Uploaded July 2022 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
This is the first video in a series on Gilles Deleuze's Cinema books: Cinema 1: The Movement-Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image. The video provides a brief introduction to Deleuze's philosophical thought before working to distinguish the "movement-image" and the "time-image" primarily as classifications used to describe two distinct modes of cinematic storytelling that were prevalent before WWII and after WWII, respectively.
Terms and concepts discussed include the "sensory-motor schema" (also written as "sensori-motor schema"), "any-space-whatever," "pure optical/sound situations," and "perception-images, affection-images, and action-images." Some references are made to the work of philosopher Henri Bergson, who is foundational to understanding the books, but these ideas will be explored more in a subsequent video.
Films discussed include The Lonedale Operator (Griffith, 1911), Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925), Umberto D (De Sica, 1952), Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948), L'avventura (Antonioni, 1960), Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941), Hiroshima Mon Amour (Resnais, 1959).
*Corrections:
1. At 12:39, I say that for Bergson, "image" is a "thing that is in your consciousness when you perceive something." This is not quite right, which you can deduce from the passage from Matter and Memory shown on screen. For Bergson, everything that exists is an "image" (including material objects as well as immaterial mental phenomena like memories) but what this entails for Bergson is not that all images merely exist in our minds. Rather, images exist materially in the world.
2. While the film L'Avventura is sometimes, though rarely, translated as The Adventure in English, it's important to note that the word "l'avventura" in the film, when it is used by the characters to refer to their search for the missing woman, is translated as "fling."
Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 1: youtu.be/xbYYrRDKm5I
Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 2: youtu.be/9rf2H-IykDk
Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 3: youtu.be/jVJkIRiaESI
This is the first video in a series on Gilles Deleuze's Cinema books: Cinema 1: The Movement-Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image. The video provides a brief introduction to Deleuze's philosophical thought before working to distinguish the "movement-image" and the "time-image" primarily as classifications used to describe two distinct modes of cinematic storytelling that were prevalent before WWII and after WWII, respectively.
Terms and concepts discussed include the "sensory-motor schema" (also written as "sensori-motor schema"), "any-space-whatever," "pure optical/sound situations," and "perception-images, affection-images, and action-images." Some references are made to the work of philosopher Henri Bergson, who is foundational to understanding the books, but these ideas will be explored more in a subsequent video.
Films discussed include The Lonedale Operator (Griffith, 1911), Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925), Umberto D (De Sica, 1952), Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948), L'avventura (Antonioni, 1960), Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941), Hiroshima Mon Amour (Resnais, 1959).
*Corrections:
1. At 12:39, I say that for Bergson, "image" is a "thing that is in your consciousness when you perceive something." This is not quite right, which you can deduce from the passage from Matter and Memory shown on screen. For Bergson, everything that exists is an "image" (including material objects as well as immaterial mental phenomena like memories) but what this entails for Bergson is not that all images merely exist in our minds. Rather, images exist materially in the world.
2. While the film L'Avventura is sometimes, though rarely, translated as The Adventure in English, it's important to note that the word "l'avventura" in the film, when it is used by the characters to refer to their search for the missing woman, is translated as "fling."
Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 1: youtu.be/xbYYrRDKm5I
Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 2: youtu.be/9rf2H-IykDk
Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 3: youtu.be/jVJkIRiaESI
