The Passage Clock: For Walter Benjamin poster

The Passage Clock: For Walter Benjamin(2008)

Name: The Passage Clock: For Walter Benjamin
Director: Jem Cohen
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2008-01-01
Duration: 10 min
Cast: Patti Smith

Patti Smith

An homage to Walter Benjamin and other time-traveling artists and expatriates that have inspired me, especially Chris Marker. Benjamin, fleeing from fascism in the 1930s, took refuge in Paris where Biblioteque Nacional became his home away from home. In this library, a sanctuary made of books, he eventually left a secret copy of much of what remains of his Arcades Project, Das Passagen-Werk. Much of the narration for the film came from a chance operation or literary cut-up exercise done with Patti Smith, using dictionary definitions of the word "passage" which I later edited and augmented with text of my own. --Jem Cohen