Time Piece

Plot synopsis:
The fast-paced scenes in Time Piece are edited together in a rhythmic pentameter, with an underlying use of sounds and repetitive beats. The film begins with a young man (who provides only four brief words of dialogue who just quotes "help") sitting patiently in a hospital bed. An unidentified doctor enters the room and checks the man's heart rate, which begins to pulse rhythmically.
As the rhythm increases, the film begins to follow the man's peculiar habits such as crossing a busy street in different clothes and different locations, working in a busy office, working on a conveyor belt, walking through different locations and ending up in a forest where he has the appearance of Tarzan, eating dinner with his wife, walking down the street seeing pogo stick riders, and visiting a strip club while simultaneously maintaining himself in motion.
Eventually, the man is imprisoned for shooting the Mona Lisa while dressed as a cowboy and is forced to perform odd acts of labor like working in the rock pile and painting an Indian elephant pink. The man eventually escapes from prison and begins to frantically run across a long distance with different disguises like Abraham Lincoln and Tarzan while evading cowboys. The man then jumps off a diving board and soars into the sky (aided by a flying device) where he is subsequently shot down by the world's military powers. He falls from the sky defeated and lands in a muddy puddle in the form of a rustic clock. The clock strikes twelve and the film's events flash quickly on-screen.
Back in the hospital room, the doctor covers the man's seemingly lifeless body. The camera then pans up towards the doctor's face, revealing him to be the same man smiling gleefully while winking.

