Unspoken Cinema

  (Vidéo par Olivier Gilbert) Read also on Unspoken Cinema: Slow films, easy life (Sight&Sound) Slowish Obsession, ter

Latest addition to the Library page on Unspoken Cinema: Abstract: "The theoretical-practical thesis starts from the investigation of the poetic processes of the creation of the short film Clearing (a joint work with Maíra Flores) and some conceptual issues that the film tensions: the theoretical limits between reality and fiction addressed through cinematographic realism, and also the dilution of boundaries between the fields of cinema and performance as well as cinema and painting, seeking to delineate contaminations and mutual influences in these different manifestations. Within the theories of cinematic realism, I discuss from André Bazin's theories, in the 1940s, to contemporary conceptions such as Slow Cinema, Contemporary Contemplative Cinema, Realism of the Senses, and Sensory Realism. I turn to the principle of indexicality of the medium to investigate the style characteristics of realist cinema, and explore what Lúcia Nagib will call "physical cinema", tryi...

  Le Slow Cinéma (YouTube) 4'33" (Méline) 25 mai 2025 Par Méline Crampon & Jad Belmaachi « Le cinéma substitue à notre regard un monde qui s’accorde à nos désirs » - André Bazin

Ce matin pour sa chronique "Le Pas de côté", la neuroscientifique Sylvie Chokron nous fait un éloge de la lenteur. "Nous sommes dans l’ère du trop. Trop d’informations disponibles, trop d’amis virtuels, trop de groupes whatsapp, trop de tâches que nous avons l’illusion de pouvoir réaliser en parallèle, et surtout tout va beaucoup trop vite. Notre cerveau s’est déjà modifié puisque nous ne supportons plus ni d’attendre ni même d’écouter les gens parler à une vitesse normale. Les jeunes écoutent leurs cours et leurs messages à un débit 1,5 ou 2 fois plus vite que la normale et ne supportent plus d’écouter quelqu’un parler à une vitesse normale. Et cela ne s’arrange pas vraiment avec les IA génératives qui mettent entre 1 et 5 secondes pour répondre à l’une de nos requêtes standards. Saviez-vous Ali que des startups se sont montées pour nous éviter de faire la queue et d’attendre ? A New York, une société pionnière du genre vous propose que quelqu’un fasse la queue pour vou...

QuietMovies "We believe that slow cinema is not a niche — it is a necessity. Our mission is to help people discover, appreciate, and benefit from contemplative films. Whether you are seeking relief from anxiety, deeper artistic experiences, or simply a quieter way to spend an evening, we curate the world's most calming and meditative cinema in one place. We do not believe slow means boring. The films we champion reward patience with beauty, depth, and emotional resonance that fast-paced cinema cannot achieve." The Quiet Canon : "The definitive collection of contemplative cinema. Films that trade spectacle for stillness, noise for nuance, speed for soul.  The Canon features over 100 essential slow cinema films spanning eight decades and dozens of countries. Every film is rated for stillness, beauty, emotional depth, and accessibility to help you choose your next watch."

 "Boredom is, of course, an inability to pass the time, a cruel sense of stagnation, the minute hand chipping away each hour so slowly. Days, like so many of Tsai other films, is about the ebb and flow of time, consciousness, about two people whose lives briefly converge like separate rivulets meeting at the river, before parting ways again. Tsai luxuriates in minutiae, in stasis, exhuming meaning from the mundane, the still, quiet moments in the chaos of modern life. The one constant source of movement in his films is time, which ambles on, unconcerned, undeterred." Greg Swik; Time Slays Clocks: Tsai Ming Liang's "Days" (Kinoscope; 13 Aug 2021)

  Ce documentaire a été interdit pendant 24 ans | Titicut Follies (1967) | ARTE (YouTube) 1h20' (ARTE) 19 Sept 2026 *Un documentaire disponible jusqu'au 31/07/2027 (use France VPN if Geolocked) "Titicut Follies, de Frederick Wiseman, révèle sans filtre les conditions de vie violentes des détenus d'une prison-hôpital. Certaines scènes peuvent ne pas convenir à tous les publics.  Bienvenue dans la prison-hôpital de Bridgewater, ville du Massachusetts située à une heure de Boston. Construit au milieu du XIXe siècle, l’établissement, qui enferme des criminels atteints de troubles psychiatriques, accuse de sérieux signes de vétusté. Assommés par les calmants, les malades y vivent dans des conditions d'hygiène déplorables et sont régulièrement moqués, voire humiliés par le personnel soignant. Tous les ans, s’inspirant du nom que donnaient autrefois les tribus autochtones à la région de Bridgewater, les gardiens organisent une revue de variétés avec le concours des patie...

