Once upon a time I might have scoffed at the idea of a trailer more than ten minutes in length. Well try to imagine a trailer SEVEN HOURS AND TWENTY MINUTES Long. Yes that is a real thing now.
Anders Weberg, a Swedish artist and filmmaker has completed his mission to create the longest film trailer ever for his experimental project ‘Ambiancé’. If you think a seven hour twenty minute trailer of seventy two minute teaser is long, they are but nothing when the film is set to be a whopping thirty days long (Yes 30 actual days).
Ambiancé is more abstract in plot than what most audiences might be used to. Weberg himself has stated that the film has no fictional narrative. The trailer features two performance artists on a beach in Hovs Hallar in Sweden (The same location where the amazing Chess scene from Seventh Seal was filmed). I do not really understand what the two men are up to, I admit to not watching the trailer in its entirety. Still due to Weberg’s artistic background, it can be safely assumed that much of what happens on the screen can be left to the audience’s interpretation.
I can scarcely imagine what it must be like to watch a film a day long yet here we have a movie clocking thirty days. That is enough time to watch the combined Lord of the Rings trilogy (Fellowship, Towers and King) extended editions at least sixty times back to back with time to spare.
While Ambiance may set the world record for longest trailer, sadly it won’t achieve longest film. That title belongs to the 2008 experimental film Logistics which spans a massive 37 day length.
Ambiance is not set for release until 2020. I can only imagine the sorts of people who would be willing to endure a month long screening of what appears to be two men walking on a beach. Still everyone interprets ‘fun’ differently.
If you have the time (and the energy), check out the trailer.