Unspoken Cinema

Entretien avec Sharunas Bartas (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2016) 15'28" English subtitled in French ( YouTube ) * * * Où en êtes-vous Sharunas Bartas ? (Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2016) 22'32" Sous-titré en français

Expanded to 20 spots, since my last Top10 Canon in 2012 , because the population of CCC has grown "exponentially", reaching over 350 films (as registered in my CCC Recommendations )... here is an updated Contemporary Contemplative Cinema Canon, based on my viewing experience and my own criteria, featuring its greatest aesthetic achievements to date :  My Top20 CCC Canon  (2022 Updated) Sátántangó  (1994/TARR Béla Tarr/Hungary) Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles  (1975/Chantal AKERMAN/Belgium) Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks  (2003/WANG Bing/China) The Turin Horse   (2011/TARR Béla/Hungary) Le Moindre Geste  (1971/DELIGNY/MANENTI/FR) I Don't Want to Sleep Alone  (2006/TSAI/Taiwan)  Los Muertos  (2004/ALONSO/Argentina)  Leviathan  (2012/CASTAING-TAYLOR, PARAVEL/FR-USA-UK) DOC Blissfully Yours   (2002/WEERASETHAKUL/Thailand) An Elephant Sitting Still  (2018/HU Bo...

Films made by 22 recurrent Contemporary Contemplative Cinema figureheads since 1967 [ Google sheet ] It's time to update the CCC timeline 2008 , I hastly put together 12 years ago, at the origin of this blog. I had omitted back then Peter Hutton, Franco Piavoli, Tacita Dean, Elia Suleiman, Nikolaus Geyrhalter, Sergei Loznitsa & Kazuhiro Soda, who I didn't know, as well as most of James Benning's output. But a few also don't make the cut this time around (Omirbaev, Kore-eda, Costa, Ceylan, JZK, GVS, Martin, Escalante, Serra) for various reasons (too few CCC films, too "speechy"/narrative in comparison to the other main figureheads, but it doesn't mean they are not contemplative, just they are not part of the chosen few CCC role models)... in order to paint a clear picture, more radical, of this new narrative cohort. One thing did change : the year of debut of this narrative mode, now 1967 instead of 1970. In restrospect, we can see clearly now the years...

From the Best Video Essay of 2017 list in Sight & Sound (dec 2017) : Films desiertos: por una geopoética del desierto cinematográfico  (6'04")  Gala Hernández Films desiertos: por una geopoética del desierto cinematográfico from Gala Hernández on Vimeo .  Contemplative Films cited (in order): Gerry (Gus Van Sant, 2002) Freedom (Sharunas Bartas, 2000) El Cant dels Ocells (Albert Serra, 2008) La Région Centrale (Michael Snow, 1971) Proximity (Inger Lise Hansen, 2006) Cobra Mist (Emily Richardson, 2008) BNSF (James Benning, 2013) Fata Morgana (Werner Herzog, 1971) Desert (Stan Brakhage, 1976) Chott-el-Djerid: a portrait in light and heat (Bill Viola, 1979)

I usually refuse to compare CCC films on a merit basis, since this blog is dedicated to the study of the aesthetic, of this narrative mode, not to fuel the craving of detractors for reasons to dismiss "bad" CCC films (because they don't know how to find CCC-specific reasons to blame a film for failing to achieve its goal). But in the context of Sight & Sound 2012 Top10 canon, let's also establish a referential standard for the quintessence of CCC, the greatest achievements of this particular aesthetic, which is now a little over 40 years old. My (partial and non-consensual) Top10 ballot of the greatest aesthetic achievements in Contemporary Contemplative Cinema since 1970 : Sátántangó (1994/TARR Béla Tarr/Hungary) Mother and Son (1997/SOKUROV/Russia)  Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles  (1975/Chantal AKERMAN/Belgium) The Turin Horse  (2011/TARR Béla/Hungary) Tie Xi Qu: West of the Tracks  (2003/WANG Bing/China) I don't want to ...

Le dernier film de Sharunas Bartas (dans lequel il joue le rôle de Gena) :   Indigène d'Eurasie  / Eastern Drift (2010/Sharunas Bartas/Lithuania/France/Russia) "Ceux qui connaissent le cinéma du Lituanien Sharunas Bartas seront peut-être surpris. Par rapport à ses films précédents ( Corridor, Few of Us, The House ...), à leur mutisme radical, leur scénographie hallucinée, hantée par un désespoir qui se cogne contre les murs des maisons et résonne dans de sidérants tableaux de paysages, Indigène d'Eurasie marque un tournant. C'est un polar. [..] Faut-il voir dans cette bifurcation la conséquence du raidissement d'un système de financement qui exige aujourd'hui des films qu'ils aient un scénario en bonne et due forme ? [..] En s'engageant dans un cinéma plus narratif, Bartas n'a pas renoncé à son approche plastique. Ses longs plans-séquences sont toujours aussi puissants, aussi habités - par une mélancolie tranchante indissociable chez lui d...

Lithuanian auteur Sharunas Bartas is the kind of filmmaker one would immediately be tempted to label “pretentious” and “self-indulgent” because there is absolutely no concession whatsoever that he gives to the viewers in terms of the narrative, artistic, political and personal ambitions of his films, burying them deeply within their part-hyper real and part-surreal constructs. All his films have hinged themselves onto a particular moment in Lithuanian history – the nation’s independence from the USSR, just prior to the latter’s complete collapse – and they all deal with the loss of communication, the seeming impossibility of true love to flourish and the sense of pointlessness that the political separation has imparted to its people. The characters in Bartas’ films are ones that attempt in vain to put the dreadful past behind them, traverse through the difficult present and get onto a future that may or may not exist. With communication having been deemed useless, they hardly speak any...

3 Godfathers (John Ford, 1948) Freedom (Sharunas Bartas, 2000) Birdsong (Albert Serra, 2008) --- Inspired by this . (Hat tip to Vinyl is Heavy for the concept.)

Sharunas BARTAS Šarūnas Bartas (born 16 August 1964, Lithuania) = 44 yold in 2009 10 films / 9 screenplays (1st film: 1986/latest film: 2010) INSPIRED BY : Andrei Tarkovsky, Katerina Golubeva, Aleksendr Sokurov, Tarr Béla, Léos Carax? C.C.C. films ( strict model in red ) : Indigène d'Eurasie (2010), Seven Invisible Men (2005); Children Lose Nothing (2004); Freedom (2000); A Casa (1997); Few of Us (1996); Koridorius (1994); Trys dienos (1991); In Memory of the Day Passed By (1990); Tofolaria (1986) INFLUENCE ON : Steve McQueen, Audrius Stonys? Quick scroll : BIBLIOGRAPHY | BOOK | ONLINE ARTICLES | INTERVIEW | WEBSITES | DOCUMENTARY Indigène d'Eurasie  / Eastern Drift  (2010) 111' -   IMDb  Berlinale 2010  Berlinale 2010, section Forum | press kit PDF  [GERMAN] [ENGLISH]  " Le gros plan par Sharunas Bartas " interview by Thomas Schwoerer (Arte, Feb 2010) video 3'28" [FRENCH] [ GERMAN ]   " Indigène d'Eurasie : la course épe...