Gilles Deleuze's Cinema Books Part 2: The Movement-Image Ch. 1

Film & Media Studies

1 Aug 202242:11

EducationalLearning

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TLDRThis video script delves into the first chapter of 'Cinema 1: The Movement-Image' by Gilles Deleuze, exploring its philosophical underpinnings. The discussion centers on Deleuze's interpretation of Henri Bergson's concepts of movement and time, distinguishing between the movement image and the time image in cinema. It explains Bergson's ideas on process philosophy, the significance of intuition, and critiques of scientism. Through the exploration of Bergson's theses on movement, the script illustrates how cinema, beyond being a classification, embodies philosophical concepts that challenge traditional views on time and movement, revealing cinema's capacity to express duration and change.

Takeaways

😀 Deleuze builds on Bergson's critiques of how we often misrepresent time and movement
😮 Deleuze sees early cinema as limited, movement images as an advance, and time images as capturing duration itself
🤔 Bergson critiques tendencies to spatialize time or treat it as a succession of instants
💡 Bergson distinguishes 'privileged instants' from 'any instant whatever' as errors
🎥 Deleuze says cinema overcame limitations once montage and mobile framing developed
🔍 Bergson used sugar dissolving in water to show movement as changing relations
🚀 For Bergson the whole universe is open, unpredictable, an enduring process
✂️ Deleuze distinguishes 'movement' between objects from movement expressing duration
🎞️ Sets are closed, wholes are open - this maps onto cinematic concepts for Deleuze
🔮 Time-images go beyond movement to show duration, relations and qualitative change

Q & A

What is the difference between the movement image and the time image according to Deleuze?
-The movement image refers to films where time is subordinate to action and movement. The time image refers to films where movement and action are subordinate to the flow of time.
How does Deleuze characterize Henri Bergson's philosophy?
-Deleuze characterizes Bergson as a philosopher of process who was interested in inner mental life, memory, imagination, intuition, and was critical of scientism.
What is Bergson's concept of 'duration'?
-Duration refers to Bergson's philosophy of time which is opposed to clock time. It treats subjective experience of time as more accurate than standardized time.
What is Bergson's first thesis on movement?
-Bergson's first thesis is that movement is distinct from the space covered. The act of covering space can be divided but movement itself is indivisible.
How does Deleuze critique Bergson's use of cinema as a metaphor?
-Deleuze argues that the essence of cinema was not present at its beginning, but emerged later through techniques like camera movement and montage. Bergson wrote before these techniques emerged.
What are the two errors Bergson identifies in conceiving movement?
-The two errors are 'privileged instant', linked to ancient Greek thought, and 'any instant whatever', linked to modern scientific thought. Both replace real movement with immobilized moments.
What is Bergson's example of sugar dissolving in water meant to illustrate?
-This example illustrates Bergson's idea of movement as a qualitative change in the whole, not just a translation through space. The water transforms into sugared water through movement.
How does Deleuze distinguish between 'sets' and 'wholes'?
-Sets are closed, defined systems while wholes are open and constantly changing. Wholes represent duration while sets represent snapshots of space.
What are the three types of cinematic images Deleuze identifies?
-Instantaneous images, movement images, and time images. Movement images give us mobile chunks of duration while time images present duration itself.
How will Deleuze link his metaphysical discussion to film techniques?
-Deleuze will link concepts like framing, cutting, camera movement and montage to ideas like closed sets, open wholes, movement, and duration.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Intro to Theses on Movement

The video introduces philosopher Henri Bergson's theses on movement and time from his books Matter and Memory and Creative Evolution. Deleuze sees connections between Bergson's ideas and cinema.

05:05

😊 Bergson's First Thesis

Bergson's first thesis is that movement is distinct from the space covered. Movement can't be divided without changing, while space is divisible. He uses Zeno's paradox to illustrate issues with conceiving time spatially.

10:08

😃 Deleuze's Response to First Thesis

Deleuze agrees but says Bergson misses that cinema gives real movement, not false movement. Also, cinematic techniques emerged after Bergson's relevant books, so Bergson couldn't engage their essence.

