Temporality and boredom in The Turin Horse, by Béla Tarr: an ontological approach

Abstract

This article seeks to develop ontological inquiries regarding boredom, understood as a fundamental attunement (Grundstimmung) of our epoch and its intrinsic relation to the temporality (Zeitlichkeit) of existence. This work will be carried out through a dialogue between the thought of Martin Heidegger, particularly within the scope of his winter semester lecture course of 1929–30, entitled The Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World – Finitude – Solitude, and the film The Turin Horse (2011), by Béla Tarr. It is defended the thesis that both works think through the same phenomena in distinct languages, thus enabling, when brought into relation, an expansion of the scope of our philosophical investigation through an affective and intellectual engagement with the theme. We should note that, in order to set our filmic hermeneutics in motion and fulfil the aforementioned purpose, the article will be divided into three parts: 1) Preliminary considerations on the filmic world (Welt) of The Turin Horse; 2) On the way to profound boredom: from the most superficial to the abysmal; and 3) Profound boredom in The Turin Horse: from the characters’ failures to the challenge posed to the viewer immersed in the cinematic world. By the end of this path, we hope to have achieved both a satisfactory ontological understanding of boredom and a demonstration of the philosophical potentialities of cinema through the exemplary case of The Turin Horse.