Exercise 174.
Self-portrait in December
Cast the roles.
Begin the rehearsals.
Settle problems concerning the direction
Perfect the entrances and exits.
Learn your role by heart.
Work to improve your acting
Get under the skin of your character. Have the role of......
Do a rehearsal, or a general rehearsal
Be, as the case may be, a success
a triumph, or, on the contrary, a failure
a triumph,
or, on the contrary, a failure
He possessed hope, but the boy didn't know that what counts is to know
by whom he was possessed,
what dark powers were entitled to lay claim to him.
Usually, it begins like this:
Death arrives, then we put on mourning
I don't know exactly why, but I did the opposite
Dark Room
I first put on mourning,
But death never came.
neither on the streets of Paris, nor on the shores of Lake Geneva.
What? It's his test
He could do very badly We did it three years ago
Even late, I didn't have to go to any far off Samarkind
The obstacles came themselves: that is, life.
It's a stupid game for defending Toring. You're chickening out.
But tell him what he needs to do! -Yes, tell him
Soon, maybe
Which may explain my slightly distressed look in the picture
not because I was bent out of shape,
but because I had bent the rules at some imagined Last Judgement
The sole purpose of this film
should be to determine that.
No, I was already in mourning for myself,
my sole and unique companion.
I suspected that my soul had stumbled over my body
and that it had left without offering a hand.
Being and Time
Let it be seen
Listen
Yes, it's difficult, this question of culture
They confuse everything with art.
If only,
I knew Latin to make things clear.
We'll talk tonight.
Until tonight
OK
There is the rule. OK There is the exception. OK
The rule is culture . No. Culture is a question of rules.
It is part of the rules.
Exception is a question of art. It is part of art.
Everyone speaks the rule: Cigarettes, computers, t-shirts,
television, tourism, war.
And....
No one
speaks
In a sense, fear is the daughter of God.
redeemed on Good Friday night.
She is not beautiful to see
sometimes mocked, sometimes cursed
repudiated by everyone.
And yet, don't be mistaken,
she is at every deathbed. She intervenes for every man.
No one speaks the exception.
Everyone speaks the rule. No one speaks the exception.
This cannot be spoken. That cannot be spoken.
It can be written: Flaubert... no
Pushkin, Flaubert, Dostoevsky It can be written Flaubert, Dostoevsky
It can be composed: Gershwin, Mozart
It can be painted: Cezanne, Vermeer. It can be filmed:. Antonioni, Vigo.
No. or it can be lived.
It is
the art of living
Srebrenica, Mostar, Sarajevo.
yes, and
It is part of the rules to want the death of the exception.
No It is...
It is therefore the rule of European culture
the rule of European culture
to organize the death of the art of living,
which was still flourishing at our feet.
In fact, in a rhyme
there are always three things
He said it in.....
in 'La Rime en 194O'.
'Le Creve-coeur'
''When I close the book, I will have no regrets.''
''I've seen so many people live so badly, and so many people die so well.''
The image is a pure creation of the mind.
It can not be born of a comparison,
but from drawing together two distant realities.
The more the ties between these two realities are distant and right,
the stronger the image will be.
Two realities with no ties cannot be usefully drawn together
No image is created.
and two contrary realities do not reconcile with each other.
An image is not strong because it is brutal or fantastic,
but because the association of ideas
is distant.
distant,
and correct.
Gone from Liverpool
Oh, how moving is the working
of the unconscious (The heart of the problem)
When one knows
that the two forms of existence between which a being navigates
Crystal
and smoke,
also signify the tragedy of the dead,
which, in my parent's generation
struck down individuals,
vehicles of this tradition.
The 'Kristallnacht'...
and...
the fog of smoke.
121 , one might say,
''The Manifesto of 121 ''
''Might we say, that where doubt is lacking, knowledge, too, is lacking?''
125:
A blind man asks me, ''Do you have two hands?''
Looking at my two hands would not reassure me.
Yes, I do not know why I would trust my eyes, if I were in doubt.
Yes, why woudn't I check my eyes
by looking at whether I see my two hands?
Wittgenstein, ''On certitude''
Diderot, '''A Letter on the Blind''
She said that only the heart and mind inspired fear in her.
One of the advantages of lacking sight, especially for women,
''Never'' she said ''will a handsome man make me lose my head.''
''And'', she added,
''Surveyors''
''live most of their lives with their eyes closed.''
And now, Jeannot.
