Todd McGowan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816669950
- eISBN:
- 9781452947099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816669950.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
In most traditional films, temporality is the normal linear progressive flow of film scenes. Technological advancements have allowed filmmakers to cut the normal flows of scenes and disrupt the ...
More
In most traditional films, temporality is the normal linear progressive flow of film scenes. Technological advancements have allowed filmmakers to cut the normal flows of scenes and disrupt the linear progression of time, which was later called the atemporal mode of cinema. This introductory chapter discusses how the experience of the movement of “time” was addressed in contemporary films which has been collectively called “atemporal cinema.” It begins by presenting the twentieth-century philosophical assumptions and theories for atemporality, which includes Sigmund Freud’s concepts of “desire” and “drive.” The concepts of atemporality and other philosophical theories have been portrayed in contemporary films such as Michael Haneke’s Code Inconnu (Code Unknown, 2000).Less
In most traditional films, temporality is the normal linear progressive flow of film scenes. Technological advancements have allowed filmmakers to cut the normal flows of scenes and disrupt the linear progression of time, which was later called the atemporal mode of cinema. This introductory chapter discusses how the experience of the movement of “time” was addressed in contemporary films which has been collectively called “atemporal cinema.” It begins by presenting the twentieth-century philosophical assumptions and theories for atemporality, which includes Sigmund Freud’s concepts of “desire” and “drive.” The concepts of atemporality and other philosophical theories have been portrayed in contemporary films such as Michael Haneke’s Code Inconnu (Code Unknown, 2000).
Todd McGowan
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816669950
- eISBN:
- 9781452947099
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816669950.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This book takes as its starting point the emergence of a temporal aesthetic in cinema that arose in response to the digital era. Linking developments in cinema to current debates within philosophy, ...
More
This book takes as its starting point the emergence of a temporal aesthetic in cinema that arose in response to the digital era. Linking developments in cinema to current debates within philosophy, the book claims that films that change the viewer’s relation to time constitute a new cinematic mode: atemporal cinema. In atemporal cinema, formal distortions of time introduce spectators to an alternative way of experiencing existence in time—or, more exactly, a way of experiencing existence out of time. The book draws on contemporary psychoanalysis, particularly Jacques Lacan, to argue that atemporal cinema unfolds according to the logic of the psychoanalytic notion of the drive rather than that of desire, which has conventionally been the guiding concept of psychoanalytic film studies. Despite their thematic diversity, these films distort chronological time with a shared motivation: to reveal the logic of repetition. Like psychoanalysis, the book contends, the atemporal mode locates enjoyment in the embrace of repetition rather than in the search for the new and different.Less
This book takes as its starting point the emergence of a temporal aesthetic in cinema that arose in response to the digital era. Linking developments in cinema to current debates within philosophy, the book claims that films that change the viewer’s relation to time constitute a new cinematic mode: atemporal cinema. In atemporal cinema, formal distortions of time introduce spectators to an alternative way of experiencing existence in time—or, more exactly, a way of experiencing existence out of time. The book draws on contemporary psychoanalysis, particularly Jacques Lacan, to argue that atemporal cinema unfolds according to the logic of the psychoanalytic notion of the drive rather than that of desire, which has conventionally been the guiding concept of psychoanalytic film studies. Despite their thematic diversity, these films distort chronological time with a shared motivation: to reveal the logic of repetition. Like psychoanalysis, the book contends, the atemporal mode locates enjoyment in the embrace of repetition rather than in the search for the new and different.
