Introduction 1: The Long Take—Critical Approaches

Abstract

Complementing Steve Neale’s chapter which follows it, this introduction reflects on the critical field and debates about the aesthetics of the long take. It draws on what have been the dominant ways of thinking about the cinematic long take in terms of continuity of space, time, and action, and considers a range of practices and debates that have developed across the various modes of film and video that have made use of extended duration. It outlines the commitment of the book—the first in English on the long take—to discussion and reflection rooted in the detailed analysis of specific long takes.