We Turn In the Night, Consumed by Fire. FR (c) 1978 Simar Films. P: Gérard Lebovici. D+SC: Guy Debord. DP: André Mrugalski. DP: Stéphanie Granel. S: Dominique Dalmasso. Documentalist: Joëlle Barjolin. M: François Couperin; Benny Golson ("Whisper Not", performed by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers). Voice: Guy Debord. 35mm, B&W, 105 min. A Love Streams / Agnès B. print presented with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov. Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 15 Nov 2008. Guy Debord: "On the question of stolen films, that is, of fragments of preexisting films incorporated into my films — notably in The Society of the Spectacle — (I’m talking here primarily about the films that interrupt and punctuate with their own dialogues the text of the spoken “commentary” derived from the book), the following should be noted:"
"In A User’s Guide to Détournement (Lèvres Nues #8) we already noted that “It is thus necessary to conceive of a parodic-serious stage in which detourned elements are combined . . . in order to create a certain sublimity.”"
"“Détournement” is not an enemy of art. The enemies of art are those who have not wanted to take into account the positive lessons of the “degeneration of art.”"
"Thus, in the film The Society of the Spectacle the (fiction) films detourned by me are not used as critical illustrations of an art of spectacular society (in contrast to the documentaries and news footage, for example). On the contrary, these stolen fiction films, external to my film but brought into it, are used, regardless of whatever their original meaning may have been, to represent the rectification of the “artistic inversion of life.”"
"The situation shifts in In girum due to several important differences: I directly shot a portion of the images; I wrote the text specifically for this particular film; and the theme of the film is not the spectacle, but real life. The films that interrupt the discourse do so primarily to support it positively, even if there is an element of irony (Lacenaire, the Devil, the fragment from Cocteau, or Custer’s last stand). The Charge of the Light Brigade is intended to crudely and eulogistically “represent” a dozen years of the SI’s actions!"
"As for the use of music, even though it is detourned like everything else, it will be felt by everyone in the normal way; it is never distanciated and always has a positive, “lyrical” aim." Guy Debord (1989)
Guy Debord: "The entire film (including the images, but already in the text of the spoken “commentary”) is based on the theme of water. Hence the quotations from poets evoking the evanescence of everything (Li Po, Omar Khayyam, Heraclitus, Bossuet, Shelley), who all used water as a metaphor for the flowing of time."
"Secondarily, there is the theme of fire; of momentary brilliance — revolution, Saint-Germain-des-Prés, youth, love, negation in the night, the Devil, battles and “unfulfilled missions” where spellbound “passing travelers” meet their doom; and desire within this night of the world (“nocte consumimur igni”)."
"But the water of time remains, and ultimately overwhelms and extinguishes the fire. Thus the brilliant youth of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, the fire of the ardent Charge of the Light Brigade, advancing “under the cannon fire of time,” were drowned in the flowing water of their century…" Guy Debord (1977)
Print has ok visual quality but signs of wear. - The consumer society. The irony is more bitter here. The scorn on the family idyll feels strange. Debord's voice sounds more melancholy, old, tired. Robin des Bois. Bliss it was to be young in this city, but nothing remains of the Paris of my youth. Where are the young hooligan girls of my youth? Excerpts: They Died with their Boots On, Les Enfants du Paradis, Orphée. Rien est vrai, tout est permis.
Showing posts with label Guy Debord. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Guy Debord. Show all posts
Saturday, November 15, 2008
La Société du Spectacle
The Society of the Spectacle. FR 1973. PC: Simar Films. P: Gérard Lebovici. D+SC: Guy Debord (adapted from his 1967 book). DP: Antonis Georgakis. ED: Martine Barraqué. DOC: Suzanne Schiffmann. S: Antoine Bonfanti. M: Michel Corrette. Voice: Guy Debord. 35mm, B&W, 90 min. a Love Streams / Agnès B. print presented with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov. Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki. - Brochure [Guy Debord n.c]: "Until now it has generally been assumed that film is a completely unsuitable medium for presenting revolutionary theory. This view was mistaken. The lack of any serious attempts in this direction stemmed simply from the historical lack of a modern revolutionary theory during virtually the entire period of the cinema’s development; as well as from the fact that the potentials of cinematic composition, despite so many declarations of intent on the part of filmmakers and so much feigned satisfaction on the part of a miserable public, have as yet scarcely been liberated."
