Made in 1995, the video Telephones stitches together snippets from over 100 movies to construct a mysterious phone conversation. It starts with shots of ringing phones, then various people picking up phones, saying “Hello?” and ends with satisfying clicks of heavy receivers returning to their cradles. It was originally a clever take on mass media and constructed narratives, but 30 years later, Christian Marclay’s iconic video is also an unintentional tribute to a technology that has vanished from our lives. Ironically, Apple stole the idea for its first iPhone commercial in 2005, a testament to the greatness of Marclay’s work.

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