Unspoken Cinema

  All About Her Mother - Chantal Akerman video essay (YouTube) 6'10" (Reclaim The Frame) 22 Feb 2025

  Jeunesse (Les tourments) (YouTube) 1'49" (Digital Ciné) 17 Mars 2025 Un documentaire signé WANG Bing (2024/France/Luxembourg/Pays-bas) 3h46min Les histoires individuelles et collectives se succèdent dans les ateliers textiles de Zhili, plus graves à mesure que passent les saisons. Fu YUN accumule les erreurs et subit les railleries de ses camarades. Xu WANXIANG ne retrouve plus son livret de paie. Son patron refuse de lui verser son salaire. Du haut d’une coursive, un groupe d’ouvriers observe leur patron endetté frapper un fournisseur. Dans un autre atelier, le patron a décampé. Les ouvriers se retrouvent seuls, spoliés du fruit de leur travail. Hu SIWEN raconte les émeutes de 2011, à Zhili : la violence policière, l’enfermement et la peur. Après d’âpres négociations, les ouvriers rentrent chez eux célébrer le Nouvel An. Au cinéma le 2 avril 2025 (distribué par Les Acacias ) La trilogie Jeunesse de WANG Bing (il n'est pas nécessaire d'avoir vu le premier pour voir ...

  Chantal Akerman Interview (New York, 2008) (YouTube) 32'36" (Fergus Daly) 23 Feb 2025 Interview for the film The Art of Time (2009) by Fergus Daly & Katherine Waugh

Watch More Like This Film: Koyaanisqatsi (1982/REGGIO) keywords = Landscape + Montage +Mutism + Music  Chronos (1985/Fricke) Powaqqatsi (1988/Reggio) Anima Mundi (1991/Reggio) Short Baraka (1992/Fricke) Naqoyqatsi  (2002/Reggio) Samsara (2011/Fricke) Visitors (2013/Reggio) Istaqsinaayok (Koyaanisqatsi in reverse) (2016/YouTube) Aquarela (2018/Kossakovsky) Koyaanisqatsi (Rorschach version) (2018/YouTube) Thanks to Blow Up (Arte) for some of the references

  LUMIÈRE, L'AVENTURE CONTINUE | Le 19 mars au cinéma (YouTube) 1'09" (AD Vitam) 18 Fév 2025

After a discussion with Claude Sonnet 3.7, I (or we) came up with these following dichotomy lists contrasting Mainstream Cinema and Contemplative Cinema... In the complex tapestry of contemporary cinematic discourse, mainstream cinema consistently employs a sophisticated architecture of narrative devices that privilege emotional resonance and dramatic efficiency over verisimilitude. These instrumental conveniences—far from being mere technical shortcuts—constitute a distinct visual grammar through which normative cinema mediates our relationship with reality itself. The manipulation of time and chance, the universalization of personal experience, narrative conveniences, and superlative effects collectively represent not simply storytelling techniques, but rather a comprehensive epistemological framework. This framework fundamentally shapes how audiences perceive, process, and integrate fictional experiences within their understanding of the lived world. The following examination interr...

Watch More Like This Film: Cow (2021/ARNOLD)  keywords = Domesticated animals + (Human) + Mutism (* = non-contemplative film) More cow’s viewpoint: Bovines (2011/Gras) More ancient: Old Partner (2008/Lee Chung-Ryul) More like a zoo: Bestiaire (2012/Côté) More goats: Quattro Volte (2010/Frammartino) More sheep: Sweetgrass (2008/Castaing-Taylor/Barbash) More sheep (lotta more): Baa Baa Land (2017/Thomas) More snow: Hiver Nomade (2012/Stürler) More farms: Gunda (2020/Kossakovsky) More jungle: Pepe (2024/Los Santos Arias) More fragmented: Cow (2007/Kiarostami) Short More western: First Cow (2019/Reichardt) *More madness: The Cow (1969/Mehrjui) See also at Unspoken Cinema: CCC recommendations

  Imagine ⎪ Moto, cinéma et Slow life avec ma Guzzi V7 et Red Komodo (YouTube) 9'16" (Aladin) 16 fev 2025 "Imagine" est une balade cinématographique en Moto Guzzi V7 à travers le Bassin d'Arcachon, capturée en RED Komodo et Sony PMW-F3. Entre ports ostréicoles, parties de pétanque et paysages océaniques, ce court-métrage invite à la contemplation et au slow life. Un voyage visuel où la moto devient le fil conducteur d’un moment suspendu, jusqu’au coucher du soleil sur l’océan. Court métrage cinématographique tous les troisièmes dimanches du mois Easy living cinematic video with my Moto Guzzi V7 in the South West of France.  

