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From Hypnosis to AnimalsRaymond Bellour, Hilary Radner, Cecilia
Novero, Masha Salazkina, Alistair Fox
Cinema Journal, Volume 53, Number 3, Spring 2014, pp. 1-8
(Article)
Published by University of Texas PressDOI:
10.1353/cj.2014.0030
For additional information about this article
Access provided by Universitaetsbibliothek Heidelberg (6 May
2014 06:03 GMT)
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cj/summary/v053/53.3.bellour.html
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1www.cmstudies.org 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
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From Hypnosis to Animalsby RAYMOND BELLOURtranslated and edited
by ALISTAIR FOX1with an introduction by HILARY RADNER and CECILIA
NOVEROand an introductory note by MASHA SALAZKINA, chair, SCMS
Translation/Publication Committee
A Note from the SCMS Translation/Publication Committee. We are
ex-tremelypleasedtocontinuetobeabletooffernewtranslationsof
worksonfilmand media studies in the pages of Cinema Journal. Recent
translations of the canoni-cal authors published over the past few
years have demonstrated the power of such
publicationstorevitalizethefieldatlarge,producingimportantnewhistoricalandtheoreticalscholarshipandengenderingnewdebatesinthefieldashasbeenthecasewiththerecenttranslationsof
Eisenstein,Bazin,Balzs,andKracauer,aswellas their critical
reception. At the same time, the well-deserved visibility of these
publications tends toobscure the fact thatvery little translated
scholarship infilmandmedia studiesis being published. For a
discipline whose institutionalization and growth in the
1960sand1970sdependedagreatdealonthetranslationsof
classicalfilmtheory,aswellasitscontemporaryFrenchscholarship(RaymondBelloursworkamongthem),thisapparentlackof
interestinworkonfilmandmediainotherlanguagesis alarming.
Moreover,despitetheconsistentandgrowingturnwithinfilmandmediastudiestoward
transnational scholarship,anddespite the fact thatmuchof
thecutting-edge,award-winningworkinthedisciplinedealswiththeareasof
theworldthathave traditionally not constitutedpart of
thefilmandmedia studies canon,wesee very few translations published
that address the lack of available sources from
areasbeyondthedisciplinarycenter.If wetrytothinkof
filmcultureasaglobalphenomenon,andgobeyondanarrowEurocentricunderstanding,itiscrucialtoengage
with the ways in which cinema and the cinematic experience have
been considered,anddiscussed,globally.Thepaucityof
sourceswecanturntoforthisisnotevidence,assomewouldassume,of
theuniquenessof theconceptualappa-ratusof
theEuro-Americanacademytoproduceknowledgeaboutcinema.Rather,itemergesfromconventionalpracticeswithinacademicandpublishinginstitutions,amongwhichisthedifficultyof
publishingtranslatedmaterial.
1 Except where otherwise noted, passages quoted from sources
originally in French are translated by Alistair Fox.
De lhypnose lanimal, by Raymond Bellour, in Le corps du cinma
POL diteur, 2009.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
2
Thereasonsforthissituationaremultifaceted.Asaresultof
thecontinuingcrisisin academic publishing and the replacement of
literary translation practices with
algo-rithm-basedbusinesstranslations,academictranslationingeneralhasbecomemuchmoreof
a rarity, and fewpublishers arewilling to accept
translatedmaterial.Thejobof
anacademictranslatorhasbeensubjecttothesamefateintheinstitutionalcultureof
assessmentandoverwhelmingdeprofessionalizationof
academiclabor,fewacademics can afford to take on the barely paid
(if at all) academic translation jobs. Thelogicof
globalizationhasreshapedthetranslationindustry,anditseffectsarealsofeltintheacademy.Mosttranslationisnownonliterary,carriedoutbyfreelancersforprofit
through an online interface,which combines notions of algorithmic
transla-tions with a casual workforce and seeks to make the work of
the translator invisible whileeschewinganytheoriesof
translationinfavorof corporateefficiency.Thefactthat many academic
institutions do not consider translation a form of scholarship is
areflectionof
thislargershiftinthewaytranslationisapproachedandconsidered.Similar
challenges face those scholars who discover that collaborative work
may be
bestsuitedtotackletranslationprojects.Becausewemustinventtherulesaswego,ourcollaborationsrequireagreatdealof
experimentationandintellectualandaffec-tiveengagement.Thelaborthatgoesintocollaborativeworkoftenlacksmeasuresthataccountforitsinstitutionalvalue,thusmakingsuchworkahigh-riskinvestmentthatonlyacademicswithsecurejobplacementcanafford,andyoungerscholars(graduate
students,orunderemployedorjuniorfacultystrugglingtomeettherequirementsfortenure)areilladvisedtotakesuchrisks.However,withoutthem,weasadisciplineandasacademicinstitutionsarelikelytopreservethecurrentstateof
stasis.
