{{Short description|Genre of art cinema}} '''Slow cinema''' (sometimes called '''contemplative cinema'''<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Røssaak |first=Eivind |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/Between_Stillness_and_Motion.html?id=_KMM1CBD_CEC&source=kp_book_description |title=Between Stillness and Motion: Film, Photography, Algorithms |date=2011 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |isbn=978-90-8964-213-4 |pages=117 |language=en |chapter=Stop/Motion}}</ref>) is a genre of art cinema characterised by a style that is minimalist and observational, with frequent use of long takes, emphasis on extended duration, and sparse narrative elements.<ref name=fights/><ref name="littlehappens">{{Cite news |last=Rose |first=Steve |date=2012-04-26 |title=Two Years At Sea: little happens, nothing is explained |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/apr/26/two-years-at-sea-little-happens |access-date=2025-11-06 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Films in this style frequently use minimal dialogue and nonprofessional actors.<ref name=bfi1/> The term first came into use among cinephile communities during the 21st century, although early examples of the style date back to the postwar era.
==Characteristics== Works of slow cinema have been said to commonly feature the following characteristics: *use of long takes and emphasis on duration<ref name=deluca/> *understated storytelling methods<ref name=deluca/> *emphasis on stillness and the mundane<ref name=deluca/> *minimal dialogue<ref name=bfi1/> *use of nonprofessional actors<ref name=bfi1/>
==History== The roots of slow cinema lie in postwar era trends such as the Italian neorealist movement, with its emphasis on observation.<ref name=bfi1/> According to the British Film Institute, the genre's "ancestors" included Italian filmmakers Michelangelo Antonioni, Roberto Rossellini, and Vittorio De Sica as well as Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky.<ref name=bfi1/> Yasujiro Ozu and Robert Bresson have also been identified as precursors.<ref name=deluca/> Antonioni has often been characterized as the "first master" of the approach, with his depictions of alienated industrial modernity extending duration beyond what was required for the narrative.<ref name="n1">{{cite web |last1=Weigel |first1=Moira |title=Slow Wars |url=https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-25/essays/slow-wars/ |website=N+1 |access-date=7 March 2026}}</ref> The minimalist 1960s "anti-films" of pop artist Andy Warhol, such as ''Empire'' (1965), and Chantal Akerman's 1975 film ''Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles'' (1975) were also influential on the style.<ref name="n1"/>
Before the postwar trends commonly cited as the genre's origins, isolated precursors existed outside Europe. The Argentine film ''La vuelta al nido'' (1938), written and directed by Leopoldo Torres Ríos, has been described by critics and historians as an anomaly of its era for its intimate style, sparse dialogue, long takes, and focus on psychological interiority over external action.<ref>{{cite book|last=Mahieu|first=José Agustín|title=Breve historia del cine argentino|location=Buenos Aires|publisher=Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires|year=1966|page=21|language=es}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Barnard|first=Timothy|chapter=La vuelta al nido|pages=13–14|title=South American Cinema: A Critical Filmography, 1915–1994|editor-last=Barnard|editor-first=Timothy|editor2-last=Rist|editor2-first=Peter H.|publisher=Garland Publishing|year=1996|location=New York}}</ref> A commercial and critical failure on release, it was reassessed decades later as anticipating cinematic modernity by twenty years, and described by historian Domingo Di Núbila as "the first cursed film of Argentine cinema."<ref>{{cite book|last=Di Núbila|first=Domingo|title=La época de oro. Historia del cine argentino I|year=1998|publisher=Ediciones del Jilguero|location=Buenos Aires|isbn=978-987-957-865-0|page=196|language=es}}</ref>
In the 1990s, the approach of slow cinema became more prominent across the globe and saw increased focus on sustained durations.<ref name=bfi1/> Directors such as Béla Tarr, Lav Diaz, Tsai Ming-liang, and Pedro Costa came to prominence within this tradition.<ref name=bfi1/> Tarr's seven-hour 1994 film ''Sátántangó'' became representative of the movement.<ref name="hollywood">{{cite web |last1=Roxborough |first1=Scott |title=Béla Tarr, Hungarian Master of Slow Cinema, Dies at 70 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/bela-tarr-dead-hungarian-film-director-slow-cinema-70-1236465456/ |website=Hollywood Reporter |access-date=6 January 2026}}</ref><ref name=James2010>Nick James. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120802234411/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49591 Syndromes of a new century]. ''Sight & Sound'', February 2010</ref> In the 2010s, slow cinema works saw critical acclaim and award recognition, including Semih Kaplanoglu's ''Honey'' and Apichatpong Weerasethakul's ''Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives'' (2010).<ref name="n1"/> The style reached large American audiences via Terrence Malick's ''The Tree of Life'' (2011).<ref name="n1"/>