15:09

😉 Bergson's Second Thesis

The second thesis identifies two historical errors in conceiving movement - ancient 'privileged instant' like Plato's forms, and modern 'any instant whatever' like snapshots. Both replace real movement.

20:12

🤔 Deleuze's Take on Second Thesis

Deleuze thinks the revolutionary 'any instant whatever' allows conceiving the production of the new. Art upholds privileged instants against science's 'any instant.' Early cinema was primitive.

25:13

🧐 Bergson's Third Thesis

The third thesis says movement expresses change in the whole or duration. It is mobile section of duration. The whole is open, not deterministic, always becoming new. Sets are artificial closures.

30:15

😯 Deleuze Connects Theses to Cinema

Deleuze relates the theses to cinema - instantaneous images, movement images, and time images. Also frames, shots, camera moves and montage. Metaphysics maps to techniques.

35:16

🥳 Summary of Theses and Link to Cinema

The chapter summarizes Bergson's 3 theses on movement and time and Deleuze's responses. Deleuze links them to coming analyses of cinema's essence and specific techniques.

Mindmap

Keywords

💡movement image

A movement image is a classification of films created by Gilles Deleuze in which time is subordinated to action and movement. Movement images dominate early narrative cinema, where sequences portray actions and events that drive the plot forward in a linear, chronological order. For example, the video describes D.W. Griffith's films as using movement images through editing techniques that establish spatial and temporal continuity between actions.

💡time image

A time image is the second classification of films proposed by Deleuze, in which movement and action are subordinated to time itself. Time is no longer driven by actions, but itself becomes the subject. In time images, narrative events can be scrambled, dreams and fantasies blend with reality, and time can slow down and become contemplative. Deleuze argues that time images emerged after World War 2 in modernist art films by directors like Alain Resnais.

💡duration

Duration is a concept developed by philosopher Henri Bergson to describe experiential time as opposed to measured, spatialized time. For Bergson, duration signifies the continuous flow and change of subjective, inner experience. Deleuze sees cinema able to capture duration, especially in time images where time itself rather than actions become central.

💡instant

An instant is a privileged moment or pose abstracted from the continuous flow of duration, according to Bergson. Deleuze argues that cinema was first based on instantaneous snapshots strung together to mimic movement and time. But later techniques like mobile framing and montage created mobile sections able to capture some of the truth of duration.

💡plane of immanence

For Deleuze, the plane of immanence refers to a flat metaphysical field of thought that eschews transcendence and hierarchy. Deleuze aims to create new images of thought unbound by subjectivity, representation or transcendence. Cinema for him provides material for such immanent thought.

💡transcendence

Transcendence refers to that which exists above and beyond the material, temporal world. Plato's theory of forms is offered as an example of transcendent thinking - the ideal form of objects exists eternally beyond their material instances. For Bergson and Deleuze, such transcendent modes of thought do not grasp true reality and time (duration).

💡calculus

Calculus was an area of mathematics developed in part to resolve Zeno's paradox about motion discussed in the video. By breaking space and time into infinitesimal units, calculus could mathematically account for motion. But Deleuze cites Bergson's argument that calculus spatializes time, removing the subjective experience of duration.

💡cinematographic illusion

The cinematographic illusion refers to cinema's technique of stringing still frames together to synthesize motion and time. Bergson critiqued it as a 'false movement' that misses the truth of duration. But Deleuze argues cinema moved beyond just illusion to capture new truths, especially in time images.

💡plane of organization

Deleuze posited the plane of organization in opposition to the plane of immanence. Organizational thought relies on hierarchical categorization and ordered representation. Deleuze aligned cinema with the plane of immanence as it deterritorializes thought into sensations outside representation.

💡assemblage

An assemblage is a term Deleuze uses to describe compositions of heterogeneous elements that come together in relations of exteriority. A film shot can be seen as an assemblage of framing, movement, light, characters. Assemblages destabilize identity and binary distinctions between inside/outside.

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Transcripts

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