Evolution & Legacy of Slow Cinema (Barrington)
One of the latest addition to the thesis list on the Library Page:
I began this thesis in 2012, a moment after the initial development of the idea of slow cinema, which was understandably focused on questions of terminology, definition and meaning. In other words: establishing the legitimacy and the key terms of slow cinema as an object of critical debate and academic study. It should also be mentioned that since I started the thesis, there has been a steady increase in attention given to these films, accompanied by considerable growth in the critical discourse on this topic, although one could argue that this has tailed off in recent years, in terms of the quantity of articles, books and conferences devoted to slow cinema.[..]"
"[..] This focus, analysing the routes of exhibition and distribution suggests slow cinema has both enabled a shift in these approaches as well as being affected by these wider trends. In addition, I understand this subject not as a current or emerging moment, but instead as a distinct period which can now be seen to have ended. My focus is between 2002, which saw the first reference to slow cinema, and 2014, the year I identify as the symbolic point of saturation of the ‘slow’ moment in cinema, a question to which I shall return later in this introduction. [..]"
"[..] After the initial references to slow cinema which had appeared in film reviews in the mid-2000s, there were attempts from film critics to establish something closer to a definition of the phrase, which had begun to appear more regularly at the end of decade. The ‘Unspoken Cinema’ blog, run by an online film critic by the name of Benoît Rouilly, has been active since 2006. Rouilly posts under the alias of Harry Tuttle, the name being recognisable as that of an anarchist freedom fighter, played by Robert De Niro, in Brazil (Terry Gilliam, UK, 1986).
Whereas Romney was summarising a perceived film trend from the conventional viewpoint of print film criticism, and Matthew Flanagan was contributing to a more academic online film journal, the ‘Unspoken Cinema’ blog, having begun in October 2006, is an earlier reaction to slow cinema and uses the informality of the blog to include pictures and lists alongside pieces of film criticism. ‘Unspoken Cinema’ has since 2006 regularly made blog posts discussing and drawing attention to filmmakers using slow aesthetics. The blog at the time of writing is still producing content on this subject with recent posts including analysis of Chinese director Wang BIng. The blog refrains from using the phrase slow cinema, instead choosing contemplative cinema. Many of the films and directors mentioned in Unspoken Cinema correlate with those mentioned by Flanagan and Romney, meaning that when viewed alongside one another, a clear and concise understanding of slow cinema is generated. [..]"
Whereas Romney was summarising a perceived film trend from the conventional viewpoint of print film criticism, and Matthew Flanagan was contributing to a more academic online film journal, the ‘Unspoken Cinema’ blog, having begun in October 2006, is an earlier reaction to slow cinema and uses the informality of the blog to include pictures and lists alongside pieces of film criticism. ‘Unspoken Cinema’ has since 2006 regularly made blog posts discussing and drawing attention to filmmakers using slow aesthetics. The blog at the time of writing is still producing content on this subject with recent posts including analysis of Chinese director Wang BIng. The blog refrains from using the phrase slow cinema, instead choosing contemplative cinema. Many of the films and directors mentioned in Unspoken Cinema correlate with those mentioned by Flanagan and Romney, meaning that when viewed alongside one another, a clear and concise understanding of slow cinema is generated. [..]"
Matthew Antony Barrington, 2024 / UK
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