Unspoken Cinema

HU Bo (1988-2017) [..] Despite the constant antagonism, the soundtrack is largely drained of ambient sounds. The resulting quiet combines with the predominance of facial close-ups and extensive use of shallow focus, which keeps the surroundings indistinct most of the time, to generate a heightened sense of intimacy that reflects the characters’ self-absorption and lack of perspective. [..] An Elephant Sitting Still review: a shattering, soul-searching Chinese one-off (Giovanni Marchini Camia; 13 dec 2018; Sight & Sound) * * * [..] but his [Jin's] most memorable episode in the story is his visit to the retirement home to check it out – a sequence as hellish as the tour of the hospital basement in the second part of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes and a Century (2006). Wang represents the film’s voice of age and experience. [..] Elephant assuredly has death on its mind: four people die in the course of the story, only one of old age. The underlying visi...

SPOILER TERRITORY WEI Bu A 16 years-old student at the worst high-school in town, wakes up to a salvo of insults from his abusive father because he opened a window when stray garbage stinks outside, because he supposedly stole her mom’s coupon… Bu joins his best-friend, LI Kai, who is accused by YU Shuai, the school bully, of stealing his smart phone to confront him. At recess he’s rejected by his crush Ling. After a vehement argument and a violent push from Bu, the bully falls down a flight of stairs and is evacuated to the hospital. Bu is on the run, to escape the authorities and the angry family. He looks for money at his grandma only to find her dead in her sleep. He goes straight to his big borther’s who lives nearby to announce the bad news and gets insulted. Desperate for cash, he fetches his cherished billiard cue at the club, where he almost meet Cheng who’s on the lookout for him. He resorts to sell his cue to his neighbour Jin, after assisting him with the ...

The elephant in the room A man wakes up and murmurs to his lover : « They say there is an elephant in Manhzouli, it sits there all day long and ignores the world. Or maybe it just enjoys sitting there. » The quirky reputation of this elusive pachyderm becomes a symbol of liberation, escapism and flat out defiance for a handful of protagonists living, or surviving, in an indistinct smoggy city of North-East China. The reason the still elephant fascinates the characters of this film might be because he’s so mysteriously impervious to the world of pain around him. Maybe they all crave to reach this stoic state of mind, to face the overbearing troubles in their lives, like the Elephant-Buddha. But this enigmatic eponymous animal could be none other than the spectators themselves… sitting still in front of the silver screen while the world rushes around them at an accelerated pace. Contemplative Cinema aficionados are the last survivors of a post-electronic age. And...

An Elephant Sitting Still (Hu Bo) 3h50' In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing Shuai down the stairs, who was bullying him previously. Bu's classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai's older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally, along with many other characters whose fates are inextricably bound together, there's Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him onto a home. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart. Reviews : An Elephant Sitting Still review: a shattering, soul-searching...

The scientific benefits of Boredom (Veritassium) 29 september 2018 Related : How boredom can lead to your most brilliant ideas | Manoush Zomorodi (Ap)prendre le temps ? Il faut savourer l'ennui (France Culture) On Being Bored (Phillips)   'Boring' is not a critical argument   Boredom (Charney) “ La Peur de l'Ennui ” (anonymous Cahiers reader)

The origin on Contemplative Cinema : A collection of high quality remastered prints from the dawn of film taken in Belle Époque-era Paris, France from 1896-1900. Slowed down footage to a natural rate and added in sound for ambiance. These films were taken by the Lumière company (speed corrected with added sound) Notre-Dame Cathedral (1896)  Alma Bridge (1900) Avenue des Champs-Élysées (1899) Place de la Concorde (1897)  Passing of a fire brigade (1897)  Tuileries Garden (1896) Moving walkway at the Paris Exposition (1900) The Eiffel Tower from the Rives de la Seine à Paris (1897) Posted on YouTube by Guy Jones on Sept 16 2018

[...] Le Poirier sauvage est le film de l'été que nous avons voulu mettre à l'honneur. [...] Le cinéaste turc, qui mèle admirablement le classicisme et la modernité, sut convaincre une fois de plus les festivaliers malgré les rumeurs effarouchées sur la longueur de son film, trois heures et huit minutes. Quelle étrange révolution du goût que cette crainte soudaine devant les œuvres au long cours quand on sait le nombre de chefs-d'œuvre du passé dépassant les trois heures, des Plus Belles Années de notre vie au Guépard , des Enfants du paradis au Parrain , de Il était une fois en Amérique à La Cité des douleurs , de Barry Lyndon à Kagemusha . Il arrive donc à notre époque impatiente de zapping et de tweets de savoir goûter la lenteur d'un cinéma contemplatif. [...] Positif . n°689-690 (juillet-août 2018) Editorial de Michel Ciment (extrait) Voir aussi : "Overlong" Entertainment

Slow Cinema by Zachary Lewis and Michael Sicinski Zach is a Mississippi-based, New-York-bound freelance film writer. He has been a guest on Mousterpiece Cinema and Almost Arthouse , and he has written for Sound On Sight and In Review Online . Michael is a writer and teacher based in Houston, Texas. He has written for Cinema Scope , Cineaste , Cargo, Mubi and Fandor . He also maintains a film review website, The Academic Hack . This exchange was originally published in August 2014 by the online magazine TO BE (CONT'D) . Thank you to Peter Labuza (founder of To Be (Cont'd)), and the authors Zachary Lewis and Michael Sicinski for giving their permission to re-post this content. Part One What Do We Mean by Slow? Michael, When my love for cinema began, I skipped filmmakers like Spielberg, Lucas, Scorsese, and classic Hollywood in general, in favor of the austere arthouse flair of Béla Tarr, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Manuel de Oliveira, and C...