Unspoken Cinema

Latest addition to the Library page at Unspoken Cinema: "If we need to ascribe it a meaning, it might just be the following. It’s a story I heard Tarr tell in 2011, in Wrocław. I’ve quoted it before, but if you can’t repeat yourself when talking about Tarr, the great master of essence through attrition, then maybe we didn’t absorb anything from him: “A man wakes up at 4:00 AM, dresses, goes out into the darkness to the location of shooting at 6:00 AM. It’s dark, fucking cold, the wind is blowing. It’s raining, and an actor appears, with a hangover too, and with one thousand problems. An actress comes. Her baby was crying all night. A production manager appears. And says what was said at the meteorological institute, the weather forecast. And a man is standing there waiting for the light to go slightly up so one button can be pressed so the scene can be recorded. And if I did not believe you were all going to see it then for what fucking reason would I be doing all this? I am not ...

  When a Director Lets Time Tell the Story (YouTube) 10'17" (Rognosc) 16 Juin 2026

Latest addition to the Library page at Unspoken Cinema: "This article examines how Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us (1999) creates sacred experience through systematic absence within contemporary slow cinema aesthetics. While previous scholarship has focused on religious content in spiritual cinema, this analysis demonstrates how formal techniques—particularly strategic concealment and extended duration—generate contemplative states without explicit religious references. Drawing on Paul Schrader’s transcendental style theory and recent slow cinema scholarship, the article traces how Kiarostami adapts Persian poetic traditions, particularly concepts of pardeh (veiling) and the interplay between bāṭin (hidden) and ẓāhir (manifest), to create meaning through what remains unseen. The dying woman who never appears, the acousmatic voices of invisible characters, and the village spaces kept off-screen transform absence from lack into generative force. Through comparative analys...

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

  Regarder tenir feat. Olivier Zuchuat (YouTube) 40'19" (Microciné Revue de Cinéma et de Télévision) 25 mars 2026 "À l’occasion de la parution de Attraits de la durée, Olivier Zuchuat revient sur un travail qui, sous des allures théoriques, reste profondément lié à une pratique du cinéma. Il ne cherche pas à redéfinir frontalement ce qu’est un film, mais à déplacer légèrement le point d’attention, à partir d’un élément simple — le plan — pour en éprouver les conséquences. L’idée, au fond, tient en peu de mots : le montage ne serait pas seulement ce qui relie les plans entre eux, mais ce qui s’opère déjà à l’intérieur du plan lui-même, dans sa durée, dans ses déplacements, dans la manière dont il organise l’espace et le temps. À partir de là, tout se reconfigure. Ce que l’on croyait stable — découpage, rythme, progression — devient plus incertain, plus diffus, comme si le film se mettait à respirer autrement. Certains exemples rendent cela immédiatement sensible. Dans les...

Photo: Evolution of a filipino Family (2004/Lav DIAZ) "In this guided film club, we will explore the world of slow cinema(s) from the Lumière brothers through the early 2020s. We will hold each other accountable as we finally work through mammoth runtimes on films like Lav Diaz’s Evolution of a Filipino Family (10 hours and 43 minutes). We will learn together and from each other about diverse cinema traditions and filmmakers. And we will even debate whether or not there even is even an identifiable movement or aesthetic that we can accurately call “slow cinema.”  Each meeting will have recommended (not required) short readings, optional viewings, and required viewings. All films will be reasonably accessible to view from home at free or low costs. Each group meeting will be scheduled for 90 minutes over Google Meet."  Discursions in Time: Slow and Poetic Cinema(s) — A Guided Film Club (There Were No Gods Left) Program (March 8th - May 31st 2026) Meeting 1: Short(s) Introdu...

 Récent ajout de thèse sur la page Bibliothèque de Unspoken Cinema :  FRANCAIS : "L’objectif de notre recherche est d’examiner la force créatrice du temps dans le cinéma contemporain, en confrontant les œuvres de Tarr et Van Sant. Dans une perspective esthétique, nous étudierons la manière dont ces deux cinéastes mettent en valeur différents aspects du temps souvent considérés comme négatifs – la lenteur, la répétition, l’attente, le silence ou le vide – afin de déplacer l’attention du spectateur, non pas vers la narration, mais vers le temps lui-même, la matière première du film, et en même temps d’explorer une autre possibilité de l’art cinématographique. Il s’agit, chez eux, de filmer le temps. Mais comment le filmer et le rendre visible et sensible dans les formes filmiques ? Cette question à la fois théorique, pratique et sensorielle qui traverse leurs films nous guidera dans notre étude.La première partie sera consacrée à deux portraits croisés de Tarr et de Van Sant po...

