Olaf Lenz’s ‘Some Things Take So Long’ is a marriage of music and imagery. Set to Alex Lowry and Justine Fedor’s haunting cover of George Harrison’s ‘Isn’t It a Pity?’, the film layers archival footage – most notably Andrei Tarkovsky’s ‘Solaris’ – into a visual meditation on regret, time, and the selfishness that quietly undermines our connections.
Lenz’s edit begins earthbound, with the rhythmic monotony of car traffic in sprawling urban landscapes. It’s a mundane yet strangely poignant starting point, reminding us of how much time we spend in motion without reflection. Then, with a jarring shift, we’re flung into the void of space, following astronauts as they drift through the unknown. The transition from cars to cosmos mirrors the emotional gravity of the song’s lyrics, which are tastefully splashed across the screen like quiet revelations.
The ticking clock motif, reversed into a backward spiral, reinforces the film’s central theme: time’s unrelenting passage and our desire to rewrite it. As the archival footage bends and blends, we’re drawn deeper into an experimental whirlpool that feels deeply personal yet universally resonant.
Lenz has created a short film that is fleeting yet rich in meaning, a poetic reckoning with the things we wish we’d done differently. It’s a contemplative space, urging us to look inward.
