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strengthening viewers' alignment with Port's passive position.
The film's use of slow paced sequences - based on long takes and minimal montage -
is extensive, and this device alters the way a narrative event is experienced. Grodal outlines
how 'temporal slowdown relocates the experience of the same images from an exterior to an
interior space', which he terms the 'body-mind location* (Grodal, 1997: 130). Through this
process, termed 'introjection'. the viewer's evaluation of narrative events shifts from an
exterior space to a body-mind location so that physical phenomena are felt as mental states.
As an example Grodal indicates the dark, wet streets in film noir that are experienced not as
real but as representing mental states (Grodal 1997: 130). In The Sheltering Sky this process
occurs in several sequences featuring Port, one of which conveys his spatial disorientation in
an unknown city as dusk falls, while another portrays his encounter with a prostitute in the
spatially indistinct environment of her tent, a dreamlike effect being created by glowing red
light sources and the use of slow motion.
A similar effect occurs when Port is in a state of delirium, lying on a stone platform;
whether this is an interior or exterior shot remains unclear. He is encircled by musicians
playing raucous music; the camera switches from a low angle representing Port's often
blurred POV, to a straight-on angle not attributable to any diegetic character, a view
restricting the viewer's perception of the space. Panning further left, the camera repeatedly
frames a group of shepherds sitting with their sheep at their feet, observing the scene with
silent detachment. The limited spatial perspectives, the bizarre frame compositions and the
loud music all cue a nightmarish numbness to enhance Port's subjective viewpoint which is
shared by viewers. The relentless African rhythms on the film's soundtrack during these
sequences also evoke an otherworldly condition, a sensation which enables the scenes to be
perceived as mental states rather than as real events. Therefore, while these sequences are
emotionally keyed to Port's perspective, the lengthy takes and indistinct, unfamiliar
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