DOI: 10.4231/8dep-g321
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 21, 24 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;With a possible title of &ldquo;the choice&rdquo;, the session follows artists and thinkers of the &ldquo;alternative&rdquo; or &ldquo;either-or&rdquo; lineage of thought: the Pascalian lineage of &ldquo;the wager&rdquo; (e.g., Kierkegaard; several now little studied 19th century thinkers, notably Charles Renouvier and Jules Lequier). Deleuze asks: what kind of figure does this lineage of thought take on through its different phases? After considering Pascal development of &ldquo;orderings&rdquo; (&lt;em&gt;classements&lt;/em&gt;) and its link to &ldquo;either-or&rdquo; thinking, Deleuze provides a parallel analysis on how this thinking leads directly to contemporary approaches to organization of cases and practices within jurisprudence. Then, he turns to &ldquo;either-or&rdquo; thinking in filmmakers (e.g., Dreyer and Bresson; the Expressionists) and emphasizes that the orderings occur based on &ldquo;modes of existence&rdquo;. He draws examples of these from different fields and authors: conic sections in Pascal; the ordering of &ldquo;young ladies in flower&rdquo; in Proust, concluding that a subjective point of view connects to modes of existence of the persons making the choice (cf., Pascal, Kierkegaard, and Sartre). Deleuze&rsquo;s examples move toward the Sartrean analysis of choice, which indicates some justifiable situations of no choice as well as the category of &ldquo;bad faith&rdquo;. In terms of a mode of existence, Deleuze discusses in Sartrean terms the French people&rsquo;s &ldquo;choices&rdquo; during the Nazi Occupation, then turns to Pascal&rsquo;s famous &ldquo;wager&rdquo; which, in fact, consists in the alternative of two modes of existence, one of the man of faith, the other of the atheist. The next session, he suggests, will take up the case of the deliberate choice of evil or the devil (cf. these reflections succinctly included in &lt;em&gt;The Movement-Image&lt;/em&gt;, part 3 of chapter 7).&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;Sous le titre possible de &laquo; le choix &raquo;, la s&eacute;ance suit les artistes et les penseurs de la lign&eacute;e de pens&eacute;e &laquo; alternative &raquo; ou &laquo; either-or &raquo; : la lign&eacute;e pascalienne du &laquo; pari &raquo; (par exemple, Kierkegaard ; plusieurs penseurs du XIXe si&egrave;cle aujourd&rsquo;hui peu &eacute;tudi&eacute;s, notamment Charles Renouvier et Jules Lequier). Deleuze se demande : quel type de figure cette lign&eacute;e de pens&eacute;e prend-elle &agrave; travers ses diff&eacute;rentes phases ? Apr&egrave;s avoir examin&eacute; le d&eacute;veloppement pascalien des &laquo; classements &raquo; et son lien avec la pens&eacute;e &laquo; soit-ou &raquo;, Deleuze propose une analyse parall&egrave;le de la mani&egrave;re dont cette pens&eacute;e m&egrave;ne directement aux approches contemporaines de l&rsquo;organisation des cas et des pratiques au sein de la jurisprudence. Puis, il se tourne vers la pens&eacute;e &laquo; either-or &raquo; chez les cin&eacute;astes (par exemple, Dreyer et Bresson ; les expressionnistes) et souligne que les ordonnancements se produisent sur la base de &laquo; modes d&rsquo;existence &raquo;. Il en tire des exemples provenant de diff&eacute;rents domaines et auteurs : les sections coniques chez Pascal ; l&rsquo;ordre des &laquo; demoiselles en fleurs &raquo; chez Proust, concluant qu&rsquo;un point de vue subjectif se rattache aux modes d&rsquo;existence des personnes qui font le choix (cf. Pascal, Kierkegaard et Sartre). Les exemples de Deleuze se rapprochent de l&rsquo;analyse sartrienne du choix, qui indique certaines situations justifiables de non-choix ainsi que la cat&eacute;gorie de la &laquo; mauvaise foi &raquo;. En termes de mode d&rsquo;existence, Deleuze discute en termes sartriens des &laquo; choix &raquo; du peuple fran&ccedil;ais pendant l&rsquo;Occupation nazie, puis se tourne vers le c&eacute;l&egrave;bre &laquo; pari &raquo; de Pascal qui, en fait, consiste en l&rsquo;alternative de deux modes d&rsquo;existence, l&rsquo;un de l&rsquo;homme de foi, l&rsquo;autre de l&rsquo;ath&eacute;e. La prochaine s&eacute;ance, sugg&egrave;re-t-il, abordera le cas du choix d&eacute;lib&eacute;r&eacute; du mal ou du diable.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 24 May 1983. This is lecture 21 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.