Rien que les heures

A top-notch experimental film that stood out in the year 1926 was Brazilian-born, French resident/director Alberto Calvalcanti. He and a small crew went throughout Paris filming normal life of everyday people and sites. His "Rien Que Les Heures (Nothing But Time)" formed a new category of documentaries, labeled 'City Symphonies." Calvalcanti's was the first of such films that captured the pulse of a city and the people that make up such a teeming metropolis. His short 45-minute examination of Paris serves as a time capsule of daily life during the mid-1920s.

Like all city symphonies, the documentary is a snapshot on one of the more advanced cities in Western civilizations instead of previous examinations on exotic faraway cultures. There are snippets of drunks passed out on the street, pet dogs getting a haircut with manual cutters, and couples embracing on the city public avenues. One montage shows the process of how the process of meat begins at the slaughter house, goes on to the butcher shop, then ends up in restaurant table where a diner is enjoying his steak dinner.

Cavalcanti's final conclusion in illustrating these common urban activities is humans spend the majority of their lives on working for several essentials, including food, shelter and love. And time equally eludes our grasp. Living humans can't stop time, which as much as we all would like, the director highlighted this fact by calling his city symphony "Nothing But Time." In this universe, time marches on.