24 Hour Movies

On the 40th anniversary of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at films that confine their action to a single day (and occasionally, night).

From the high-stakes urban odyssey of Martin Scorsese's After Hours to the quiet contemplation of Agnès Varda's Cléo from 5 to 7, what difference does a day make to cinema?

Ellen talks to screenwriter and novelist David Nicholls, whose international bestseller One Day followed a couple who meet on 15th July 1988, revisiting their lives on the same date every year for the next two decades.

She also talks to creative writing professor and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Kim Krizan, who co-wrote Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, the first two films in director Richard Linklater's time-constrained romantic drama trilogy.

Meanwhile, Mark speaks to writer-director and Ferris Bueller superfan Emma Seligman, whose breakthrough feature Shiva Baby wrought extraordinary tension and comedy from the course of a single afternoon.

And Mark also speaks to Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier. Now perhaps best known for Oscar nominees Sentimental Value and The Worst Person In The World, Trier made one of modern cinema's finest single-day films with 2011's Oslo, August 31st, which follows recovering heroin addict Anders over the course of a day and night.

Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4