Browsing by Author "De la Rey, Adriaan"

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    Contemplation, the long take, Sátántangó, Slow Cinema, South African rural idyll, ruin.
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03 ) De la Rey, Adriaan; Stella, Viljoen; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Visual Arts.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is in conversation with the poetic documentary film, Rou/Raw, a 117-minute long film shot in Nthoroane/Greylingstad, a South African small town. In this project, the two components explore the aesthetic and ethical dimensions of Slow Cinema within the unique backdrop of Nthoroane/ Greylingstad. The emphasis is on the historical context and techniques of Slow Cinema, specifically its extremely long take and the film Sátántangó (1994) directed by Béla Tarr. It investigates the representation of the South African rural idyll on screen. This practice-based study delves into the potential of long takes to convey multiple temporalities, illuminating the intricate interplay of time, place and the state of ruin/s in the rural milieu. In this thesis, I suggest that in order to reveal how time flows over the hills of Nthoroane/Greylingstad,we need to slow down to the town’s pace and rhythms and wander in its milieu as this exposes moments of both wonder and slow violence. In the film the long take and its unfolding durée facilitates this oreorientation towards the South African rural landscape, revealing multiple temporalities within the same environment from seconds and minutes to the grandiose timescale of the cosmos, all linked to nature and its cyclical patterns and unfolding decay. It reflects on the similarities between Slow Cinema and documentary film techniques, and offers an account of Tarr’s journey from documentarian towards minimalist stylization, all the time keeping his own sense of “truth” and the “real” intact. This thesis includes a written long take, a combination of autoethnographic reflections, production diary entries and images, alongside a close analysis of a long take from Sátántangó. Through this, the thesis echoes the structure of Sátántangó while discussing the history of Slow Cinema and the capacity of the long take to provide moments for contemplation outside of time but inside the moment. Boredom, often experienced in the long take, becomes an ethical act for considering the nature of labour and leisure through the lens of slow violence in the ruin/s of the South African small town.