DOI: 10.4231/v980-9d15
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 9, 25 January 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;Deleuze continues with the classification table, and after a brief review, he indicates the need for a separate entry for the action-image, that is, dividing it into two different aspects, devoting the entire session to deriving the sign of genesis (the impression, or empreinte) for the large (1st) action-image. He thus reviews the conception of history revealed in American pre-World War II cinema (e.g., D.W. Griffith, John Ford, Howard Hawks) as well as Sergei Eisenstein. Deleuze develops at length two of three aspects of his conception of history, drawing from Nietzsche&rsquo;s &lt;em&gt;Untimely Meditations&lt;/em&gt;, the monumental conception, antique conception, and ethical conception. Providing cinematic exemplars for the first two (e.g., Griffith&rsquo;s &ldquo;Intolerance&rdquo;, DeMille&rsquo;s &ldquo;Samson and Delilah&rdquo;, Eisenstein&rsquo;s understanding of Griffith&rsquo;s use of montage), Deleuze then considers other historical conceptions, considering how the Soviet model of dialectical montage, was reflected by the American-influenced Eisenstein. The American historical conception concerns the &ldquo;American dream&rdquo; in pre-World War II cinema and its collapse post-World War II. With the impression (empreinte) filling another square of table, Deleuze proposes to complete it at the next session.&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 d&eacute;veloppe le tableau de classification et, apr&egrave;s une br&egrave;ve r&eacute;capitulation, il indique la n&eacute;cessit&eacute; d&rsquo;une entr&eacute;e s&eacute;par&eacute;e pour l&rsquo;image-action, c&rsquo;est-&agrave;-dire de la diviser en deux aspects diff&eacute;rents, consacrant toute la s&eacute;ance &agrave; la d&eacute;rivation du signe de gen&egrave;se (l&rsquo;empreinte) pour la grande (premi&egrave;re) image-action. Il passe ainsi en revue la conception de l&rsquo;histoire r&eacute;v&eacute;l&eacute;e dans le cin&eacute;ma am&eacute;ricain d&rsquo;avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale (par exemple, D.W. Griffith, John Ford, Howard Hawks) ainsi que chez Sergei Eisenstein. Deleuze d&eacute;veloppe longuement deux des trois aspects de sa conception de l&rsquo;histoire, en s&rsquo;inspirant des &lt;em&gt;M&eacute;ditations intempestives&lt;/em&gt; de Nietzsche, la conception monumentale, la conception antique, et la conception &eacute;thique. Apr&egrave;s avoir fourni des exemples cin&eacute;matographiques pour les deux premiers films (par exemple, &laquo; Intol&eacute;rance &raquo; de Griffith, &laquo; Samson et Delilah &raquo; de DeMille, et la compr&eacute;hension par Eisenstein de l&rsquo;utilisation du montage par Griffith), Deleuze aborde ensuite d&rsquo;autres conceptions historiques, consid&eacute;rant comment le mod&egrave;le sovi&eacute;tique de montage dialectique a &eacute;t&eacute; repris par Eisenstein, influenc&eacute; par les &Eacute;tats-Unis. La conception historique am&eacute;ricaine concerne le &laquo; r&ecirc;ve am&eacute;ricain &raquo; dans le cin&eacute;ma d&rsquo;avant la Seconde Guerre mondiale et son effondrement apr&egrave;s la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Avec l&rsquo;empreinte remplissant un autre carr&eacute; du tableau, Deleuze propose de le finir lors de la prochaine s&eacute;ance.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 25 January 1983. This is lecture 9 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.