DOI: 10.4231/myrn-fm49
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 16, 12 April 1983

description: &lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;The Deleuze Seminars&lt;/em&gt; is a collection of audio recordings, transcriptions, and English translations of, and supplemental materials from, the lectures French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave during his career at the University of Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&ldquo;Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time&rdquo; was a 23-lecture seminar given from November 1982 to June 1983. This seminar revisits many of the main themes from the previous year&rsquo;s seminar (&quot;Cinema 1: The Movement-Image&quot;), and Deleuze commences the year by explaining that whereas he usually changes topics from one year to the next, he feels compelled to continue with the current topic and, in fact, to undertake a process of &ldquo;philosophy in the manner of cows, rumination&hellip; I want entirely and truly to repeat myself, to start over by repeating myself.&rdquo; Hence, the 1982-83 Seminar consists in once again taking up Bergson&rsquo;s theses on perception, but now with greater emphasis on the aspects of classification of images and signs drawn from C.S. Peirce. This allows Deleuze to continue the shift from considering the movement-image, that dominated early 20th century cinema, toward a greater understanding of the post-World War II emphasis on the time-image.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Continuing to shift toward establishing foundations of the time-image, Deleuze first summarizes previous key points, and distinguishing the cinema image from the photo image, Deleuze likens the latter to a &ldquo;luminous mold&rdquo; (form imposed on matter), the former (with reference to Simondon) to a temporal molding of light, or &ldquo;modulation&rdquo;. Here Deleuze poses the problem for the rest of the seminar: what are the conditions necessary for deriving direct time-images? The &ldquo;chronosign&rdquo; leads the alternate sign system, with the &ldquo;cinechrony&rdquo; as a first indirect figure of time obtained through composition of movement-images, with two facets, the &ldquo;interval&rdquo; and the &ldquo;immense&rdquo; (time taken as a whole of past-future), and &ldquo;chronochrony&rdquo; as a second indirect figure, called images of time through composition of &ldquo;modulation-images&rdquo; or intensive movement, with its own signs (time as &ldquo;order&rdquo; and time as &ldquo;instant&rdquo;) corresponding, to Kant&rsquo;s &ldquo;dynamic sublime&rdquo;. Development of this Kantian concept occupies the rest of the session, but Deleuze returns to Gance&rsquo;s cinema of the mathematical sublime, yet also emphasizing the expression of the dynamic sublime in his texts and linking the former to the soul of movement and the latter to the soul of light, thus to the intersection of future and past. By reintroducing the perspectives of Jakob B&ouml;hme on soul and light, Deleuze develops four steps of this crucial intersection for the intensive movement of time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset includes: the complete French transcription and English translation in Open Document (odt) format, and the original Paris 8 French transcript. The mp3 recording for this session is currently unavailable.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;--&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Les S&eacute;minaires de Deleuze&lt;/em&gt; sont une collection d&#39;enregistrements audio, de transcriptions et de traductions en anglais et de documents compl&eacute;mentaires des conf&eacute;rences que le philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Gilles Deleuze a donn&eacute; lors de sa carri&egrave;re &agrave; l&#39;Universit&eacute; de Paris 8.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&laquo; Cin&eacute;ma: de la classification des signes et le temps &raquo; a &eacute;t&eacute; un s&eacute;minaire de 23 conf&eacute;rences donn&eacute; de novembre 1982 &agrave; juin 1983. Ce s&eacute;minaire a repris certains des th&egrave;mes principaux du s&eacute;minaire de l&#39;ann&eacute;e pr&eacute;c&eacute;dente (&laquo; L&rsquo;image-mouvement, Leҫons bergsoniennes sur le cin&eacute;ma &raquo;), et en offre d&#39;autres consid&eacute;rations. Dans ces conf&eacute;rences, Deleuze examine le cin&eacute;ma et la philosophie bergsonienne vis-&agrave;-vis d&#39;une gamme de philosophes, des modernes aux existentialistes. Deleuze discute &eacute;galement de nombreux artistes et &eacute;crivains qui apparaissent dans les autres s&eacute;minaires sue le cin&eacute;ma.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Tout en poursuivant son cheminement vers l&rsquo;&eacute;tablissement des fondements de l&rsquo;image-temps, Deleuze r&eacute;sume d&rsquo;abord les points cl&eacute;s pr&eacute;c&eacute;dents et, distinguant l&rsquo;image cin&eacute;matographique de l&rsquo;image photographique, il compare cette derni&egrave;re &agrave; un &laquo; moule lumineux &raquo; (forme impos&eacute;e &agrave; la mati&egrave;re), tandis que  la premi&egrave;re (en r&eacute;f&eacute;rence &agrave; Simondon) se lie &agrave; un moulage temporel de la lumi&egrave;re, ou &laquo; modulation &raquo;. Deleuze pose ici le probl&egrave;me pour le reste du s&eacute;minaire : quelles sont les conditions n&eacute;cessaires pour d&eacute;river des images-temps directes ? Le &laquo; chronosigne &raquo; m&egrave;ne au syst&egrave;me de signes alternatif, avec la &laquo; cin&eacute;chronie &raquo; comme premi&egrave;re figure indirecte du temps obtenue par composition d&rsquo;images-mouvement, avec deux facettes, l&rsquo;&laquo; intervalle &raquo; et l&rsquo;&laquo; immense &raquo; (le temps pris comme un tout pass&eacute;-futur), et la &laquo; chronochronie &raquo; comme seconde figure indirecte, appel&eacute;e images du temps par composition d&rsquo;&laquo; images-modulation &raquo; ou mouvement intensif, avec ses propres signes (le temps comme &laquo; ordre &raquo; et le temps comme &laquo; instant &raquo;) correspondant au &laquo; sublime dynamique &raquo; de Kant. Le d&eacute;veloppement de ce concept kantien occupe le reste de la s&eacute;ance, mais Deleuze revient au cin&eacute;ma du sublime math&eacute;matique de Gance, tout en soulignant l&rsquo;expression du sublime dynamique dans ses textes et en reliant le premier &agrave; l&rsquo;&acirc;me du mouvement et le second &agrave; l&rsquo;&acirc;me de la lumi&egrave;re, donc &agrave; l&rsquo;intersection du futur et du pass&eacute;. En r&eacute;introduisant les perspectives de Jakob B&ouml;hme sur l&rsquo;&acirc;me et la lumi&egrave;re, Deleuze d&eacute;veloppe quatre &eacute;tapes de cette intersection cruciale pour le mouvement intense du temps.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 12 April 1983. This is lecture 16 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.