Gilles Deleuze's Movement-Image and Time-Image, Explained

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: • Gilles Deleuze's Movem...
Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 2: • Gilles Deleuze's Cinem...
Deleuze and Cinema Video Part 3: • Gilles Deleuze's Cinem...

[@cemgok5672]

As a student having problems with Deleuze's reads, this is like a gold mine. You are a true hero!

[@ilovepavement1]

Powell wrote a book this year about time in films. In times of transition, or uncertainty (post war etc), she writes, we see the recurring motif of the angel - a transcendental overseer from whom the seer, often in the setting of an Any-Space-Whatever, will receive their vision. Great psycho-geographer of cinema, Wim Wenders, who made Wings Of Desire at the height of the 80s Cold War tension, has only this year made his homage to Ozu with Perfect Days, a film which depicts Tokyo as a spatial-temporal (liminal-heavenly) cornucopia, populated by what you eventually realise are angels, including the protagonist.

[@rafaelf.3732]

just early today, I’ve asked to my teacher a basis reading to understand Deleuze’s books which are being kind of complicated to me. and now, I saw your class here! thank you so much, it was very enlightening. can’t wait for part two

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

Glad it's useful! The books are so difficult for me too...

[@ilovepavement1]

Deleuze's real inspiration here is Lacan. He was a critic of Lacan's, which is probably why old Jaques goes unacknowledged.

[@kesiaramos3385]

I'm from Brazil and i think that is de best explanation that I had found so far.

[@markfisher2790]

You do a wonderful job explaining these concepts!.MANY THANKS.

[@olikim21]

Hi Jordan! I was looking for a short cut to refresh these two concepts in my memory and came across your video! What a treat!!!

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

Hi Olia! Fun to run into you on here! It is impossible to commit Deleuze to memory lol...

[@BuckyHuxley]

thanks a million! I gave these books up a while ago, I just wasn't getting it. I love Deleuze and you've provided a clarifying inroad into these works-----and they're very interesting. The movement-image films we are flooded with today, overriding the time-image films I love, are pregnant with profound implications about the current state of the art, our political economics, our thought (or lack thereof) and our consciousness. Deleuze's brilliance shines through again! It seems a much deeper critique of cinema (and contemporary life) that I am accustomed to encountering. Thanks again I look forward to the next vids in this series.

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

thanks for the comment, Jim! I had a similar experience with the books, too. I just wasn't getting them either when I first encountered them as a grad student. But I just needed to move a lot slower, and I had a lot of help from supplementary material. I see what you mean about the critical stance toward the movement-image, and it seems consistent with Deleuze's other work that there's an implicit critique against the movement-image, given how much Deleuze is politically invested in the capacity for generating new thought. But also some commentators, like Richard Ruston, warn against reading a strong value judgment that privileges the time-image above the movement-image, which is fairly common in scholarship on the books. I haven't quite made up my mind on the matter but I thought I'd share the warning of at least one commentator, which has stuck out in my mind.

[@ploufbadaboum2221]

thank you so much to make this episode about deleuze! pour ceux qui comprennent le français, tous les cours de deleuze sont disponibles en audio sur le site de paris 8 ("la voix de gilles deleuze")

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

Glad you enjoyed! In addition to the paris 8 website, you can find a great wealth of Deleuze's lectures recorded and transcribed in both French and English here: deleuze.cla.purdue.edu/full-index It's a fairly new project and it's kind of amazing for anyone working on Deleuze. There are dozens of lectures on the Cinema books alone, which he delivered while he was writing the books, and because they are lectures, they're a bit clearer than the books (!).

[@ploufbadaboum2221]

@@filmandmediastudieschannel thank you so much for the link! i understand easier his lectures than the books indeed

[@srirj44]

Brilliant video. Keep it up.