Tags: psychedelic

Review:
it can now be found on some sites on-line; well worth seeking out as one of the best of the 60s.
Jim Henson as a filmmaker sometimes doesn't get as much credit as for his main innovations with the Muppets and establishing them throughout the years as the head producer of the Henson company.
But behind the genius puppeteer that he was, he was also very good at creating a style that was all his own, whether it was with the original and enlightening fantasy films he made in the 80s or with the Muppet movies.
Part of what crosses over from his time with the Muppets with this rarely seen short film, Time Piece, is the pure sense of tongue placed firmly in cheek.
The theme of time is one that many art films deal with (not the least of which Bergman), but this film is like a collaboration between the crazier silent shorts of the 1920s and Chuck Jones.
I laughed many times during this film, but it's also a marvel of- of course- timing, but also at getting the right rhythm with the images.
It goes without saying that its directness in the editing, with its tempo always on step without going overboard, is some of the best I've ever seen in a short film.Little moments end up making the best parts of Henson's film, where no real story emerges aside of himself sort of being witness to the follies of the world in a very crazy manner.
And it's also an exercise in repetition- a few times the one spoken word of the film pops up ("Help")- by Henson, and it's always very funny.
But the comic timing is explored in little themes Henson had in later films, such as food, with one of the real laugh out loud bits being when Henson and the woman eat at the table as they one-up each other.
Or seeing the delirious pathway in Henson running around towards the end (being chased, no doubt, by archive footage).
It all ends then, to put it mildly, down the toilet (literally I mean).
This is a surprising film with as much invention that can be fused cinematically into its concept- showing time as being very musical in a sense, and possibly breaking the balance that it usually keeps with day to day life.
It's an early gem, and its quite a stroke of luck to find it on-line or through a rare 16mm print; one of the true unfortunates in being unavailable to the masses and other fans of Henson..
Wacky but thoughtful fun.
I remember seeing this short in elementary school (stop doing the math!) and have loved it ever since.
It was screened at the same time as "Help, My Snowman's Burning Down" and "Clay", both exemplary shorts on their own, but my favorite was always "Time Piece".
The hapless subject's strange situations and his plaintive cries of "help!" (especially when his head was, literally, served up on a platter) were priceless and led to a spirited discussion of the meaning of the film.
Now that I know it was done by Jim Henson, I'm not surprised it was so good!
A definite must-see for its composition and the execution of the scenes as each jump-cut leads to a new, sometimes visually jarring, sometimes amusing, image..
This is a neat little film..
This is a neat little film that I believe won the Academy Award for best live action short film in 1965.
It is a crazy piece about the effect that time keeping have on us all.
There is a lot of stop action and editing.
Don't miss the dancing naked chicken!.
While far from great, this was a super-important film.
This is an experimental film done early in Jim Henson's career--before he achieved national prominence.
While I didn't enjoy it and didn't see it as a great artistic triumph (despite the Oscar he received for Best Live Action Short), I am thrilled that he made it because it gave him a chance to experiment and hone his craft.
Interestingly, the film has none of his Muppets--even though for almost a decade he'd been using them on local (Washington, DC).The film has a beat (such as drum or cymbal) every second and the action changes--almost slide show style.
Much of it seemed rather random, though some of the seemingly random images weren't (such as the obvious phallic imagery).
Clever at times, but not a film I'd want to see again..
a somewhat different side of henson.
You can say what ever you want about it, but there's no denying that Jim Henson's earlier works are certainly...INTERESTING to some degree.
Having only thus far witnessed 'Time Piece', if 'Piece' can be considered a basis for the style of these earlier Henson films than I am likely to love every one that I see!
Surreal, funny, bizarre, brilliant...it's Henson years before he came to be known as the world famous creator of such classics as 'The Muppet Show' and 'Sesame Street'.
I can certainly say that it is at least mildly surprising seeing a film made by the man who invented 'Sesame Street' that also contains some heavily raunchy jokes and images, but this element only adds to the fun!
Seriously, 'Time Piece' is an uproarious and surrealist joyriot!.
time is on Jim Henson's side.
It was only after "Sesame Street" debuted that Jim Henson became a household name.
Of course, that wasn't his first foray into the public eye.
The man who created the Muppets had been working on stuff since the '50s, but his avant-garde 1965 short "Time Piece" is also worth seeing.
This film has no discernible plot.
It focuses on time, whether as an abstract concept, or as the dominant force in our lives (to the extent that it imprisons us).
Henson plays a man who walks to the beat of a ticking clock.
A few other things happen, all set to a beat.The antics of Bert & Ernie, as well as Kermit & Piggy, showed everyone that Henson was capable of creating some far-out material.
But here, he goes for the surreal.
In a good way.
Definitely worth seeing.
Watch for a young Frank Oz (the voice of Fozzie, and the director of "The Muppets Take Manhattan", "Little Shop of Horrors", "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels", "What About Bob?", "In & Out", "Bowfinger" and the original "Death at a Funeral") in one scene..
Time Piece is a definite far-out early Jim Henson masterpiece.
Just saw this early experimental short by the creator of the Muppets, Jim Henson, on YouTube as linked by Amid on Cartoon Brew.
It's basically an abstract animated slide show of Henson walking to work, having dinner with his wife, jumping on a pogo (with other people on that at various moments), etc.
All done to a constant drumbeat with occasional cries of "Help!" from Henson.
There's some adult humor here so I don't recommended this to children.
Some of the cuts and montage that I remember from the Muppets' later TV show "Seseme Street" probably came from here.
Anyone who thinks of Jim Henson as mainly a children's puppeteer would probably really be blown away with Time Piece.
If you liked this, there's a short Henson did with sound man Raymond Scott called Ripples, also on YouTube.
Highly recommended!.
Rhythmic Randomosity!.
Time Piece (1965 Short) 
Boing, click, ring, pop, zip!
Onomatopoeia bliss.
Jazz drums, go; bells, ding!
Rhythmic repitition fun, 
Henson's sole nomination!
Tanka, literally "short poem", is a form of poetry consisting of five lines, unrhymed, with the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable format.
#Tanka #PoemReview.
Creative and clever short playing with rhythm and time.
This short was nominated for the Academy Award for Short, Live Action, Losing to Le Poulet (The Chicken).
There will be spoilers ahead: Jim Henson, already feeling constricted at being considered a producer of children's programming, produced this experimental film as a way of demonstrating other facets to his work.
It's most decidedly not intended for children.It's a visual short, with only four instances where a single word is uttered.
Henson plays a man, whom we see all through the short.
At the beginning, we see him in a bed in a hospital room.
A doctor comes in and checks his heart rate.
This is where it starts to get surreal.
You begin to hear sounds which aren't typical for the situation-a camera shutter click when he blinks, clicking in place of a heart beat and so on.The editing on this is extensive, as all the scenes are very brief, running seconds in length.
Henson is seen in various places, in different clothing and varied surroundings.
He's seen on a pogo stick, running, walking, dressed in suits, rags, as a caveman and even as Lincoln for a bit.
Timepieces are shown here and there.Henson is shown with a woman, with the inference that she's his wife.
The woman also does a variety of things-cut cords, take off clothing, eat dinner, change clothing and so on.
There are points in this where, if you blink, you'll likely miss something!
Everything revolves around rhythm and time and it all comes back around rather neatly.
The ending is good, so I won't spoil it here.So far as I'm aware, this isn't available commercially at the moment, though at one point, I believe you could find it online.
Pity, because it's well worth seeing.
I want the time back I spent watching this.
"Time Piece" is a 9-minute short film from America from the 1960s and the main reason why this is still somewhat known today is that it was made by the late Muppets creator Jim Henson.
He wrote it, directed it and also played the central character.
It sure is fascinating how different this is compared to all his Muppets stuff.
Henson was still in his 20s when he made it and as it scored an Oscar nomination it was one of the biggest successes of Henson's career.
However, I am not impressed.
I am not a Muppets fan at all and this one here I don't like either, even if for completely different reasons.
It is a very experimental film, there is no plot in here, no spoken language either, which is good because you don't need to understand English to see it, but honestly why would you want to see it?
It's tough to find a reason in it.
Maybe for the sound effects as this is the only component that was slightly memorable or at least not as forgettable as everything else and that is also only really because they were very much over the top, also in terms of volume.
Maybe that's where the film should have been nominated.
Anywhere I am glad it lost to the French entry in the short film category because that one is much much superior to this one here.
This one here sure is packed with tons of metaphors and symbolisms, many about the subject of time and fugaciousness, but that makes it only a slightly smarter watch.
Maybe it could have been a success if we heard Pink Floyd's Time while watching the visual side.
But that one only came out a bit under a decade later.
"Time Piece" gets a thumbs-down from me.
Not recommended.
Not recommended.