Renewal of the Elements through the Viewer’s Perception - Text 5
Pressure is increased by the speed or weight of the matters at stake, such as those embodied by the many twists and turns of the truck in Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur, 1953), the menacing heavy truck in Spielberg’s Duel (1971), the bomb-rigged bus in Jan de Bont’s Speed (1994), etc. This is a classic mechanism of the frantic chase scene, whether the action takes place in a film in the James Bond franchise, Peter Yates’ Bullit (1968) or William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971). Nevertheless, slowing down, which has fewer repercussions on the viewer’s immediate and conscious perception, reveals just as much the profound empathy of which viewers are capable, immersing themselves in long duration. We could mention as examples of this the films of Kurosawa, two of whose feature films we discussed above; by Andrey Tarkovsky, in particular Ivan’s Childhood (Иваново детство, 1962) and The Sacrifice (Offret, 1986); or, more recently, by David Lynch.