The AV Festival held a Slow Cinema Weekend at Newcastle's Star and Shadow Cinema in 2012, including the films of Ben Rivers, Lav Diaz, Lisandro Alonso, and Fred Kelemen.<ref name="fights">{{Cite news |last=Sandhu |first=Sukhdev |date=2012-03-09 |title='Slow cinema' fights back against Bourne's supremacy |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/mar/09/slow-cinema-fights-bournes-supremacy |access-date=2025-11-06 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref name=doingtime>{{cite web |url= http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/newsandviews/festivals/av-festival-2012.php |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20120404003004/http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/newsandviews/festivals/av-festival-2012.php |archivedate= 2012-04-04 |last1= Miller |first1= Henry K.|title= Doing time: 'slow cinema' at the AV Festival |work= Sight & Sound |date= March 2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=March 2012 |title=AV Festival 12: As Slow As Possible |url=http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/2012?category=slow-cinema-weekend |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706105752/http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/2012?category=slow-cinema-weekend |archive-date=2015-07-06 |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=AV Festival |language=en}}</ref><ref name=":3" />
==Term== The first usage of the term "slow cinema" was likely by critic Jonathan Romney in reference to Tsai Ming-liang's 2003 film ''Goodbye, Dragon Inn''.<ref name=bfi1>{{cite web |last1=Mai |first1=Nadin |title=British Film Institute |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-slow-films |website=10 great slow films |access-date=7 March 2026}}</ref> That year, critic Michel Ciment used the phrase "cinema of slowness" to refer to films by Tsai, Béla Tarr, and Abbas Kiarostami.<ref name=deluca/> In 2008, Matthew Flanagan took up the concept in the influential essay "Towards an Aesthetic of Slow in Contemporary Cinema", which identified some of the basic qualities of the slow cinema style.<ref name=deluca>{{cite journal |last1=De Luca |first1=Tiago |last2=Jorge |first2=Nuno Barradas |title=Introduction: From Slow Cinema to Slow Cinemas |journal=Slow Cinema |date=2015 |url=https://www.euppublishing.com/userimages/contenteditor/1454406560578/slow%20cinema%20introduction.pdf}}</ref> By the 2010s, the term had begun to catch on among Anglo-Saxon film communities, inspiring writing in ''Sight & Sound'' such as Nick James's controversial article "Passive-Aggressive", which questioned the merits of the style and prompted much debate.<ref name=bfi1/>
==Reception== ''Sight & Sound'' noted of the definition of slow cinema that "The length of a shot, on which much of the debate revolves, is a quite abstract measure if divorced from what takes place within it".<ref name=doingtime/> ''The Guardian'' contrasted the long takes of the genre with the two-second average shot length in Hollywood action movies, and noted that "they opt for ambient noises or field recordings rather than bombastic sound design, embrace subdued visual schemes that require the viewer's eye to do more work, and evoke a sense of mystery that springs from the landscapes and local customs they depict more than it does from generic convention."<ref name=fights/> The genre has been described as an "act of organized resistance" similar to the Slow food movement.<ref name=":1" />
===Critique=== Slow cinema has been criticized as indifferent or even hostile to audiences.<ref name=fights/> A backlash by ''Sight & Sound''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Nick James, and picked up by online writers, argued that early uses of long takes were "adventurous provocations created by extremists", whereas recent films are "operating within a recognized, default artistic idiom."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rizov |first=Vadim |date=May 12, 2010 |title=Slow cinema backlash |url=http://www.ifc.com/fix/2010/05/slow-cinema-backlash |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181214064518/http://www.ifc.com/fix/2010/05/slow-cinema-backlash |archive-date=2018-12-14 |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=IFC |language=en}}</ref> In 2007, Steven Shapiro criticized the modern trend as backward-looking and nostalgic.