Realism of the Senses in World Cinema: The Experience of Physical Reality

280 Pages·2013·11.868 MB·English

by  Tiago De Luca

Tiago de Luca is Lecturer in World Cinemas and Portuguese at
the University of Liverpool.
‘Drawing his theoretical framework from cinematic realism
and the Bazinian long take, Tiago de Luca’s Realism of the Senses
in World Cinema provides a unique take on a body of contem-
porary fi lms that can be broadly described as a cinema of slow-
ness. This is an elegantly written book that will be central to
debates in fi lm scholarship on time and space, body and mind,
senses and perception, and materiality and politics. A pleasure
to read.’
Song Hwee Lim,
Senior Lecturer in Film Studies, University of Exeter
Series Editor: Lúcia Nagib, Professor of World Cinemas, University of Leeds
Advisory Board: Laura Mulvey (UK), Donald Richie (Japan), Robert Stam (USA), Ismail Xavier
(Brazil)
The Tauris World Cinema Series aims to reveal and celebrate the richness and complexity of fi lm
art across the globe, exploring a wide variety of cinemas set within their own cultures and as they
interconnect in a global context.
The books in the series will represent innovative scholarship, in tune with the multicultural char-
acter of contemporary audiences. They will also draw upon an international authorship, comprising
academics, fi lm writers and journalists.
Published and forthcoming in the World Cinema series:
Brazil on Screen: Cinema Novo, New New Argentine Cinema
Cinema, Utopia By Jens Andermann
By Lúcia Nagib
New Directions in German Cinema
Contemporary New Zealand Cinema: From Edited by Paul Cooke and Chris
New Wave to Blockbuster Homewood
Edited by Ian Conrich and Stuart
New Turkish Cinema: Belonging, Identity
Murray
and Memory
Cosmopolitan Cinema: Imagining the Cross- By Asuman Suner
Cultural in East Asian Film
Performing Authorship: Self-inscription and
By Felicity Chan Corporeality in the Cinema
East Asian Cinemas: Exploring Transnational By Cecilia Sayad
Connections on Film Realism of the Senses in World Cinema:
Edited by Leon Hunt and Leung Wing-Fai The Experience of Physical Reality
By Tiago de Luca
Impure Cinema: Intermedial and
Intercultural Approaches to Film Theorizing World Cinema
Edited by Lúcia Nagib and Anne Jerslev Edited by Lúcia Nagib, Chris Perriam
and Rajinder Dudrah
Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War
and Beyond Viewing Film
By Lina Khatib By Donald Richie
Queries, ideas and submissions to:
Series Editor, Professor Lúcia Nagib – [email protected]
Cinema Editor at I.B.Tauris, Anna Coatman – [email protected]
Realism of
the Senses in
World Cinema
THE EXPERIENCE OF PHYSICAL REALITY
Tiago de Luca
Published in 2014 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada
Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © 2014 Tiago de Luca
The right of Tiago de Luca to be identifi ed as the author of this work has
been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 78076 630 0
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Printed and bound in Great Britain by T.J. International, Padstow, Cornwall
de Luca, Tiago. "Dedication." Realism of the Senses in World Cinema: The Experience of
Physical Reality. London: I.B.Tauris, 2014. v–v. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 10 Jun. 2021. <>.
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Copyright © Tiago de Luca 2014. All rights reserved. Further reproduction or distribution is
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Para os meus pais,
Roney e Angela

List of Illustrations
1–2 Similar visual compositions in Japón and The Sacrifi ce (p.44)
3–4 Transcendental visions: Battle in Heaven and Wanderer above the
Sea of Fog (p.50)
5–6 The body of Christ and the grotesque body in Battle in Heaven
(p.51)
7–8 Silent Light: the fl esh remains (p.56)
9–10 Silent Light’s citation of Ordet (p.58)
11 The miraculous kiss in Silent Light (p.59)
12–13 Camera as microscope: dissecting the body in Battle in
Heaven (p.63)
14 The monstrosity of the close-up in Battle in Heaven (p.65)
15–16 Deterritorialization in Silent Light and Battle in Heaven
(p.67)
17 The weight of the sky: metaphysical overtones in Silent Light
(p.72)
18 Painterly composition in Silent Light (p.73)
19 Breaking the fourth wall: a child looks into the camera in Silent
Light (p.76)
20–22 Same settings: same family? Rebels of the Neon God, The River
and What Time Is It There? (p.104)
23–24 Same settings and identical visual compositions in What
Time Is It There? and Goodbye Dragon Inn (p.108)
25–26 Shiang-chyi bumps into Hsiao-kang in The River . . . and
searches for him in The Skywalk is Gone (p.109)
27 Sectional space in The River (p.115)
28 Expanding and fracturing space in I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone
(p.116)
29 Doubling spatial depth in The Wayward Cloud (p.118)
ix
realism of the senses in world cinema
30 Vertiginous perspective in The Wayward Cloud (p.119)
31–32 The everyday foot in Umberto D and Vive l’amour (p.127)
33 Bodily privacy in Vive l’amour (p.128)
34–35 The grotesque hole in The Hole and The Wayward Cloud
(p.136)
36–37 Corporeal analogy in The Wayward Cloud (p.138)
38–39 Gigantic limbs in The River and The Wayward Cloud (p.139)
40 The giant penis in The Wayward Cloud (p.140)
41 Phallic statue in The Wayward Cloud (p.141)
42–43 Grotesque motifs: phallic towers and gaping mouths in The
Wayward Cloud (p.142)
44–45 Telling off: Psycho and Psycho, the remake (p.167)
46–47 Gerry’s nod to Tarr: shot citation of Werckmeister Harmonies
(p.170)
48 Dwarfi ng the human in Gerry (p.175)
49–50 The Sublime in Caspar David Friedrich’s The Monk by the
Sea and Gerry (p.180)
51–52 Affective landscapes in Gerry (p.184)
53 Stalking vision in Halloween (p.198)
54–55 Predatory vision in Elephant (p.201)
56–57 FPS perspective in Spellbound and Topaz (p.203)
58–59 FPS perspective in Elephant (p.204)
60–61 Detaching spirits in William Blake’s illustration and Last
Days (p.217)
62 Prolonging perception in Last Days (p.224)
63–65 Repetition and seriality in Last Days (pp.227–228)
x
de Luca, Tiago. "Acknowledgements." Realism of the Senses in World Cinema: The Experience
of Physical Reality. London: I.B.Tauris, 2014. xi–xii. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 10 Jun. 2021.
<>.
Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 10 June 2021,
14:20 UTC.
Access provided by: alberta
Copyright © Tiago de Luca 2014. All rights reserved. Further reproduction or distribution is
prohibited without prior permission in writing from the publishers.