Jeannot.
which rhymes with stereo.
Stereo is made for dogs and blind people.
They always project like this, but they should project this way
But because they project like this,
because I, who listen and watch, am here,
because I am opposite,
because I receive this projection,
because I reflect it,
I am in the position described by this figure.
This is the figure of stereo.
But take this figure,
and examine it in history now,
for stereo also exists in history.
There was Euclid.
and then there was Pascal,
Pascal, who reflected,
and this is the mystical hexagram.
But in history,
the history of history,
there was Germany,
which projected Israel.
Israel reflected this projection,
and Israel found its cross.
And the law of stereo continues.
Israel projected the Palestinian people
And the Palestinian people, in turn,
bore their cross.
That is the true legend of stereo.
Nivose
Goodbye Monsieur Jean. I'll change the flowers tomorrow
Goodbye, Mme Levitz. Goodbye, Clemence.
What are you doing?
A story?
She wants another story.
Yes? What story?
Stop asking for any old story!
''Any old story'' is very good. Here is any old story:
There's a family of sharks watching a ship sink.
And the father says to the kids ''Remember kids,
women and children first.''
Goodbye, Monsieur Jean.
He was stupefied, but, strangely enough
he had no desire to dwell on the point.
A thing is not what you say it is.
It is much more.
It is a set in the largest sense of the word.
A chair is not a chair.
It is an inconceivably complex structure
Atomically
electronically, chemically, etc.
In turn,
Thinking of it as a simple chair
is what Korzybski termed ''identification''.
and the totality of
these identifications
produces nonsense
and tyranny.
Winter 1944, at the beginning of spring
We wanted to be useful.
You know very well there's not only one way to be useful.
and I am sure that she will be useful
Ah, you are coarse!
OK, I'll leave you alone. but who will help you here?
We came to Corsica expressly to see you.
I didn't ask for anything.
An expensive trip for you to find your pasha
and to get your money back.
and you greet us while getting a horoscope with a disgusting blonde.
How many men have you forgotten?
As many women as you remember
Don't go away
I haven't moved
Tell me something nice
Sure, what do you want to here?
lie to me
tell me all these years you've waited, tell me
All these years I've waited
Tell me you'd have died if I hadn't come back.
I would have died if you hadn't come back.
Yell me you still love me like I love you.
I still love you like you love me.
Spirit has such power
only to the extent
that it contemplates
the negative face to face.
The kingdom of France!
and...
with it....
Ah, my homeland! Is it true?
I have imagined you this way for a long time.
Happy country, magic, dazzling,
Oh beloved land, where are you?
I can't see you alone any more, you're always with him,
You're not leaving him, you know where you are,
The signs among us
I have a great past,
Roads leading nowhere
Monsieur Jean!
I'm going.
What is tragic in sexual relations - Monsieur Jean!
is the virginity of souls. - Monsieur Jean!
I'm going - What is it, Adrienne?
The departure of
the wet nurse.
Good luck, Monsieur Jean
Goodbye, Adrienne. - Brigitte, Monsieur Jean. Brigitte.
I'm not sure.
''In this woman's extreme confusion concerning earthly things,
''the sound of human speech barely reached her.''
''But she no longer understood it.''
''Her eyes were set on the vision that the dead contemplate forever.''
The end of Adrienne Mesurat.
Thank you, Monsieur Jean.
You are courageous - Oh yes?
You'll end up on unemployment -No
No.
Delors said on television yesterday
that Europe will build huge information highways,
There will be work for everyone.
''Great piracy can only occur in powerful democratic countries,
where the government is run by few,
''and where the state is responsible for immense enterprises.''
183O,
Alexis de Tocqueville.
This is the evening hour, which P.-J. Toulet loved.
''The horizon is coming undone.
A great ivory cloud to the west,
from the zenith to the ground, the twilight sky.
The immense solitude,
already frozen,
full of liquid silence.
It is the hour of the poet, who distilled the life in his heart.
to extract the secret essence,
embalmed, poisonous.''
I entered his room for the last time..
It is the evening hour.
The memory of the struggle where we confronted each other
came back to me so strongly that I almost fainted.
Paul-Jean Toulet.
I opened the muslin veil, touching my fingers
I said to her, be in peace, and she received this peace on her knees
What a miracle that one can give that which one does not possess oneself.
O sweet miracle from our empty hands
''While the orchestra plays
its outdated repertoire,
amid the banal crowd
I see you from afar
''And you, divine, in silence,
Your chin poised on one finger
your eyes half closed, you think.
