DOI: 10.4231/gc9g-rk70
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 3, 30 November 1982

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;Before approaching Peirce&rsquo;s classifications, Deleuze reflects on Bergson&rsquo;s development of his conception of movement, plane of immanence and blocs of space-time, laying the groundwork for his much-desired classification of signs and images. Using several illustrations (cf. &lt;em&gt;The Movement-Image&lt;/em&gt; p. 228), Deleuze defines four types of images and, in the process, develops the context for returning to the detailed analysis of Beckett&rsquo;s &ldquo;Film&rdquo;. In this light, Deleuze concludes that a fifth type of image exists, the indirect time-image, and also a possible sixth type, the direct time-image, the latter being the ultimate goal for the current seminar.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset includes an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, the complete French transcription and English translation in Open Document (odt) format, and the original Paris 8 French transcript.&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;Avant d&rsquo;aborder les classifications de Peirce, Deleuze revient sur le d&eacute;veloppement par Bergson de sa conception du mouvement, du plan d&rsquo;immanence et des blocs d&rsquo;espace-temps, jetant ainsi les bases de sa classification tant souhait&eacute;e des signes et des images. &Agrave; l&rsquo;aide de plusieurs illustrations (cf. &lt;em&gt;L&rsquo;Image-mouvement&lt;/em&gt;), Deleuze d&eacute;finit quatre types d&rsquo;images et, ce faisant, d&eacute;veloppe le contexte pour revenir &agrave; l&rsquo;analyse d&eacute;taill&eacute;e du &laquo; Film &raquo; de Beckett. Dans cette optique, Deleuze conclut &agrave; l&rsquo;existence d&rsquo;un cinqui&egrave;me type d&rsquo;image, l&rsquo;image-temps indirecte, et &eacute;galement d&rsquo;un sixi&egrave;me type possible, l&rsquo;image-temps directe, cette derni&egrave;re &eacute;tant le but ultime du pr&eacute;sent s&eacute;minaire.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 30 November 1982. This is lecture 3 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.