Time Piece

For other uses, seeTime Piece (disambiguation).

Not to be confused withTimepieceorTimepiece (album).

Time Piece
Directed by	Jim Henson
Written by	Jim Henson
Produced by	Jim Henson
Starring	Jim Henson Enid Cafritz Frank Oz Jerry Juhl
Cinematography	Ted Nemeth
Music by	Don Sebesky
Production company	Muppets, Inc.
Distributed by	Pathé Contemporary Films
Release date	1965(1965)
Running time	9 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Time Pieceis a 1965 Americanindependentexperimentalshort filmdirected, written, produced by and starringJim Henson.The film depicts an ordinary man living in constant motion, in a desperate attempt to escape the passage oftime.Time Pieceis notable as one of the few live-action projects Jim Henson produced that did not involve any form ofpuppetry.The short film was nominated for anAcademy AwardforBest Live Action Short Filmin 1966.

Plot

The fast-paced scenes inTime Pieceare edited together in a rhythmic pentameter, with an underlying use of sounds and repetitive beats. The film begins with a young man (whose only line, repeated four times, is "Help!" ) sitting patiently in a hospital bed. An unidentifieddoctorenters the room and checks the man's heart rate, which begins to pulse rhythmically.

As the rhythm increases, the film begins to follow the man's daily habits such as crossing a busy street, in different clothes and different locations, working in a busy office, working on a conveyor belt, walking through different locations and ending up in a forest where he has the appearance ofTarzan,eating dinner with his wife, walking down the street seeing pogo stick riders, and visiting astrip clubwhile simultaneously maintaining himself in motion.

Eventually, the man is imprisoned for shooting theMona Lisawhile intoxicated (signified by a scene of him painting an elephantpink) and dressed as acowboyand is forced to perform acts of labor like working in the rock pile. The man eventually escapes from prison and begins to frantically run across a long distance with different disguises like a man in atop hatandTarzanwhile evading cowboys. The man then jumps off a diving board and soars into the sky (aided by a flying device) where he is subsequently shot down by the world's military powers. He falls from the sky defeated and lands in a muddy puddle in the form of a rustic clock. The clockstrikes twelveand the film's events flash quickly on-screen.

Back in the hospital room, the doctor covers the man's seemingly lifeless body. The camera then pans up towards the doctor's face, revealing him to be the same man smiling gleefully and winking at the camera.

Cast

• Jim Henson-Man,Doctorwithface
• Enid Cafritz - Man's Wife
• Jerry Juhl-Bartender
• Frank Oznowicz- Office Messenger Boy, Man inGorilla Suit,Dead man,Doctorwithoutface
• April March - Stripper
• Sandy Patterson-
• Diana Birkenfield -
• Dave Bailey - Drummer
• Dennis Paget -
• Jim Hutchison - Club Dancer
• Barbara Richman - Club Dancer

Production

Unlike most films,Time Piecewas not written as a script. Instead, Jim Henson hadstoryboardedthe entire film prior to filming.Between shuffling performances withThe MuppetsforThe Jimmy Dean Showand film commercials, Henson shot the film intermittently from June 1964 to May 1965.Due to this restricted time frame, every shot in the film lasts only one to four seconds. Henson even calculated the amount of frames each shot would contain.

Henson solely produced the film's animation sequences, whileMuppetdesignerDon Sahlinwas responsible for the film's visual effects shots.

LegendaryBlue Note RecordsengineerRudy Van Gelderrecorded the music.

Release

Henson premieredTime Pieceat theMuseum of Modern ArtinNew York Cityin 1965. The film also had a lengthy screening run at theParis TheatreinManhattan.

Time Piecewas released theatrically in the United States withClaude Lelouch'sA Man and a Woman.In addition to its Academy Award nomination,the film also won theCINE Eagle Awardand theAmerican Film Festival's Blue Ribbon Award, and received recognition at the XIIInternational Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

See also

• List of American films of 1965
• Art film
• Modernist film

External links

• Time PieceatIMDb
• ExcerptsofTime Pieceon officialYouTubechannel
• Time Pieceon Fandor
• Time Piecefilm on Facebook
• MUBI