''I want you to be thinking of me.''
I am Anne Marie.
Yes
Filmcenter. Test.
They are the Filmcenter inspectors.
OK, see you later, my good Joseph
Let's not waste any time.
Mr. Bernard, you've done the universities, the books, and the photos,
Mr. Andre, the films
The reproductions of films
In 1955, JLG announced that we will never see films on TV,
only reproductions. -and Vietnam, it's not a person
Shut up, Cassandra!
Help! Help!
And first, a few things because the truth is amongst us.
This imbecile JLG
should have known
that by creating
two
or three Vietnams
ipso facto...
he would create
two,
or three Americas - Yes, even here we see the result.
For America
1, 2, 3,...
16 Shelves
For Germany,
2 shelves
Russia
1 shelf
Italy, the same
Jean Renoir.
an entire set of shelves.
This imbecile J.L.G....
Monsieur Jean.
in 1939, in ''The Rules of the Game'' - Anything else to declare?
after ''The Grand Illusion''
and ''The Great Dictator''
by his friend Charles Spencer Chaplin, -Shut up, Cassandra
Nothing else to declare?
they were planning a second world war - Europe and its memories.
Shut up, Cassandra -America has its T-shirts
Your opinion on the Bern Convention and the GATT talks?
Films are merchandise.
They must be burnt.
I told that to Langlois.
But be careful
of the fire within
Art is like fire,
It is born from what burns.
'Man's Hope', Andre Malraux.
In 1914, Senator MacBridge...
declared to Congress:
''Trade follows films!''
Only JLG noted this, in his ''Histoire(s) du Cinema 1A
where he tells us that Melies had offices in New York,
and that they were stolen by Paramount during the Verdun offensive.
That's true, boss.
We project our images at the same speed as the Americans
24, and not 25.
The beginning of this story takes place in the minutes between night and day
during the twilight of morning.
In 'The Children Play Russian' JLG notes that in 1873
in his journal, a skinny, small, poor, sick Russian
declared with assurance
Europe is condemned to death.
in 1873, in his journal, a skinny, small, poor, sick Russian
declared with assurance: Europe is condemned to death.
But what is Europe dying of?
Dostoevsky
Born in autumn, died in winter
But why was he fascinated by
by the torture of an innocent child by a brute?
Because there must be a Russian people in swaddling clothes.
These political slaves must have moral liberty,
These brutes must have
in the hell of drunkenness and massacres,
must have a rich unconscious, unequalled in Europe,
These people
who are capable of anything, like cruel children
who sleep the rest of the time in a terrible impotence
must remain the only people in Europe who still have a God.
Shut up, Cassandra!
And that?
Jean Cocteau.
Bravo mademoiselle, continue.
Roads leading nowhere
Blank paper is the true mirror of man
Landscapes traversed
By whom?
By what?
If JLG by JLG exists
What does this ''by JLG'' mean?
It will concern childhood landscapes
and of the past, with no one in them
and also more recent landscapes
where things were filmed.
''Land'' is in ''Landscape''
and two notions of fatherland can perhaps emerge,
A homeland given,
and a homeland conquered.
Such as the negative Kafka spoke of,
which was to be created,
the positive having been given to us at birth.
Thunder and lightning! Corpus christi!
Is something wrong?
These secretaries are all bitches.
They've forgotten the main thing. -Really? What?
Yes, all the films you've never made.
Nothing to say?
The list is long, Monsieur.
Speak more loudly, my friend.
What is it?
I'm here for the assistant-editor job.
When the blind Justice Fielding entered my room,
she proclaimed with confidence
''This room is 9 meters wide
35 meters long
and 5 meters high.''
And that was in keeping with the truth.
Do you think I can have the job, Monsieur?
No problem, Mademoiselle.
Just a moment....
The producer guarantees that nothing
will obstruct the free exercise by the distributor
of the rights granted herein.
Let's get to work.
Come this way.
She is blind, that bitch!
A shady business OK, we have to go from shot 6/4 to shot 6/5
We see Rachel who -from 6/4 to 6/5
Exactly, Mademoiselle
We see Rachel saying: ''I'll start over, too, then.''
Then she faints.
Otherwise, how would I know that..
56 images later, God takes her in his arms.
If I know something
And shot 6/4's time is up.
while shot 6/5's is just beginning - 6/5.
I am infallible
And you must think there is a card.
