Slow Cinema

In the wake of the increasingly frantic pace of 21st century life, a loose, international movement known as “slow cinema” has gained a significant following in the last two decades. But what do we mean by “slowness,” and can these films reveal anything about our current moment of crisis and economic contraction? Are they simply a nostalgic repetition of earlier art cinemas, or are they capable of engendering new, oppositional modes of spectatorship? We will attempt to answer these questions while grounding our inquiry firmly in a close, formal analysis of key slow films.