  Flow (2024/ZILBALODIS/Latvia) A feature length animated film, made in Latvia, without human character, only with animals who don't speak, almost 90 minutes of mutism, with some music, but no plot, no exposition, no closure... wins major awards around the world (Annecy, Golden Globes, Césars, Oscars...), is nominated in more festivals and awards shows, and reaches mainstream fame by attracting a huge audience in theatres.  Contemplative Cinema for all ages, cross-cultural, any language and popular! Congratulations. See also at Unspoken Cinema: Flow ASL

Watch More Like This Film: Naked Island (Shindo) keywords = Desert + Farming + Surviving + Mutism (*) Non-Contemplative films *More stones: Man of Aran (1934/Flaherty) *More storm: Finis Terrae (1929/Epstein) *More storm: Le tempestaire (1947/Epstein) Short More animated: The Red Turtle (2016/Dudok De Wit) More mountains: Three Sisters (2012/Wang) More steppes: Tulpan (2008/Dvortsevoy) *More drama: Jean de Florette / Manon des sources (1986/Berri) More duration: Evolution of a Filipino Family (2004/Diaz) *More sand:  Woman in the Dunes  (1964/Teshigahara) More floating: All Is Lost (2013/Chandor) More fishing: The Isle (2000/Kim Kiduk) See also at Unspoken Cinema: CCC recommendations Unspoken Posters (5) Naked Island Naked Island (Kitsnik)

  Naked Island (1960/SHINDO/Japan) (Designed by Benoit Rouilly) See also at Unspoken Cinema: Naked Island (Kitsnik) More Like This (2) Naked Island

 Watch More Like This Film: Gerry (2002/Van Sant) keywords = Desert + Walking + Mutism (*) Non Contemplative Film More like it: Freedom (2000/Bartas) More like it: Quixotic (2006/Serra) More lonely: Le moindre geste (1971/Deligny) More slowed down: Walker series (2012-2024/Tsai) More islandish: The Red Turtle (2016/Dudok De Wit) More desert: Birdsongs (2008/Serra) More forest: Los Muertos (2003/Alonso) More snow: Essential Killing (2010/Skolimowski) More epic: Satantango (1994/Tarr) More Kabuki: Dolls (2002/Kitano) *More Amerindian: Dead Man (1995/Jarmusch) *More verbalisation: Stalker (1979/Tarkovsky) *More vagabond: Sans toit ni loi (1985/Varda) More engines: The Brown Bunny (2002/Gallo) Find more Contemplative films at Unspoken Cinema: CCC Recommendations

"[..] Our emphasis on the affective mediation of the film’s atmospheres contributes to the slow cinema debate, where much theorising explains the genre’s characteristic slowness in narrative-aesthetic terms. By including recent discourse on affective atmospheres, we aim to provide theoretical tools that can be used to understand and analyse the stylistic features of slow films as aesthetic, atmospheric properties that afford viewers’ meaningful engagement with the film-world in ways differently than narrative comprehension and/or character engagement. In other words, the novel framework of film atmosphere helps advance the understanding of certain distinct aesthetic pleasures this type of film offers its audience; the notion of atmosphere captures well the power the aesthetics of slowness holds. [..]" Slow Cinematic Atmosphere: Developing an Enactivist-Phenomenological Theory for Contemplative Spectatorship ; Jakob Boer & Ludo de Roo; 17 Feb 2025; Quarterly Review of Film...

  Video essay on Perfect Days V2 (YouTube) 8'06" (Sophia by Nico) 7 Feb 2025