Unspoken Cinema

Latest addition to the Library page at Unspoken Cinema: Abstract: "Entering the debate of urban imaginaries created by the cinematographic language, we seek to discuss the relationship between urban films of the Slow Cinemas trend and the discourse of “slow urban experience” that is built through this production. To this end, we chose to approach the principles of slowness that this trend incorporates with the existing debates in urban studies that theorize about “slow” practices in the city space as an experience of resistance to the commodification of urban life. The objective is to contribute to the debates on the historical formation of the image of the contemporary city, proposing to discuss the plural character that one has on the representations of city living, intersecting knowledge from the field of art, culture and urban studies. The hypothesis is that, through the city-cinema-spectator relationship, the slowness transcribed by the mobility of bodies in Slow Cinemas sca...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

"Faire un film, c'est un véritable tourment", entretien avec Wang Bing par Anne Cheng (YouTube) 1h38'23" (Fondation Hugot du Collège de France) 27 avril 2023 "Dans cet entretien filmé le 5 mai 2022 à la Fondation Hugot du Collège de France à l’initiative de sa directrice, Florence Terrasse Riou, Wang Bing parle librement et intensément de sa conception de l’art, de son rapport au cinéma et à la littérature chinoise, ainsi que de son enfance, notamment à propos de son film « L’homme sans nom ». Il est entouré de sa productrice et proche collaboratrice Kong Lihong, de sa traductrice et interprète Pascale Wei-Guinot, d'Anne Kerlan, directrice de recherche au CNRS et historienne du cinéma chinois, et d’Anne Cheng, titulaire de la Chaire d’histoire intellectuelle de la Chine au Collège de France."

"Chantal Akerman: The Private and The Public" | FILMADRID & MUBI: The Video Essay (YouTube) 9'17" (MUBI) 28 June 2024 "Chantal Akerman: The Private and The Public. “News From Home'' and “No Home Movie” by Chiara Cuccinielllo, Tiziana Rovere, Stella Capolicchio & Elena Lacunza Exploring Chantal Akerman's visionary films, from the busy streets of News from Home (1977) to the intimate spaces of No Home Movie (2015), we discover the synergy between the public and the private spheres. Akerman emphasizes a dual reality, between home and city, the truth and the image, mother and daughter."

"Slow cinema is not merely a stylistic choice — it is a philosophical stance toward time, perception, and the invisible rhythms of human experience. To understand its aesthetic depth, one must explore the broader cultural currents that shaped it: from the alienation of modern relationships to the poetry of consciousness itself." Silvana Porreca; Slow and contemplative cinema: the aesthetic of slow cinema ; in IndieCinema

SPÉCULATIONS : DRY LEAF (Alexandre Koberidze) (YouTube) 53'12" (SPÉCULATIONS) 23 juillet 2026 "A l'occasion de la sortie en salles le 8 juillet de Dry Leaf, dernière réalisation du géorgien Alexandre Koberidze (que l'on avait pu découvrir avec Sous le ciel de Koutaïssi en 2021), Matthias, Théodora, Charles et Aubry reviennent sur cette sortie pas comme les autres. Filmé à l'aide d'un Sony Ericsson W595, le film impose l'étrangeté de son image pixelisée basse-définition autant que sa ritournelle contemplative sur plus de trois heures durant, suivant la recherche décousue d'un père. Intriguant, déroutant, ce dispositif singulier aux antipodes des courses à la technologie menées par Hollywood ne serait-il pas pour nous un moyen de déconstruire notre regard, de réinterroger et peut-être de retrouver, qui sait, un autre rapport au monde. Intervenant.es : Matthias Chouquer Théodora Olivi Charles Mérienne Aubry Piffault" * * * Et aussi un article ch...

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 ...

Latest addition to the Library page at Unspoken Cinema: "Society typically dictates the duration and manner in which we attend to objects, people, or events. In other words, the length and type of our attention are regulated by unwritten rules of behavior, forming a part of the social order. When someone focuses on something longer than usual, particularly something socially or aesthetically marginalized, it can challenge established social orders. When attention is prolonged beyond customary social norms, the usual controls over how we observe and perceive can be temporarily suspended, disrupting habitual modes of perception. Slow cinema filmmakers slow down the rhythm of the film and extend shots to encourage this sustained attention. Through slowness, they not only slow the narrative but also challenge social norms and how we typically engage with what we see." Amiri, Sepideh;  Marvā Nabīlī’s The Sealed Soil as Slow Cinema . In Cinema Iranica . Encyclopaedia Iranica Foun...

New addition to the Library page at Unspoken Cinema: "Responding to the accelerating technological landscape and contemporary life, this paper researches how the concept of ‘time’ plays a significant role. The author, an experimental filmmaker, charts an experiential journey within several pivotal ‘dream films’, along with relevant artists’ moving images in relation to time and slowness in the moving image as critical media.  As contemporary life has become more and more fast paced, and one year on the impact of COVID-19 is still being felt, the idea of stillness is beginning to become a more desirable commodity. The author explores ‘slow cinema’, acknowledging seminal directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Claire Denis, as well as art films which frequently emphasise long takes, offering minimalist aesthetics with little or no narrative. In an endeavour to portray different  temporalities and reveal and allude to the invisibility of time, the author relates to Julia Kristeva’s notio...