"Published in 1967, The Society of the Spectacle is a book whose theoretical insights have profoundly influenced the new current of social critique that is now more and more openly undermining the established world order. Its present cinematic adaptation, like the book itself, does not offer a few partial political critiques, but a total critique of the existing world; that is, a critique of all aspects of modern capitalism and of its general system of illusions."
"The cinema is itself an integral part of this world, serving as one of the instruments of the separate representation that opposes and dominates the actual proletarianized society. As revolutionary critique engages in battle on the very terrain of the cinematic spectacle, it must thus turn the language of that medium against itself and give itself a form that is itself revolutionary."
"The text and images of this film form a coherent whole; but the images are never mere direct illustrations of the text, much less demonstrations of it (cinematic “demonstrations” are in any case never reliable due to the unlimited possibilities of manipulation offered by the unilateral editing of the material). Instead, the film’s use of images (whether photographs, newsclips, or sequences from preexisting films) is governed by the principle of détournement, which the situationists have defined as “communication that includes a critique of itself.” The images through which spectacular society presents itself to itself are taken and turned against it: the spectacle’s means should be treated with insolence. As a result, in a certain sense this film, coming at the end of the cinema’s pseudo-autonomous history, incorporates all the memories of that history. It can thus be seen simultaneously as a historical film, a Western, a love story, a war movie, etc. Like the society it examines, it also presents a number of comical aspects. In talking about the spectacular order, and about the commodity domination that it serves, one is also talking about what this order hides: class struggles and strivings toward real historical life, revolution and its past failures, and the responsibilities for those failures. Nothing in this film is made to please the fashionable blockheads of leftist cinema: it has equal contempt for what they respect and for the style in which they express that respect. One who is capable of understanding and denouncing an entire socio-economic formation will denounce it even in a film. Objections to our “extremism” are meaningless, because current history is already on the verge of going beyond the most extreme possibilities imagined."
"Theses that have never before been presented in the cinema will now appear there in a never before seen form, simply because for the first time a filmmaker has undertaken an uncompromising critique."
"In the socio-economic context, the total freedom required to create such a film obviously means that the producer must renounce any claim to exert any preliminary control over the director, whether by insisting that he present a synopsis or by seeking to obtain from him any other sort of meaningless commitment. This has been recognized in the contract between the filmmaker and the producer, Simar Films: “It is understood that the filmmaker will carry out his work in complete freedom, without any control or supervision whatsoever, and without even being obliged to pay the slightest attention to any comment that the producer might make regarding any aspect of the content or of the cinematic form that the filmmaker feels appropriate for his film.”"
"Considering that this film itself expresses its meaning in a sufficiently comprehensible manner, the producer and the filmmaker believe that it is unnecessary to provide any further explanations." Brochure [Guy Debord n.c. (1974)].
The print quality not as good as Debord's short films, duplication apparently at more generations' distance from the original. - A sold-out screening, dozens could not get tickets. - Famous film excerpts (Arkadin, Johnny Guitar, The Shanghai Gesture, Potyomkin, ?Ernst Thälmann). - Debord's breast fetish that masquerades as media criticism amused the audience. - The spectacle as a permanent opium war. - Deservedly famous, but maybe the short films are even more interesting, and The Society of the Spectacle functions better as a book.
"Published in 1967, The Society of the Spectacle is a book whose theoretical insights have profoundly influenced the new current of social critique that is now more and more openly undermining the established world order. Its present cinematic adaptation, like the book itself, does not offer a few partial political critiques, but a total critique of the existing world; that is, a critique of all aspects of modern capitalism and of its general system of illusions."
"The cinema is itself an integral part of this world, serving as one of the instruments of the separate representation that opposes and dominates the actual proletarianized society. As revolutionary critique engages in battle on the very terrain of the cinematic spectacle, it must thus turn the language of that medium against itself and give itself a form that is itself revolutionary."
