DOI: 10.4231/pqye-xp04
title: Cinema: On the Classification of Signs and Time: Lecture 1, 02 November 1982

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;In starting this new seminar on 2 November 1982, Deleuze first explains why it will remain focused, as a &ldquo;rumination&rdquo;, on many of the topics and concepts discussed in 1981-82. Then he proposes a method (ultimately unworkable) to reduce the number of students attending each session, a proposal that generates students&rsquo; questions and objections. Deleuze then returns to Bergson&rsquo;s &lt;i&gt;Matter and Memory &lt;/i&gt;(with material developed more concisely in &lt;i&gt;The Movement-Image&lt;/i&gt; chapter 4), recounting the process through which he (with Bergson) derives the three kinds of images previously analyzed, thereby establishing the genesis of the organizational framework for his cinema analysis. Following responses to students&rsquo; questions, Deleuze asks them to read for the next time Beckett&rsquo;s &ldquo;Film&rdquo; as a &ldquo;practical exercise for confirming the previous development regarding the perception-image, action-image and affection-image.&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; Cin&eacute;ma 1: L&rsquo;image-mouvement &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;En commen&ccedil;ant ce nouveau s&eacute;minaire, Deleuze explique d&rsquo;abord pourquoi il restera centr&eacute;, comme une &laquo; rumination &raquo;, sur de nombreux sujets et concepts d&eacute;velopp&eacute;s en 1981-82. Il propose ensuite une m&eacute;thode (en fin de compte impraticable) pour r&eacute;duire le nombre d&rsquo;&eacute;tudiants pr&eacute;sents &agrave; chaque s&eacute;ance, une proposition qui suscite des questions et des objections de la part des &eacute;tudiants. Deleuze revient ensuite &agrave; &lt;em&gt;Mati&egrave;re et m&eacute;moire&lt;/em&gt; de Bergson (avec du mat&eacute;riel d&eacute;velopp&eacute; de mani&egrave;re plus concise dans le chapitre 4 de &lt;em&gt;L&rsquo;Image-mouvement&lt;/em&gt;), racontant le processus par lequel il (avec Bergson) d&eacute;rive les trois types d&rsquo;images analys&eacute;es pr&eacute;c&eacute;demment, &eacute;tablissant ainsi la gen&egrave;se du cadre organisationnel de son analyse du cin&eacute;ma. Ayant r&eacute;pondu aux questions des &eacute;tudiants, Deleuze leur demande de lire pour la prochaine fois &laquo; Film &raquo; de Beckett comme un &laquo; exercice pratique pour confirmer le d&eacute;veloppement pr&eacute;c&eacute;dent concernant l&rsquo;image-perception, l&rsquo;image-action et l&rsquo;image-affection &raquo;.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Lecture given by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze at the University of Paris 8, 02 November 1982. This is lecture 1 of a 23-lecture seminar Deleuze taught between November 1982 and June 1983.