Supportingacademictranslationcarriedoutbyqualifiedandcommitted,butalsofullyemployedandemployablescholars,needstobeaninstitutionalpriorityforourorganization,andtheworkof
theTranslation/PublicationCommitteeof SCMSand translations like the
one found in this issue of Cinema Journalisanimportantstepin this
direction.
Introduction.KnowntotheEnglish-speakingworldsincethelate1970s,RaymondBellourwas
instrumental in definingfilmanalysis as it is routinely practiced
todayinintroductoryfilmcoursesacrossthecontinents.2Appointedin1964totheCentreNationaldeRecherchesScientifiques(CNRS),whereheholdsthepositionof
emeritusdirectorof research,he taught formanyyearsat
theCentreAmricaindestudesCinmatographiquesinParis,hisapproachshapingtheworkof
severalgenerationsof
Americanfilmacademicswhostudiedthere.AmongthemarescholarsasdiverseasJanetBergstrom,JackieByers,TimCorrigan,DanaPolan,DavidRodowick,SusanWhite,andMaryWiles,tocitebutafew.WhileBellourisknownforhiscontributionsto
thepracticeof filmanalysis, asMichaelGoddardpointsout ina
rareextendedoverviewof his scholarship,[t]here isamore
limitedawarenessof Belloursmore
2 See, for example, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson, Film
Art: An Introduction, 4th ed. (New York: McGraw Hill, 1993), 63;
Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White, The Film Experience: An
Introduction (Boston: Saint Bedford; New York: Martins, 2004),
423424.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
3
recentworkoncinema.3Goddard laments thatBellourswritingon
therelationsbetweencinema,photography,videoart,paintingandliteratureandphilosophysincethe1980sremainsunknowninanEnglish-languagecontext,despitethetranslationsof
afewof
thekeychapters.4HealsopointsouthowprescientBellourhasbeen,somuchsothatasearlyas1985Bellourwasalreadywritingthattheproject,orratherthedream,of
filmanalysiswasalreadyinflamesandhadbecomeimpossibleforboththeoreticalandtechnicalreasons.5Hence,astheresultof
hispost-1985publications,in particular the research that led to the
1990 collection of essays entitled Lentre-images: Photo. Cinma.
Vido.,6GoddardstateswithconfidencethatBellourisnolonger...afilmanalystortheoristbutacreativeandinnovativephilosopherof
film,imagesandrepresentationalpractices.7
Thoughcertainof Belloursconceptsfromthisperiod,suchasle
spectateur pensif (the
pensivespectator),haveprovenextremelyinfluential,8asGoddardunderlines,Englishtranslationsof
hisworkhavebeenfewandfarbetween,oftenappearingbelatedly,aswas the
case with The Analysis of
Film,finallypublishedin2000,andBetween-the-Images,a translation of
Lentres-images,whichappearedin2012.9 A majority of the work by
thisveryprolificwriterremainsunavailableinEnglish,includingLentre-images
2: Mots, images(Between-the-Images2:Words,Images);La querelle des
dispositifs: CinmaInstal-lations, expositions (TheDebate about
theApparatus:CinemaInstallations,Exhibi-tions);andhismagnumopus,Le
corps du cinma: Hypnoses, motions, animalits(TheBodyof
Cinema:Hypnoses,Emotions,Animalities), fromwhich the following
translatedselection is taken.10
Inthelatter,amassivevolumeof
morethanfivehundredpages,Bellourbringsto-gether three themes that
have marked his exploration of classical cinema over the past
decades.Describedasthefirstlarge-scaleworkontherhythmicandformalaspectsof
cinemathatunifytheanimal,theviewerandtheproductionandunfoldingof
film,thevolumefocusesontherelationsamongtheselast,withinthecontextof
aparticulardispositif,orapparatus,thatcharacterizedthefilmexperienceatacertainmomentintimetheperiodaftertheriseof
thestudiosandbeforethedominanceof television.11
3 Michael Goddard, Raymond Bellour, in Film, Theory and
Philosophy: The Key Thinkers, ed. Felicity Colman (Montreal:
McGill-Queens University Press, 2009), 256.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid., 257.
6 Raymond Bellour, Lentre-images: Photo. Cinma. Vido. (Paris: La
Diffrence, 1990).
7 Goddard, Raymond Bellour, 265.
8 See, for example, Laura Mulvey, Death 24x a Second: Stillness
and the Moving Image (London: Reaktion Books, 2006).
9 Raymond Bellour and Constance Penley, The Analysis of Film
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000); Ray-mond Bellour and
Allyn Hardyck, Raymond Bellour: Between-the-Images (Zurich:
JRP/Ringier, 2012).
10 Raymond Bellour, Lentre-images 2: Mots, images (Paris: POL,
1999); Raymond Bellour, La querelle des dispositifs:
CinmaInstallations, expositions (Paris: POL, 2012); Raymond
Bellour, Le corps du cinma: Hypnoses, motions, animalits (Paris:
POL, 2009).
