Rethinking Rhythm in Film

Still from Adebar (1957), Peter Kubelka

A one-day symposium

Date: Thursday 22 May 2025
Venue:  LAB 006, ARU Cambridge campus, East Road, Cambridge, CB1 1PT

If you are attending in person, please register via Eventbrite

If you would like to attend online please use this Teams link.

More than fifty years ago, Noël Burch observed that ‘cinematic rhythm is defined by the sum total of all the parameters’ of film (Burch 1973, p. 67). Contemporary studies, however, tend to be more circumscribed in their ambitions; despite much important contemporary research, rhythm rarely occupies the same kind of anchoring position it held for many pioneering film theorists, from Sergei Eisenstein to Jean Mitry via Jean Epstein. This one-day symposium aims to contribute to the reinvigoration of the study of rhythm as a central aspect of film, whether developing strands of contemporary thought and practice, suggesting entirely new avenues of investigation, or revising and rethinking earlier theories.

Rethinking Rhythm in Film is organised by Dominic Lash, Associate Lecturer in Film at ARU, and Simon Payne, Associate Professor in Film and Media at ARU. For any enquiries, please email [email protected].

Schedule

9:30 – Registration opens

10:00 – Panel One: History

Henry K. Miller (Anglia Ruskin University), "Russian Rhythms"

Claus Tieber (Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien), "The Rhythms of the Screenplay: Notes on the Role and Function of Rhythm in Screenplays from the Early Sound Era"

Erica Sheen (University of York), "La Lutte Continue: Revolutionary Rhythms in Cold War Art Cinema"

11:30 – Coffee Break

11:45 – Panel Two: Perception and Dance

Alaina Schempp (University of Birmingham), "The Art of When: A Naturalised Aesthetics of Affective Temporality, Film Rhythm, and Timing"

Anna Kolesnikov (Université de Montréal), "Rhythmic Patterns and Time Perception in Audiovisual Experience"

Marjana Krajač, "Kinetic Rhythm: The Choreo-Cinematic Rhythm of Vera Maletić's A Choreography for Camera and Dancers"

13:15 – Lunch

14:00 – Panel Three: Narrative and Criticism

Joel Blackledge (Birmingham City University), "Side by Side: Videographic Practice and Recognising Rhythm"

Dominic Lash (Anglia Ruskin University), "Rhythmic Phrasing in Narrative Film"

Jessica Moore (University of Cambridge), "Slackened Tensions and Belated Drama in Kelly Reichardt's Showing Up"

15:30 – Coffee Break

15:45 – Panel Four: Filmmaking

Nicky Hamlyn, (University for the Creative Arts), "Now Wash Your Hands: Experiments with Rhythms Generated from Three-Frame Loops"

Jennifer Nightingale (Anglia Ruskin University), "Handmade Frames"

Neil Henderson (Anglia Ruskin University), "Observations on Exposure: Time, light and the Rhythms of the Day"

17:15 – Closing Remarks