In Praise of Speed: The Value of Velocity in Contemporary Cinema

Abstract

One of the key criticisms of fast contemporary cinema is that an increase in image velocity has resulted in a decrease in complexity and substance. As the film-strip is broken up and fragmented by digital jump cuts, smash zooms and fast edits, for many critics the images on screen have lost their aesthetic and cultural value. In this article, Thompson argues that thrilling velocity is present throughout film history, and that fast motion is not in itself the perpetrator of mindlessness. With reference to the films Babel , Run Lola, Run , and Requiem for a Dream , Thompson discusses the way that speed can add meaning to the frame, a direct reflection of the complexities of fast modern life in a world of high-speed global communication.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 11 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.