Deleuze’s Movement, Duration, and Becoming Blocks in New Turkish Cinema: The Aesthetics of Time and Visual Narrative

Abstract

Based on Gilles Deleuze's theory of cinema, this study analyzes how blocks of movement, duration and becoming are shaped in New Turkish cinema. Deleuze argues that cinema is not only a narrative medium, but also an audiovisual form of thought; he considers cinema as a form of thought through the blocks of movement and duration and the concept of becoming. Since the 1990s, New Turkish cinema has moved away from classical narrative structures and developed aesthetic and narrative choices that focus on individual and social transformations. In this study, the films Kerr (Kerr, 2021, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu), Karanlık Gece (Black Night, 2022, Özcan Alper), Kurak Günler (Burning Days, 2022, Emin Alper), Hayat (Life, 2023, Zeki Demirkubuz), and Kuru Otlar Üstüne (About Dry Grasses, 2023, Nuri Bilge Ceylan)  are analyzed in the context of Deleuze's blocks of movement, duration and becoming. The research aims to reveal how the narrative transformations in Turkish cinema can be interpreted in the light of Deleuze's philosophy of cinema. According to the findings of the research, these films belonging to the artistic wing of the New Turkish cinema reveal the power of cinema's intellectual transformation through characters who go beyond fixed identities. Deleuze's concepts on cinematic images are shaped in these films as multi-layered structures that deepen the inner changes of the characters and the viewer's intellectual participation.