<ref name=n1/> ''The Guardian'''s film blog concluded that "being less overweeningly precious about films that are likely to be impenetrable to even the most well-informed audiences would seem an idea."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Leigh |first=Danny |date=2010-05-21 |title=The view: Is it OK to be a film philistine? |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2010/may/21/film-philistine |access-date=2025-11-06 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> Dan Fox of ''Frieze'' criticized both the dichotomy of the argument into "philistine" vs "pretentious" and the reductiveness of the term "slow cinema".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Fox |first=Dan |date=23 May 2010 |title=Slow, Fast, and Inbetween {{!}} Blog {{!}} Frieze Publishing |url=http://blog.frieze.com/slow_fast_and_inbetween/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406023659/http://blog.frieze.com/slow_fast_and_inbetween/ |archive-date=2015-04-06 |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=blog.frieze.com |language=en}}</ref>
The American director Paul Schrader wrote about slow cinema in the new introduction to a 2018 edition of his 1972 book ''Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer'', and called it an aesthetic tool. He argues that most viewers find slow cinema boring,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Schrader|first=Paul|title=Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer|publisher=University of California Press|year=2018|isbn=9780520296817|location=Oakland, California|pages=19–20}}</ref> but that a "slow film director keeps his viewer on the hook, thinking there's a reward, a payoff just around the corner."<ref name=":0" />
Recently, film scholars Katherine Fusco and Nicole Seymour have written that the slow cinema movement's supporters and detractors have both mischaracterized it. As they argue, much "commentary posits slow cinema as a kind of pastoral for the present moment, a respite from our technologically saturated ... Hollywood-blockbuster-centered era." Such commentary therefore associates the movement with pleasure and relaxation. But in reality, slow cinema films often focus on down-and-out laborers; as Fusco and Seymour argue, "for those on the fringes of society, modernity is actually experienced as slowness, and usually to their great detriment."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fusco |first=Katherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IB3utAEACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&cad=2 |title=Kelly Reichardt |last2=Seymour |first2=Nicole |date=2017-11-30 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-04124-2 |language=en}}</ref>
==Examples== Practitioners of the genre include Andrei Tarkovsky, Michelangelo Antonioni, Robert Bresson, Franco Piavoli, Philippe Garrel, Marguerite Duras, Aleksandr Sokurov, Béla Tarr, Chantal Akerman, Sohrab Shahid–Saless<ref>[https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/fm_00072_1 A Still Cinema: Sohrab Shahid Saless's Still Life (1974)|Intellect]</ref>, Theo Angelopoulos, Abbas Kiarostami, Victor Erice, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Ermanno Olmi, František Vláčil, Lav Diaz, Pedro Costa, Tsai Ming-liang, Carlos Reygadas, Sharunas Bartas, Sergei Loznitsa, Hirokazu Koreeda, Naomi Kawase, Aleksei German and Konstantin Lopushansky.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=James |first=Nick |date=February 2010 |title=Syndromes of a new century |url=http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49591 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802234411/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49591 |archive-date=August 2, 2012 |magazine=Sight & Sound |volume=20 |issue=2}}</ref><ref name=flashback/>
Greek director Theo Angelopoulos has been called an "icon of the so-called Slow Cinema movement".<ref name=":2">{{Cite magazine |date=February 2012 |title=Theo Angelopoulos: the sweep of history |url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49816 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120423123118/http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49816 |archive-date=April 23, 2012 |magazine=Sight & Sound |volume=22 |issue=2}}</ref> Examples of the style include Ben Rivers's ''Two Years at Sea'', Michelangelo Frammartino's ''Le Quattro Volte'', and Shaun Wilson's ''51 Paintings''.<ref name=littlehappens/><ref name=doingtime/><ref name=":3">{{Cite magazine |last=Clift |first=Tom |date=August 2012 |title=Experimental Expression |url=http://www.filmink.com.au/news/experimental-expression-/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140416182421/http://www.filmink.com.au/news/experimental-expression-/ |archive-date=2014-04-16 |magazine=Filmink Magazine}}</ref>
Recent underground film movements such as Remodernist film share the sensibility of slow or contemplative cinema.
