What was the longest film ever made

A. Film stock by Czech director Buracz Bosnitz in 1968 consisted of 908 hours of blank film. Not surprisingly, it was only shown once and the nused to film movies. The longest UK film was a 1970s British underground movie called 'The Longest Most meaningless Movie in the World' which lasted for 48 hours.

Q. What about commercially viable films What really made its mark

A. One of the longest commercially made talking films was Lawrence of Arabia which was made in 1962 by English director David McLean and starred Peter O'Toole. It runs for three hours 42 minutes - two minutes longer than Gone With The Wind.

Q. Surely Gone With The Wind was a moment in cinematic history How did people react

A. In Atlanta in in December 1939, the governor declared a state holiday and tickets were forty times the going rate. It was the longest most expensive film production ever imagined and the first major colour film. Made for $3.9m at a time when tickets cost just a quarter, producer David O. Selznick feared he would never see a profit. The film went onto be immensely profitable, and although overtaken many times in terms of grossing audience, it's still the one movie which nearly every American has seen.

Q. What about sound in films

A.One if the first directors to use sound was Alfred Hitchcock in 1929 when he made Blackmail, billed by many as the first British talkie.

Q. What was the first film shown on an aircraft

A. The first film to be shown to airline passengers was a silent version of 'The Lost World' which was screened during an Imperial Airlines flight from London in 1925.

Q. What was the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar

A. Carolyn Jones has the distinction of giving the shortest film performance ever nominated for an Academy Award for her six-minute role in 'Bachelor Party' in 1957. The shortest film ever to win an Oscar was 'Bambi Meets Godzilla'.

Q.Which country produces the most full-length feature films a year

A.Since 1971 India's film-makers have produced the most full-length feature films every year. In 1970 that figurse rose reached 948.

By Katharine MacColl