DOI: 10.4231/1570-1781
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 22, 31 May 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;Still discussing the &ldquo;mysteriously religious aspect&rdquo; of philosophers of alternative thinking or choice, Deleuze first considers different shades of alternation within Dreyer&rsquo;s and Bressons&rsquo;s films, i.e., &ldquo;men of white&rdquo; (the &ldquo;pious&rdquo; according to Pascal); &ldquo;men of gray&rdquo; (the uncertain, not choosing); &ldquo;men of black&rdquo; (opting for evil); &ldquo;men of true choice&rdquo; (those who choose); and &ldquo;the ass&rdquo; (incapable of choosing). Shifting from choice to action, these thinkers and artists jumped to alternatives of modes of existence, and with true choice establishing a relation with God, Deleuze here evokes a Russian philosopher, Lev Shestov who, like Kierkegaard, established the opposition of two types of thinking, public versus private (e.g., Job and Abraham in their private relationship with God). With this choice rendering an &ldquo;in-between&rdquo; (&lt;em&gt;entre-deux&lt;/em&gt;), neither incertitude nor hesitation, Deleuze points to the &ldquo;women&rsquo;s trilogy&rdquo; in Dreyer (&ldquo;Ordet&rdquo;, &ldquo;Day of Wrath&rdquo;, &ldquo;Gertrud&rdquo;), then turns to Charles P&eacute;guy for his links to Bergson as the latter&rsquo;s disciple. P&eacute;guy&rsquo;s writing concern at once the problem of faith and the aesthetic problem, notably a stylistics of repetition (cf. &lt;em&gt;Clio&lt;/em&gt;). P&eacute;guy&rsquo;s Bergonism corresponds in Deleuze&rsquo;s reading to previous discussions of the dual aspects of the event, its actualization and its potentialization, corresponding to the Bergsonian dual components of duration which provide a long-awaited encounter with the direct image of time.&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. [Please note: the two parts of the Paris 8 recordings have been mislabeled and hence the aggregate recording starts with part 2, approx. 56&quot;, followed by part 1]&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;Toujours en parlant de &laquo; l&rsquo;aspect myst&eacute;rieusement religieux &raquo; des philosophes de la pens&eacute;e alternative ou du choix, Deleuze consid&egrave;re d&rsquo;abord diff&eacute;rentes nuances d&rsquo;alternance dans les films de Dreyer et de Bresson. Passant du choix &agrave; l&rsquo;action, ces penseurs et artistes sautent sur des alternatives de modes d&rsquo;existence, et le vrai choix &eacute;tablissant une relation avec Dieu, Deleuze &eacute;voque ici un philosophe russe, Lev Chestov qui, comme Kierkegaard, a &eacute;tabli l&rsquo;opposition de deux types de pens&eacute;e, publique et priv&eacute;e (par exemple, Job et Abraham dans leur relation priv&eacute;e avec Dieu). Avec ce choix de rendre un &laquo; entre-deux &raquo;, ni incertitude ni h&eacute;sitation, Deleuze souligne la &laquo; trilogie des femmes &raquo; chez Dreyer (&laquo; Ordet &raquo;, &laquo; Jour de col&egrave;re &raquo;, &laquo; Gertrude &raquo;), puis se tourne vers Charles P&eacute;guy pour ses liens avec Bergson en tant que disciple de ce dernier. L&rsquo;&eacute;criture de P&eacute;guy concerne &agrave; la fois le probl&egrave;me de la foi et le probl&egrave;me esth&eacute;tique, notamment une stylistique de la r&eacute;p&eacute;tition (cf. &lt;em&gt;Clio&lt;/em&gt;). Le bergonisme de P&eacute;guy correspond dans la lecture de Deleuze aux discussions ant&eacute;rieures sur les aspects duaux de l&rsquo;&eacute;v&eacute;nement, son actualisation et sa potentialisation, correspondant aux composantes doubles bergsoniennes de la dur&eacute;e qui offrent une rencontre tant attendue avec l&rsquo;image directe du temps.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 31 May 1983. This is lecture 22 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.