"The text and images of this film form a coherent whole; but the images are never mere direct illustrations of the text, much less demonstrations of it (cinematic “demonstrations” are in any case never reliable due to the unlimited possibilities of manipulation offered by the unilateral editing of the material). Instead, the film’s use of images (whether photographs, newsclips, or sequences from preexisting films) is governed by the principle of détournement, which the situationists have defined as “communication that includes a critique of itself.” The images through which spectacular society presents itself to itself are taken and turned against it: the spectacle’s means should be treated with insolence. As a result, in a certain sense this film, coming at the end of the cinema’s pseudo-autonomous history, incorporates all the memories of that history. It can thus be seen simultaneously as a historical film, a Western, a love story, a war movie, etc. Like the society it examines, it also presents a number of comical aspects. In talking about the spectacular order, and about the commodity domination that it serves, one is also talking about what this order hides: class struggles and strivings toward real historical life, revolution and its past failures, and the responsibilities for those failures. Nothing in this film is made to please the fashionable blockheads of leftist cinema: it has equal contempt for what they respect and for the style in which they express that respect. One who is capable of understanding and denouncing an entire socio-economic formation will denounce it even in a film. Objections to our “extremism” are meaningless, because current history is already on the verge of going beyond the most extreme possibilities imagined."
"Theses that have never before been presented in the cinema will now appear there in a never before seen form, simply because for the first time a filmmaker has undertaken an uncompromising critique."
"In the socio-economic context, the total freedom required to create such a film obviously means that the producer must renounce any claim to exert any preliminary control over the director, whether by insisting that he present a synopsis or by seeking to obtain from him any other sort of meaningless commitment. This has been recognized in the contract between the filmmaker and the producer, Simar Films: “It is understood that the filmmaker will carry out his work in complete freedom, without any control or supervision whatsoever, and without even being obliged to pay the slightest attention to any comment that the producer might make regarding any aspect of the content or of the cinematic form that the filmmaker feels appropriate for his film.”"
"Considering that this film itself expresses its meaning in a sufficiently comprehensible manner, the producer and the filmmaker believe that it is unnecessary to provide any further explanations." Brochure [Guy Debord n.c. (1974)].
The print quality not as good as Debord's short films, duplication apparently at more generations' distance from the original. - A sold-out screening, dozens could not get tickets. - Famous film excerpts (Arkadin, Johnny Guitar, The Shanghai Gesture, Potyomkin, ?Ernst Thälmann). - Debord's breast fetish that masquerades as media criticism amused the audience. - The spectacle as a permanent opium war. - Deservedly famous, but maybe the short films are even more interesting, and The Society of the Spectacle functions better as a book.
THE SHADOW OF DEBORD (SEMINAR)
Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 15 Nov 2008.
Mr. Kari Yli-Annala (convener)
Mr. Pekka Luhta (moderator)
Mr. Tommi Uschanov (Debord translator)
Ms. Helena Sederholm (expert on Situationism)
Mr. Jussi Vähämäki (expert on Situationism)
Ms. Tiina Purhonen (expert on art theory)
Mr. Lauri Luhta (meta-commentator)
An excellent seminar on Guy Debord, hopefully the presentations will be published. There was also a lively an intelligent discussion. The spirit of Debord lives also in healthy irony and distanciation.
- Having seen Debord now for the first time, and his complete films at the same time, one of the interesting observations was the affinity of Debord and Godard. Debord was first.
Mr. Kari Yli-Annala (convener)
Mr. Pekka Luhta (moderator)
Mr. Tommi Uschanov (Debord translator)
Ms. Helena Sederholm (expert on Situationism)
Mr. Jussi Vähämäki (expert on Situationism)
Ms. Tiina Purhonen (expert on art theory)
Mr. Lauri Luhta (meta-commentator)
An excellent seminar on Guy Debord, hopefully the presentations will be published. There was also a lively an intelligent discussion. The spirit of Debord lives also in healthy irony and distanciation.
