Cinema: a shared banquet in a palace, or a snack consumed absent-mindedly on your iPhone? Sam Green is on a mission to find a new way for cinema to be presented, making it a live theatrical experience that, like any other form of theatre, is unique to this time and this shared space. What we are experiencing is not shown simultaneously in a number of venues; it’s only here and now.
So first, going back to the roots of cinema, there is live music – just as there was in the days of the silent silver screen. In this case, it’s a sextet called yMusic, a classical/jazz/pop crossover group whose members have previously worked with the likes of Antony and the Johnsons, Meredith Monk, and Sufjan Stevens.
Additionally, we have Oscar-nominated film-maker Sam Green (The Weather Underground, 2004) onstage, with a spoken word accompaniment to, and live commentary on, his film.
Finally, the film itself.
The Measure of All Things is an homage to the Guinness Book of Records, which Green says he was obsessed with as a young boy. It starts with the wow factor facts and figures, and the audience relaxes back into easy listening mode, chortling at the whacky ‘isn’t life strange?’ examples that follow on in quick succession. Here’s a woman with the longest nails in the world, great curly talons that turn back on themselves. The longest hair – a cascade that goes way beyond the person’s feet. The oldest person – a man in Japan aged 116, seen surrounded by adoring grandchildren. Most struck by lightning – seven times unlucky. The longest taxi ride – seven thousand miles. And on it goes. Tallest. Shortest. Oldest. Fattest twins on motorcycles. It’s starting to feel like a Forced Entertainment show – lists, lists, and more lists.
Just when we think this is it, the tone changes. Sam Green shrugs off the boyish enthusiasm of his younger self, and reflects on the Guinness Book of Records itself, which apparently started as a freebie offered by the beer-makers to its loyal customers, to help them win pub quizzes. An image of a stack of back copies is reflected on: records change all the time, so they’re as out-of-date as yesterday’s papers. By way of example, we see a picture of an entry about the world’s biggest computer. It fills a room and has 34MB of memory… the size of one MP3 on your tablet.
We delve deeper, and the commentary becomes more poetic and reflective. Sam Green draws an analogy to fairy tales: these stories are superficially simple and easy to understand, but there’s lots beneath the surface. By way of example, the human stories behind the stats are turned over. Roy Sullivan, the man who was hit by lightning seven times, wasn’t killed that way – he committed suicide. Which seems so sad, so unbearable after so many brushes with death. He described himself as ‘unlucky in love’, and died by self-inflicted gun wound. Then, there’s Randy Gardner who in 1964, as a high-school student age just 16, stayed awake for 11 days and nights – a record that still stands. He was featured on the American TV show To Tell the Truth (we get to see the footage) as a cheery and sanguine all-American teenager. This is paired with more recent footage of Randy, who has become rather more phlegmatic in middle age: ‘Life’s a journey with no destination’ he says ‘you’re born, you die – that’s it’.
It goes darker and more disturbing. A man is stuck in a lift for 41 hours. There is CCTV footage, and we see his ordeal in its time-lapsed totality. He was never the same again, we learn. Another man recites Pi to so many digits, over so many hours, that it is beyond comprehension that anyone could have learnt so much by rote. We come back to him a few times, then learn that he had made a mistake many hours ago, but they kept him going until that error was formerly declared.
Even the Guinness Book of Records itself has it’s dark days, as co-founder and right-wing supporter Ross McWhirter is murdered by the IRA (1975). The four gunmen received 47 life sentences, but were released under the Good Friday agreement, and one of them now likes to paint landscapes. As with so many of the juxtaposed stories, there is a whole theatre show in this little segment.
We are pulled out the darkness with a beautiful story. We meet the tallest man in the world. Except he isn’t anymore, he’s been usurped by a taller man. But just as he starts to feel unwanted and useless, his life takes an odd turn when he is invited to use one of his really long arms to fish a bit of plastic out of a dolphin’s guts. A woman sees this on TV, falls in love with him as he is ‘such a kind man’ and offers to marry him. They live happily ever after.
Odd-bod love stories feature frequently. Before the main feature, we are treated to an earlier short film by Sam Green, The Rainbow Man/John 3:16, which reflects on the life of Rollen Stewart, who became famous during the 1970s for appearing at televised events wearing a rainbow-coloured wig, and carrying a ‘John 3:16’ sign. This starts as a whacky little biog pic, but soon turns into an uncanny reflection on co-incidence and crossed paths, as Rollen’s ex-wife Elsie turns out to have met the 9/11 bombers at a party. We see the party snaps – a group of smiley friends enjoying a nice evening together. And the moral of the tale? Even bombers like birthday cake. It’s a perfect Sam Green moment: whatever we think we know about people, it turns out there’s another side; and whatever stories we tell, there’s always a twist to the tale.