The Role of the «Camera-Observer» in the Creation of Slow Cinema

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyse the concept of the camera as a virtual observer of events and its role in the creation of slow cinema.

The research methodology is grounded in the history of ideas, as the study focuses on a concept that requires clarification: the camera as an observer – that is, as a virtual character within the cinematic world, whose primary role is to perceive events and alter the ways in which they are viewed. This concept was developed by integrating the notions and characteristics of shot duration and spatial composition within the frame (in cases where they allow the observer’s agency to emerge), and by reformulating the parameters that define the frame as a technical element into the properties of vision. Analytical methods were employed in examining historically described camera techniques, while synthesis was used to construct the defining features of the ‘camera-observer’.

Results. To identify and describe the parameters characteristic of slow cinema, we examined film theory and studies on the stylistic approaches of directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean Renoir, Béla Tarr, and others. The concept of the camera as an observer encompasses a set of interrelated techniques: the use of 'dead time' (temps mort), which enables prolonged observation; planimetric and recessive spatial compositions; and the shifting roles assumed by the camera – as passive viewer, real participant, and active director. It also engages with the interplay between close and distant modes of viewing. This concept is closely linked to spiral and circular narrative structures, as well as to the typically detached behaviour of the dramatic character. The observer is imbued with the capacity to reveal the emotional qualities of a situation or location, not through dialogue, but through mood or behaviour – calmness, apathy, continual wandering, and movement from place to place.

Conclusions. The features and connections described constitute the concept of the 'intelligent camera', which selects how to present a situation and embodies socio-emotional behaviour. Through the transformation of the camera’s technical parameters into those of an autonomous participant – when the camera assumes an independent role as an observer within the virtual world of cinema – slow cinema emerges as a distinct genre.