Mike Frank wonders: >does the phrase "real time" refer to the represented or diegetic time--in >which case ROPE would seem to serve as a good example Rope is a bad example of both types. At one point, several hours are ellipsed as the sun rises; this is a theatrical gimmick, making rope more like filmed theatre (thus highly unrealistic) than like filming real time (an attempt to be hyper-realistic). If we forgive those zoom-ins into a character's back to hide reel changes, the film could have been a good example of real diegetic time, but unfortunately it is not. To answer the question, I am interested in both cases; diegetic time for fiction film, and real/reel time for experimental film, such as in Warhol's "Empire" or "Sleep", or certain very long shots in Wender's early shorts. I am not interested in this as "a matter of historical record" as Mike says, but as an artistic (and highly unusual) use of time in film; and even moreso to follow through the study of slow motion and accelerated motion by its metaphysical antithesis: non-manipulated time, which we find right away to be impossible (cameras and projectors manipulate time by nature). The attempt to show something really happening as it happens is, one could say, against the nature of cinema, or of any art form, though it comes up again and again in documentary, in pornography, in snuff films perhaps. It is used in fiction film to very good effect: some recent examples are "Breaking the Waves" by Lars Von Trier and "Fate" by Fred Keleman, in which scenes are shot as long as possible in continuous takes. The attempt to show real time in the context of a film screening is an attempt to bring our own realities and consciousness of time passing into a place of distraction. This self-consciousness then raises awareness of spectators' voyeuristic tendancies. These concerns go much farther than the meaning of slow or fast motion. -Pip Chodorov ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]