Article:

Zeitmodi, Prozesszeit: Elementaria der Zeitrepräsentation im Film

The cinematographic representation of time is based on the coexistence of different strategies of representation, additionally coordinated with different modes of reference (especially the potentiality and futurity of what is shown stands beside the dominant mode of ›it exists‹, the prime epistemic approach to the imaginary reality of cinematographic images). Film is able to record real processes and to reproduce them in a way that the perception of filmic images is similar to the perception of pre-cinematographic appearances. It has to be considered that relations of Before and After are not only part of pre-cinematographic time but also indicated and regulated by higher levels of filmic representation – inner structures of (social and dramatic) scenes, sequences and narrative structures. Secondly it can be seen that the phenomena of representing time in film are contrasted with the ›present of the viewer‹, building the framework for understanding the film text. The prime device of representing time in cinematographic structures is to follow the unit of time episode (the unity of action and interaction sequences, projects, and so on) and to represent only parts of real events following principles of relevance. Thus, the representation of time in film is based on the intentionality of the actions of characters in a film as well as on the intentionality of the act of communicating via film.