11 Roger Clestin, liane Dalmolin, and Anne Simon, Editors
Introduction, Contemporary French and Francophone Studies 16, no. 5
(2012): 590, doi: 10.1089/17409292.2012.739420.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
4
ForBellour,theterrainof cinemaremainsrelatively
limited,markedbyasetof fairly specific constraintsafilm
isprojectedbya specific setof
machineryoveraspecifiedtimeperiodataspecificspeed, inthedark,
toagroupof spectators,whowatchitaccordingtoasetof
conventionsthatarefollowedbythegroup,whichin-cludesarequiredlevelof
attention.12Itispreciselythiscinemathatinterestshimacinemathatwouldbefamiliartoonlyafewmoviegoerstoday,harkingbacktoBel-loursownyouth,inwhichthefilmexperiencewascharacterizedbywhathecallsauniqueexperienceof
memory,thatanyotherviewingsituationaltersmoreorless.13
Theexcerptincludedhererepresentsahingemomentinhisinquiryintothetermsof
this cinema and lays out the points of commonality between hypnosis
and animality (asthequalitiesof
animalness)throughwhich,accordingtoBellour,wemightcometounderstandthenatureof
cinemasphysicalimpactonthebody(lecorpsducinma).Bellourpositsthatthewayinwhichhypnosisisrepresentedinfilmallowsforamise
en abymeof cinemaas itself adevice
thatcaptures,orentrances,aviewerandbyextension,anaudiencewherebyheorshebecomespreytosomaticaffects(emotionsexperienced
as the viewers own, introduced from elsewhere and registered on
thebody itself
).Inevokinghypnosisinthiscontext,BellourrecallswhatLauraMarkshasdescribedasthehapticvisualityof
cinemathemeanswherebycinemaappealstosensesthatitcannotaffect.Marksexplainsthatthinkingof
cinemaashapticisonlyasteptowardconsideringthewayscinemaappealstothebodyasawhole.14
Bellours investigationof cinema,hypnosis, theemotions,andanimals
thereforemoves us yet another step closer in our understanding of
how cinema engages with thebody: this capacityof thecinema
toproduceanarrayof sensations, includingemotions, or, at the very
least, their illusion, in the viewer. In this sense,when
theviewerwatchesamovieandiscaptivatedbytheexperience,sheorheisnot,asitwere,herself
or himself. He or she is captivated by a force of suggestion that
emanates from outsidetheself.Wemightcallthisthemagicof
movieswhatbringsusbacktothetheater,accountingforcinemasenduringholdonour
imagination,andlinkingthecinematicexperiencetothatof
hypnosis.HistorianRuthLeysmaintainsthatacertainstrandof
earlytwentieth-centurythoughtunderstoodhypnosisandsuggestionasinvolvingakindof
imitationormimesis.15Withinthisparadigm,hypnosisdissolvesthe
distinction between self and other to such a degree that the
hypnotized subject comestooccupytheplaceof
theotherinanunconsciousimitationoridentificationsoprofound that the
other is not apprehended as
other.16Bellourpositsthespectatorassimilarly immersed in the
cinematic experience. Bellour relates this dimension of cinematic
experience to the position of
ani-mals,whomhedescribes,citingFranoisRoustang,aFrenchpsychoanalystwhohas
12 Gabriel Lerous and Frank Madlener, The Art of Systems:
Interview with Raymond Bellour, Mani-Feste 2013: 27,
http://manifeste2013.ircam.fr/en/text/lart-des-dispositifs/.
13 Raymond Bellour, Le spectateur de cinma: Une mmoire unique,
Trafic 79 (2011): 32 (our translation).
14 Laura Marks, The Skin of Film: Intercultural Cinema,
Embodiment, and the Senses (Durham, NC: Duke University Press,
2000), 163.
15 Ruth Leys, The Real Miss Beauchamp: Gender and the Subject of
Imitation, in Feminists Theorize the Political, ed. Judith Butler
and Joan W. Scott (New York: Routledge, 1992), 172.
