This is just to second Henry's admiration for Spiritual Voices. Not only is
it Sokurov's most powerful work, it is surely one of the most intense and
transcendent observational/meditative films ever made by anyone. Movies
don't get much slower than this, but "slow" doesn't even enter one's mind
while watching it. You think instead about presence and the present, about
being there, which leads to the miraculous.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Henry M. Taylor" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2007 3:13 AM
Subject: Re: slow film festival
> Yes, and it very much depends on the individual spectator's involvement
> with the film in question. And on the venue in which it is seen. I once
> watched Tarkovsky's Stalker on video, on a smallish tv screen - it was
> almost unbearably slow. It's meant to be and has to be seen in a cinema,
> on a large screen.
>
> Speaking of viewer involvement, Sokurov's 5-hour video Spiritual Voices
> (1994) is probably one of the most intense film experiences I've ever
> had. I saw it towards the end of Locarno film festival, exhausted after
> having watched 40 or 50 films in ten days, and I'd anticipated falling
> asleep. The very oppositie was the case: I was completely enthralled,
> almost trance-like, in the mysticism of this wonderful documentary.
>
> Finally, take Rear Window: not suited for openair cinema, where it will
> seem remarkably slow. Again, you have to watch it in the cinema, or in a
> very controlled setting.
>
> H
>
>
>
>> Slowness is not just relative, it's entirely subjective unless you're
>> going to define certain criteria weighted against each other for a
>> specific definition of 'slowness' (e.g., length of takes, amount of
>> camera movement, lines of dialogue, etc.). A large part of what makes
>> it subjective is that a conception of slowness depends on weighing the
>> significance of the types of events that you are measuring the rate
>> of.
>>
>>
>
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