DOI: 10.4231/ypd3-zs54
title: Cinema, Truth, and Time: The Falsifier: Lecture 20, 29 May 1984

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, Truth, and Time: The Falsifier&rdquo; was a 22-lecture seminar given from November 1983 to June 1984. This seminar, the third of four consecutive seminars Deleuze gave on cinema, shifts focus from the movement-image to the time-image. In these lectures, Deleuze continues to elaborate his theory of cinema through various theoretical and aesthetic frames including: Ancient Greek philosophy; Nietzsche&rsquo;s reconsideration of the concept of truth; principles of formal logic; literature; the time-image as crystallization; and the filmmakers he thinks are particularly influential in creating the time-image. As a precursor to the publication of Deleuze&rsquo;s second of two volumes on cinema, &lt;em&gt;Cinema 2: The Time-Image&lt;/em&gt; (1985), this seminar is a valuable resource to researchers interested in Deleuze&rsquo;s film theory, as well as his larger philosophical oeuvre.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In session 20, 29 May 1984, with the help of an invited lecturer, Jouanny, Deleuze asks him to speak about crystallography as a means to form a philosophical concept from the &ldquo;crystal-image&rdquo;. Then, recalling the three pairs of circuits previously proposed (actual-virtual, clear-opaque, seed-milieu), Deleuze opts for the latter as a viable axis, referring in this regard to a Polish filmmaker, Krzsztof Zanussi&rsquo;s film &ldquo;Illumination,&rdquo; to illustrate the clear-opaque circuit within the dramatic importance of actors, with other circuits considered (Tod Browning&rsquo;s &ldquo;Freaks,&rdquo; films by Hitchcock and Kon Ichikawa). Then Deleuze proposes the boat as a third site for circuits (cf. in paintings by Turner; in literature, Melville&rsquo;s &ldquo;Benito Cereno&rdquo;) which also links to the germ-milieu pair. He returns to cinema (cf. Fellini&rsquo;s &quot;And The Ship Sails On&rdquo;, and in opposing ways, Herzog&rsquo;s &ldquo;Heart of Glass&rdquo;, and Tarkovski&rsquo;s &ldquo;The Mirror&rdquo;), taking up spatial considerations within geometry. Summing up the yearlong analysis, Deleueze contrasts action occurring within the movement-image and the crystal-image which one &ldquo;sees&rdquo; within it, namely, the pure optical and sound image corresponding to a direct presentation of time, closing with a summary of the four states of the crystal-image.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This dataset includes: the complete French transcription and English translation of the recorded lecture in Open Document Text (odt) format, the complete recording in mp3 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, v&eacute;rit&eacute; et temps: le faussaire&raquo; &eacute;tait un s&eacute;minaire de 22 conf&eacute;rences donn&eacute; de novembre 1983 &agrave; juin 1984. En tant que pr&eacute;curseur de la publication du deuxi&egrave;me de deux volumes de Deleuze sur le cin&eacute;ma, &lt;em&gt;Cin&eacute;ma II. L&#39;Image-temps&lt;/em&gt; (1985), ce s&eacute;minaire est une ressource pr&eacute;cieuse pour les chercheurs int&eacute;ress&eacute;s par la th&eacute;orie du film de Deleuze, ainsi que sa plus grande &oelig;uvre philosophique.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Dans la s&eacute;ance 20, le 29 mai 1984, avec l&rsquo;aide d&rsquo;un conf&eacute;rencier invit&eacute;, Jouanny, Deleuze lui demande de parler de la cristallographie comme moyen de former un concept philosophique &agrave; partir du &laquo; cristal-image &raquo;. Puis, rappelant les trois couples de circuits pr&eacute;c&eacute;demment propos&eacute;s (actuel-virtuel, clair-opaque, germe-milieu), Deleuze opte pour ce dernier comme axe viable, se r&eacute;f&eacute;rant &agrave; cet &eacute;gard &agrave; un cin&eacute;aste polonais, le film &laquo; Illumination &raquo; de Krzsztof Zanussi, pour illustrer le circuit clair-opaque dans l&rsquo;importance dramatique des acteurs, d&rsquo;autres circuits &eacute;tant envisag&eacute;s (Freaks de Tod Browning, films d&rsquo;Hitchcock et Kon Ichikawa). Puis Deleuze propose le bateau comme troisi&egrave;me site de circuits (cf. dans les peintures de Turner ; dans la litt&eacute;rature, &laquo; Benito Cereno &raquo; de Melville) qui se rattache &eacute;galement au couple germe-milieu. Il revient au cin&eacute;ma (cf. &laquo; Et vogue le navire &raquo; de Fellini et, dans des directions oppos&eacute;es, &laquo; C&oelig;ur de verre &raquo; d&#39;Herzog et &laquo; Le Miroir &raquo; de Tarkovski), en reprenant les consid&eacute;rations spatiales dans la g&eacute;om&eacute;trie. R&eacute;sumant une ann&eacute;e d&#39;analyse, Deleuze oppose l&#39;action qui se d&eacute;roule dans l&#39;image-mouvement avec celle de l&#39;image-cristal que l&#39;on &laquo; voit &raquo; en elle, &agrave; savoir l&#39;image optique et sonore pure correspondant &agrave; une pr&eacute;sentation directe du temps, et conclut par un r&eacute;sum&eacute; des quatre &eacute;tats de l&#39;image-cristal.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 29 May 1984. This is lecture 20 of a 22-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1983 and June 1984.