# Slow Cinema [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_cinema) ( 1950s–present ) ## Description Slow cinema, contemplative duration, and Deleuzian film taxonomy — the loosely-defined body of festival/art-house filmmaking characterized by long takes, minimal narrativity, and extended real-time duration, read against [[Gilles Deleuze]]'s *Cinema 1: The Movement-Image* / *Cinema 2: The Time-Image* distinction. ## Key Tags #slow-cinema #durational #deleuze ## Essential Works - De Luca, Tiago, and Nuno Barradas Jorge, eds. *Slow Cinema*. Traditions in World Cinema. Edinburgh University Press, 2016. - Key edited volume surveying the field and its major directors - Flanagan, Matthew. "'Slow Cinema': Temporality and Style in Contemporary Art and Experimental Film." PhD thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. - Foundational thesis-length study of slow-cinema temporality and style - Deleuze, Gilles. *Cinema 1: The Movement-Image* and *Cinema 2: The Time-Image*. University of Minnesota Press, 1986/1989. - Taxonomy of cinematic signs (opsigns, sonsigns, hyalosigns/crystal-images, chronosigns, noosigns, lectosigns) underlying slow cinema's break from classical narrativity ## Details Comparisons of slow cinemas turn on narrativity — see Deleuze's *Time-Image* compared with *Cinema 1: The Movement-Image*. Deleuze's sign taxonomy: opsigns and sonsigns, hyalosigns (or crystal-images), chronosigns, noosigns, lectosigns. On the "Tarkovsky Ring": "As cinema moves away from narrative, at some point it has to pass through the 'Tarkovsky Ring.' And once it passes through the Tarkovsky Ring, it leaves the world of audiences and enters the world of museums and festivals..." (Alex Ross Perry, "Paul Schrader: Deliberate Boredom in the Church of Cinema," *Cinema Scope*, March 17, 2018) Key filmmakers associated with slow cinema: [Abbas Kiarostami](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_Kiarostami), [Andrei Tarkovsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrei_Tarkovsky), [Apichatpong Weerasethakul](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apichatpong_Weerasethakul), [Béla Tarr](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_Tarr), [Bi Gan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bi_Gan_(film_director)), [Chantal Akerman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chantal_Akerman), [Claire Denis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_Denis), [Cyril Schäublin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Sch%C3%A4ublin), [Jia Zhangke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jia_Zhangke), [Kelly Reichardt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelly_Reichardt), [Theo Angelopoulos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theo_Angelopoulos), [Yasujirō Ozu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasujir%C5%8D_Ozu). ### Key Theorists - [[Gilles Deleuze]] - defines the movement-image/time-image taxonomy that slow-cinema scholarship draws on to theorize duration and non-narrative image ### Exemplary Practitioners %% none yet — see filmmaker list above (no individual 230 pages yet) %% ### Related Concepts - [[Time studies]] - shares direct interest in cinematic duration and the philosophy/physics of time - [[Repetition and Seriality]] - extended/repeated shots as a shared strategy against narrative momentum ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Associated Movements or Institutions %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %% ### Secondary Sources Bibliography "Deleuze's Cinema Books: Three Introductions to the Taxonomy of Images." JSTOR. Accessed July 27, 2026. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1bh2jwb.23?seq=1](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1bh2jwb.23?seq=1). De Luca, Tiago, and Nuno Barradas Jorge. *Slow Cinema*. Traditions in World Cinema. Edinburgh University Press, 2016. Flanagan, Matthew. "'Slow Cinema': Temporality and Style in Contemporary Art and Experimental Film." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2012. [https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/articles/thesis/_Slow_Cinema_Temporality_and_Style_in_Contemporary_Art_and_Experimental_Film/29692577/1](https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/articles/thesis/_Slow_Cinema_Temporality_and_Style_in_Contemporary_Art_and_Experimental_Film/29692577/1). Perry, Alex Ross. "Paul Schrader: Deliberate Boredom in the Church of Cinema." *Cinema Scope*, March 17, 2018. [https://cinema-scope.com/cinema-scope-magazine/paul-schrader-deliberate-boredom-in-the-church-of-cinema/](https://cinema-scope.com/cinema-scope-magazine/paul-schrader-deliberate-boredom-in-the-church-of-cinema/).