The Story of Time

This striking short film is an exercise in visualizing the flow of time using only abstract patterns, images and sound to tell the story. There was an inferior version made with voice-over narration, which should be avoided.

This is, as the title indicates, a history of how mankind developed different ways to measure time, beginning with sundials, all the way to the most modern methods which was the mid 20th century, when this British animated short was produced.

The sun dial simply kept track of where the sun was in the sky and helped break down the day into measurements. Then, other elements were used to make this more accurate, give us wrist watches, etc. It is stated in the introduction that "this film is a symbolic story of man's progress in time measurement." It's educational more than entertaining but it gets a little too symbolic and begins to drag from the halfway point on, and winds up just plain boring. This was nominated for an Oscar for best one-reel short subject but I don't think you'll be entertained with it.

"The Story of Time" is a truly unusual film that was financed by Rolex. I am not sure why or where it was shown--all I know is that even though it has no narration, it is amazing to watch because it is so artistic and is worth seeing even today--because of the brilliant eye of the filmmakers. It's also VERY hard to describe, but I will try. The film consists of a VERY fast history of time and time-keeping. It's told using a lot of VERY well-crafted models and stop-motion makes them appear to move about. You see everything from the Egyptians to modern sailors--and it really is pretty throughout. I am surprised it wasn't nominated for some awards at the time, as it really is terrifically made.