All My Life
1966 · 3m · USA
Directed by Bruce Baillie
Genres: experimental
Tones: contemplative, tender
A single continuous camera pan along a picket fence covered in red roses in Caspar, California, ending with the camera tilting upward to reveal a telephone wire against a blue sky, all set to Ella Fitzgerald's 1936 debut single "All My Life."
Picked by Margot
The scouts
One three-minute pan along a fence of red roses while Ella sings — Baillie proves that structural film doesn't have to mean cold. Maybe the prettiest thing on this list.
Baillie's three-minute Ella-Fitzgerald-scored pan along a rose-covered fence is one of the loveliest single-shot films ever made, and its tilt to telephone wire is essentially perfect. Vimeo hosts it.
One unbroken pan along a rose-covered picket fence for the exact duration of Ella's 1936 debut - the camera tilts up to telephone wire at the end. 2:50 of structural-film grace; the constraint is the rapture.
Reviews
One of the most perfect films that I've ever seen.
One of the great works of film art.