Justin Remes
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231169639
- eISBN:
- 9780231538909
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169639.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This introductory chapter presents an overview of the cinema of stasis. Static films offer radical challenges to conventional conceptions of cinema, since they are supposedly motion pictures without ...
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This introductory chapter presents an overview of the cinema of stasis. Static films offer radical challenges to conventional conceptions of cinema, since they are supposedly motion pictures without motion. In most films, an impression of movement is provided either by the motion of the camera or the motion of elements within the mise-en-scène—usually both. In contrast, static films generally feature no camera movement and little or no movement within the frame. Instead, these films foreground stasis, and consequently blur the lines between traditional visual art and motion pictures. The tradition of static cinema started in 1930 with Walter Ruttmann's Weekend (Wochenende, 1930). The film features a rich, evocative sound track of voices, clocks, alarms, and other “found” sounds, but the screen remains blank and motionless in the work's entire eleven-minute duration.Less
This introductory chapter presents an overview of the cinema of stasis. Static films offer radical challenges to conventional conceptions of cinema, since they are supposedly motion pictures without motion. In most films, an impression of movement is provided either by the motion of the camera or the motion of elements within the mise-en-scène—usually both. In contrast, static films generally feature no camera movement and little or no movement within the frame. Instead, these films foreground stasis, and consequently blur the lines between traditional visual art and motion pictures. The tradition of static cinema started in 1930 with Walter Ruttmann's Weekend (Wochenende, 1930). The film features a rich, evocative sound track of voices, clocks, alarms, and other “found” sounds, but the screen remains blank and motionless in the work's entire eleven-minute duration.
Justin Remes
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231169639
- eISBN:
- 9780231538909
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169639.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Conducting a study of films that do not move, this book challenges the primacy of motion in cinema and tests the theoretical limits of film aesthetics and representation. Reading experimental films ...
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Conducting a study of films that do not move, this book challenges the primacy of motion in cinema and tests the theoretical limits of film aesthetics and representation. Reading experimental films such as Andy Warhol's Empire (1964), the Fluxus work Disappearing Music for Face (1965), Michael Snow's So Is This (1982), and Derek Jarman's Blue (1993), it shows how motionless films defiantly showcase the static while collapsing the boundaries between cinema, photography, painting, and literature. Analyzing four categories of static film: furniture films, designed to be viewed partially or distractedly; protracted films, which use extremely slow motion to impress stasis; textual films, which foreground the static display of letters and written words; and monochrome films, which display a field of monochrome color as their image—the book maps the interrelations between movement, stillness, and duration and their complication of cinema's conventional function and effects. Arguing all films unfold in time, it suggests duration is more fundamental to cinema than motion, initiating fresh inquiries into film's manipulation of temporality, from rigidly structured works to those with more ambiguous and open-ended frameworks. The text's discussion integrates the writings of Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Tom Gunning, Rudolf Arnheim, Raymond Bellour, and Noel Carroll.Less
Conducting a study of films that do not move, this book challenges the primacy of motion in cinema and tests the theoretical limits of film aesthetics and representation. Reading experimental films such as Andy Warhol's Empire (1964), the Fluxus work Disappearing Music for Face (1965), Michael Snow's So Is This (1982), and Derek Jarman's Blue (1993), it shows how motionless films defiantly showcase the static while collapsing the boundaries between cinema, photography, painting, and literature. Analyzing four categories of static film: furniture films, designed to be viewed partially or distractedly; protracted films, which use extremely slow motion to impress stasis; textual films, which foreground the static display of letters and written words; and monochrome films, which display a field of monochrome color as their image—the book maps the interrelations between movement, stillness, and duration and their complication of cinema's conventional function and effects. Arguing all films unfold in time, it suggests duration is more fundamental to cinema than motion, initiating fresh inquiries into film's manipulation of temporality, from rigidly structured works to those with more ambiguous and open-ended frameworks. The text's discussion integrates the writings of Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Tom Gunning, Rudolf Arnheim, Raymond Bellour, and Noel Carroll.
Justin Remes
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231169639
- eISBN:
- 9780231538909
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231169639.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This concluding chapter discusses the future of the cinema of stasis in the “postcinematic” era. The “death” of cinema was perhaps inevitable, given the rise of VHS and DVD, pay-per-view, TiVo, ...
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This concluding chapter discusses the future of the cinema of stasis in the “postcinematic” era. The “death” of cinema was perhaps inevitable, given the rise of VHS and DVD, pay-per-view, TiVo, Netflix streaming videos, and other similar technologies that enable home viewing. While it is easy to think about how such technological developments have displaced the ambience—perhaps even the aura—of the traditional movie theater, it should be remembered that they also offer opportunities. Digital film can make substantive and compelling contributions to the cinema of stasis. Films can now be stripped not only of the movement of the camera and elements within the mise-en-scène, but even of the suggestion of movement provided by the combination of the film grain. Digital film also allows static films to be perceptually indistinguishable from a photograph.Less
This concluding chapter discusses the future of the cinema of stasis in the “postcinematic” era. The “death” of cinema was perhaps inevitable, given the rise of VHS and DVD, pay-per-view, TiVo, Netflix streaming videos, and other similar technologies that enable home viewing. While it is easy to think about how such technological developments have displaced the ambience—perhaps even the aura—of the traditional movie theater, it should be remembered that they also offer opportunities. Digital film can make substantive and compelling contributions to the cinema of stasis. Films can now be stripped not only of the movement of the camera and elements within the mise-en-scène, but even of the suggestion of movement provided by the combination of the film grain. Digital film also allows static films to be perceptually indistinguishable from a photograph.
