New Queer Cinematography

Within Van Sant's film, My Own Private Idaho, I believe that there is a unique element of cinematography present that could clearly be outlined as a defining aspect of New Queer Cinema. The usage of the cinematic filming technique of quasi stop motion throughout the film is something that I believe to be a defining element of new queer movies from that time period. That specific technique was a very new concept at the time and once cinematographers started using it, it grew very popular, but only for that short period of time in which the genre lasted. The stop motion filming concept was used most noticeably in the movie's sex scenes, in which still frame images of various sexual acts were shown almost artistically and had an austerely beautiful nature to it. This technique of displaying the sex scenes made it feel like you were skimming through a 90's erotica magazine or porn magazine photo story. Stated in Adnum's article, the stop motion technique of the sex scenes was “one of the most beautifully nuanced depictions of naked desire ever captured on film.” The technique was also applied in the imagery where there would be sudden spontaneous cuts to scenes of wooden houses whirling around in the air and crashing suddenly as a metaphor for Mike's childhood. I believe that this technique concept could certainly read under the New Queer Cinema association as an underlying aspect for that era of cinema.