Plotinus & the Moving Image (Botz-Bornstein)

"[..] Contemplative Cinema is neither a genre nor a school, but "slow films" share certain family ressemblances. Slow films distinguish themselves through long and fluid camera takes and infrequent editing as well as through a certain visual and narrative simplicity that can lead to a voluntary lack of mobility and expressiveness. [..]

 [..] The contemplative way of looking produces a surplus of understanding and this works better when the process is slow. To contemplate does not merely mean to collect information about what is seen. Information can be quantified and rationalized, and when it comes to the processing of information, speed is an advantage. For contemplation, on the other hand, slowness is a virtue. [..] In Contemplative Cinema the slowness is interior and will be perceived as such by the viewer while analysis does not lead to awareness unless the results of the analysis are contemplated. Contemplation creates awareness, which means that it transforms the contemplator. [..]

[..] Strictly speaking, the aim of Contemplative Cinema is to overcome the semiotics of signs and to look for an "interior beauty" in the same way in which Plotinus looked for an interior beauty. Plotinus thought that sensible qualities like harmony and colors should not be the focus of aesthetics. However, "interior" does not mean subjective. Saying slowness is created "in" the viewer does not mean the viewer empathizes the slowness and cultivates it as a subjective quality. This is impossible for the simple reason that slowness is not an object. [..]

[..] the fact that this slowness can be detected and even enjoyed by the viewer (while most people are probably getting bored when watching slow movies) means that the viewer already had a contemplative mind. Contemplative films can only be watched by spectators who are "able to contemplatee" [..]

[..] In the long scenes of Contemplative Cinema, we do not have to concentrate on narrative elements, and our attention will not be captured by psychological states, social questions, or motivated actions. As a result, our attention will shift towards the object or towards some very simple actions. [..]

[..] The long camera take is the most distinctive device of Contemplative Cinema. However, it is not enough to measure the length of the shot in order to establish whether is it contemplative or not. What matters is what is filmed and how it is filmed. A recurring device is the obstinate focus on a certaain scene or a certain object or the showing of the detail apparently for the detail's sake. It is possible to summarize these kind of shots under the predicate "metonymical" in the broadest sense of the term. [..]

[..] Contemplative Cinema has the tendency to show certain actions in a detailed fashion without any apparent reason. [..]

[..] In contemplative films, time is not flowing but details are lengthily presented in order to be contemplated. This procedure is metonymical as it makes us contemplate proximate meanings. [..] The metonymical gesture is anti-symbolic because it circumvents the semiotic art of signs dependent on the relationship between images by concentrating on the images themselves. [..]

[..] Contemplative Cinema communicates images without passing through the intermiedary of the intellect. At the same time, it is not subjective as there is no abundance of emotion in the contemplative approach. Contemplative Cinema sees the world "in a simple way" by avoiding rationalist deformations."

"Cut Away Excess and Straighten the Crooked:" The Simplicity of Contemplative Cinema in the Light of Plotinus' Philosophy
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, 2017, in Plotinus and the Moving Image