Top 5-10 "slow" films of all time

[zen007]

The focus here is on transcendental, poetic realism, neorealism, new wave, etc. films ... What are the 5-10 best slow films?

Many of the films that I think as best tend to be slow ... From the top of the mind recall, below is a tentative list in the order of release:

Bicycle Thieves (1948, De Sica)
Late Spring (1949, Ozu)
Tokyo Story (1953, Ozu)
Journey to Italy (1954, Rossellini)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962, Varda)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Kubrick)
The Conformist (1970, Bertolucci)
Solaris (1972, Tarkovsky)
Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky)
Come and See (1985, Klimov)



PS one filmmaker whose films want to make me grab my camera is Ozu:

Yasujir� Ozu - The Depth of Simplicity | The Cinema Cartography - YouTube

[magnusbe]

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

[Foggy]

Originally Posted by zen007

The focus here is on transcendental, poetic realism, neorealism, new wave, etc. films ...

Literally all of those things are different to one another…and not necessarily equate to slow.

[zen007]

Originally Posted by Foggy

Literally all of those things are different to one another…and not necessarily equate to slow.

Duh! That's understood.

[Atomic Salad]

Originally Posted by magnusbe

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)

I just finished watching that. At 1x speed, no less.

So now I'm properly credentialed to say that it is awful.

[zen007]

Like the combination of score and cinematography in The Conformist ... And has a good performance by Jean-Louis Trintignant:

The Conformist – 4K Re-Release Trailer – Bernardo Bertolucci, Jean-Louis Trintignant - YouTube

[zen007]

Originally Posted by Atomic Salad

I just finished watching that. At 1x speed, no less.

So now I'm properly credentialed to say that it is awful.

I have watched Jeanne Dielman at 1x and 2x.

Next, I am going to attempt to watch it upside down to see if it feels like a "masterpiece"

[Atomic Salad]

Originally Posted by zen007

I have watched Jeanne Dielman at 1x and 2x.

Next, I am going to attempt to watch it upside down to see if it feels like a "masterpiece"

[Show spoiler]


Nope. Still as boring as a dog's ass.

[D00mM4r1n3]

Since I saw 2001 on a list of "New Wave" films I'm going to say 2010: The Year We Make Contact. It's slow, has conflicted characters, and makes one think about what alien contact might be.

[zen007]

For reference, some more films:

La Grande Illusion (1937, Renior)
Stromboli (1950, Rossellini)
A Man Escaped (1956, Bresson)
L'aaventura (1960, Antonioni)
Rocco and His Brothers (1960, Visconti)
Viridiana (1961, Bunuel)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961, Resnais)
Woman in the Dunes (1964, Teshigahara)
Red Desert (1964, Antonioni)
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966, Bresson)
Barry Lyndon (1975, Kubrick)
Close-Up (1990, Kiarostami)
...
...
...

[slumcat]

Originally Posted by zen007

The focus here is on transcendental, poetic realism, neorealism, new wave, etc. films ... What are the 5-10 best slow cinema films?

Some of the films that I think as best tend to come from slow cinema ... From the top of the mind recall, below is a tentative list in the order of release:

Bicycle Thieves (1948, De Sica)
Late Spring (1949, Ozu)
Tokyo Story (1953, Ozu)
Journey to Italy (1954, Rossellini)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962, Varda)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, Kubrick)
The Conformist (1970, Bertolucci)
Solaris (1972, Tarkovsky)
Stalker (1979, Tarkovsky)
Come and See (1985, Klimov)

Most of these are not slow.

[Doctor Jack]

Originally Posted by zen007

I have watched Jeanne Dielman at 1x and 2x.

Next, I am going to attempt to watch it upside down to see if it feels like a "masterpiece"

There is nothing that can be done to make that movie a masterpiece.

[slumcat]

Originally Posted by zen007

For reference, some more films:

La Grande Illusion (1937, Renior)
Stromboli (1950, Rossellini)
A Man Escaped (1956, Bresson)
L'aaventura (1960, Antonioni)
Rocco and His Brothers (1960, Visconti)
Viridiana (1961, Bunuel)
Last Year at Marienbad (1961, Resnais)
Woman in the Dunes (1964, Teshigahara)
Red Desert (1964, Antonioni)
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966, Bresson)
Barry Lyndon (1975, Kubrick)
Close-Up (1990, Kiarostami)
...
...
...

Most of these are not slow.

[DonB]

Good choices, zen007. I was going to add Woman in the Dunes. Instead, I'll mention one probably no one else here has seen, the Tarkovsky-and Tarr-esque Hungarian mood piece, Twilight (1990), directed by György Fehér.

[zen007]

Originally Posted by slumcat

Most of these are not slow.

“Slow” can have various degrees. Yeah, many of those are not necessarily “too slow”.

[zen007]

Originally Posted by DonB

Good choices, zen007. I was going to add Woman in the Dunes. Instead, I'll mention one probably no one else here has seen, the Tarkovsky-and Tarr-esque Hungarian mood piece, Twilight (1990), directed by György Fehér.

Yeah, not seen the Hungarian film that you mentioned.

I like how the sand is captured in Woman in the Dunes.

[Deadend45]

Taxi Driver is 'slow' according to the director. Sure like Solaris it has some fast moments.

[moreorless]

Besides Tarkovsky and Bresson...

The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum
Uzak
A Brighter Summers Day
Hard To Be a God
Marketa Lazarova
Long Days Journey Into Night
Under The Skin
Beau Travail
Werckmeister Harmonies
La Belle Noiseuse

[dancerslegs]

Angelopoulos needs to be mentioned here. Along with Tarkovsky and Tarr, they just about constitute the "Holy Trinity" of slow cinema.

Landscape in the Mist (Theo Angelopoulos) - YouTube

Speaking of great slow Hungarian films, besides Twilight (Szürkület) cited above, there's also the fantastic films of Miklós Jancsó to consider; The Round-Up (Szegénylegények) probably being his magnum opus.

The Round-Up (Miklós Jancsó) - YouTube

Less known, there's the early films of János Szász; especially Woyzeck and The Witman Boys (Witman fiúk), both of which are unsung masterpieces.

Woyzeck (János Szász) - YouTube

[An4h0ny]