TSAI Ming-Liang and the Cinema of Slowness (Lim Song Hwee)

TSAI Ming-Liang and the Cinema of Slowness (ENGLISH Lecture) 1H 

ARI ASIA TRENDS (Singapore) 19 june 2013

Lim Song Hwee & Pheng Cheah

Asia Research Institute, NUS (Singapore)

Synopsis : How can we qualify slowness in cinema, and what is the relationship between a cinema of slowness and a wider socio-cultural "slow movement"? With a body of films that share a propensity towards slowness emerging in many parts of the world over the past two decades, this lecture explores the concept of cinematic slowness and addresses this fascinating phenomenon through the films of the Malaysian-born, Taiwan-based director Tsai Ming-liang. Through detailed analysis of aspects of stillness and silence in cinema, the talk will delineate the strategies by which slowness in film can be constructed and make a passionate case for a slow cinema that calls for a renewed attention to the image and to the experience of time in film. In an age of unrelenting acceleration of pace both in film and in life, this talk invites us to pause and listen, to linger and look, to drift and meander, to contemplate and wander, and, above all, to take things slowly.

See also the lecturer's book :

• Tsai Ming-liang and a Cinema of Slowness ; 2014 / Song Hwee Lim / USA

See also at Unspoken Cinema :

• CCC Videographic Criticism