DOI: 10.4231/natc-dk42
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 10, 1 February 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;Remaining with the first version of the action-image &ldquo;large form&rdquo;, Deleuze to defines this action-image&rsquo;s signs of composition (synsign and binomial) and the sign of genesis (the impression) Deleuze examines how the gap between the composition signs is bridged to provide the satisfactory mutation corresponding to the impregnation (or impression) of power within the hero who then detonates that energy into action. Deleuze then approaches the second form of the action-image, characterized as an action that unveils a situation not yet revealed, with signs of composition (the two kinds of index) and the sign of genesis (the vector). Deleuze derives examples of different manifestations of this &ldquo;small form&rdquo; from Lubitsch (&ldquo;Design for Living&rdquo;), Chaplin (the Charlot series), Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, with Werner Herzog&rsquo;s revealing the connection of both types of action-image forms. Deleuze will complete the classification following winter break.&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;Deleuze, qui reste sur la premi&egrave;re version de la &laquo; grande forme &raquo; de l&rsquo;image-action, d&eacute;finit les signes de composition de cette image-action (le synsigne et le bin&ocirc;me) et le signe de gen&egrave;se (l&rsquo;empreinte). Deleuze examine comment l&rsquo;&eacute;cart entre les signes de composition est combl&eacute; pour fournir la mutation satisfaisante qui correspond &agrave; l&rsquo;impr&eacute;gnation (ou &lsquo;empreinte) de pouvoir chez le h&eacute;ros qui fait ensuite exploser cette &eacute;nergie en action. Deleuze aborde ensuite la deuxi&egrave;me forme de l&rsquo;image-action, caract&eacute;ris&eacute;e comme une action qui d&eacute;voile une situation non encore r&eacute;v&eacute;l&eacute;e, avec des signes de composition (les deux types d&rsquo;indices) et le signe de gen&egrave;se (le vecteur). Deleuze tire des exemples de diff&eacute;rentes manifestations de cette &laquo; petite forme &raquo; de Lubitsch (&laquo; Design for Living &raquo;), Chaplin (la s&eacute;rie Charlot), Howard Hawks, Anthony Mann, tandis que Werner Herzog r&eacute;v&egrave;le le lien entre les deux types de formes d&rsquo;images-action. Deleuze reviendra sur la classification apr&egrave;s les vacances d&rsquo;hiver afin de la terminer.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 1 February 1983. This is lecture 10 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.