  A Visual Poem about Loneliness (YouTube) 4'16" (He Zhiwu) 16 Dec 2022 "film: Vive L'Amour directed by Tsai Ming-liang"

  Time and Landscape | Sokurov x Sakamoto  (YouTube) 2'37" (Missed Movies New Wave) 21 Sept 2026

Latest addition to the Library page on Unspoken Cinema: "Slowness as an alternative cinematic style Slowness in cinema is linked to a certain aesthetic current characterised by stillness, slowness, and silence. What is often seen as a dwelling on the visual and aural qualities of the landscape in a film may, in fact, reflect the cinematic vision, the technical or aesthetic preferences of a given director (deLuca and Barradas Jorge 2016). As Clara orban suggests, 'Like its culinary counterpart, Slow Food, slow cinema has become a way of watching the world go by more slowly, a mindful approach to moving images' (2021, 1). This 'mindful approach' reflects the stylistic and aesthetic preferences of individual directors. How is then the aesthetics of slowness materrialised? Are there any common features that appear in most slow films? In what follows, I will try to examine these features by highlighting how slow cinema is seen as an alternative cinematic practice that ...

I've invited Yaroslav Vasiutkevych to introduce us to another book of his, about Šarūnas Bartas: Yaroslav Vasiutkevych writes : Šarūnas Bartas: Time of Utopia Will Never Come (2026) This book has a very specific point of departure. In 2016, in Kyiv, I interviewed Šarūnas Bartas while he was preparing to work on the film Frost . By that time, I had already seen his early films, which made a strong impression on me precisely as captured time. In those works, there is a record of a vast historical rupture, the collapse and death of the Soviet empire, not as an event explained retrospectively, but as a condition directly experienced by people, spaces, and reality itself. I wrote the first two texts on Bartas’s cinema at that time, while preparing for our meeting. Years later, when I returned to them, I not only saw Bartas differently. The historical context in which his films are perceived had also changed. For that reason, I deliberately chose not to rewrite those early texts complet...

  The Places That Wait For Us | الأماكن التي تنتظرنا | A Cinematic Visual Essay (YouTube) 2'37" (Machine Pulse | نبض الآلة) 19 June 2026 "A cinematic visual essay about memory, silence, and the quiet spaces cities leave behind. “The Places That Wait For Us” explores empty streets before sunrise, forgotten hallways, rooftop silence, train platforms, and the fragile atmosphere of places that continue existing long after people leave them behind. Created using cinematic AI visual storytelling techniques with grounded realism, atmospheric sound design, and reflective narration. This film is part of an ongoing cinematic storytelling series focused on: urban loneliness, memory, absence, architecture, quiet moments, slow cinema, and emotional environments."

Cinéastes contemplatifs (ou non) cités dans le corpus de ces 20 publications sur le sujet (exclusif) du Cinéma Contemplatif, Slow Cinema ou Cinéma Soustractif, entre 2004 et 2027. En violet, les auteurs attribués au Cinéma Contemplatif. En rouge, les autres auteurs (uniquements reconnus par le Slow CInema). 6 livres de plus que dans mon dernier post (en anglais) de 2024 . Et un "consensus" allant jusqu'à 15 citations pour 2 cinéastes (Béla Tarr et Tsai Ming Liang) sur un corpus de 20 livres, soit 75% seulement. Une belle courbe parabolique avec une longue traîne (cf. Chris Anderson) pour les auteurs cités une seule fois : peu d'auteurs font consensus, et beaucoup n'apparaissent que dans un seul livre.   Voici le détail des citations par livre. Les noms en vert sont les auteurs majeurs récurrants sur Unspoken Cinema. Les noms en rouge n'appartiennent pas au CCC, précurseurs ou pas assez contemplatif, ils ne sont reconnus que par les "Slow Cinemas". On...

I've invited Yaroslav Vasiutkevych to write a letter to introduce the 2026 re-edition  (revised and updated) of his 2024 book on Carlos Reygadas ( Carlos Reygadas: In Search of a New Time ). It is illustrated by his daugther,  Zlata Vasiutkevych, with beautifully eerie paintings from Reygadas's photograms.   It is available in English, but also in Spanish, in Italian and in Ukrainian (see the QRcodes on page 2 of the English version linked above). Illustration from the book : Zlata Vasiutkevych Yaroslav Vasiutkevych writes : Carlos Reygadas: In Search of a New Time When I first encountered the films of Carlos Reygadas, for a long time I placed them alongside other works of auteur cinema, cinema that positions itself in opposition to genre conventions and, above all, to the tradition of American filmmaking. Long takes, weakened narrative, the absence of conventional plot dynamics, and the slow unfolding of events on screen can all be found in the work of many filmmakers op...