Episode 07: Slow Cinema and Its Nature

Slow cinema aesthetics are becoming more popular in mainstream cinema, not only in the art house or festival circuit. People are looking for ways to get away from the quick pace of modern life and our continual connectivity. Why not look for it in the stillness, in the static images of landscapes, in the experience of ordinary people living ordinary lives? 

Slow Cinema is a formal trend that has gradually gained popularity in modern cinema since its inception after the Second World War. Slow cinema is an art or experimental film model that portrays several distinct characteristics. Flanagan (2012) explained that slow cinema was characterized by the application of the long take, a tendency toward realist or hyperrealist representation, an undramatic narrative or non-narrative structure, stillness in composition, and visual content. Slowness in cinema has prompted the rise of questions that have gained critical and theoretical discussions over the past decade (De Luca, 2016). A review of the slow cinema style based on stillness, long durations, and silence makes it unsuitable for domestic film viewing. The fragmented and distracted modes of spectatorial interaction with miniaturized screens are only attainable in film theaters. 

There are several films that have helped to popularize slow cinema and have promoted the idea of searching for meaning in the every day in ordinary life, including but not limited to Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt", Béla Tarr's "Sátántangó", Abbas Kiarostami's "Ten", Lav Diaz's "Fallen Angels", Michael Snow's "La Région Centrale", Apichatpong Weerasethakul's "Mit Klang", Chantal Akerman's "No Home Movie" and Abbas Kiarostami's "Like Someone In Love". 

Ideally, slow cinema was primarily interested in how the passage of time can be felt within a film. The idea was to ensure duration became a filmic element, similar to editing or cinematography (Flanagan, 2012). To achieve the duration ideology, films leaned towards longer takes, minimal editing, and naturalistic performances, which made the films alienating and bizarre. The focus on time and duration involved, making films to be agonizingly slowly paced. For instance, the films would have 20-minute sequences during which a man walked while holding a candle. As the focus on time in Cinema intensified, there was minimal narrative and more time spent building tone in Poetics of Slow Cinema (Çaglayan, 2018). Sound design is also minimal, and the camera is seen to move but slowly. Previously, Cinema was established to be a narrative art form slow Cinema has drastically changed. Slow Cinema is argued to test patience, hooking the viewer by making them wait, expecting a payoff that sometimes never arrives. Talented slow cinema directors have greatly mastered the art of keeping their audience waiting for the entire length of their films. Slow cinema films have significantly gained popularity and are reported to leave a lasting impact on viewers immersed in a slowly moving world. 

A slow film is one that does not move. This could include a lack of narrative, contemplative cinema, aesthetic sensibility, or philosophical insights. The length of a shot. Slow cinema is distinguished by the use of static shots, long-duration shots, pans, tracking shots, and a narrative focus on the more mundane aspects of life.