Byron Haskin
1902
18 minutes
This film reminds you of the greatest children's bedtime story of all time. This was featured in the film Woyzeck, which you encountered back in Section 37 (or will encounter eventually) and which was also immortalized by Tom Waits:
Once upon a time, there was a poor child
With no father and no mother.
And everything was dead,
And no one was left in the whole world.
Everything was dead.
And the child went and searched day and night,
And since nobody was left on the earth
He wanted to go up in to the heavens.
And the moon was looking at him so friendly.
And when he finally got to the moon,
The moon was a piece of rotten wood.
And then he went to the sun.
And when he got there,
The sun was a wilted sunflower.
And when he got to the stars,
They were little golden flies, stuck up there
Like the shrike sticks ‘em on a black thorn.
And when he wanted to go back down to Earth,
The Earth was an overturned piss-pot.
And he was all alone.
And he sat down and he cried.
And he is there to this day.
All alone.
Time to choose something different: