At work, at school, on the T, even at home: Nobody is paying attention.
Our relationship with arts and culture is no exception. Fewer Americans are reading books; songwriters are responding to social media with shorter, catchier hooks; and even film students are less likely to watch movies, according to their professors.
And yet: One hundred and forty people showed up at the Harvard Film Archive one recent Saturday afternoon for a sold-out screening of “Sátántangó” — not just any great film, an extremely long one, demanding of an audience a very un-21st-century attention span. Released in 1994, Béla Tarr’s black-and-white behemoth of “slow cinema” clocks in at 439 minutes, nearly 7½ hours.
For a certain kind of moviegoer, a welcome challenge.
“I kind of love [watching] films in the contemporary age, because very few things require that much attention,” said Stephanie Tuerk, a Somerville resident.