Playing cards?
A title card, Mademoiselle.
Everything was asleep.
as if the entire universe
were a vast mistake.
And then we find Rachel facing the sea.
After 153 images...
she asks: ''Did you sleep with me?''
And she adds
34 images later
''I want to know''
I have cut there.
May I repeat that?
Gladly, Mademoiselle.
-So Are you kidding? Just like the others.
100% for the distributors - I, too, start again...
until the film breaks even, -then, I too
Until the producer's net receipts equal the cost of the film.
56.
1 53.
153.
You slept with me.
Yes. 34. - 34.
I want to know.
the nothing and the almost nothing
Everything was asleep
as if the entire universe
was a vast
mistake.
Choice of the chosen
I said to her one day:
''Mademoiselle, imagine a cube.''
I see it.
Imagine, in its center, a point.
It 's done.
From this point, draw straight lines to the angles.
You have now divided the cube.
Into six equal pyramids
each having the same face and base of the cube
and half of its height
This is true.
But where do you see it?
In my head, like you.
I took three steps in the veranda -In the veranda
It can't continue like this!
Simon went into this room, and I fainted
And nothing happened.
and it is the day, and I don't know
And you, Simon, you kill me
I begin my explanation again.
It is night.
Everything must be clear between us.
I return to this room.
I begin again. -Me, too.
I don't understand.
To have a lover is disgusting
I think that a lover loves only love
Not the other, opposite.
I love open windows and cool sheets
The temptation to exist
Lord
It is a film that has never been made
You speak the truth, Mademoiselle.
It is a film that no one has seen.
If my left hand can touch my right hand,
as it touches things
touch it while touching
Why,
in touching the hand of another,
will I not be touching
the same power of joining things together that I touched with my hands?
Yet........the domain, we quickly realize,
is unlimited.
If we can show that the flesh
Is an ultimate idea
that it is neither union nor composition of two substances.
but can be conceived in itself.
If the visible has a relationship to itself
that goes through me
and becomes me as I watch
watching this circle, which I do not create
but which creates me,
this winding of the visible within the visible
can go through and animate other bodies, as well as mine.
And if I could understand how this wave is born in me,
how the visible over there
is simultaneously my landscape.
I can understand that elsewhere, too, it closes in on itself
(I am a legend)
and that there are other landscapes than my own.
When we express ourselves, we say more than we want to
We think we express the individual, but we express the universal.
I am cold. It is I who say ''I am cold''.
But it is not I who is heard
I disappeared between these two moments of speech.
All that remains of me is the man who is cold
and this man belongs to everyone.
Where do you live?
In language, and I cannot keep quiet.
In speaking, I throw myself into an unknown place
a foreign land.
and I suddenly become in charge of it.
I have to become universal.
To realize, with humility, with caution
by means of my own flesh,
the universality I carelessly threw myself into out of thoughtlessness
that is my sole possibility,
t hat is my sole commandment
I said that I love. That is the promise.
What have you lost? What is this darkness?
Ask, rather, what is a government?
I said that I love.
A group of people who govern.
''No,'' he said, with a a pale smile,
''a government is your accepting to let yourself be governed.''
But that's ridiculous. That would mean that there's nothing up there.
Truly nothing.
Exactly That is to say, to finally deserve the name
That is what darkness is. -the name that was given to me.
Precisely
Self-portrait
Not autobiography.
Fourth thirty 3O/4O. - No,game, game
Our pre war
The past is never dead
It hasn't even passed yet
I am as happy to be passed
as not to be passed.
And now my work is done,
which neither the anger of Jupiter
nor fire, nor sword,
nor the gnawing tooth of time
shall ever be able to destroy.
Let that day, that only has power
over my body, end when it will
my uncertain span of years
But that's my coat.
yet the best part of me will be borne
immortal, beyond the distant stars.
Wherever America's influence extends, over the lands it has civilized
Whatever the extent of American power over occupied lands,
I will be spoken, on people's lips and, famous through the ages
if there is truth in the poet's prophecies
and once famous
I shall live
throughout eternity..
If I believe
If there is some truth
in the mouths of poets.
I shall live
It is not even the past yet
I said that I love
That is the promise.
Now, I have to sacrifice myself
so that love exists on earth.
As a reward
at the end of this long undertaking
I will end up being he who loves.
That is, I will deserve the name I gave myself.
A man,
nothing but a man,
no better than any other,
But
no other better than him.