Unspoken Cinema

"In general, when people go to the cinema they say: “Ah, it’s great. I didn’t see the time passing.” But time is all we have in life. And in fact, when we don’t see the time pass it is as if we have 2 hours of our life stolen. So, for me, going to see one of my films is living an experience inside yourself, which is an experience both obviously visual but also of time passing in itself."  – Chantal Akerman "[..]Film, as a medium, has an intrinsic relationship with time. The very act of watching a film unfolds over a predetermined duration, often eliciting a unique psychological experience of time’s passage. When a viewer declares that they “lost track of time,” they express a profound engagement with the filmic narrative that goes beyond mere entertainment. This phenomenon invites questions about the nature of temporality itself: What does it mean to experience time while being absorbed in a story? And how does film manipulate our perception of this elusive conc...

All it takes is 10 mindful minutes  (Andy Puddicombe) 9'07" TEDsalon Nov 2012

  Hatari - DIRECT ACTION de Guillaume Cailleau et Ben Russell (YouTube) 25'12" Critikat (19 Nov 2024) Avec : Corentin Lê et Josué Morel

  Rencontre avec Apichatpong Weerasethakul pour le livre d'entretiens "Homes" (YouTube) 1h03' Boutique Potemkine (10/10/2024)

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman) (YouTube) 3h14' ARTE Cinema (26 Nov 2024) FRANCAIS Film complet disponible jusqu'au 27 février 2025

  Il Buco | Film complet | ARTE Cinema  (YouTube) 1h30' (ARTE) 19 Novembre 2024 Film complet visible sur la chaîne YT d'Arte (ou en Replay sur Arte TV) jusqu'au 23 décembre 2024. (a priori depuis la France uniquement...) "En 1961, un groupe de spéléologues découvre en Calabre une grotte d’une profondeur exceptionnelle. À travers une mise en scène sensorielle et contemplative, le cinéaste italien Michelangelo Frammartino restitue cet épisode avec une infinie poésie. En 1961, dans un bourg de montagne calabrais, les villageois se rassemblent pour découvrir, sur l’unique poste de télévision de la communauté, un reportage sur la tour Pirelli de Milan, alors l’un des gratte-ciel les plus hauts d’Europe. Au même moment, une équipe de jeunes spéléologues enthousiastes, venus du nord de l’Italie, débarquent pour explorer à proximité le gouffre du Bifurto, d’une profondeur inconnue. En altitude, un vieux vacher les observe… Cinéaste rare, auteur de seulement trois longs métra...

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  When a Director Is Inspired by Toilets | Perfect Days Video Essay (YouTube) 20'03" (Sefo Nad) 10 Oct 2024

  How to frame a story (YouTube) 4'46" (Miles Vernon Stephenson) 27 Oct 2024 On Tsai Ming Liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn

Chantal Akerman : L' espace pendant un certain temps - Conference de Jérôme Momcilovic (YouTube) 1h32' (La Cinémathèque française) 23 Mai 2018

Goodbye, Dragon Inn and the Power of Slow Cinema (Sawyer Gouw Ranzetta) 29 March 2024 "[..] The shot lingers for longer than you would expect, a staple of Tsai’s style and what one might expect from a film described as slow cinema, an international movement comprised of work from the likes of Michelangelo Antonioni, Andrei Tarkovsky, Chantal Akerman, Béla Tarr, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul that deal in long takes, wide angles, and fixed shots. Despite paying homage to such a theatrical piece of cinema as Dragon Inn, Goodbye, Dragon Inn’s characters are muted, and its camera is static. Rather than try to recreate the magic of the wuxia film, effectively bridging the gap between past and present, Goodbye, Dragon Inn is obsessed with the chasm between then and now and uses duration as a tool to both attract and alienate viewers. [..] There is a false assumption that if you are an enlightened viewer, slow cinema is riveting which I hope to demystify. Slow cinema is...

On “Slow Cinema” Does this contemporary movement represent a gentle resistance to the values of contemporary society—or a surrender to elitist aesthetics?  (December 18, 2023) by Bella Okuya "[..] Consider, for example, Manakamana by Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez. It’s a highly regarded documentary, released in 2013, set in a cable car that carries diverse groups of pilgrims to visit Manakamana, a Hindu temple located atop a hill in Nepal. A camera in one of the cars records the reaction in real time of real people as they ascend to the temple. Some people talk, some sit in silence and admire the scenery, and others eat ice cream. This focus on the details of the everyday behaviours of people, and their reactions to this journey, offer us insight into the meaning of the temple for different visitors. Hindu pilgrims talk about myths, while tourists react to the sublime surroundings. [..] [..] Some contributors to the recent anthology Slow Cinema point out that most slow films, ev...

De Les Statues Meurent aussi (1953) à Dahomey (2024) À soixante-dix ans d'intervalle, deux documentaires interrogent les rapports entre la France et la culture africaine à travers le prisme de la colonisation. Cette analyse compare Les Statues meurent aussi  (1953) de Chris Marker et Alain Resnais, et Dahomey (2024) de Mati Diop, ce dernier s'inscrivant explicitement dans la lignée du premier, qualifié par Diop de "manifeste politique en même temps qu'un film d'art." Nous verrons comment ces deux essais filmiques se rapprochent et comment ils diffèrent, appartenant à deux générations différentes de l'histoire du cinéma. À la fin du XIXe siècle (1892), l'empire colonial français accumule près de 7000 objets provenant d'Afrique (et d'Océanie aussi) dans ses musées métropolitains, fruits de pillages masqués sous l'apparence de "cadeaux" dans un contexte de domination coloniale. Si  Les Statues meurent aussi  émerge dans une périod...

"Mark Kermode and Ellen E Jones take the scenic route through slow cinema - a genre of film that might challenge your attention span, but is almost guaranteed to change the way you watch. There is one particular film that’s inspired this week’s show, Chantal Akerman’s 3-and-a-half hour, slow moving masterpiece from 1975 - Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080, Brussels In December 2022, Jeanne Dielman topped Sight and Sound magazine’s Greatest Film of All Time poll. That caused quite a fuss because, for the last few decades, the poll has been dominated by Citizen Kane and Vertigo. Ellen speaks with critic Wendy Ide and film academic Dr Tiago de Luca to get deeper into the genre of slow cinema and explore this sea change in critics' tastes. One reason for Jeanne Dielman’s new found popularity is down to access. A film that was once almost impossible to see is now enjoying sell out runs in art house cinemas. In an extended interview, Mark talks with writer and filmmaker Adam...