ness and presence (or becoming) across the simple division between sound and
image in the narrative slide-motion film that is made perceptible by the stills,
but which is potentially there in all moving images. Sometimes this tension in
filmic expression is intensified by the temporality of the narrative mode, as in
Photo-Romans, which is a series of classic short stories that is somewhat rup-
tured by its filmic style. At the other end of the spectrum we findLa Jetée,a
film about memory and loss told as a time-travel story, arguably a perfect theme
and genre for a smooth exploration of the expressive potential of the slide mo-
tion film.Año Uñacan be placed somewhere between these two extremes. Its
mundane love story and chronological narrative makes it similar to the stories
ofPhoto-Romans. However, the rather loose narrative structure of the film as
well as its resemblance to a road movie (the traveling, the characters being at
turning points in their lives, their evasive actions) and the way it adopts the
narrative mode of the chronicle seems to fit more smoothly into this particular
filmic expression.
As we have seen, there is a great amount of variety between narrative slide-
motion films, which also involves their complex temporalities. Given the com-
plexity of the temporality of the narrative slide-motion film I have sketched
here, the temporality of this filmic mode of expression cannot be reduced to the
cultural figure of pastness connected to the photographic still. However, I will
argue that, along with the notion of theideal movement“made out of successive
and different immobilities”(Metz), thepastnessof the moment of photographic
exposure should be considered a formative notion of the filmic expression I
have suggested that we callslide-motion film.
Parts of this argument were presented as a paper at the SCMS conference in Philadel-
phia, March-,. I am particularly grateful for all the useful comments from our
panel respondent Mary Ann Doane. I also express my warm thanks to the participants
at the workshop preparing this book at Lysebu Conference Hotel, Oslo, September-,
.
Notes
. See Dennis, James (November),“Año Uña(Year of the Nail) Review”, avail-
able at: http://twitchfilm.net/reviews///ano-una-year-of-the-nail-review.php
[last accessed January,].
. See, for instance, the photography blog Contact at: http://contactcollective.blogspot.
com///la-jetee-and-ano-una-stills-as-film.html [last accessed January ,
].
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