The Prison of Time

A captivating journey into the ways in which contemporary cinema constructs a sense of rhythm that encourages spectators to free themselves from the prison of time in everyday life. Not the measurable time of the clock, nor just the time constructed by the narrative, but the value of a temporality lived in terms of emotional intensity. A rethinking of both the classic narratological and cognitivist approaches - an alternative yet integrative perspective to the much-debated theories on complex storytelling and impossible puzzle films. --Adriano D'Aloia, Associate Professor of Film & Media, University of Bergamo, Italy Rarely have scholars compared and contrasted various cinematic treatments of time in a unifying and interdisciplinary fashion. In her new book The Prison of Time, Elisa Pezzotta fills this void by providing a thorough and thoughtful analysis of the creation of time in the works of 4 distinctive directors. Firmly grounded in state-of-the-art theory and research, it offers the reader a worthy lens through which to understand not only the fundamental embodied rules by which films exert their temporal effects, but also the unique stylistic and narrative ways in which such processes have been put into filmic practice. --Maarten Coegnarts, Visiting Professor, University of Antwerp, Belgium, and author of Film as Embodied Art: Bodily Meaning in the Cinema of Stanley Kubrick (2019) Something intriguing happens when one enters the cinema. The room darkens, the curtains open, and one surrenders, a willing hostage, to someone else's sense of time. This is the fascinating experience that Elisa Pezzotta unpacks in her close analysis of the oeuvres of four key auteurs. For those new to the study of time in cinema, her book brings philosophical clarity and rigor. For those familiar with the work of Kubrick, Lyne, Bay and Tarantino, it brings fresh insights. It sharpens our understanding of one of the cinema's most enduring qualities: the special relationship with time it both embodies and induces. --Joy McEntee, Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Creative Writing and Film, University of Adelaide, Australia