G. Aravindan was a filmmaker whose works such as ''Kanchana Sita'', ''Thampu'' and ''Esthappan'' have been regarded as embodying a uniquely original style of contemplative cinema where the aesthetic sensibility and philosophical insights of Indian culture could find a meditative mode of expression within more universal contexts of humanism and transcendentalism.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Srikanth |first=Srinivasan |date=2013-10-12 |title=Outtakes: G. Aravindan |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/cinema-columns/outtakes-g-aravindan/article5228640.ece |access-date=2025-11-06 |work=The Hindu |language=en-IN |issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref name="flashback">{{Cite web |date=April 10, 2011 |title=Flashback #84 |url=https://theseventhart.info/tag/contemporary-contemplative-cinema/ |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=The Seventh Art |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Vasudevan |first=Sasikumar |date=21 August 2018 |title=Aravindan – A Scriptless Creative Film Director |url=http://www.sahapedia.org/aravindan-%E2%80%93-scriptless-creative-film-director |access-date=2025-11-06 |website=Sahapedia |language=en}}</ref>
Recent examples of slow cinema include films by Kelly Reichardt, Bruno Dumont, Lucrecia Martel, Angela Schanelec, Albert Serra, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Bas Devos, Jia Zhangke, Roy Andersson, Ulrich Seidl, Kim Ki-duk, Aki Kaurismaki, Pablo Stoll, Tsai Ming-Liang, Lav Diaz, Sergei Loznitsa, Carlos Reygadas, Vimukthi Jayasundara, Semih Kaplanoglu, Benedek Fliegauf, Amat Escalante, Lisandro Alonso, Kim Ki-duk, Claire Denis, Roberto Minervini, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Fernando Eimbcke, Sharunas Bartas, Aleksei German Jr., Andrey Zvyagintsev, Scott Barley, Pedro Costa, Nicolás Pereda, Michelangelo Frammartino, Fred Kelemen, and Anocha Suwichakornpong.<ref name="Smith">{{cite news | last=Smith | first=Nigel M | title=Kelly Reichardt: 'Faster, faster, faster – we all want things faster' | work=The Guardian | date=2017-03-01 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/01/kelly-reichardt-certain-women-director-michelle-williams-kristen-stewart-slow-cinema-maile-meloy}}</ref><ref name="Slow Cinema">{{cite book |title=Slow Cinema |year=2016 |editor-first1=Tiago|editor1=Tiago de Luca |editor2=Nuno Barradas Jorge |isbn=9780748696048}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=February 2017 |title=Sleep Has Her House – Scott Barley (2017) |url=https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2017/02/01/sleep-has-her-house-scott-barley-2017/ |website=The Art of (Slow) Cinema}}</ref>
{{div col}} *''La vuelta al nido'' (1938) *''Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne'' (1945) *''A Man Escaped'' (1956) *''Pickpocket'' (1959) *''L'Avventura'' (1960) *''La Notte'' (1961) *''Il Posto'' (1961) *''Ivan's Childhood'' (1962) *''L'Eclisse'' (1962) *''The Trial of Joan of Arc'' (1962) *''The Fiances'' (1963) *''Red Desert'' (1964) *''Andrei Rublev'' (1966) *''Au hasard Balthazar'' (1966) *''Blowup'' (1966) *''Mouchette'' (1967) *''Marketa Lazarová'' (1967) *''The Valley of the Bees'' (1968) *''The Conformist'' (1970) *''Zabriskie Point'' (1970) *''La Cicatrice intérieure'' (1972) *''Solaris'' (1972) *''Still Life'' (1974)<ref>[https://muse.jhu.edu/verify?url=%2Farticle%2F986643&r=3348114 Project MUSE – Deceleratory Encounters with Measures of Modernity: A Still Life]</ref> *''Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles'' (1975) *''The Passenger'' (1975) *''Mirror'' (1975) *''The Psychotronic Man'' (1979)<ref>[https://www.artandtrash.ca/episodes/screams-from-the-sky Screams from the Sky: Taking the Scenic Route with The Psychotronic Man – Art & Trash]</ref> *''Stalker'' (1979) *''Blue Planet'' (1982) *''L'Argent'' (1983) *''Nostalghia'' (1983) *''The Time to Live and the Time to Die'' (1985) *''The Sacrifice'' (1986) *''Terrorizers'' (1986) *''Dead Man's Letters'' (1986) *''The Lonely Voice of Man'' (1987) *''Kárhozat'' (1988) *''Landscape in the Mist'' (1988) *''Nostos: The Return'' (1989) *''A Brighter Summer Day'' (1991) *''Whispering Pages'' (1994) *''Vive l'amour'' (1994) *''Sátántangó'' (1994)<ref name=James2010>Nick James. