The Shape of Motion: Cinema and the Aesthetics of Movement

264 Pages·2021·9.198 MB·English

by  Jordan Schonig

The Shape of Motion

The Shape of Motion
Cinema and the Aesthetics of Movement
Jordan Schonig
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Schonig, Jordan, author.
Title: The shape of motion : cinema and the aesthetics of movement / Jordan Schonig.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021037366 (print) | LCCN 2021037367 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190093884 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190093891 (paperback) |
ISBN 9780190093914 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Movement, Aesthetics of, in motion pictures. |
Motion pictures—Aesthetics.
Classification: LCC PN1995.9.M685 S36 2021 (print) |
LCC PN1995.9.M685 (ebook) | DDC 791.4301—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037366
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021037367
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780190093884.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Paperback printed by Marquis, Canada
Hardback printed by Bridgeport National Bindery, Inc., United States of America
The filmmaker considers form merely as the form of a movement.
— Jean Epstein

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
About the Companion Website xiii
Introduction: Moving toward Form 1
The Problem of “Movement” 1
Perceiving Form 5
The Strangeness of Cinematic Motion 10
Describing Motion 14
Cinema’s Motion Forms 16
1. Contingent Motion 19
Contingent Motion and the Impression of Causality 22
Aesthetic Beholding and Kant’s Beautiful Views 24
Early Cinema’s Water-E ffects Films 28
CGI’S Fuzzy Objects 32
From the Novelty of Motion to Forms of Motion 40
2. Habitual Gestures 43
Ways of Moving 46
Ways of Moving Differently 52
The Cultivation of Habit 59
Capturing the In-B etween 69
3. Durational Metamorphosis 74
Cinematic Slowness and Duration 78
Duration Made Visible 82
From Natural to Supernatural Metamorphosis: Silent Light 90
From Sleeping to Seeing 95
4. Spatial Unfurling 99
From Moving to Unfurling 101
The Perceptual Aesthetics of Lateral Camera Movement 105
Seeing Double 113
Seeing Aspects of the Moving Camera 119
5. Trajective Locomotion 125
Approaching Trajectivity 128
A World of Trajectivities 135
Exploring Exceptions 140
The Ethics of the Moving Camera 146
viii Contents
6. Bleeding Pixels 149
Movement- Sensitive Spectatorship 152
A Pedagogy of Motion Perception 162
Seeing Movement Move 176
Conclusion: Movement as Excess 179
Notes 189
Index 237
Acknowledgments
Each page of this book is marked by an insurmountable debt, not least of which is
owed to my advisers at the University of Chicago, where I began this project as a dis-
sertation. First and foremost, I wish to thank Dan Morgan. Working with Dan has
proven to be an irreplaceable part of my development as a scholar. It is only with the
aid of his intellectual generosity, his curiosity, and his confidence in my intuitions that
this book could have even been conceived. At the same time, his insistence on clarity
and argumentative rigor taught me the value of checking my intuitions, stepping out-
side of myself, and considering my reader. Put simply, any intellectual development
I’ve had as a scholar I owe to Dan’s devoted guidance. David Rodowick, meanwhile,
kept me afloat with his unwavering enthusiasm and good spirit; so much of this proj-
ect’s development was fostered by his reliable encouragement and attention to detail.
To Tom Gunning I owe a model for endless intellectual curiosity and a way of seeing
the wonder in the everyday; conversations with him always reminded me of what
drew me to film studies in the first place. From Noa Steimatsky I learned to always
question my assumptions and trust my instincts that things are often more complex
than they seem; her commitment to maintaining the integrity of her aesthetic expe-
riences has provided a valuable model for my own writing. I could not have asked
for a more thoughtful, generous, and inspiring group of people to have worked with.
Moreover, I cannot think of a group of scholars whose work I admire more. This
book in many ways has emerged directly from their ideas and ways of thinking about
moving images; it merely continues a conversation that they have started.
The book has been profoundly shaped by conversations with numerous colleagues
I’ve had the fortune of working with and learning from over many years, and whom
I feel lucky to have as friends. Mikki Kressbach has read every page of this book and
has offered generous feedback at every stage of writing; she reminds me to never take
myself (or academia) too seriously. Ryan Pierson has guided my intellectual develop-
ment through his personal encouragement and through the model provided by his
own work. Conversations with him never fail to inspire me, and he’s been a generous
reader of the manuscript since its earliest stages. Ellen McCallum has become a sharp
critical reader of the book in the later stages of the writing and revision process. She
reminded me of the joys of theory at a time when I really needed it. Hoi Lun Law has
been a wonderful interlocutor about films and aesthetic theory, and a generous reader
of the manuscript. Dave Burnham has proved a reliably stimulating intellectual com-
panion about all topics; conversations with him almost always clarify my thinking.
Hannah Frank provided invaluable guidance and inspiration, especially at the earliest
stages of the book; I hope the pages that follow evidence at least a fraction of how
much I’ve learned from her.