[@a.yuzbasoglu3810]

Hello, I wanted to look at the videos before reading Deleuze's books. I came across your videos, Thank you very much for your beautiful videos💐

[@Pineapplecrispy]

I really really appreciate your videos I was having so much trouble understanding my professors Handouts but your videos make these concepts so easy to understand Thank you so much

[@dislocational]

thank you so much for great guidance and explanation of Deleuze's concepts!! Such a treasure, really appreciate your work and that you share it - knowledge (information, experience) should be accessible to everyone!

[@hamzamechri5774]

thank you a lot for the brief and engaging explanation

[@Noura-bv9pv]

You explained that so clearly. Thank you so much!

[@Marcrubio16]

Absolutely incredible video, trying to recap a few concepts to write an essay and this really helped me. Thank you.

[@NichaHomewong]

Thank you SO much!

[@ilovepavement1]

Although the scene in question is possibly a little more META than Del's concept, the ultimate time-image is for me the last scene of Godfather 2. Not so much a flashback as 'subjective time travel'. Rather than Michael's memory, its Michael interrogating the memory from a future where he is unable to affect the past. He is not IN the memory - rather, like the viewer, a helpless (ineffectual) spectator of it; a Cassandra-like figure, but a Cassandra prophesying from a time AFTER the event, perhaps from the spatial-temporal space of the prophecy itself? I'd love to hear Jordan's take on Aftersun as it pertains to this subject. I know not all films about the past are Time-Image films but I get the feeling theres a lot of Deleuzian film theory at work.

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

@@ilovepavement1 great description! Big fan of aftersun for sure.

[@aziart8886]

Thank you very much, you explained very clearly

[@s03161]

Such a helpful video!! Thank you so much for this!!

[@mauriciochavez3564]

I'm always looking forward these videos. But this is special because I've been reading these two books for a couple of months already

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

That's great!

[@duygukaya846]

Thanks so much! This has come in handy incredibly!

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

Glad to hear it!

[@marcelacurbelo1042]

Excellent

[@profrahulsett9893]

Thank you very much. This is very helpful.

[@devashishsata3405]

great effort thanks for sharing 🙏

[@moinkadir]

Thank you so much! It really helped a lot!

[@johannesbongers]

Thank you, so helpful!!

[@FluentlyFletch]

Thanks a lot for this video- It's certainly helping me to get my head around the Time-image concept I'm thinking of including in an uipcoming essay relating to the depiction of space in Stalker and Solaris- wish me luck LOL! Thanks!

[@bonnielenorekyburz7896]

So far, so great! I'm planning to share with my Film Theory class. Where may I find more information about the person delivering this talk? (I've searched but am not having much luck). Thank you!

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

Hi Bonnie! Thanks for your interest in the video! My name is Jordan Schonig and I teach film studies - you can find more info in the About section of the KZbin Channel's page.

[@graykokalgolcer3670]

thank you so much for this

[@Nandita193]

Please explain the images used in modern cinema. Such as grain and pixels in images. Cinema of Maya Deren. I must say your videos are very helpful. Thank you so much for creating such content.

[@tonibcnn]

Will you do a video on Time-Image exclusively?

[@omarsherief5690]

Thanks a lot

[@cosimosidoti5694]

according to you, can we apply any of these concepts to social media images? I see many similarities and I am thinking to do so.

[@filmandmediastudieschannel]

what kinds of social media images?

[@cosimosidoti5694]

@@filmandmediastudieschannel about people sharing stories and posts about them consuming drugs... and everything related around the culture of this particular drug i am researching... so it includes memes as well

[@cosimosidoti5694]

@@filmandmediastudieschannel memes for instance?

[@cosimosidoti5694]

@@filmandmediastudieschannel I am referring to, for instance, mediated representations of criminal behaviours

[@MrRajaalam]

খুব ভালো

[@ladymarx]

💓

[@everethwilkins7076]

delize, deluxe, deliver us, delight... Translate being run by Foucault to piss Deleuze off beyond the grave.

[@pritampatowary5812]

Please create more content 🤍 We need YOU