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Seconds

Screening on Film
Directed by John Frankenhelmer .
With Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John Randolph .
US, 1966, 35mm, black & white, 106 min.
Print source: UCLA

With Seconds John Frankenheimer completed the so-called paranoid trilogy formed by The Manchurian Candidate and Seven Days in May, both expanding and transforming the menacing conspiracy style of the earlier films with a dark turn into the realm of science fiction. In one of his most iconic roles, Rock Hudson stars as the victim of his own secret desires, a successful businessman who signs a Machiavellian plot with a mysterious "company" by accepting their irresistible offer to change his identity and lifestyle, effortlessly abandoning his home and wife to become an artist in Malibu. Seconds’ dark parable about masculinity and the American dream is enhanced by James Wong Howe's virtuosic black and white cinematography, with the veteran master audaciously using a dolly and fish eye lens to invent the film's unforgettable opening sequence. 

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