Out of Time: Desire in Atemporal Cinema

by Todd McGowan

In Out of Time , Todd McGowan takes as his starting point the emergence of a temporal aesthetic in cinema that arose in response to the digital era. Linking developments in cinema to current debates within philosophy, McGowan claims that films that change the viewer’s relation to time constitute a new cinematic atemporal cinema.
 

In atemporal cinema, formal distortions of time introduce spectators to an alternative way of experiencing existence in time—or, more exactly, a way of experiencing existence out of time. McGowan draws on contemporary psychoanalysis, particularly Jacques Lacan, to argue that atemporal cinema unfolds according to the logic of the psychoanalytic notion of the drive rather than that of desire, which has conventionally been the guiding concept of psychoanalytic film studies.
 

Despite their thematic diversity, these films distort chronological time with a shared to reveal the logic of repetition. Like psychoanalysis, McGowan contends, the atemporal mode locates enjoyment in the embrace of repetition rather than in the search for the new and different.

Genres: Nonfiction, Theory, Film, Philosophy

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Todd McGowan is Associate Professor of Film at the University of Vermont, US. He is the author of The Fictional Christopher Nolan (2012), Out of Time: Desire in Atemporal Cinema (2011), The Impossible David Lynch (2007), The Real Gaze: Film Theory After Lacan (2007), and other books.

Reviews

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Might just completely change the way you approach nonlinear storytelling.

[Colin Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I don’t remember when, my notes and annotations suggest I read this book once before, but I clearly neglected to write about it. With that said, it was intriguing to return to Out of Time. So much of what McGowan theorized in the past decade resonates here, even though Out of Time is, strictly speaking, a film theory text. For example, in the introduction, McGowan articulates this book’s theoretical wager by writing, “No amount of time frees the subject from…repetition. But constitutive loss is not just the source of trauma; it is also the source of understanding and connection” (19). Here, McGowan gestures toward a key psychoanalytic insight, namely the animated and, as counter-intuitive as it sounds, liberating power of lack embodied by the psychoanalytic drive. But as each chapter suggests, most contemporary cinema refuses to acknowledge lack and repetition’s liberating contours. Instead, most cinema offers a progressive, non-repetitive temporal form. McGowan writes, “The contemporary atemporal movement in cinema departs from the traditional logic of desire that dominates both cinema and capitalist society, and it adheres to the logic of the drive, in which satisfaction is located in the repetition of a failed encounter with the object rather than in its successful attainment” (32). Through its formal conceit, atemporal cinema refuses to offer what traditional cinema offers: the promise of a non-lacking restoration, which is to say, a whole and complete subject.

Atemporal cinema’s reorientation of cinematic temporality profoundly affects cinema as an ideological mechanism. As McGowan suggests, “A new ethics of the cinema is visible in the turn away from time” (33). By rejecting traditional notions of cinematic time, we see the ways in which cinema operates ideologically. In a move that feels distinctly Brechtian, McGowan suggests that atemporal cinema has the capacity to awaken the uninitiated viewer by introducing or enhancing class consciousness.

For anyone interested in reading this book without reading the entire thing, I recommend the introduction, the early chapter on Pulp Fiction, and the chapter on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which is, for my money, one of the best chapters in any McGowan book.

[Matthew Gaughan · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Out of Time: Desire in Atemporal Cinema" is an informational novel on the implications cinema with non-linear narration has on Lacanian psychoanalysis. Lacanian psychoanalysis is more philosophical than scientific and differs greatly from Freudian psychoanalysis (thankfully) in this sense. The central tenet of Lacanian psychoanalysis is that as a result of the fact that human's think in terms of language and signs we are unable to comprehend our true being (what reality looks like beyond the comprehension of our mind, this is denoted as the register of the real), and thus have what is called a "Lack." This Lack forms the root cause of all desire because humans desire to be "whole" (understand our reality) and thus desire to fulfill the Lack, except that fulfillment is impossible because of the way humans think. We perceive reality through signs which is a tautological way to view the world because we define certain signs based off of other signs. Our desire fails to ever succeed in making us feel "whole" and instead creates tension because fulfilling desire would require a destruction of the way we perceive the world. In "Out of Time," Todd McGowan says that atemporal cinema offers the possibility of overcoming the need to constantly desire because it contrasts from linear temporality which maintains desire. Linear temporality offers a future in which it is possible to fulfill desire, despite the fact that this is impossible, because it makes it seem as through "progress" is always forward. To think in a more atemporal sense would allow for one to accept that there will always be limiting factors to ever reaching the real, and thus allows for genuine enjoyment of life.
Although I enjoyed "Out of Time," I found it dry at points. It wasn't as good as "The Fictional Christopher Nolan," although it was much more informational and made psychoanalysis more comprehensible. The distinction between the two books was probably that "The Fictional Christopher Nolan" focused more on the cinema and their themes, whereas "Out of Time" was centered more around psychoanalysis. However, it was still enjoyable to read Todd McGowan's interpretations of Pulp Fiction, Memento, and 21 Grams.

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding film analysis based on Freud's theory of the drive. I read it because it specifically looks at films that don't have a straight-forward chronology (Pulp Fiction, 2046, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, etc) and discusses how that atemporal approach emphasizes a Freudian drive within the narrative. Best film theory book I've read in years - got me the same kind of invigorated as the first time I read Zizek. Highly recommended.