Unspoken Cinema

 Dead Time - Exploring Slow Cinema (Nich PK) video essay ( YouTube ) 19'14"  27 August 2022 See also at Unspoken Cinema : CCC Videographic Criticism

Last month Apichatpong WEERASETHAKUL sent an open letter to the Netherlands's zine Filmkrant (May 2nd 2020) in response to another lockdown letter written by his Chinese peer JIA Zhangke. (This mail connection between CCC masters reminds me of Correspondancia(s)  a series of video letters between pairs of CCC masters) To Apichatpong, (mainstream) cinema is like a journey, and each plot point is a mini-destination along the way, the dramatic denouement is the destination of the journey. Such is the "art" of classical cinema, to make spectators forget about time and to propel them to their destination. He aptly compares cinema to a road trip, and the mainstream audience to impatient children at the back of the car. They scream for a destination in sight and get bored of the repeated scenery by the windows. As the audience grows older, they learn to be patient (learn to be patient??? I want to be patient now!), and embraces the scenery by the window, without worrying so muc...

What Is Duration? Understanding Slow Cinema Through KAILI BLUES A video bricolage-essay by Ryan Swen (YouTube 29 May 2018) 9'15" A mix between a straightforward video essay and a more abstract collage, this video briefly delves into the loose movement known as slow cinema, using the 2015 Chinese film KAILI BLUES, directed by Bi Gan, as a focusing lens. Equal emphasis is given to analysis and creation of a mood befitting the subject matter. Source : "Slow cinema" (ToBeContd) Zachary Lewis, Michael Sicinski (2014) [offline:accessible on Web Archive ] "Slow Wars" (n+1) Moira Weigel (spring 2016) n+1 podcast 29 : "Slow Wars" with Moira Weigel (10 September 2016) 33' 'Kaili Blues' Q&A | Bi Gan | New Directors/New Films 2016 (YouTube 33') Director Bi Gan discussed his film 'Kaili Blues' after its screening at New Directors/New Films 2016, co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the M...

Here are some books, magazines or PhD thesis on slow cinema/contemplative cinema available online (latest addition to the Bibliography page ): “ Nocturnal Fabulations: Ecology, Vitality and Opacity in the Cinema of Apichatpong Weerasethakul ” (Érik Bordeleau, Toni Pape, Ronald Rose-Antoinette, Adam Szymanski; 2017) “ Cierta tendencia (nostálgica) del slow cinema ” (Horacio Muñoz Fernández; 2017) “ Speeding Slowness: Neo-Modern Contemplative and Sublime Cinema Aesthetics in Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi Trilogy ” (Boczkowska Kornelia; 2016) “ Mexican Minimalist Cinema:Articulating the (Trans)national ” (Bolesław Racięski, 2016) “ Het dwaallicht vertaald naar Slow Cinema -De wandelaar in hedendaagse langspeelfilm ”  (Anne Verbeure; 2015) on Lav Diaz, Albert Serra, Jia Zhangke, Lisandro Alonso “ As Slow as Possible: An Enquiry Into the Redeeming Power of Boredom for Slow Film Viewers ” (Jakob Boer; 22 January 2015) “ Leave to live? Placeless people in contemporar...

Amongst  the New York Times' 25 Best Movies of the 21st Century  are : A Touch of Sin (Jia Zhangke) Silent Light (Reygadas) Three Times (HHH) Timbuktu (Sissako) Wendy and Lucy (Reichardt) 5 Contemplative films out of 25, that's 20% of the best of the century (so far).  Not bad for a mainstream journal that publishes Dan Kois ( the bored philistine ).

Fireflies is a print magazine, a beautifully crafted book, published between Berlin and Melbourne by founders Annabel Brady-Brown and Giovanni Marchini Camia: (...) Each issue assembles an international group of writers and visual artists to celebrate the work of two extraordinary filmmakers through personal essays, interviews and creative responses. (...) We print responses to cinema that are personal, daring and that wouldn’t necessarily be found in other film journals­: short fiction, visual art, poetry, memoir, comics, and creative non-fiction that experiments with multiple forms. (...) What is interesting to Unspoken Cinema is the filmmakers they chose, always by pair, are familiar with the list of CCC filmmakers : Issue #1 : Pasolini / Apichatpong Weerasethakul  (out of print) Issue #2 : Kiarostami / Tarr  (out of print) Issue #3 : Claire Denis / Jia Zhangke Issue #4 : Pedro Costa / Ben Rivers Issue #5 : Angela Schanelec / Agnès Varda

"[..]This map that did (as [Gilberto] Perez [ The Material Ghost ; 1998]) go out of style for a time, perhaps during the period of postmodernism, and definitely during the period when Fassbinder ruled the arthouse. But the map has been opened again by a new generation. Its influence can now be seen in films from every continent - too such extent that the Antonioni open film can be said to be in its golden age. There are some examples: the work of Apichatpong Weerasethakul from Blissfully Yours to Uncle Boonmee ; Lisandro Alonso's La Libertad through to Liverpool ; Uruphong Raksasad's Agrarian Utopia ; C.W. Winter and Anders Edström's The Anchorage ; Ulrich Köhler's Sleeping Sickness ; the entire so-caled Berlin School of which Köhler is a part; Albert Serra's Honour of the Knights and Birdsong ; James Benning; Kelly Reichardt; Kore-eda Hirokazu; Ho Yuang's Rain Dogs ; Jia Zhangke's Platform and Still Life ; Li Hongqi's Winter Vacation . The lis...

