved Me" / Christmas Vacation (1989): Home movies / Here (1989) / Cinema Paradiso (1988): The montage of kisses / Love You Forever (1986) / Fleetwood Mac - "Landslide" (1975) / Harry Chapin - "Cat's in the Cradle" (1974)
posted by Rhaomi (6 comments total)

The finale of Six Feet Under was like getting hit with a baseball bat, but in a good way.

I’ve always placed high importance on sticking the landing.
posted by Lemkin at 11:15 AM on December 31 [2 favorites]

I cannot...CANNOT...watch Jurassic Bark again.
posted by obol at 11:50 AM on December 31 [1 favorite]

Rhaomi, have you been saving your home runs for the end of the year or what
posted by ginger.beef at 1:57 PM on December 31

Rhaomi, have you been saving your home runs for the end of the year or what

Oh, man… don’t get me started.

I put up my big Harold Pinter post, feeling like the cock of the walk, and then that guy comes along with another of his blockbusters and I’m like this.
posted by Lemkin at 2:14 PM on December 31

Holy moly, just the barest reference in your post to the montage in Up made me tear up. Surprising emotional power is right.
posted by eirias at 10:39 PM on December 31

Mod note: [#HappyNewYear! We've added this to the New Year's roundup on the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 12:43 AM on January 1