Unspoken Cinema

latest addition to the Library page: “Rejecting ‘slow’ as disparaging, Harry Tuttle’s Unspoken Cinema proposes ‘contemporary contemplative cinema.’ Comprised of thirty-four single-take tracking shots in a 126-minute running time, The Tribe employs the contemplative, durational aesthetics commonly associated with slow cinema. Slow cinema circulates within a specific cultural and economic sphere enabled by international film festivals, where its long takes and resistance to conventional narrative foster heightened spectatorial awareness. Rather than passively absorbing story, the viewer is drawn into a realm where reality appears in excess of signification, approaching but never fully yielding meaning. This sustained distance invites an ethical gaze, compelling spectators to look, to regard, and to take care of what they see.” Ursula M. Grisham ;  Violence and Aesthetics of Awe -- Looking at Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi's The Tribe  ; 2018 / UK

  Why a Perfect Day Looks Nothing Like You Imagine - Perfect Days (2023) (YouTube) 12'06" (Cinevision) 10 August 2025 "In today's video we'll be exploring Wim Wenders' "Perfect Days," a film that completely shifts how we think about finding meaning in ordinary life. We follow Hirayama, a man living alone in Tokyo who spends his days cleaning public restrooms, driving through the city, and listening to classic rock on cassette tapes, yet there's something incredibly profound about his simple existence that makes you question what we're actually missing in our own lives. Wenders doesn't give us dramatic chase scenes or epic heroes. Instead, he invites us to witness the beauty of everyday moments through that intimate 4:3 aspect ratio that makes you feel like you're right there with Hirayama as he pauses to notice a tree through a window or finds connection in the smallest details. His work isn't just a task, it's an act of pres...

 Latest addition to the Library page : "Since the term "slow movie" was coined in 2003, the "fast-slow" movie debate has become a new academic focus, but there has never been a clear standard for "fast" and "slow" movies. However, there has never been a clear standard for "fast" and "slow" movies, and the discussion of "fast and slow" has often fallen into a solid binary pattern. The unique aesthetic characteristics and viewing experience of "slow movies" have a unique impact and inspiration on the audience, and can even prompt the return of hu-man subjectivity, which is of great significance to our understanding of "slow movies" and thinking about the "fast-slow dispute". It is of great significance to our understand-ing of "slow movie" and thinking about the "fast-slow controversy".  [..] Even after we walk out of the theater, the deep impression left by the vi...

"We continue our series on Akerman with a double-bill of personal documentaries about her mother, and of home. News from Home immediately follows her seminal Jeanne Dielman, and No Home Movie is the final film of Akerman’s filmography. In this episode, we thread the throughline across Akerman’s career in comparing both films, see the influence of structural and slow cinema, and marvel at her capacity for personal artmaking." Chantal Akerman: News From Home / No Home Movie ( Deep Cut podcast ) 24 August 2025 Spotify 54'44" Deep Cut: A Film Podcast is a director-focused film podcast featuring deep-dive discussions about international, art-house, and independent cinema. Each episode we discuss either a director's most popular film or a "Deep Cut Pick": a personal favorite chosen by one of us: Wilson Lai, Benjamin Yap, and Eli Sands.

"A ideia de cinema como revelação, expressa nalgumas ideias de Kracauer e de Balázs, no cine-olho de Vertov, bem como nas noções de fotogenia e de cinema animista de Epstein, forneceram‑nos as bases para explorar a hipótese de que o cinema pode contribuir, através da sua tecnologia e opções formais, para a criação de uma alternativa às visualidades dominadas por modelos antropocêntricos. Vimos, assim, como a experiência visual caleidoscópica do Leviathan é uma luta permanente contra a possibilidade de o filme oferecer um ponto de vista fixo, humano, traduzível em ideias abstratas, conceitos, entendimentos e significados fora da estrita fisicalidade da matéria. As suas opções estéticas, com montagem acelerada, constante mudança de perspetivas e de pontos de vistas, explorando toda a mobilidade e flexibilidade das câmaras GoPro constituem um desafio à visualidade antropocêntrica." PATRÍCIA CASTELLO BRANCO; O Cinema, o Não Humano e a Resposta Ecológica: e...

  Béla Tarr: The Filmmaker Who Broke Time (YouTube) 10'58" (Klassiki notes) 19 July 2025 "Few filmmakers are as distinct as Béla Tarr. From his early social cinema to the profound, long-take masterpieces like Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies, the Hungarian maestro has crafted a unique cinematic universe. We explore how his desolate black-and-white landscapes, populated by drunks, visionaries, and doomed figures, became crucibles for profound human drama, revealing a sincere message of hope beneath the bleakness."

