May 28, 1985

So, where have we reached in our detailed analyses? Well, this phenomenon which seemed fundamental to us, but which seems fundamental to many critics … namely the disjunction of the visual and sound. And this disjunction, it seemed to us to take a very precise form that … we had called: heautonomy, let’s say autonomy, so as not to adopt a more complicated word, but we were creating a difference — I no longer need to do it; you do it yourself — heautonomy or autonomy of the two images, the sound image and the visual image. And we had devoted quite some time to this, notably: under what conditions can we speak of a sound image? … And I am selecting three basic examples to outline this heautonomy.

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

Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, Sicilia, 1998

With the seminar’s two final sessions destined for students’ questions, Deleuze continues considering what he calls the disjunction between the visual and sound image and gives three examples of the sound-visual “heautonomy” (cf. Marguerite Duras, the Straubs, and Syberberg) describing the kinds of layering that occurs within certain films and between films, also the kind of broken circuit evident in the films’ irrational cuts. Emphasizing some commonalities between these filmmakers’ works, Deleuze emphasizes their differences, notably in speech acts, in the visual image, and in the sound-visual relationship. Deleuze also discusses issues of lighting in the Straubs’ films with Raymonde Carasco and Dominique Villain, and then as announced earlier, he suspends the cinema discussion to discuss Blanchot’s essay “Speaking is not seeing” [“Parler, ce n’est pas voir”] [cf. The Infinite Conversation] to consider the unspeakable (indicible), the speech act attaining the limit of speech, corresponding to the act of resistance for the Straubs, the act of love for Duras. Deleuze through Blanchot contrasts the daily experience of sight, “vision”, with the superior experience of “voyance” (illuminated vision), the visual at its limit. Finally, after posing the basic question “is an image of thought to be expected from cinema, and if so, what kind?”, he reviews characteristics of the image of thought corresponding to the earlier period, contrasting four characteristics of the modern era and then provides a list of filmmakers with the kind of limits that they attain. Deleuze closes by requesting questions from students for the next sessions, concluding with particular finality by affirming, “I believe I’ve finished everything I had to say about cinema, so there you have it, I’m done with cinema”. [Much of the development corresponds to The Time-Image, chapter 10.]

Gilles Deleuze

Seminar on Cinema and Thought, 1984-1985

Lecture 24, 28 May 1985 (Cinema Course 90)

Transcription: La voix de Deleuze, Camille Duquesne (Part 1), Pauline Grenier (Part 2) and Magali Manzano (Part 3); additional revisions to the transcription and time stamp, Charles J. Stivale

English Translation Forthcoming

Notes

For archival purposes, the augmented version of the complete transcription with time stamp was completed in October 2021. Additional revisions were added in February 2024.

Lectures in this Seminar

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Reading Date: May 28, 1985
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