16 Ibid.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
5
publishedextensivelyonhypnosis,asinaconstantstateof
hypnosisthatistosay,astateinwhichtheyarealivebutunconsciousof
themselvesasisthecinematicspec-tator,whoseconsciousnesshasbeeninvaded,inhabited,orevenreplacedbyanother,thatof
thefilm.17Bellourpositstherecurrentintroductionof
animalmotifsinfilmsas a reminder of this primal relationship
between the cinematic state and the animal stateof
thecontinuumbetweentheanimalandthehuman.Thus,hepostulatesachildwhosleeps
inevery spectator,who ismobilizedby thecinematicdispositif.18
Susceptibletohypnosis,thischild-vieweristantamounttotheanimalthatheisbecausethecinemaservesasthecatalystthatactivatesthequalitiesthatthehumansubject
(the child who sleeps) shares with
animals.19Indeed,accordingtoBellour,theviewerentersintoahypnoticstateassoonasthefilmbegins:Animality...em-bodiestheinnerelementof
hypnosisthatisintrinsictotheemotionalbody.20 From
thissameperspective,theinfinitevarietyof
emotionsarousedbyfilmsareequiva-lenttotheeffectsof
hypnosisthattheyinduce.21
ForBellour, theways inwhich a film acts upon the body in
eliciting
emotions,whicharesomaticallydriven,areboththeconsequenceandtheproof
of
ahypnotiz-ingmechanism.Thelatterisgeneratedbyaspecific,historicallydeterminedcinematicapparatus.22Thisspecificity
isengenderedintandembytheapparatusasasociallyandarchitecturallyinscribedinstitutionandbythefilm-workitself
(theworkof thefilmonthespectator),thatis,bytherhythmsof
light,bythealternationsbetweenappearing and disappearing forms, by
the various repeated intervals generated
bymovingimages.23Ontheonehand,accordingtoBellour,thefilmistheeffectof
ahistoricallyspecificcinematicapparatus.Ontheotherhand,themachinethatfilmitself
isthe games of light, as theGermans used to call cinema
(Lichtspiele)isintrinsically,byvirtueof
itstechnicity,hypnotic.24
Thedarkspace,theanonymousaudience,thesurroundingsound,andsoon,how-ever,arealsoallelementsthatplayakeyroleinsubduingtheviewerintothereceptive-activestateof
hypnosis,thestateof innervationasapromiseof agencyof
whichWalterBenjaminwrote.25 Significantly,Bellour remarks in an
earlier chapterof Le
17 Raymond Bellour, From Hypnosis to Animals, ed. and trans.
Alistair Fox, Cinema Journal 53, no. 3 (2014): 16.
18 Ibid., 13.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 For an explanation of the term apparatus, see Jean-Louis
Baudry, The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the
Impression of Reality in Cinema, trans. Jean Andrews and Bertrand
Augst, in Film Theory and Criticism: In-troductory Readings, 4th
ed., ed. Gerald Mast, Marshall Cohen, and Leo Braudy (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1992), 690707.
23 Cyril Bghin, Lanimal-analyse, Cahiers du cinma, JulyAugust
1990, 76 (our translation); for a definition of film-work, see
Thierry Kuntzel, The Film-Work, Enclitic 2, no. 1 (1978): 3861;
Theirry Kuntzel, The Film-Work 2, Camera Obscura 5 (1980): 669.
24 Miriam Bratu Hansen, Part II Benjamin, in Cinema and
Experience: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin and Theodor W.
Adorno (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012), 190.
25 Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, ed. Michael W. Jennings
et al., trans. Rodney Livingstone, Edmund Jephcott, Howard Eiland
et al., vol. 3, 19351938 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
19962003), 124; Hansen, Part II Benjamin, in CInema and Experience,
132147.
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6
corps du cinma thatthisviewerwhogiveshimself overtothe
lighthypnosisof filmis as active as [heis]passive.26Thisconceptof
theactive-passiveviewerexplicitlyresonateswithBenjaminslineof
argumentthatrecognizesboththedangersandthepossibilitiesinherentincinematicexperience.AscriticaltheoristHansenexplains,forBenjamin,theideaof
filmasaformof play(Spiel
)...allowsforanondestructive,mimeticinnervationof
technologythatisgroundedinthenotionof animbricationof
physiologicalwithmachinicstructures.27
Infocusingonhypnosis,Bellourchallengestheveryinfluentialintrapsychicmodelof
thecinematicspectatorassociatedwithoneof his
interlocutors,ChristianMetz.Largely informedbyaFrenchpsychoanalytic
tradition,Metzposited thecinematicexperience as a form of
regression analogous to the dream state (as described by
Sig-mundFreud),butespeciallywiththeimaginaryandthemirrorstage(inthetermsof
French psychoanalyst JacquesLacan),andasgroundedinapsychologyof
disavowalassociated with
fetishism.28Belloursmodelinthisvolumebuildsonthispsychoana-lytic
tradition but enfolds the kinds of psychic investments (which may
or may not be
mobilizedtovaryingdegreesthroughspecificnarratives)thatMetzproposeswithinasystem
that remains both social and historical in its origins while also
taking into ac-countthespecificityof thefilmexperienceitself
asproducedbyastripof projectedimagesmovingthroughtheviewersfieldof
visionataparticularanduniformlyregu-latedspeed,whileshesitsinthedarkwithotherviewers.