Dernière ajout de thèse à la page Library : "Le projet de recherche-création qui vous est présenté interroge les possibilités qu’offre le cinéma contemplatif jumelé à la performance musicale en direct, ayant pour objectif de susciter des émotions et un ressenti chez le spectateur lors de cette rencontre de la scène et de l’écran. Il s’agit essentiellement d’une tentative d’expérimentations et de compréhension de certaines caractéristiques propres au cinéma qui, une fois appliquée dans le contexte de la représentation en direct, offre une nouvelle forme immersive au sein de l’image et du son." Kenny Leguier ; La musique en direct et le cinéma contemplatif comme vecteur d'émotion envers le spectateur ; 2016

  Movies Need to Shut Up | Video Essay (youtube) 15'41" (Accented Cinema) 15 August 2025

"It’s about time. We tackle Chantal Akerman’s Sight and Sound topping Jeanne Dielman, and begin our series on her singular career. Ben introduces Akerman’s career, spotlighting her fierce conviction and crystalline vision, Eli loops in a melodramatic reading, and Wilson zeroes in on an ending that explosively caps off a 3.5h opus. And if you’re struggling with how to approach this film, as entertainment or as art, just remember: it’s about time." Jeanne Dielman ( Deep Cut podcast ) 11 August 2025  Spotify  1h32'  Deep Cut: A Film Podcast is a director-focused film podcast featuring deep-dive discussions about international, art-house, and independent cinema. Each episode we discuss either a director's most popular film or a "Deep Cut Pick": a personal favorite chosen by one of us: Wilson Lai, Benjamin Yap, and Eli Sands.

L'an passé c'est GPT4o qui passait le test, aujourd'hui avec la sortie du tout nouveau GPT5 je formule les mêmes questions pour y déceler les variations et améliorations du nouveau modèle d'IA. PROMPT : Qu’est-ce que le cinéma contemplatif ? GPT5 : Le cinéma contemplatif est un style cinématographique qui privilégie l’observation, la lenteur et la durée au détriment de l’action rapide ou de la narration traditionnelle.  Plutôt que de multiplier les événements ou les rebondissements, il invite le spectateur à prendre le temps de regarder, de ressentir et de réfléchir. Voici ses principales caractéristiques : Plans longs et fixes Les scènes peuvent durer plusieurs minutes sans coupe. L’absence de montage rapide permet au spectateur de “s’immerger” dans le moment. Importance du temps et du silence Le film explore souvent le passage du temps, parfois presque en temps réel. Les silences et les sons ambiants remplacent fréquemment la musique ou les dialogues. Narration mini...

Watch More Like This Film : Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003/Tsai) keywords = Building + Emptiness + Mutism + Ghosts More like it: Fantasma (2006/Alonso) More spectators: Shirin (2008/Kiarostami) More spectators: Where is my Romeo? (2007/Kiarostami) short More child spectators: 10 minutes older (1978/Frank) short More empty: Hôtel Monterey (1973/Akerman) More abandoned: Homo Sapiens (2016/Geyrhalter) More scenography: Le Bal (1983/Scola) More testimony: Man in Black (2023/Wang)

  Film at the end of the world, with Ben Rivers | Klassiki Podcast (YouTube) 43'26" (Klassiki Podcast) 4 August 2025 "In this hot seat this time around is prolific British artist and filmmaker Ben Rivers (https://www.benrivers.com/), whose latest feature, the post-apocalyptic tale Mare’s Nest, premieres in competition at the Locarno Film Festival this week. With that in mind, Ben has picked a fascinating quartet of titles for Klassiki: four films that explore the end of the world, whether literal or metaphorical, featuring sci-fi weirdness, nuclear paranoia, and the threat of social collapse. Host Sam Goff sat down with Ben to discuss the appeal of this End Times cinema, the unique nature of Eastern European sci-fi, children on film, and the enduring influence of Aleksandr Sokurov on his work." 

Latest addition to the Bibliography page at Unspoken Cinema:  “Beauty in shadows”: could this simple formula express all we need to know about the Japanese aesthetic? It is true that shadows—and indeed the empty spaces which shadows fill—bear little relation to Western critical theory, which tends to look toward empty and ambiguous spaces only for their ability to be occupied with something, for their status as place holders for the soon-to-be-defined, or for their receptivity to often contrived dialectical syntheses. As Barthes observed: “dialectics only links successive positivities.” We Westerners make it our special mission to chase shadows with some kind of light, to block out emptiness with any kind of material presence. Perhaps the particularity of Japanese vision is actually its ability to dwell within empty space untroubled by its emptiness. Vicari, Justin. Japanese Film and the Floating Mind: Cinematic Contemplations of Being ; 2016

CONTEMPLATIVE CINEMA ARTICLE Convenience vs Contemplation (Cinematic Tropes) GPT vs CCC (4e édition) ZEN AESTHETICS IN CONTEMPLATIVE CINEMA (AI) The Broken Bowl (a poetic view of contemplative criticism) Zen Quartet Yohaku: Contemplative Filmmaking in Zen Aesthetics (1) Fukinsei: Contemplative Filmmaking in Zen Aesthetics (2) Hei: Contemplative Filmmaking in Zen Aesthetics (3) Miegakure: Contemplative Filmmaking in Zen Aesthetics (4) So: Contemplative Filmmaking in Zen Aesthetics (5) Shibui: Contemplative Filmmaking in Zen Aesthetics (6) Mono no Aware: Contemplative Filmmaking in Zen Aesthetics (7) Zen Concepts in Contemplative Performance (1): Danshari Zen Concepts in Contemplative Performance (2): Iki Zen Concepts in Contemplative Performance (3): Seijaku Zen Concepts in Contemplative Performance (4): Yuugen Ma: Contemplative Editing With Zen Aesthetics (1) Jikan: Contemplative Editing With Zen Aesthetics (2) Jo-Ha-Kyuu: Contemplative Editing With Zen Aesthetics (3) Kire: Contemplati...