Pip Chodorov's comments on film speed (of motion, that is, not ISO ratings)
are very insightful.  Of course, someone like Frampton will experiment with
new vocabularies for slow or fast motion (among other elements) but Hollywood
tends to come up with its own vocabulary--though that can be shifted and
adapted from what other filmmakers do.
 
Strangely, both fast and slow motion can signify "the past."  The latter seems
to evoke "the past" as memory--personal recollections in a character's
mindscreen.  The former seems linked more to a specific notion of the past
of *film* history (erroneously assuming that all silent films were meant to
be projected at 24 fps)--eg., the opening of TOM JONES.
 
Fast-motion can suggest a disorientation in time, a nature gone out of control--
see both Rene Claire's ENTRE'ACT and KOYAANISQATSI.
 
Slow-motion can suggest fantasy--a desire to impede or disable the progress of
time.  See the use of slo-mo and repetition at the end of Enrico's AN
OCCURENCE AT OWL CREEK BRIDGE but also films in which the hero futiley tries
to stop a murder or accident from happening.
 
Rule of thumb: Fast motion for comedy; slow-motion for tragedy?
 
Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)
 
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