 New addition to the Library page at Unspoken Cinema: "This thesis explores Slow Cinema as a form of quiet resistance to contemporary cultures of acceleration through carefully designed mise-en-scène and sustained duration. As life is increasingly shaped by speed and efficiency, cinema has mirrored these changes implementing rapid editing and spectacle. Drawing primarily on Byung-Chul Han’s (2015) exploration of “burnout” provides a framework for understanding these changes.  By situating this thesis within this cultural context, the research considers how slow cinema disrupts linear time and space and offers an alternative affective experience that encourages contemplation, relaxation and stillness as a response to the exhausting, pressurised current cultural condition.   Through a visual analysis of Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) directed by Tsai Ming-liang, this thesis examines how production design creates interstitial spaces that function as temporal containers, al...

A Sociological Analysis on Tsai Ming Liang's "I Don't Want To Sleep Alone"  (YouTube) 6'13" (zeogonzo) 3 march 2024  "A short analysis on the themes and concepts introduced in Tsai Ming Liang's only film done in Malaysia. Made as an assignment for a sociology class in my film school."

  CON (Mainstream) PRO (Contemplative Cinema) Expository Dialogue Discreet Body Language Serendipity Happenstance Real Life Minutiae Efficient Editing Patient Observation Manipulative Score Authentic Soundscape Stereotypical Mechanics Ambiguity Preservation Fabricated Dramaturgy Ordinary Agency Stressful Excitement Mindful Presence to the World Read also at Unspoken Cinema: Convenience vs Contemplation (Cinematic tropes)

  The Film That Fixes Your Attention Span (YouTube) 19'56" (Cinema To The Max) 20 March 2026 "Topology of Sirens is a film that uses ambient music to recontextualize our narrative-centric filmmaking perceptions. By utilizing techniques commonly found in slow cinema, director Jonathan Davies' crafts an experience that rewards different mode of attention. This is the second installment of "The Ambient Cinema Canon", an ongoing series on my channel where we discuss the genre's connections to experimental/avant-garde film theory."

Latest addition to the Library page at Unspoken Cinema:  "To conclude, I have highlighted that cinematic slowness does not exclusively entail the kind of challenging, laborious mode of deep attention that critics and popular imagination have predominantly associated with slow cinema. By contrast, participants have foregrounded a pleasurable, effortless form of attention akin to a trance-like flow. Letting go enables a degree of freedom to look, think, and feel. However, viewers do also actively pay attention and attune to the film in a mode of deep viewing. So, cinematic slowness provokes a variety or spectrum of responses. [..] Consequently, this enhanced understanding of forms of attentional engagement complicates and nuances an overly simplified understanding of spectatorship in terms of the binary opposition between attention and distraction, between activity and passivity, and fast and slow. A substantial part of the body of film theory from the second half of the previous c...

Latest addition to the Library page at Unspoken Cinema: "The paper analyses the re-conceptualization of the intermedial trope of the tableau vivant in recent East European cinema through several examples from Hungarian and Russian films directed by György Pálfi, Kornél Mundruczó, Benedek Fliegauf, Béla Tarr, and Andrei Zvyagintsev. The tableau vivant in these films is not conceived primarily as an embodiment of a painting, the introduction of “the real into the image” (as Brigitte Peucker described), instead it appears more like the objectification of bodies as images, and something that we can associate with what Mario Perniola considers the “sex appeal of the inorganic” or “the Egyptian moment in art.” As such, the tableau becomes a powerful agent in generating metanarratives, offering a blueprint for a “big picture,” a comprehensive vision of the world (reinforced by recurring mythological themes like the genesis or the end of the world, the loss of Paradise, etc.). We may con...

  Is Slow Cinema the Antidote to ADHD? (YouTube) 4'04" (Hold My Theory) 28 Jan 2026

Dernier ajout sur la page Bibliothèque de Unspoken Cinema : FRANCAIS = "L’enjeu de cette thèse est d’étudier la lenteur comme expérience du personnage au monde contemporain et notamment à partir des films de Lisandro Alonso, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Todd Haynes, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Jim Jarmusch, Jia Zhangke, Semih Kaplanoğlu, Terrence Malick, Cristian Mungiu, Carlos Reygadas, Albert Serra, Béla Tarr, Tariq Teguia, Joachim Trier, Tsai Ming-liang, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Gus Van Sant, Wong Kar Wai, Andreï Zviaguintsev. En déployant nos recherches sur trois grands axes : espace-lenteur, rythme-lenteur et temps-lenteur, nous suivrons les expériences des personnages dans leurs évolutions et dans leur rapport à la lenteur. Dans un premier temps, nous nous interrogeons dans la manière la lenteur se manifeste dans les villes et la vie urbaine, pour illustrer la stagnation spatio-temporelle des personnages, la durée et l’immobilité. Il s’agit de montrer comment la durée et l’instant interagisse...