Anti-Clock

Anti-Clock is a 1979 British experimental science-fiction drama film written and directed by Jane Arden and co-directed by Jack Bond. The film, which stars Arden's son Sebastian Saville, was shot on film and video in colour with black and white sequences.

Plot
The film mixes pioneering video techniques with pin-sharp colour footage in order to create a densely woven, dream-like narrative which explores issues of personal identity and social conformity. The story takes Joseph Sapha though the shadows of his past to confront that mirror image of the self that condemns us all ... a blind automaton whose words are simply the rationale of the defence attack system caught in the horrors of the past and the anxieties of the future.

Cast

 * Sebastian Saville as Professor J.D. Zanov/Joseph Sapha
 * Suzan Cameron as Alanda Clark
 * Tom Gerrard as The Dealer
 * Liz Saville as Sapha's Sister
 * Madame Luisa Aranowicz as Parapsychologist
 * Marguerita Gagarin as Parapsychologist
 * Yoshiro Matsuya as Parapsychologist
 * Katherine Newell as Parapsychologist
 * Gia-Fu Feng as Tai chi master
 * Don Wilde as Alpha Therapist
 * Richard Feynman as The Physicist
 * Brian Jones
 * Jasper Gough
 * Robert Armstrong
 * Joe Chappell
 * Molly Tweedlie
 * Derek Osborne
 * Tony C.T. Tang
 * Chan Fai
 * William K. Lam
 * Pat Bond
 * Kenneth Pearson
 * Louise Temple (uncredited)

Filming locations
The film was shot on location in London and Norfolk, England.

Music
For the film, Arden sung two songs "Sleepwalking" and "Figures in White" which she also wrote the lyrics for.

Release
The film opened the 1979 London Film Festival but was never picked up for British distribution: its only other public British screening was at the National Film Theatre in 1983 as a tribute to Jane Arden, who committed suicide at the end of the previous year. The film remained unseen since then. However, it had a modest theatrical release in the US, where it received considerable critical acclaim.

Unavailability
Like the other two films Arden made with Bond, Anti-Clock remained unseen and was thought lost for many decades.

Home media
The film was restored by the British Film Institute for DVD and Blu-ray and released on 13 July 2009.

Critical reception

 * 'A futuristic masterpiece' - Claude Chabrol
 * 'Anticlock is one of the very few films of what used to be called the avant-garde to try for a mainstream audience. It asks that audience to open its eyes, ears and minds to unexpected images, rhythms and ideas. The result is a challenging film that, like a broadcast from another planet, gets under your skin and shakes up your cells. Filled with high tension and high intelligence, Anticlock is mysterious, disturbing, fascinating and exciting' - Jack Kroll, Newsweek
 * 'Anticlock . . . is great!' - Andy Warhol