Majorthebys Charming and brutal

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

ayhansalamci "The lifetime of a human being is measured by decades, the lifetime of the Sun is a hundred million times longer. Compared to a star, we are like mayflies, fleeting ephemeral creatures who live out their lives in the course of a single day."Chronos is the personification of Time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. Ron Fricke, who is regarded as the founder of time-lapse, has done a wonderful job. We live and die without realizing that our lives are trapped in a jar. Instead of making an effort to get out of the jar, we continue to practice our daily habits. The routine and falsity of mankind in everyday life is almost making a slapdash effect. Our dependence on technology and constantly trapped between concrete walls cools us from nature. I think we need to think a little bit. It is really fascinating to watch the works of art of the ancient civilizations, the spectacular nature images accompanied by great music. I was very happy to see the works of ancient Egyptian civilization. You should give Chronos a chance before the Baraka and Samsara documentaries.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) There is really not too much to review here. This is a 42-minute documentary by director Ron Fricke which was written by the Constantine sisters(?). The topic is basically history vs. progress. We see many very old monuments, but we also see lots of current stuff, like modern streets or skyscrapers. I have to say, I personally preferred the old parts. The music is also pretty good in here. but, as harsh as this may sound, a documentary without any kinds of dialogue and just photography recordings can never make it to my favorite list, I am afraid. This one here is certainly as good as it gets for the genre, but I was never amazed really. Still, it's not a bad piece of filmmaking at all. And all the use of time lapse was fairly interesting. It's also the type of film which is probably much more effective on the big screen. I give Fricke a thumbs up here without praising it too much. Still it's probably among the better documentary movies from 30 years ago. And finally, I want to say that this looks pretty modern, actually I would have guessed this is from the 21st century if I hadn't known the truth before.

Steve Skafte This is somewhere between documentary and photography. It has neither a script nor actors, and there is no narrator, no interview, and no still images. This is a moving picture, in the purest sense. The major focus is the time lapse cinematography of Ron Fricke, who also serves as director. That, and the soundtrack by Michael Stearns, is the sum total of "Chronos".There are deeper meanings to some, intended and accidental, but I won't cheapen things by speculating on what those are. The main drive is the battle of slow versus fast, city versus nature. Much of the time lapse goes by at what appears to be the same speed, but what moves blisteringly fast in the city seems to go by without change or notice in nature. Only the slow march of shadows is apparent across rocks and old ruins. These passages are full and heavy with the weight of time. They pull like the moon on the tides, dragging you back into long forgotten history. It comes like a slow, shallow breath between trains hurtling down tracks to uncertain destinations, and the bleeding blur of strangers up escalators.I've watched "Chronos" in many different contexts. It's been a relaxing background to the end of a long, tired day, or the full focus of my attention as I appreciate its depth of artistry. At forty-three minutes, it's neither too long to drag or too short to feel cut off. Each time after watching it, I find myself out of place with the speed of things around me. I feel the need to step back and breathe, to run faster, to walk slower. Somehow, some way, "Chronos" changed the way I see time.

ntscuser You have to listen to the commentary track on the special edition DVD to understand this movie. Many scenes were shot not only in time lapse but also with multiple exposures and multiple frame printing. Because of this we are able to view scenes which are not ordinarily recordable on film in places where artificial lighting is not permitted. This is as close as we will ever get to seeing these places without actually being there.A supplementary featurette also explains the origins of the music and unique instruments which were used to record it.Critics should bear in mind that this movie was shot in 1985 on a shoestring budget with a home made camera at a time when IMAX was in its infancy. As such it is a staggering achievement and a landmark movie in the history of cinematography.