- Having seen Debord now for the first time, and his complete films at the same time, one of the interesting observations was the affinity of Debord and Godard. Debord was first.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Réfutation de tous les jugements, tant élogieux qu’hostiles, qui ont été jusqu’ici portés sur le film “La Société du Spectacle” / Refutation of All the Judgments, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film “The Society of the Spectacle"
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| Guy Debord: Réfutation de tous les jugements, tant élogieux qu’hostiles, qui ont été jusqu’ici portés sur le film “La Société du Spectacle” / Refutation of All the Judgments, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film “The Society of the Spectacle" (FR 1975). A Levi's Panatela Slacks & Tops commercial. My screenshot from YouTube. The movie is free online on YouTube. |
FR 1975. P: Simar Films. P: Gérard Lebovici. D+SC: Guy Debord. ED: Martine Barraqué. S: Paul Bertauld. Voice: Guy Debord. 35 mm, B&W, 20 min.
A Love Streams / Agnès B. print presented with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov.
Avanto, Cinema Orion, 14 Nov 2008.
Dialogue from the film: "Refutation of All the Judgments, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film “The Society of the Spectacle” is an attack on the somewhat mixed feedback Debord got after his 1974 feature film."
”In a freer and more truthful future people will look back in amazement at the idea that pen-pushers hired by the system of spectacular lies could imagine themselves qualified to offer their smug opinions on the merits and defects of a film that is a negation of the spectacle - as if the dissolution of this system was a matter of opinion. Their system is now being attacked in reality and it is defending itself by force. Their counterfeit arguments are no longer accepted, which is why so many of these professional agents of falsification are facing the prospect of unemployment.” Dialogue from the film.
AA: A good print. The counter-review technique reminds me of Syberberg. Illustrated with commercials. It grows into an meta-essay.
Critique de la séparation
Critique of Separation. FR 1961. PC: Dansk-Fransk Experimental-filmskompagni. D+SC: Guy Debord. DP: André Mrugalski. ED: Chantal Delattre. M: François Couperin, Joseph Bodin de Boismortier. Voice: Guy Debord. Voice (during the credits): Caroline Rittener. Actress: Caroline Rittener. 35mm, B&W, 19 min. A Love Streams / Agnès B. print presented with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov. Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 Nov 2008. - Guy Debord: "Before the credits, a hodgepodge of meaningless images is punctuated by a series of text frames — “Coming soon to this screen . . . One of the greatest antifilms of all time! . . . Real people! A true story! . . . On a theme the cinema has never dared to confront!” — while Caroline Rittener reads the following passage from André Martinet’s Elements of General Linguistics: “When one considers how natural and beneficial it is for man to identify his language with reality, one realizes the level of sophistication he had to attain in order to be able to dissociate them and make each an object of study.” All the rest of the film’s commentary is spoken by Guy Debord. Caroline Rittener also plays the young woman in the film. The music is by François Couperin and Bodin de Boismortier."
"The images in Critique of Separation are often taken from comics, ID photos and newspapers, or from other films. In many cases subtitles are added, which may be rather difficult to follow at the same time as the spoken commentary. The people who have been directly filmed are almost always none other than members of the film crew."
"The relation between the images, the spoken commentary and the subtitles is neither complementary nor indifferent, but is intended to itself be critical." Guy Debord, 1964
Excellent print. - Great self-irony ("one of the greatest antifilms of all time"), ironic Baroque music (like soon Greenaway with Nyman), media critique seasoned with loving looks at Paris, a fascination with the face of a woman, colonial violence, the world of commercials, found footage, the ravages of storms, a film which interrupts itself and does not come to an end.
"The images in Critique of Separation are often taken from comics, ID photos and newspapers, or from other films. In many cases subtitles are added, which may be rather difficult to follow at the same time as the spoken commentary. The people who have been directly filmed are almost always none other than members of the film crew."
"The relation between the images, the spoken commentary and the subtitles is neither complementary nor indifferent, but is intended to itself be critical." Guy Debord, 1964
Excellent print. - Great self-irony ("one of the greatest antifilms of all time"), ironic Baroque music (like soon Greenaway with Nyman), media critique seasoned with loving looks at Paris, a fascination with the face of a woman, colonial violence, the world of commercials, found footage, the ravages of storms, a film which interrupts itself and does not come to an end.