Notcoincidentally,Bellourhasrecourseespeciallytoearlyfilmsforhisexamplesin
which both animals and hypnosis were prominent as imagesof
filmsownworkings,pointsof
reference,mechanisms,andeffects.Belloursexplorationof
hypnosisinthecontextof theviewersexperience lendsweightanddetail
towhatotherwisemightbeinterpretedasanimpressionistmetaphor,whileatthesametimeechoingthefearsof
massculturetheoristswhoattackedcinemabecause, intheirview,
itproducedanarcotized,passivespectator.29Indeed,thegreatdirectorLuisBuuel,whoclaimedtobeanaccomplishedhypnotisthimself
inhisyouth,30 noted in his autobiography
thatmovieshaveahypnoticpower....Cinematographichypnosis,lightandimper-ceptible,isnodoubtdue,inthefirstinstance,tothedarknessof
thetheaterbutalsotochangingshotsandlightsandtocameramovements,whichweakenthespectatorscriticalunderstandingandexerciseoverhimakindof
fascination.31
Thefigureof
theanimalisalinchpininBellourshistoricalunderstandingof
cin-emaanditsrelationstohypnosis;whathetermstheattestedprimordiallinkbetweenanimalsandcinemaarisesasresultof
thehistoricalcoincidencebetweentheinven-tion of the cinema and a
change in function and position accorded to animals in
26 Bellour, Le corps du cinma, 179.
27 Hansen, Part II Benjamin, in CInema and Experience, 93,
133.
28 Christian Metz, The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and
the Cinema, trans. Celia Britton, Annwyl Williams, Ben Brewster,
and Alfred Guzzetti (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982).
See in particular Part III The Fiction Film and Its Spectator: A
Metapsychological Study, 99147.
29 See, for example, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno,
Dialectic of Englightenment (New York: Herder and Herder,
1972).
30 Luis Buuel, Mi ltimo suspiro (Barcelona: Debolsillo, 2003),
7678.
31 Ibid., 79 (our translation).
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
7
Europeansociety.Forexample,inthewordsof
tienneSouriau,asquotedbyBellour,thesuddenandalmosttotalcessationof
theuseof thehorseincombatandasameans of locomotion corresponds with
the moment at which the horse becomes a fa-vored subject and actor
in cinema.32Here,Bellourbuildsontheworkof
AkiraLippit,whomhefulsomelyacknowledges.Lippitarguesthattheeliminationof
animalsfromthe immediate environment coincided with accelerated
industrialization in the late
nineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturiesandtheriseof
technologicalmedia.33Thisshiftinthestatusof
thehorse,andanimalsmoregenerally,reflectsotherlargerchangesthroughwhichanotherorderbetweenhumansandanimalswouldemerge.34Thenumerousappearancesof
animalsinart,mostnotablyatthecinema,whereanimalsbecomemanifestationsof
thisnewtechnology,aresignsof
thesechanges.InLippitswords,cinemabestembodiedthetransferof
animalsfromnaturetotechnology.35
Amongthemost significantconsequencesof these transformationswere
thede-bates in this same period about what it means to be human and
about the relations
betweenhumanityandanimality;morerecently,diversethinkers,fromtheFrenchphi-losopherlisabethdeFontenaytothepopularhistorian
JoannaBourke,cametoclaimthat the lines that divide the human from
the animal could no longer be maintained
asgivens,suchthatneitherhumansnoranimalscouldbeconsideredtofallintoclearcategoriesonaCartesianmodel.36Bourkecommentedthattheboundariesof
thehuman and the animal turn out to be as entwined and
indistinguishable as the inner andoutersidesof aMbiusstrip.37
ForBellour,drawinguponaWesternphilosophicaltradition,whatmakesushu-manisourconsciousnessof
self andourcapacitytoexerciseagencyoverthatself it is this which
distinguishes us from animals that are prey to instinct as a force
that provokes action without the possibility of thought or
consciousness. Here he draws upon nineteenth-century ideas about
hypnotism and animal magnetism. While
cur-rentphilosophicalpositionsandresearchonneurobiologypromotenewperspectives,the
terrainof Belloursexplorations isneitherabstractphilosophynor
science,but,rather,acquiredformsof representation.It
ishowanimalsandhypnosisarerepre-sentedandhowtheirmechanicityseemstospeaktotheeffectsof
thecinematicma-chinethatconcernshim.Heisinterestedinthewaysinwhichtheseoften-overlookedyetfoundationalif
nowoutmodedcinematicrepresentationsdisruptdeeplyheldviews about
what it means to be human and what it means to be a cinema
spectator.
Thedifficultiesinherentintheserepresentationsdonotimpingeontheireffects,onfilmsinnervationof
astrangerealityarousedbymomentsthatcanbedescribedonly
32 Bellour, From Hypnosis to Animals, 14.
33 Akira Mizuta Lippit, Electric Animal: Towards a Rhetoric of
Wildlife (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000),
23.
34 Ibid.
35 Ibid.
36 See, for example, Joanna Bourke, What It Means to Be Human:
Reflections from 1791 to the Present (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint,
2011); lisabeth de Fontenay, Le silence des btes: La philosophie
lpreuve de lanimalit (Paris: Fayard, 1998).