Aujourd'hui 6 février 2026, jour des funérailles de Béla TARR, génie du Cinéma Contemplatif, à Budapest, un hommage dans la presse française :  "[..] Parler de salut de l’humanité ou de résistance paraît trop lourd, trop chargé pour désigner avec justesse leurs comportements : ils ne projettent rien vers l’avenir, ne portent aucune utopie, mais persistent à accomplir une action simple, minimale. Et pourtant, c’est peut-être bien à travers ces gestes que subsiste pour eux une dernière forme de dignité possible, alors qu’advient la fin des temps." Robin Vaz ; Béla Tarr, le brouillard a envahi ton âme. Ciao Béla . (in Critikat ) "[..] Dans le documentaire Tarr Béla : I Used to be a Filmmaker de Jean-Marc Lamoure, on voit notamment le cinéaste sur le tournage en train de préparer un plan sur la carriole qui passe au loin, sur la crête d’une colline. Pour obtenir son cadre, Tarr demande à des membres de son équipe de creuser un trou : « C’est mon dernier film, j’enterre l...

Hamvas Béla út 11. (YouTube) 55'36" (Kis ZenFilms) 15 Jan 2026 * * * Hamvas Béla út 11. / Hamvas Béla street 11. (2025/Janos KIS/Hungary) a review by Benoit Rouilly Living the weight of an hour, a man takes us through the mundanity of unfettered existence. How much does an hour of human life weigh? Eight moments, eight plans-séquence tell the tale of a daily routine. The slightest gesture is well-rehearsed by life-long habits, not even conscious or calculated. A prosaic choreography of solitude takes place before our eyes. Not a single word is uttered as the unnamed protagonist undertakes repetitive chores. This individual is all of us when nobody’s watching. The muscle memory of his alienation draws lonely circles throughout his apartment. It is as much a chronicle of his life than it is a document of his living space. A modest home on the 13th floor in a Budapest social project from the 60ies. A socialist-era prefab apartment block. The washed-out facade is a vertiginous p...

  Béla Tarr: One Life Is Not Enough (YouTube) 11'11" (Just One More Thing) 14 Jan 2026 "Béla Tarr (1955–2026) was one of cinema’s most uncompromising filmmakers. The Hungarian director is best known for Sátántangó, Werckmeister Harmonies, The Turin Horse, and Damnation, films deeply concerned with human dignity, time, and endurance. Many of his most important works were created in close collaboration with Nobel Prize winner László Krasznahorkai, whose writing shaped the moral and philosophical core of Tarr’s cinema. Through interviews, archival footage, and his own words, this video looks back at a filmmaker who believed cinema could change the world."

  Filmographie Contemplative : 1988 : Damnation (Kárhozat) 1994 : Le Tango de Satan (Sátántangó) 1995 : Voyage sur la plaine hongroise (Utazás az Alföldön) 2000 : Les Harmonies Werckmeister (Werckmeister Harmóniák) 2004 : Visions of Europe - segment Prologue 2007 : L'Homme de Londres (A Londoni férfi) 2011 : Le Cheval de Turin (A Torinói ló) 2017 : Muhamed 2019 : Missing People

Tshirt noir < UNSPOKEN CINEMA > "Voir prend du temps" (Werckmeister Harmonies/TARR) Image originale HD gratuite sur demande Black Tshirt < UNSPOKEN CINEMA > "Seeing Takes Time" (Werckmeister Harmonies/TARR) Free HD original image upon request  

Tshirt orange < UNSPOKEN CINEMA > "Laisser durer... c'est faire confiance" (Le cheval de Turin/Béla TARR) Image originale HD gratuite sur demande Orange Tshirt < UNSPOKEN CINEMA > "To Let Linger... Is To Trust" (Turing Horse/Béla TARR) Free HD original image upon request  

