Att stanna i ögonblicket. En fenomenologisk analys av poetisk närvaro i Paterson och Lost in Translation

Abstract

This thesis examines how cinematic slowness, everyday temporality, and sensory perception shape experiences of intimacy and alienation in Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson (2016) and Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003). Drawing on a phenomenological methodology, the study focuses on how film form invites the spectator into a shared, embodied experience rather than conveying meaning primarily through narrative progression. The analysis is structured around three thematic areas: temporality and rythm, spatial perception and moments of poetic suspension. Through close readings of selected scenes, the thesis explores how routine, stillness and duration function as aesthetic strategies that foreground lived experience. The films attention to mundane actions, transitional spaces, and affective pauses allows time to be felt rather than merely measured, aligning with key characteristics of slow cinema. The theoretical framework is informed by phenomenological film theory, particularly Vivian Sobchack’s conception of cinema as an embodied and sensory medium, as wells scholarship on slow cinema and contemplative film practices. By comparing the films use of everyday environments and restrained formal expression, the thesis argues that Paterson and Lost in Translation articulate a shared cinematic ethics of attention, where meaning emerges through perception, presence and attunement to the ordinary. Ultimately, the study suggest that these films create spaces for reflection in which emotional connection is not resolved through action or dialogue, but through the spectator’s sustained engagement with time, space and sensation.