37 Bourke, What It Means to Be Human, 10.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
8
by the word hypnotic.38The following chapter, translated and
editedbyAlistairFox,elucidatesthelargerissuesthatinformthevolumeasawholewithregardtothesecrucialquestions,illuminatingourunderstandingof,inthewordsof
MiriamHansen,whatcinemadoes,thekindof
sensory-perceptual,mimeticexperienceitenabled.39
We would like to acknowledge the many people who assisted us in
bringing this translated selection of Lecorpsducinma into print:
Masha Salazkina and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
Translation/Publication Committee; Chris Holmlund, SCMS president,
20122013; Vibeke Madsen and POL; Karen Broyles at the University of
Texas Press; Will Brooker, Anna Froula, and Philip Bevin from
CinemaJournal; Campbell Walker, who shared his insights with us;
Frdric Dichtel, who provided invaluable editorial assistance;
Alistair Fox, who did much more than translate; and finally, last
but certainly not least, Raymond Bellour himself, whose enthusiasm
for the cinema and its many avatars has not waned with the years
and whose contributions have assisted in defining our field of
research for nearly half a century. Without his generosity and
energy, we would not have had the opportunity to publish this work
in CinemaJournal.
38 Bellour, From Hypnosis to Animals, 10 (our translation).
39 Hansen, preface to Cinema and Experience, xvii.
From Hypnosis to Animals
T
hereisalineleading,throughMabuse,directlyfromhypnosistoanimals.InDr.
Mabuse, der Spieler [Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler;FritzLang,1922],a shot
suddenlyappearsinthecourseof
acardgame,afterMabusesfacehasadvancedtowardWencklikeanintractableforceof
light:arapidshot,anomalous,onthevergeof
hallucinationshowingonlythetopof
Mabusesface,withhisglitteringeyes,hisfacehavingbecomelikeananimalmask,somewherebetweenalionandadog(Figure1).
Similarly, during an-other game of cards, thefat Russian who
losesthebet,attemptingtoex-plain her confusion, saysto La Carozza:
He waslooking at me with his evil eyes, likeadevil!Yes . .. he has
the evil eyes of a ferociousbeast.InInferno [part2of Dr.
Mabuse],theposter announcing Sandor Weltmanns
experimentalsession,totakeplaceattheMainAuditoriumof Phil-harmonic
Hall, confirms
Figure 1. Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler, directed by Fritz Lang
(Uco-Film der Decla-Bioscop AG, 1922).
De lhypnose lanimal, by Raymond Bellour, in Le corps du cinma
POL diteur, 2009.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
9
thisassociation,addingTheSubconsciousinManandAnimaltothelistof
demon-strationstobeperformed,which,aswehaveseen,includeMassSuggestionandHyp-nosis.Hypnosisiswhatlinkstheonetotheother.Moreover,todemonstrate
the power of moving images projected on a screen in a theater to
become so real in the eyes of a captivated audience that they reach
out beyond the boundaries of the stage and
crossoverinthedirectionof
thespectators,FritzLanghaschosenacaravanadvanc-inginthedesertasamotif
forthisillusion,minglingmenandanimals.Threeyearsearlier,hehadalreadygivenhisfirstmajorserialthetitleof
Die Spinnen (The
Spiders,19191920),thenamegiven[inthenarrative]toasecretsocietytheSpiderswhoaretheantagonistsof
anadventurer,KayHoog,inwhatturnsouttobeacomplicatedstory involving
hypnosis as one of the many shifting motifs.
Therearetwowaysthroughwhichsuchanassociationcanbeexpressed.Thefirst,whichisfactualandenumerative,involvesacollectionof
signs.Manyfilmsdisplayamomentary,andsomewhatmysterious,insistenceonananimalfigurethatisgeneratedoutof
thegeneralhypnoticsituationof thefilm.Forexample,SchattenEine
nchtliche Halluzination (Warning Shadows;ArthurRobison, 1923)
closeswithapowerful imageof the shadow puppeteer straddling a pig
and disappearing with it from the frame inthemomentumof
theeventsthatsweepthemoff
togethernotbeforewehavenoticed,however,thatthecurved-upbottomof
hismagicianscostumeformsatail,ludicrouslyprotrudingfromhisbody,whichresemblesthetailof
theanimalitself.Inanotherexample,TodBrowningsDracula
(1931),consistentwiththemyth(incontrasttoMurnausNosferatu, eine
Symphonie des Grauens [Nosferatu, a Symphony of
Horror,1922]),suddenlyhas a giganticflyingbat appear in thewindow
frameof thebedroom
inwhichMinaissleeping,justbeforethevampireentersasacreaturefrombeyondthegrave
to draw the young woman to himself in a mixed condition of dream
and hyp-nosis (Herzog replicates this state in his Nosferatu of
1979). In Nosferatuitself,averitableprocessionof
animalsappearsthroughoutthefilm,associatedwiththeimpliedhypno-sisthatemanatesfromthefaceof
thevampireMurnausgeniuslayinconceivingof him in this
way.1Yetagain,inthecourseof thedream-fantasyenactedindanceinThe
Pirate (VincenteMinnelli,1948),Manuelasuddenlyfindsherself
transformedintoarabbitwhosegiganticearsarecutoff
bySerafin.Thisisawayof underliningtheebbandflowof
seductionandaggressionthatopensupbetweentheheroandtheheroineas a