Le cinéma a minima de Frédéric Sabouraud début de l'article ici Il apparait que ces cinq cinéastes sont en fait les exemples qu'il utilise dans son cours à Paris 8, intitulé " Cinéma moderne, cinéma contemporain, passerelles... ". D'aucun ne contestera que ces noms cités (Tsai, van Sant, Hong, Jia, Kiarostami) sont des plus grands artistes de notre époque. Toutefois, je crains qu'ils ne soient nécessairement les plus représentatifs pour circonscrire et définir ce qu'on appellerait la "fiction minimaliste". Je comprends que le programme scolaire d'un semestre universitaire soit limité dans le temps, et qu'une liste courte d'étude de cas permet d'approfondir chaque œuvre, au lieu de survoler. Cependant, en quittant le cadre éducatif, pour publier un article dans une revue, et tirer des conclusions définitives sur un état du monde cinématographique limité à 4 exemples n'est pas vraiment sérieux. Peut-on en toute bonne foi, d...

Le cinéma a minima de Frédéric Sabouraud Liste des articles : Tsai Ming-liang : l'épure et la manière. Le cinéma a minima , 1 ( Trafic n°72, hiver 2009)  Gus Van Sant : l'art du masque. Le cinéma  a minima , 2   ( Trafic  n°73, printemps 2010)  Hong Sang-soo : toute honte bue. Le cinéma  a minima , 3    ( Trafic  n°74, été 2010)  Jia Zhang-ke : le deuil en direct. Le cinéma  a minima , 4    ( Trafic  n°75, automne 2010)  Voilà quatre études de cas très fouillées, sur quatre réalisateurs du cinéma minimaliste contemporain qui ne sont pas inconnus, ici, sur Unspoken Cinema . La série a débuté fin 2009 et on imagine mal que Gavin Smith aie pu écrire son fameux éditorial sur le "maniérisme" ( Film Comment, Mars-Avril 2010 ) s'il avait lu la série complète qui va au fond des choses et argumente intelligemment les oppositions binaires qui s'étalent dans la presse cinéphile anglo-saxonne en 2010...

Images that Cannot be Banned – New Cinema in China from 1995 By Jia Zhangke One day in 2001, the Beijing Evening News carried a news item: a pirate DVD dealer was caught in the office of the Literature Department in the Beijing Film Academy. This man came regularly to sell DVDs to the staff and students of the Academy, and was subsequently reported by the students who felt strongly about copyright. The Literature Department was implicated as it happened on their premises. But the unofficial version was much more dramatic: it was claimed that the informers were not students but the fact that it took place in the reputed Beijing Film Academy enhanced its absurdity. This pirate DVD dealer was more like a direct seller and his ‘rags to riches’ story, as circulated among the students, was like the plot of an edification film. In 1999, when DVD was becoming popular in China, this dealer came to Beijing from another province. He started his business by coming to the Academy every day with a b...

Short videos on this question answered by Jia Zhang-ke, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Lisandro Alonso and Albert Serra. Jia Zhang-ke (Chinese + French subs) 58" [ centrepompidou ] Jia Zhang-ke : "I'm very confident in the future of cinema and I'm confident about new media, like internet or cell phones, that allow the audience to watch movies. But I'm also certain that the movie houses will last long. It's extremely important that the audience could gather in a common place to watch a filmic work. The size of the screen begs for respect, both for the work and the audience. This mutual respect will continue. And this is how I envision the future of cinema. Merci" Hou Hsiao-hsien (chinese + French subs) 1'25" [ centrepompidou ] HHH: "Well it's not like writting... where we only need a pen and a paper. To work with cinema it's different. Question is : what is the difference between images and words? It's totally different. How are we going to w...

JIA Zhang-ke 賈樟柯 (born 1970, China) = 37 yold in 2008 10 films / 9 screenplays (1st film: 1995/latest film: 2008) INSPIRED BY : Chen Kaige ( Yellow Earth ), Hou Hsiao-Hsien ( The Boys of Fengkuei ), Robert Bresson ( Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ), Vittorio De Sica ( Ladri di biciclette ), Ozu Yasujiro ( Tokyo Monogatari ), François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Johnny To ( Election 1 & 2 ) C.C.C. films ( strict model in red) : I Wish I Knew ; 24 City v ; Sanxia haoren / Still Life v ; Shijie / The World v ; Ren xiao yao / Unknown Pleasures v ; Gong gong chang suo / In Public DOC v ; Zhantai / Platform v; Xiao Wu v INFLUENCE ON : ? Quick scroll : BIBLIOGRAPHY | BOOK | ONLINE ARTICLES | INTERVIEW | TEXTS | WEBSITES | DOCUMENTARY 24 City 二十四城 Ershisi Cheng Ji (2008) 24 City By: Dan Fainaru ( Screen Daily , May 17, 2008) 24 City By: Derek Elley ( Variety , May 17, 2008) Links round up By: David Hudson ( GreenCine , May 17, 2008) A modest but moving elegy o...