Sur le passage de quelques personnes à travers une assez courte unité de temps
On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity of Time. FR 1959. PC: Dansk-Fransk Experimental-filmskompagni. D+SC Guy Debord. DP: André Mrugalski. ED: Chantal Delattre. Voice 1: Jean Harnois. Voice 2: Guy Debord. Voice 3: Claude Brabant. M: George Frederick Handel, Michel-Richard Delalande. 35mm, B&W, 18 min. A Love Streams / Agnès B. print with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov screened at Avanto, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 Nov 2008. - Guy Debord: "The spoken commentary is read in somewhat apathetic and tired-sounding voices by Jean Harnois (Voice 1, tone of a radio announcer), Guy Debord (Voice 2, more sad and subdued) and Claude Brabant (Voice 3, a little girl)."
"The sound track during the opening credits is from a recording of a discussion during the Third Conference of the Situationist International in Munich, primarily in French and German. The Handel theme is from the ballet suite The Origin of Design; the two themes by Michel-Richard Delalande are from Caprice #2 (a.k.a. Grande Pièce)."
"The spoken commentary includes a large portion of detourned phrases, drawn indiscriminately from classic thinkers, a science-fiction novel, and the worst pop sociologists. In order to go against the usual documen-tary practice regarding spectacular scenery, each time that the camera is on the verge of coming upon a monument this has been avoided by shooting in the opposite direction, from the viewpoint of the monument (just as the young Abel Gance shot a passage from the viewpoint of a snowball). The initial plan for this documentary envisaged more détournements from other films, particularly recent ones. (...) These extensive film-quotations were ultimately prevented because several distributors refused to sell reproduction rights for at least half of the scenes selected, which refusal destroyed the montage envisaged. Instead, more exten-sive use was made of the Monsavon soap ad, whose star (actress Anna Karina, trans. note) was to have a brighter future. André Mrugalski is responsible for the sequence of detail photos detourning the style of “art documentaries.”"
"This short film can be considered as notes on the origins of the situationist movement; notes which thus naturally include a reflection on their own language." Guy Debord, 1964.
A brilliant print, cinematography professional, an invigorating sociological essay. Anna Karina appears in a Monsavon commercial.
"The sound track during the opening credits is from a recording of a discussion during the Third Conference of the Situationist International in Munich, primarily in French and German. The Handel theme is from the ballet suite The Origin of Design; the two themes by Michel-Richard Delalande are from Caprice #2 (a.k.a. Grande Pièce)."
"The spoken commentary includes a large portion of detourned phrases, drawn indiscriminately from classic thinkers, a science-fiction novel, and the worst pop sociologists. In order to go against the usual documen-tary practice regarding spectacular scenery, each time that the camera is on the verge of coming upon a monument this has been avoided by shooting in the opposite direction, from the viewpoint of the monument (just as the young Abel Gance shot a passage from the viewpoint of a snowball). The initial plan for this documentary envisaged more détournements from other films, particularly recent ones. (...) These extensive film-quotations were ultimately prevented because several distributors refused to sell reproduction rights for at least half of the scenes selected, which refusal destroyed the montage envisaged. Instead, more exten-sive use was made of the Monsavon soap ad, whose star (actress Anna Karina, trans. note) was to have a brighter future. André Mrugalski is responsible for the sequence of detail photos detourning the style of “art documentaries.”"
"This short film can be considered as notes on the origins of the situationist movement; notes which thus naturally include a reflection on their own language." Guy Debord, 1964.
A brilliant print, cinematography professional, an invigorating sociological essay. Anna Karina appears in a Monsavon commercial.
Hurlements en faveur de Sade
Howls for Sade. FR 1952. D+SC: Guy Debord. Voice 1: Gil J Wolman. Voice 2: Guy Debord. Voice 3: Serge Berna. Voice 4: Barbara Rosenthal. Voice 5: Jean-Isidore Isou. Originally 35mm, B&W, 75 min. The only film print can no longer be screened, and no negative exists. Dvd projection with e-subtitles in English by Ken Knabb edited by Tommi Uschanov at Avanto Festival, Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 14 Nov 2008.
