Cinema and Thought / 18

April 16, 1985

Let’s try to see more clearly, namely, we pose the question: what does the speaking component “make” us see? See, we have two questions. It’s precisely, first question: how does the speaking component make us see something in the visual image? Second question: in what way does the visual image henceforth tend to become readable insofar as being visual? To me, the two questions seem clear — they may be false, they may be incorrectly stated, it will be up to you to say — … The answer would be … that the silent image, as we have seen, the image “seen” in the silent film, was composed, was a naturalized image, that is, one that presented structures, situations, actions and reactions to us. What is the hearing component going to show us in the visual image? It’s what we must call: interactions, interactions insofar as being interaction — interaction between visible things: the speech act, insofar as being heard, would make us see interactions, while the silent image was doomed to make us see only actions and reactions. This is at least one answer: what does the speech act make me see in the visual image? Answer: it makes us see interactions.

Seminar Introduction

As he starts the fourth year of his reflections on relations between cinema and philosophy, Deleuze explains that the method of thought has two aspects, temporal and spatial, presupposing an implicit image of thought, one that is variable, with history. He proposes the chronotope, as space-time, as the implicit image of thought, one riddled with philosophical cries, and that the problematic of this fourth seminar on cinema will be precisely the theme of “what is philosophy?’, undertaken from the perspective of this encounter between the image of thought and the cinematographic image.

For archival purposes, the English translations are based on the original transcripts from Paris 8, all of which have been revised with reference to the BNF recordings available thanks to Hidenobu Suzuki, and with the generous assistance of Marc Haas.

English Translation

Edited

F.W. Murnau’s The Last Man (aka The Last Laugh), 1924

[Please note that the order presented here of the 16 April 1985 session transcript varies significantly from the transcripts on the Web Deleuze and Paris 8 sites where the version posted reverses sections 1 and 2. The version’s order here is transposed to follow the recording: part 1 now starts after Easter break (and contains the awkward intervention by a student), ending on the topic of “le parlant”; part 2 starts on “le parlant” and ends on discussion of Simmel; part 3 starts with discussion of Simmel and ends with Deleuze dismissing class.]

 

One of the most peculiar of any session finds Deleuze contending with an intrusive female student who engages in a confrontational and quasi-amorous dialogue with Deleuze. Then he reviews many key points discussed before Easter break (cf. The Time-Image, chapter 9 part 1), proceeding again through the “seen” and “read” aspects of silent films. Then, asking what occurs when speech is no longer read but heard, Deleuze anticipates future discussion of post-World War II cinema by reflecting on television’s impact on filmmakers as their work becomes audiovisual. Considering speech and, more specifically, the speech act, as an auditory element as well as visual, Deleuze suggest that spoken components cause one to see something visual and how the visual image renders itself readable, a “something” Deleuze calls “interactions”. He returns to Benveniste’s use of “shifters”, undertaking an analysis of Lang’s “M” and identifying the movement of speech acts as a kind of wave form, the propagation or opposition or innovation of “waves of belief and desire”, with the interactions occurring within the wave movements in “M”. Deleuze closes with the themes of collaboration and degradation as interactive modes, comparing silent films (“Strike”, “The Last Man”) and first phase speaking films (“M”, “The Blue Angel”). Insisting that the speech act causes an interaction to be seen in the visual image, Deleuze concludes by establishing aspects of the auditory relationship with the image, at once visible and readable, as a focus for most of the remaining sessions.

 

Download

dl_fr Lecture in French (PDF)

Gilles Deleuze

Seminar on Cinema and Thought, 1984-1985

Lecture 18, 16 April 1985 (Cinema Course 84)

Transcription: La voix de Deleuze, Anselme Chapoy-Favier (Part 1), Sara Fadabini (Part 2), and Mauricio Martorell (Part 3); additional revisions to the transcription and time stamp, Charles J. Stivale

English Translation Forthcoming

 

Notes

For archival purposes, given the disorder of the three sections on previously available versions of this session (at Web Deleuze and Paris 8), we transposed the transcription to correspond to the actual recording in June 2020. The augmented version of the complete transcription with time stamp was completed in September 2021. Additional revisions were added in February 2024.

Lectures in this Seminar

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Cinema and Thought / 01
Reading Date: October 30, 1984
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Cinema and Thought / 02
Reading Date: November 6, 1984
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Cinema and Thought / 03
Reading Date: November 13, 1984
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Cinema and Thought / 04
Reading Date: November 20, 1984
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Cinema and Thought / 05
Reading Date: November 27, 1984
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Cinema and Thought / 06
Reading Date: December 11, 1984
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Cinema and Thought / 07
Reading Date: December 18, 1984
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Cinema and Thought / 08
Reading Date: January 8, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 09
Reading Date: January 15, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 10
Reading Date: January 22, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 11
Reading Date: January 29, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 12
Reading Date: February 5, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 13
Reading Date: February 26, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 14
Reading Date: March 5, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 15
Reading Date: March 12, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 16
Reading Date: March 19, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 17
Reading Date: March 26, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 18
Reading Date: April 16, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 19
Reading Date: April 23, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 20
Reading Date: April 30, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 21
Reading Date: May 7, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 22
Reading Date: May 14, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 23
Reading Date: May 21, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 24
Reading Date: May 28, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 25
Reading Date: June 4, 1985
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Cinema and Thought / 26
Reading Date: June 18, 1985
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