A Lesson from Zabriskie Point: video essay 

Fascinating video essay Ben. Would be interested in seeing you develop these thoughts in further video essays. For example - the whole ‘slow cinema’ idea, where these extended shots are applied to a whole film, and you get a completely different pacing and cinema experience. I’m thinking of Bela Tarr’s films, particularly Werchmeister Harmonies. I wouldn’t want all films to be like that, but it does give it a special quality.

This is interesting. Time lapse is no doubt another form of long held shot.

Great reflexions on movie! 👏👏👍

thanks for sharing this

Have you seen The Passenger by Antonionni? The penultimate shot in that one lasts 7 minutes or so before the next cut. That film is full of long take shots.

As you showed, ZP was not the first film to make use of time lapse and extended scenes. When I saw this film for the first time, I definitely did not spend time on the gas canister scene. I was enthralled by the opening student rebellion conversation, the sex/love scene in the desert, and of course the grand finale. But I think that the extended scene is a generally a "lost art" in cinema today. You mention the average length is 8 seconds. What's the average length today? The attention span has been compressed even further. We don't get the luxury of lingering in a particular scene, although some director still do make the effort to be generous to their viewers, I suppose. Your insight was ok but nothing monumental or revelatory for me. But hey, I watched your vid from start to end. And that was much longer than 8 seconds. ;-)

Antonioni's main thematic trope was isolation. Often times the languid pace of certain shots deals with externalizing visually what the characters might be going through internally. He's like an impressionistic painter who uses visuals versus dialogue to express character development and move story forward. Often times he's extremely subtle like Lavventura or La Notte, and others he's very overt and almost cartoonish about it like Zabriskie. I think you could've used Children of Men instead of the Dardennes. Much more widely known and probably better example, at least in invisibility. I think long takes tend to get ruined when they're noticeable, because it becomes just an ego thing of a filmmaker showing off. If you're already AWARE that you haven't changed the shot you're probably boring people more than building tension. A lot of European and Asian arthouse handicap themselves from getting more mainstream audiences in the West for their work when they disregard pacing for the sake of a longer shot language. That's why I think Cuaron happens to be more interesting as a long take filmmaker than most people we relate to the technique because you almost never reach that point of noticing the long take, it's all just about blocking and processing events in real time not extending shots for no reason. In Roma, one of the most devastating scenes is her getting stood up at the cinemas after telling her boyfriend she's pregnant. She steps outside to look for him and there's like this minute where she's just desperate and relizing what's happening, no dialogue, no camera move, just her alone getting drowned by the crowd noise and the street vendors. It's not only emotionally and cinematically perfect, it's a freaking time machine because almost every latin person of a certain age who grew up down there is TRANSPORTED in that mini scene. It's soooooo realisitc and just, amazing. Compared to certain blocking decisions in The Revenant or Birdman for example (same DP different director), where the camera scenes constantly feel like they're "acted" and "performed" because the camera has to swoop and circle around the characters reaction to the over the shoulders and swoop back, it's all just very noticeable and you'd save so much by simply editing. It became too much like VR as opposed to seeing a majestic long shot. Bi Gan's Long Day's Journey also gave me that same feeling. Masterful craft and inspiring to watch, but also quite dull and ultimately ineffective at creating lasting emotional impact. Very good hybrid directors who use long takes to frame specific scenes and moments of their films are Scorsese (Irishman, that PHONE CALL), Spielberg and Steve McQueen. In fact, Joe Walker always says that Steve has that innate ability to hold JUST until the shot makes its point, then we cut not before. Check out Twin Peak The Return for a filmmaker that is in complete control of film language and uses pacing almost as a thematic element. This entire video reminds me of that one episode ending where the barkeep is literally sweeping at the end of the night for 3 minutes in silence. Most episodes actually tend to end in atmospheric long takes as credits roll. Haunting.

I don't know that it's very relevant to what you say, but it looks to me like "the shot" is actually two shots with a hidden cut.