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Watch: The Art of Slow Motion in Film
In the latest episode in “The Discarded Image” video essay series (above), filmmaker and video essayist Julian Palmer tackles the art of slow-motion.
“The world moves at a rapid pace. Our lives slip through our fingers. We have no control of time – except, of course, if you’re a filmmaker,” intones Palmer, who adds that “filmmakers intuitively manipulate the speed of the image.”
The video highlights various examples of how slow-motion is used to heighten emotion in tense or violent situations, focus in on details viewers might otherwise miss, and also how it can help “to get inside the head of the lead protagonist,” according to Palmer.
Not surprisingly, Martin Scorsese’s films are heavily represented in the video, with clips from Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Casino, and The Wolf of Wall Street. The films referenced range in date from 1957 to 2014 and include works from Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Brian DePalma, Quentin Tarantino, Jean-Luc Godard, Wes Anderson, the Coen Brothers, Oliver Stone, and Kathryn Bigelow, among others.