 Dernier ajout à la page Bibliothèque : "[..] Dans le cadre de ce travail d’analyse des structures du montage dans les films faisant appel aux plans de longue durée, il nous paraît fécond de proposer la notion plus réduite, moins ample et moins prescriptive, de cinéma de durée. Les films qui répondent à cette notion déploient une amplitude temporelle et une extension des plans qui enclenche une attention perceptive singulière, qui invite le regard à s’investir dans la durée étendue du plan, à se déplacer dans le cadre. La durée n’est pas ici synonyme de fixité, d’immobilisme, de pétrification ou de lenteur, mais davantage d’une extension spatiotemporelle à habiter. Ces plans sont souvent polarisés par une tension dialectique entre ce qui survient et ce qui insiste. Ce cinéma de durée offre souvent une poétique de l’insistance au sein de plans qui induisent des coalescences spatiotemporelles singulières dont il s’agit alors de faire l’expérience. Le cadre, tenu dans le temps sans ...

  Béla Tarr explored: The Turin Horse (2011) / Final Years (YouTube) 4'02" (Film Directors Explored) 2 Nov 2025 "In this documentary-style video essay analysis, we explore and review the film: The Turin Horse (2011), Béla Tarr’s apocalyptic, haunting, philosophical, and minimalist farewell to cinema. Inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s final moments of compassion toward a beaten horse, and working with his long-time collaborators (László Krasznahorkai, Mihály Vig, Ágnes Hranitzky, Fred Kelemen, Erika Bók), Tarr delivers a powerful ending to one of the most uncompromising careers in slow cinema."

 The Nobel Prize in Literature 2025: László Krasznahorkai  "The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2025 is awarded to the Hungarian author László Krasznahorkai, “for his compelling and visionary oeuvre that, in the midst of apocalyptic terror, reaffirms the power of art”." NobelPrize.org László Krasznahorkai is the screenwriter of (among others): Damnation (1988) Sátántangó (1994) Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) The Man From London (2007) The Turin Horse (2011)

  Béla Tarr: The Filmmaker Who Broke Time (YouTube) 10'58" (Klassiki notes) 19 July 2025 "Few filmmakers are as distinct as Béla Tarr. From his early social cinema to the profound, long-take masterpieces like Sátántangó and Werckmeister Harmonies, the Hungarian maestro has crafted a unique cinematic universe. We explore how his desolate black-and-white landscapes, populated by drunks, visionaries, and doomed figures, became crucibles for profound human drama, revealing a sincere message of hope beneath the bleakness."

  Béla Tarr, Hungary’s maestro of melancholy (YouTube) 19'56" (Klassiki) 21 juillet 2025 "Today is the seventieth birthday of one of the true greats: Béla Tarr, Hungary’s maestro of slow cinema melancholy. So, to celebrate, host Sam Goff is reading from our companion to the life and times of this icon of eastern European film – from his early days as a schoolboy anarchist to his position as a grandee of world cinema." Klassiki Journal 

 Latest addition to the Library page: "The nonconformist and radical visual and representational culture presented by filmmakers like Tarr can decisively impact how the discipline of architecture deals with the tasks of observing, documenting and communicating. These films might not contain extraordinary spaces from a conventional architectural design point of view. Nonetheless, the contemplative nature of slow movies offers authentic and unprecedented aesthetic, socio-political and experiential perspectives on architecture. Slow films visualise spatial experiences that are not common in the mainstream. The obvious emphasis on spatiality turns the films into an untapped source of novel spatial techniques and experiences." The Cinema of Béla Tarr: The Architectonics of Time, Movement and Hapticity Hamid Amouzad Khalili; 27 Mar 2025 Read also : Organic Cinema: Film, Architecture, and the Work of Béla Tarr  (2017/Thorsten Botz-Bornstein)

"[..] Our emphasis on the affective mediation of the film’s atmospheres contributes to the slow cinema debate, where much theorising explains the genre’s characteristic slowness in narrative-aesthetic terms. By including recent discourse on affective atmospheres, we aim to provide theoretical tools that can be used to understand and analyse the stylistic features of slow films as aesthetic, atmospheric properties that afford viewers’ meaningful engagement with the film-world in ways differently than narrative comprehension and/or character engagement. In other words, the novel framework of film atmosphere helps advance the understanding of certain distinct aesthetic pleasures this type of film offers its audience; the notion of atmosphere captures well the power the aesthetics of slowness holds. [..]" Slow Cinematic Atmosphere: Developing an Enactivist-Phenomenological Theory for Contemplative Spectatorship ; Jakob Boer & Ludo de Roo; 17 Feb 2025; Quarterly Review of Film...