Guy Debord: "Howls for Sade, a feature-length film created in June 1952, contains no images whatsoever. The soundtrack is accompanied by a completely blank white screen during the spoken dialogues. These dialogues, which altogether total no more than twenty minutes, are broken up into short fragments amid passages of total silence totalling one hour (the final portion of the film consisting of an uninterrupted 24-minute period of silence). During the silences the screen, and thus the theatre remains totally dark."
"The film contains no other sound or accompaniment, with the exception of a solo lettrist improvisation by Wolman during the first white screen passage, immediately before the beginning of the dialogue. The first two statements comprise the only credits."
"The content of this film should be considered in the context of the lettrist avant-garde of the period, both on the most general level, where it represents a negation and supersession of Isou’s conception of “discrepant cinema,” and on the anecdotal level, from the mode of using double first names (Jean-Isidore, Guy-Ernest, Albert-Jules, etc.) or the reference to Berna, the organizer of the Easter 1950 scandal at Notre Dame, to the dedication to Wolman, creator of the preceding lettrist film, the admirable Anticoncept. Other aspects should be considered in the light of positions since developed by the situationists, particularly the use of detourned passages."
"The first showing of Howls for Sade — in Paris, June 30, 1952, at the Ciné-club d’Avant-Garde, then directed by A.-J. Cauliez, in the Musée de l’Homme building — was violently disrupted almost from the beginning by the audience and the film club managers. Several lettrists then dissociated themselves from such a crudely extremist film. The first complete showing took place October 13 of the same year at the Ciné-club du Quartier Latin in the Sociétés Savantes room, defended by a group of “left-lettrists” and a couple dozen additional supporters from Saint-Germain-des-Prés. A few months later the presence of these same people prevented the same film club from presenting a Sadistic Skeleton which had been announced and attributed to a certain “René-Guy Babord,” a joke which was seemingly intended to consist merely of turning out all the theater lights for a quarter of an hour." Guy Debord
A dadaistic anti-film with black and white passages only on screen, and dialogue and total silence on the soundtrack. Almost all stayed, only a few members of the audiences left.
Guy Debord: "Howls for Sade, a feature-length film created in June 1952, contains no images whatsoever. The soundtrack is accompanied by a completely blank white screen during the spoken dialogues. These dialogues, which altogether total no more than twenty minutes, are broken up into short fragments amid passages of total silence totalling one hour (the final portion of the film consisting of an uninterrupted 24-minute period of silence). During the silences the screen, and thus the theatre remains totally dark."
"The film contains no other sound or accompaniment, with the exception of a solo lettrist improvisation by Wolman during the first white screen passage, immediately before the beginning of the dialogue. The first two statements comprise the only credits."
"The content of this film should be considered in the context of the lettrist avant-garde of the period, both on the most general level, where it represents a negation and supersession of Isou’s conception of “discrepant cinema,” and on the anecdotal level, from the mode of using double first names (Jean-Isidore, Guy-Ernest, Albert-Jules, etc.) or the reference to Berna, the organizer of the Easter 1950 scandal at Notre Dame, to the dedication to Wolman, creator of the preceding lettrist film, the admirable Anticoncept. Other aspects should be considered in the light of positions since developed by the situationists, particularly the use of detourned passages."
"The first showing of Howls for Sade — in Paris, June 30, 1952, at the Ciné-club d’Avant-Garde, then directed by A.-J. Cauliez, in the Musée de l’Homme building — was violently disrupted almost from the beginning by the audience and the film club managers. Several lettrists then dissociated themselves from such a crudely extremist film. The first complete showing took place October 13 of the same year at the Ciné-club du Quartier Latin in the Sociétés Savantes room, defended by a group of “left-lettrists” and a couple dozen additional supporters from Saint-Germain-des-Prés. A few months later the presence of these same people prevented the same film club from presenting a Sadistic Skeleton which had been announced and attributed to a certain “René-Guy Babord,” a joke which was seemingly intended to consist merely of turning out all the theater lights for a quarter of an hour." Guy Debord
A dadaistic anti-film with black and white passages only on screen, and dialogue and total silence on the soundtrack. Almost all stayed, only a few members of the audiences left.
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