result of their mutual abandonment to the dispositif of
aperformance, relatedtohypnosis, towhichSerafinsubjectsManuelaon
thestageof his theater.Furtherexamplescanbe found
infilmsalreadydiscussed.One thinksof Svengalidepicted
1 The list, which is based on the segmentation with photograms
included in Michel Bouvier and Jean-Louis Leutrat, Nosferatu
(Paris: Cahiers du Cinma and Gallimard, 1981) comprises the cat
teased by Ellen-Nina (6); the hyena that announces Nosferatu and
scares the horses when Hutter arrives in the Carpathians (7880, 83,
85); the insect that hunts Hutter while he is writing, and the
mosquitoes and spiders that could explain the bites that he
discovers on his neck (182183); the rats that come out of the open
coffin and invade the ship (291294); the carnivorous plant, the
vampire of the vegetable kingdom, closing over a fly, that
BluwerVan Helsing, a professor of natural sciences, shows to his
listener (296301); the flies that Knock, the land agent, traps and
swallows in his cell (306311); another type of vampire! A polyp
with tentacles, that Bluwer exhibits again (314320); the spider
advancing in its web in the interior of the cell (322); and the
rooster announcing the break of day and the imminent death of
Nos-feratu (584). (Numbers given refer to the numbers in bold type
that accompany the photograms in the segmentation provided by
Bouvier and Leutrat.)
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10
asavulture,hisvoicebeingcomparedtotheharshcroakingof acrow;orof
therepresentations of animals illustrating intertitles in Trilby
(MauriceTourneur,1915);orof
theblackcatapparentlysleepingbetweenthekneesof
SvengaliwhenTrilbycomestohimduringthenight,drawnbyhishypnoticsummonsacatthatdoublesashisshadow,stationedinfrontof
amouseshole,onwhichthecameraistransfixed,inaclose-upshotthatis
imbuedwithmystery,thefinaloneinthesequencethatoccursafterTrilbyhaslefthim,inSvengali
(ArchieMayo,1931).FurtherexamplesareYvesMontand in On a Clear Day
You Can See Forever
(VincenteMinnelli,1970),who,amongothermetamorphoses,virtuallyturnshimself
intoadogwhenhesingsComeBacktoMe;oragain,withthesuggestivecapacitytobefoundinmorerecentfilms,theverystrange
shots in Cure (KiyoshiKurosawa,1997)of
animals(rabbits,monkeys,birds),atfirstrangingfreely,thenincages,ontheroadthatleadsthepolicedetectivetotheapartmentof
theassassin,whereheencountersakeenreaderof
Mesmerrepeatedshots,interposedwithoutanyapparentreason,sometimesveryelliptically,soastoap-pearsubliminal.Finally,ananimalcanitself
becomethesubjectof hypnosis.Weseethis,forexample,inWas ist los im
Zirkus Beely? (Whats Going On in Circus
Biely?;HarryPiel,1927),where,inacontextthatimpliesthepresenceof
manyothercircusanimals,theherotamesatigerthroughhypnosissothattheanimalsubsequentlyfollowshimlike
a dog. We might also think of how an image of hypnosis can
oscillate between being literal andmetaphoric, in relation to the
sensation of a strange reality aroused bymoments that can be
described only by the word hypnotic, onoccasionswhen
suchinstancesareinnervatedasaresultof theimpactof
ananimalpresence.ThiscanbeseeninJean-AndrFieschiscommentonaterriblesceneinRenoirsThe
Diary of a Chambermaid(1946):
WhenthemadCaptainplayedbyBurgessMeredith,havingbeenhypnotizedbyClestine-PauletteGoddard,graduallystranglesthesquirrelheisholdinginhisfebrilehandswithoutrealizingitfromthesuffocatingcaress,tothestuporof
thesuddenlylifelesslittlebody,inasingleshot,whichmovesinanunstoppable
and unpredictable line from euphoria to horror.2
Italsohappens,however,thateffectsarisingfromhybridizationaremuchmoreab-sorbing.Inthisrespect,Tourneurprovidesanexample.InNight
of the Demon ( JacquesTourneur,1957),if
weleaveasidetheincandescentdevilimposedonthefilmbytheproducer,
therealityof
thehypnosismarkingthefilmbecomesdoublyassociatedwithanimality.Ontheonehand,areferencetothemedievalimageof
thedevilasabeast(as found in the engravings of the Compendium
maleficarum)isreactivated,intheformof imitative drawings made in
the twentieth century by one individual who is gripped by
anirrationalbelief
(Hobart).Ontheotherhand,thestartlingtransformationof acatinto a
leopard affects the extent to which a skeptical individual (Holden)
believes in the
irrational.ThelatterbreaksintoKarswellshouse,atnight,toconsultthenotoriousbook
The True Discoveries of the Witches and
Demons,whichismissingfromthelibraryof
2 Jean-Andr Fieschi, Poulpe au regard de soie! [Octopus with a
Silken Look], in Lanimal cran, ed. Sylvie Astrid (Paris: Centre
Georges-Pompidou, 1996), 23.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
11
the British Museum. In deepshadow transected by light,he
descends a stairway. An ex-tremeclose-upof acatsheadwith very
menacing eyes in-terruptshis advance; then theanimal vanishes,
andHolden,withapensivelookonhisface,approaches the desk on which
the book lies waiting for him. As he strikes a match to illumi-nate
the pages, a door slams,and the close-up of the cat is repeated.
