Powerful

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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!

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. Most recommended.

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 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!