DOI: 10.4231/aq3n-z997
title: Cinema 1: The Movement-Image, Lecture 1, 10 November 1981

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 1: The Movement-Image&rdquo; was a 21-lecture seminar given from November 1981 to June 1982. This seminar marks the first of four consecutive seminars in which Deleuze presents his theory of film. Here, in large part through the philosophy of Henri Bergson, Deleuze rethinks film as a movement-image, as opposed to a succession of still frames or photographic images. Throughout the course he references a wide variety of filmmakers, critics, and philosophers. As a precursor to the publication of Deleuze&rsquo;s first of two volumes on cinema, &lt;em&gt;Cinema 1: The Movement-Image&lt;/em&gt; (&lt;em&gt;Cin&eacute;ma 1. L&#39;Image-Mouvement&lt;/em&gt;, 1983), this seminar is a valuable resource to researchers interested in Deleuze&rsquo;s film theory, as well as his larger philosophical oeuvre.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In the 10 November 1981 lecture, Deleuze introduces the seminar and his definition of the movement-image. Topics of consideration during this seminar will include: the work of French philosopher Henri Bergson, particularly his &lt;em&gt;Matter and Memory&lt;/em&gt;; Bergson&#39;s three theses of movement; cinema and cinematography; and the relationship between image and thought. Further topics of discussion in this first lecture include: Bergson&#39;s &lt;em&gt;Creative Evolution&lt;/em&gt; (Ch. 4); the English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead; movement and privileged positions of phenomena; the extremal point or acme of Greek tragedy; the reconstitution of movement through the dialectic of poses (or forms); the sequence of poses; the beginnings of modern science; and cinema and movement.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The new version of this dataset includes: the English translation and French transcription in Open Document Text (odt) format, an aggregate version of the audio recordings into a single mp3, and the original Paris-8 French transcription of the recorded lecture. The first version, also available, includes the translation and transcription in pdf and txt format and the audio recordings. The aggregate audio file has been downsampled.&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;L&rsquo;image-mouvement, Leҫons bergsoniennes sur le cin&eacute;ma&raquo; &eacute;tait un s&eacute;minaire de 21 conf&eacute;rences donn&eacute; de novembre 1981 &agrave; juin 1982. Ce s&eacute;minaire marque le premier de quatre s&eacute;minaires cons&eacute;cutifs dans lesquels Deleuze pr&eacute;sente sa th&eacute;orie du film. Ici, en grande partie gr&acirc;ce &agrave; la philosophie d&#39;Henri Bergson, Deleuze repense le film comme un image-mouvement, par opposition &agrave; une succession d&#39;images fixes ou d&#39;images photographiques. Tout au long du cours, il fait r&eacute;f&eacute;rence &agrave; une grande vari&eacute;t&eacute; des cin&eacute;astes, des critiques et des philosophes. En tant que pr&eacute;curseur de la publication des premiers volumes de Deleuze sur le cin&eacute;ma, &lt;em&gt;Cin&eacute;ma 1. L&#39;Image-Mouvement &lt;/em&gt;(1983), ce s&eacute;minaire est une ressource pr&eacute;cieuse pour les chercheurs int&eacute;ress&eacute;s par la th&eacute;orie du film de Deleuze, ainsi que sa plus grande &oelig;uvre philosophique.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Dans la conf&eacute;rence du 10 novembre 1981, Deleuze pr&eacute;sente le s&eacute;minaire et sa d&eacute;finition de l&#39;image-mouvement. Les sujets de r&eacute;flexion au cours de ce s&eacute;minaire comprendront: le travail du philosophe fran&ccedil;ais Henri Bergson, en particulier sa &lt;em&gt;Mati&egrave;re et M&eacute;moire&lt;/em&gt;; les trois th&egrave;ses de Bergson sur le mouvement; cin&eacute;ma et cin&eacute;matographie; et la relation entre l&#39;image et la pens&eacute;e. D&#39;autres sujets de discussion dans cette premi&egrave;re conf&eacute;rence comprennent: &lt;em&gt;L&#39;&Eacute;volution cr&eacute;atice&lt;/em&gt; de Bergson (chapitre 4); le math&eacute;maticien et philosophe anglais Alfred North Whitehead; mouvement et positions privil&eacute;gi&eacute;es sur des ph&eacute;nom&egrave;nes; le point extr&eacute;mal, ou l&rsquo;acm&egrave; de la Trag&eacute;die grecque; la reconstitution du mouvement par la dialectique des poses (ou formes); la s&eacute;quence des poses; le d&eacute;buts de la science moderne; et le cin&eacute;ma et mouvement.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 10 November 1981. This is lecture 1 of a 21-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1981 and June 1982.