Abstract
First published in Movie 27/28 (1980), the chapter begins by challenging Movie to address the various new forms of cinema within the Americas that had become increasingly visible since the 1960s. That opening and the sections that follow define a context in which Jost’s use of the long take in a film “addressed to Hollywood” took on significant polemical (and political) force. The film is placed in relation to aspects of Brecht’s epic theatre and to Peter Wollen’s definition of “counter cinema.” The chapter then analyses in detail ways in which Jost’s varied long take strategies challenge and pose alternatives to Hollywood norms, and argues that the film as a whole exemplifies the possibility of an accessible but radical alternative cinema.
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Works Cited
Brecht, Bertolt. 1930. “The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre.” In Brecht on Theatre, edited by John Willet, 33–42. London: Methuen.
———. 1958. “The Popular and the Realistic.” In Brecht on Theatre, edited by John Willet, 107–122. London: Methuen.
Coursen, David. 1979. “Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Dead End).” Film Quarterly 32 (3): 58–62.
James, David. 1979. “Towards a Radical, Popular Cinema: Two Recent Films by Jon Jost.” Millennium Film Journal Summer/Fall: 71–83.
Jost, Jon. 1979. “Money and Art.” Wide Angle 3 (3): 28–33.
Wollen, Peter. 1972. “Counter Cinema: Vent d’Est.” Afterimage 4 (Autumn): 6–16.
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Hillier, J. (2017). Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Jon Jost 1977). In: Gibbs, J., Pye, D. (eds) The Long Take. Palgrave Close Readings in Film and Television. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58573-8_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58573-8_9
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