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2026-09-10
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How to Cite
Anti-Cinema as Visual Politics: Silence, Slowness and the Refusal of Spectacle in Contemporary Art Cinema
Talya Iscan
Doctoral Program in Communication, Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de México, Mexico
https://orcid.org/0009-0008-7622-6424
Keywords: Anti-Cinema, Political Communication, Slow Cinema, Spectatorship, Visual Politics
Abstract
This article examines anti-cinema as a form of visual politics and audiovisual communication. Rather than treating political cinema only as explicit ideology, propaganda or representation of public conflict, it argues that contemporary art cinema can communicate politically through silence, slowness, spatial opacity and anti-narrative. The study develops a qualitative comparative analysis of four films: Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2011), The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza, Paolo Sorrentino, 2013), Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice, Alice Rohrwacher, 2018) and Post Tenebras Lux (Carlos Reygadas, 2012). The methodology combines semiotic film analysis with a comparative grid focused on duration, sound, narrative withholding, spatial composition and spectator positioning. The results show that anti-cinematic form refuses the logic of spectacle by interrupting speed, emotional consumption and narrative mastery. The article concludes that anti-cinema should be understood as a communicative style with political force: it does not merely speak about power, but challenges the perceptual conditions through which power becomes visible, consumable and meaningful.
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