Alfred Hitchcock’s Bomb theory, an analogy for difference between surprise and suspense, comes to my mind while reading about the relevance of ‘real time’ vs ‘reel time’ in Andy Warhol’s ‘Empire’. Much like the ticking of a bomb, ‘empire’ builds suspense over the period of 8 hours however chooses not to surprise the audience as Warhol adapts a zero degree cinematic perspective. The transformation from daytime to night-time along with subtle changes in atmosphere show how the urban environment and architecture itself is the suspense of the rhythmic filmic experience. The mundane real and the fantastical cinema reflect onto each other as the rhythmic clock in a movie impacts the personal clock of the viewer. The audience in the cinema gets transported to another realm implying that architecture in cinema is the space and the time.
Shreeya Lalit Shrimali 3035842184
I appreciate how you brought in Hitchcock’s Bomb theory to further explore real time and reel time in Empire. Interestingly, while Empire does not ‘surprise’ during the film, the film itself perhaps comes as a surprise to viewers who hold certain expectations of what films are usually like.