Unspoken Cinema

  In Praise of Slowness (YouTube) 1'12" Hicham Gardaf (26 Jan 2024) Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival

My top10 favourite films released in France in 2023 in alphabetical order (published at Senses of Cinema issue #108  / January 2024) Bên trong vo kén vàng  ( Inside The Yellow Cocoon Shell , Phạm Thiên Ân, 2023) Cerrar los ojos  ( Close your eyes , Victor Erice, 2023) De Humani Corporis Fabrica  (Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2022) Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka  ( The Boy and the Heron , Hayao Miyazaki, 2023) Kuolleet lehdet  ( Fallen Leaves , Aki Kaurismäki, 2023) Kuru Otlar Üstüne  ( About Dry Grasses , Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2023) Past Lives  (Celine Song, 2023)  Perfect Days  (Wim Wenders, 2023) Retour à Séoul  ( Return to Seoul , Davy Chou, 2023) Sur l’Adamant  ( On the Adamant , Nicolas Philibert, 2023) Sur l'Adamant (2023/Philibert/France)

  La place des contemplatifs (YouTube) 16'19" Mathieu Brelu-Brelu (14 jan 2024) FRANCAIS

  otros modos de percibir el tiempo: Sátántangó (YouTube) 12'41" Atherion (15 Jan 2021) ESPAÑOL

  In Praise of Long Takes (YouTube) 9'16" Auteur Cinema (14 Jan 2024)

  PETER BRADSHOW reviews EUREKA (YouTube) 4'37" Peter Bradshaw (17 Jan 2024)

"[..] Yet, all too often, the attention on Slow Cinema stops exactly there, however; the use of long‐takes, or its relative slowness. The danger with this, and indeed with using the term Slow Cinema is that it limits the view on the phenomenon. It focuses almost exclusively on time in film; a debate which is usually aimed at opposing popular film and art cinema. This view neglects several intriguing aspects, which add to the special experience of slow films, two of them being the art of minimalism and the use of location. [..] Characters tend to communicate by means other than the spoken word. It is about body language first of all. But their behaviours, actions, and decisions equally add to an almost mute narrative. If dialogue is present it often merely functions as verbal wallpaper, or everyday chitchat. [..] Nadin Mai, The Aesthetics of Slow Cinema – CMC RPG Conference, University of Stirling (4 December 2012 ; unpublished conference paper)

  It's by the sound, from the street, of a traditional twig broom brushing away leaves from the pavement at dawn that this man awakens. He methodically folds back his futon and duvet in his neat tatami room, gently puts away the book he abandonned last night next to his reading glasses... He walks downstairs to brush his teeth and climbs back upstairs with a water sprayer to water his plants in the adjacent room bathed in a sepia shade. He puts on his work overalls with "Tokyo Toilets" printed on the back. Without a word uttered so far, the personality of the character is established with a natural flow and a few hints...  He proceeds down the stairs where he picks up one by one the objects carefully placed on a shelf. First his mobile phone after disconnecting it from an all-night charge. 2 sets of keys he pockets promptly. Some change. Only his watch remains on the shelf when he closed the door. The first thing he looks at when opening the entrance door is the sky. Next...

  The Future of Cinema is Slow (YouTube) 12'02" FilmFourAll (1st Jan 2024)

Menus-Plaisirs : Les Troisgros (2023) Frederick WISEMAN What you ought to know prior to watching this film The less information about this film, the more surprises the slow-burn discovery will get you, each step of the way. The faces of these chefs might not be familiar at first, but they’ll gradually grow on you… until you’re part of the family by the end. You might want to save a good moment of your time to complete this four-hour long observational documentary, as there is no built-in intermission. Like for all Wiseman’s recent films, this film spends longer than usual to foster acquaintance with the universe he’s studying. He observes carefully, patiently, the institutions of society and culture, one at the time, with a no-nonsense title naming its subject with exactitude. What you won’t see in this film: emotional music score, voiceover commentary, stars, competition, prices, money, waiting line, shouting orders, gratuitous insults, tears of despair or joy, food reviews, Instagra...