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120802234411/http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49591 Syndromes of a new century]. ''Sight & Sound'', February 2010</ref> *''A Couch in New York'' (1996) *''Voices Through Time'' (1996) *''The River'' (1997) *''Mother and Son'' (1997) *''Taste of Cherry'' (1997) *''Eternity and a Day'' (1998) *''The Wind Will Carry Us'' (1999) *''The Isle'' (2000) *''Yi Yi'' (2000) *''In Vanda's Room'' (2000) *''Werckmeister Harmonies'' (2000)<ref name=10great>{{Cite web|title=10 great slow films|url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-slow-films|access-date=2022-02-19|website=BFI|date=October 2020 |language=en}}</ref> *''What Time Is It There?'' (2001) *''Russian Ark'' (2002) *''Uzak'' (2002) *''Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring'' (2003) *''Goodbye Dragon Inn'' (2003)<ref name=10great /> *''Evolution of a Filipino Family'' (2004) *''Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow'' (2004) *''Colossal Youth'' (2006)<ref name=tasteofcinema>[http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/20-slow-films-from-this-century-that-reward-patience/ 20 Slow Films From This Century That Reward Patience — Taste of Cinema]</ref> *''Still Life'' (2006) *''Syndromes and a Century'' (2006)<ref name=tasteofcinema/> *''Silent Light'' (2007) *''The Man from London'' (2007) *''Melancholia'' (2008) *''Wendy and Lucy'' (2008)<ref name=tasteofcinema/> *''Hadewijch'' (2009) *''Once Upon a Time in Anatolia'' (2011)<ref name=tasteofcinema/> *''The Turin Horse'' (2011) *''Hors Satan'' (2011) *''Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives'' (2011) *''Post Tenebras Lux'' (2012) *''Norte, the End of History'' (2013)<ref name=tasteofcinema/> *''Stray Dogs'' (2013) *''Hard to Be a God'' (2013) *''Jauja'' (2014) *''Winter Sleep'' (2014) *''From What Is Before'' (2014) *''Horse Money'' (2014) *''Cemetery of Splendour'' (2015) *''The Assassin'' (2015) *''The Woman Who Left'' (2016) *''Zama'' (2017) *''Grain'' (2017) *''Sleep Has Her House'' (2017)<ref>{{cite web | title=Sleep Has Her House | Eye Filmmuseum | url=https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/sleep-has-her-house/707970 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Sleep Has Her House – Scott Barley (2017) | date=February 2017 | url=https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2017/02/01/sleep-has-her-house-scott-barley-2017 }}</ref> *''Twin Peaks: The Return'' (2017) *''Vitalina Varela'' (2019) *''Days'' (2020) *''Memoria'' (2021)<ref>[https://www.starkinsider.com/2025/07/ai-vs-slow-cinema.html Will Generative AI Kill Slow Cinema? – Stark Insider]</ref> *''Pacifiction'' (2022)
{{div col end}}
Sources:<ref name=flashback/><ref name=fights/><ref name=":2" /><ref name="Smith"/><ref name="Slow Cinema"/><ref>{{Cite news |last=Russell |first=Andrew |date=April 29, 2019 |title=Slow cinema: what it is and why it’s on a fast track to the mainstream in a frenetic world |url=https://theconversation.com/slow-cinema-what-it-is-and-why-its-on-a-fast-track-to-the-mainstream-in-a-frenetic-world-114769 |work=The Conversation}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2018-12-20|title=Hu Bo's An Elephant Sitting Still, Tarkovsky's Stalker, The Godfather, and the concept of slow cinema|url=https://www.firstpost.com/entertainment/hu-bos-an-elephant-sitting-still-tarkovskys-stalker-the-godfather-and-the-concept-of-slow-cinema-5763511.html|access-date=2022-02-19|website=Firstpost|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-02-01 |title=Sleep Has Her House – Scott Barley (2017) |url=https://theartsofslowcinema.com/2017/02/01/sleep-has-her-house-scott-barley-2017/ |access-date=2025-07-09 |website=The Arts of (Slow) Cinema |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==See also== * Dogme 95 * List of longest films * Slow food and the Slow movement * Art film * Slow cutting * Slow television * Structural film * Extreme cinema * Still image film * Non-narrative film * Experimental film * Shutter speed * American Eccentric Cinema * Minimalist film * Modernist film * Postmodernist film * Working class culture * List of American independent films
==References== {{reflist}} {{film genres}}
Category:Film genres Category:Avant-garde and experimental films Cinema Category:Minimalism Category:Film and video terminology Category:1950s in film Category:1960s in film Category:1970s in film Category:1980s in film Category:1990s in film Category:2000s in film Category:2010s in film Category:2020s in film