Doing Time: Timeliness and Temporal Rhetorics in Contemporary Cinema

This dissertation examines rhetorics of time in contemporary cinema, outlining the ways that recent films constitute temporal experience for viewers. Focusing on four filmic case studies, this project analyzes the unique matrix of formal techniques that each deploys to orchestrate an unfolding sense of time in film viewing. The productions in question span the post-classical era from the 1960s to the present, drawing from both American and international film contexts. Specifically, this dissertation produces detailed accounts of The Limey (Steven Soderbrrgh, 1999, USA); Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966, USA); 5x2 (Francois Ozon, 2004, France); and What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang, 2001, Taiwan). On the basis of these analyses, I identify four distinct modes of cinematic time (defamiliarized time rationalized time; temporal reversal; temporal duration) to show how each invites us to reflect upon the nature of temporal experience in the contemporary context.