Realism of the Senses in World Cinema (Tiago de Luca)

Belated addition to the Library page on Unspoken Cinema:

"[..] Whether we consider the ways in which they downplay or disregard human presence, their play on scale, stillness and laconism, or their adherence to unbroken shots with little by way of action – in short, their sensory-observational approach – we conclude these cinemas are not so easily accommodated or suited to the distracted modes of fi lm reception prevailing in our day. They express a yearning to reclaim the phenomenology of the fi lm experience whose ideal site is the fi lm theatre, which in turn becomes a space of retreat and refl ection in the context of realities in relentless transformations – the same realities these cinemas so intently look at through comparable stylistic approaches.

On the one hand, as we have seen, the cinemas of Reygadas, Tsai and Van Sant are fundamentally cinephile projects, and testify to a self-conscious quest to rework and expand upon dissimilar fi lm schools: metaphysical realism in Reygadas, cinematic auteurism in Tsai, experimental fi lm in Van Sant, among others. Yet, despite their being in most cases indebted to unrelated infl uences and grounded in dissimilar realities, to put these directors on an equal footing makes sense not only in light of their unrestrained commitment to the long take. They also arrive at similar formal strategies and common tropes in their quest to enhance material reality, an obvious example being the way in which the trope of the wanderer, contended by Deleuze as one of the fundamental staples of modern cinema, is pervasive in equal measure in their work. [..]"

Tiago de Luca, Realism of the Senses in World Cinema: The Experience of Physical Reality, 2014, about the films of Carlos Reygadas, Tsai Ming-liang and Gus Van Sant.