Matchbox is deceptively simple, consisting of only two brief shots: a hand striking a matchbox against a ledge, in the exact middle of the shot, and part of the rest of the window. Yet while the cut and the diegetic sounds are synchronous at the beginning of the film, subsequent frame shifts create a subtle drift of time, eventually accumulating into the displacement of sound and image.

Matchbox is a beautiful film, simple and complex. It has only two shots, which keep repeating. A hand holds a matchbox, taps on a table / cut to a nearby window frame / cut back to the hand. At each repeat the sound of matchbox on table drifts further behind like an echo until it connects with the cut to the window, then with the cut to the hand, and finally it regains sync. But this description is just the start of watching and listening, for what we see is an image with the regularity of 4:4 time coupled with an errant sound that stretches our understanding of the psychology of perception and awakens sensations of desire, anticipation and loss

Guy Sherwin