DOI: 10.4231/znny-6n03
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 14, 15 March 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;Instead of addressing Pascal&rsquo;s text on the wager, Deleuze opens with a question-answer period which finally encompasses the entire session. The first part develops Pascal Auger&rsquo;s question, about how the classifications correspond to experimental cinema, to which Deleuze again links Kurosawa&rsquo;s cinema (with additional comments from Georges Comtesse). Deleuze returns then to the table of classifications to define indirect figures of time that can be derived from movement-images and that will be produced via montage through an aggregate of movement-images. Deleuze&rsquo;s review of the philosophical history of time and the measure of movement in the Greeks leads him to suggest how these considerations are located in celestial movements and the astronomical eternal return. However, from the session&rsquo;s mid-point forward, Deleuze is increasingly challenged by several students: by a first student on this astronomical model; then, on Descartes by Georges Comtesse; then, by the first student objecting to Deleuze&rsquo;s response to Comtesse. Following these exchanges, Deleuze responds substantively by introducing the &ldquo;instant&rdquo; as a here-now element of time in relation to the interval of movement, thereby distinguishing an interval between two presents, a present defined through the interval and the instant defined as a limit. Alas, Deleuze seems overwhelmed by the cascade of objections and sums things up in his final voice-off comment, &ldquo;they were really nasty today&rdquo;.&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. [Note: The transcription for the first audio file is missing at Paris 8; it has been newly transcribed for the Deleuze Seminars]&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;Au lieu d&rsquo;aborder le texte de Pascal sur le pari, Deleuze ouvre la s&eacute;ance par une p&eacute;riode de questions-r&eacute;ponses qui englobe finalement toute la s&eacute;ance. La premi&egrave;re partie d&eacute;veloppe la question de Pascal Auger sur la fa&ccedil;on dont les classifications correspondent au cin&eacute;ma exp&eacute;rimental, auquel Deleuze relie &agrave; nouveau le cin&eacute;ma de Kurosawa (avec des commentaires suppl&eacute;mentaires de Georges Comtesse). Deleuze revient ensuite au tableau des classifications pour d&eacute;finir des figures indirectes du temps qui peuvent &ecirc;tre d&eacute;riv&eacute;es des images-mouvement et qui seront produites par le montage &agrave; travers un agr&eacute;gat d&rsquo;images-mouvement. La mise en place de Deleuze de l&rsquo;histoire philosophique du temps et de la mesure du mouvement chez les Grecs l&rsquo;am&egrave;ne &agrave; sugg&eacute;rer comment ces consid&eacute;rations se situent dans les mouvements c&eacute;lestes et l&rsquo;&eacute;ternel retour astronomique. Cependant, &agrave; partir du milieu de la s&eacute;ance, Deleuze est de plus en plus contest&eacute; par plusieurs &eacute;tudiants : par un premier &eacute;tudiant sur ce mod&egrave;le astronomique ; puis, sur Descartes par Georges Comtesse ; puis, par le premier &eacute;tudiant qui s&rsquo;oppose &agrave; la r&eacute;ponse de Deleuze &agrave; Comtesse. Suite &agrave; ces &eacute;changes, Deleuze r&eacute;pond de mani&egrave;re substantielle en introduisant l&rsquo;&laquo; instant &raquo; comme &eacute;l&eacute;ment de temps ici-maintenant par rapport &agrave; l&rsquo;intervalle de mouvement, distinguant ainsi un intervalle entre deux pr&eacute;sents, un pr&eacute;sent d&eacute;fini par l&rsquo;intervalle et l&rsquo;instant d&eacute;fini comme une limite. H&eacute;las, Deleuze semble d&eacute;pass&eacute; par la cascade d&rsquo;objections et r&eacute;sume les choses dans son commentaire final en voix off : &laquo; ils ont &eacute;t&eacute; vraiment m&eacute;chants aujourd&rsquo;hui &raquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 15 March 1983. This is lecture 14 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.