Comments on: If Rocks Could Speak

If Rocks Could Speak

maryh — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 04:36:38 -0800

Das Rad ("The Wheel") google video Apparently rocks speak to one another. They just do it very, very slowly. An stop-motion short from Germany with English subtitles. Creators' website.flash

By: maryh

maryh — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 04:37:49 -0800

And the lower-res YouTube version.

By: jouke

jouke — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:09:37 -0800

It's a play on words: the heaps of stones that people in the alps create to mark paths are called Steinmänner, stone people.

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:33:45 -0800

I show this film in my Intro to Film Studies class as an example of how readily filmmakers can play with the representation of time. It makes the point very well, and the students absolutely love it.

By: carmen

carmen — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:36:50 -0800

Awesome.

By: gennessee

gennessee — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 06:44:04 -0800

Best short I've seen in quite a while. Thanks for that.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:04:44 -0800

Wonderful post, thanks!

By: gc

gc — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 07:25:40 -0800

Saw this on The Animation Show a few years back, and I still vividly remember the way the City rushes up to them and then stops abruptly. Also, the Animation Show in itself it entirely worth checking out. Great stuff.

By: cows of industry

cows of industry — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 08:14:15 -0800

Very cool.

By: jonson

jonson — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 09:16:55 -0800

Thanks Mary, this was great fun!

By: cenoxo

cenoxo — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 10:51:12 -0800

Well, rolling stones would gather no moss, but otherwise that's a great little film. Thanks! Love the relative time-shift transitions, like those the Time Traveller experiences in George Pal's The Time Machine (1960)^WP [His voyage starts about 24:00 minutes into the full-length Google Video]. Isn't the Web a time traveller's delight?

By: aliasless

aliasless — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:06:54 -0800

Great movie. I'd love to see a higher res one so you could see the activity down in the valley.

By: Popular Ethics

Popular Ethics — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 11:53:24 -0800

Gorgeous. Thanks! I also wish for a less distractingly compressed version

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:21:30 -0800

The rate things fall is dependant, obviously, on time. At that speed, the rocks would not have been able to 'play' with the stone wheel that way.

By: vorfeed

vorfeed — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 12:33:31 -0800

The rate things fall is dependant, obviously, on time. At that speed, the rocks would not have been able to 'play' with the stone wheel that way. The wooden wheel and the sign at the end don't seem to take a consistent amount of time to decay, either. Oh, well, such is film.

By: Ira.metafilter

Ira.metafilter — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 19:30:31 -0800

Greatness, thanks!