When the Jackal is sitting watching TV in the gay guy's flat (just before
said gay guy returns from the shops and tells the Jackal he saw him on
TV), there is some decorative object sitting on the glass table. It looks
like a glass tube with a metal sphere bobbing up and down inside it.
Does anyone have a clue what it is?
A Clock.
shareI've never noticed this before, so I took particular notice when I watched it again last night. I can't see any reason for thinking it was a clock. It just appeared to be some ornamental object that doesn't do anything, like the swinging balls that people sometimes have on their desks at work.
On the other hand, it could have been a van der graaf generator.
When I said I wanted to be a comedian, they all laughed at me. Well, they're not laughing now!
A lava-lamp or something similar?
shareIt probably is indeed a clock of some kind.
In the trivia section, it says there are something like 43 clocks shown in the movie, and "passing time" was a major theme purposely shown by the director.
I just watched the movie for the umpteenth time. It doesn't appear to be a clock, more like as some have said a decorative gizmo object like a Lava Lamp or those metal balls that swing into each other. It looks like a ball in a clear plastic tube that is blown upwards rhythmically by a blast of air. How would you tell time by that? Heck maybe a Lava Lamp is a clock too and I just don't get it. LOL
share- but you don't see the front. I could have had a display.
The ball could have been going up & down once per second.
I just sw it again.
The ball was indeed going up & down once per second, so it was definitely a clock.
Funny thing, it was also quite a phallic symbol, the kind of thing a gay guy might have.
It isn't air moving the ball, it's an electromagnet in the base. The ball is attached to the lid by a spring and below it there's a thin line with a metal weight. Once each second the magnet is charged and it pulls the weight down before letting the spring pull it back up again.
shareAw, *beep* it was just a lava lamp or something. Zinnemann loved to use clocks to show the pressing passage of time, though. Just look at "High Noon." The actual time elapsed of the film was greater than the time shown on the many clocks filmed. In this film, too, the passage of time was critical: If they didn't catch the Jackal in time, the President would would be killed.
shareAw, *beep* it was just a lava lamp or something. Zinnemann loved to use clocks to show the pressing passage of time, though. Just look at "High Noon." The actual time elapsed of the film was greater than the time shown on the many clocks filmed. In this film, too, the passage of time was critical: If they didn't catch the Jackal in time, the President would would be killed.
shareThe great movie "Sunday Bloody Sunday", which came before "The Day of the Jackal" has a remotely related work of art. Glass tubes with liquids and air bubbles bobbling up and down. Set to music. Classical music.
share