In this Book
- The Long Take: Art Cinema and the Wondrous
- Book
- 2017
- Published by: University of Minnesota Press
In The Long Take, Lutz Koepnick posits extended shot durations as a powerful medium for exploring different modes of perception and attention in our fast-paced world of mediated stimulations. Grounding his inquiry in the long takes of international filmmakers such as Béla Tarr, Tsai Ming-liang, Abbas Kiarostami, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Michael Haneke, Koepnick reveals how their films evoke wondrous experiences of surprise, disruption, enchantment, and reorientation. He proceeds to show how the long take has come to thrive in diverse artistic practices across different media platforms: from the work of photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto to the screen-based installations of Sophie Calle and Tacita Dean, from experimental work by Francis Alÿs and Janet Cardiff to durational images in contemporary video games.
Deeply informed by film and media theory, yet written in a fluid and often poetic style, The Long Take goes far beyond recent writing about slow cinema. In Koepnick’s account, the long take serves as a critical hallmark of international art cinema in the twenty-first century. It invites viewers to probe the aesthetics of moving images and to recalibrate their sense of time. Long takes unlock windows toward the new and unexpected amid the ever-mounting pressures of 24/7 self-management.
Table of Contents
- Title Page, Copyright
- pp. i-iv
- Preface and Acknowledgments
- pp. vii-viii
- 1 To Cut or Not to Cut
- pp. 33-64
- 2 Images of/as Promise
- pp. 65-77
- 3 “It’s Still Not Over”
- pp. 78-112
- 4 The Long Goodbye
- pp. 113-138
- 5 Funny Takes?
- pp. 139-165
- 6 The Wonders of Being Stuck
- pp. 166-180
- 7 (Un)Timely Meditations
- pp. 181-221
- Conclusion: Screens without Frontiers
- pp. 222-254
- About the Author
- p. 285