But after a brief transition shot, it is the headof
aleopardthatappears,withthe animal immediately throw-ing itself on
Holden (Figures 24). The frenzied fight thatensues is interrupted
by the arrival of Karswell; turningon the light in the room,
andpointedly stroking his cat,(Figure 5) he approaches
theshakenHolden,who isarmedwith a poker. In answer to the
lattersprotestationsabout thepresence of something
intheroomtowhichtherippedsleeve of his jacket bears
wit-nessKarswellmerelyreplies:Nothing toworryyou. Justaminor demon
I set to protect the room. Nothing like the real thingwhen youmeet
it.ItissoonafterthisthatHolden,returningthroughtheforest,isattackedbythelightmonster,atwhichpointhisskepticismstartstovacillate.Wecanthenrecallhow,twosequencesearlier,betweenthemomentwhenHoldeniswanderingamongthemega-liths
at Stonehenge (comparing the signs engraved in the stones with
those written on afragmentof
magicparchment)andthetimewhenhemeetsupwith
Joanna,tak-inghertoaspiritualistsanceatwhichHarringtonsdeathisreenacted,acatappearsinaninsistent,unmotivatedmanner,atthecornerof
awall(afterwhichthecameraleavesittoreturntotheactiontakingplace).Thus,thepresenceof
ananimalinNight of the
Demonappearstobeanaturalcomplementtotheconflictingforcescontained
Figure 2. Night of the Demon, directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Sabre Film Production/Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1957).
Figure 3. Night of the Demon, directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Sabre Film Production/Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1957).
Figure 4. Night of the Demon, directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Sabre Film Production/Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1957).
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
12
within the multiple dimensions of hypnosis, which are
them-selves suggested by the way that the continual variations of
shadow and light capture the gaze of the spectator. By way of
contrast, inCat People ( Jacques Tourneur,1942), a scene that is
entirelydevoted to animality occurs during a crucial
sequenceclosely related to hypnosis.
IrenaisinasessionwithDoc-torJudd.Atfirstweseeherinadark shadow,
stretchedouton
acouch,onlytheovalof
herfacelitbyaprojectorlamp,withDoctorJudddiscernibleinthedarknessbehind(sothat,becauseof
thewaythegazeandthelightingaretreated,the psychic dispositif
appears to mirror the dispositif of cinema itself
).Thenanarrestingclose-upfocusesonherfacewithitsclosedeyes,tothesoundof
thegroansthatwellup in the young woman as she thinks of the torment
she experiences at night from
thecatsthathaunther:Theirpaddedstepsechoinmyhead.Iwillneverhaveanypeace,becausetheyareinsideme(Figures67).IrenadoesnotrememberanythingwhenDoctorJuddawakensher,butashewarnedherhewould,hehasnoteddowneverything
in his notebook and discusses with her the fantasy to which she has
been preysincechildhood.(Inthecourseof
this,hehasexpressedaconventionalmotif,alsoexhibitedbyMabuseandSvengalitheidea,Hypnosisalwaysdrainsme.Certainof
Figure 5. Night of the Demon, directed by Jacques Tourneur
(Sabre Film Production/Columbia Pictures Corporation, 1957).
Figure 6. Cat People, directed by Jacques Tourneur (RKO
Pictures, 1942).
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
13
mypatientsalsofinditexhaust-ing.)Thelawsof thefantasticgenre
mean that Judd will die in accordance with this
hypoth-esis,whichhewaswrongtodis-regardat themomentwhen,during his
fourth meeting with Irena, which is too nakedlymarked by his desire
to seduce
her,herfantasyfindsexpressioninherrealbody,withIrenathepanther
throwing herself on him just as the
cat-turned-leop-ardwoulddotoHoldenfifteenyearslater.Theimportantthingto
note is that an implied relationship has been established, in both
cases,
betweenanimalityandhypnosis,sothatbothdimensionsarepropagatedwithinthesharedat-mosphere
and sense of fatefulness developed by the intensive modalities of
black-and-white cinema. It isTourneurs genius, inhis fantasy films,
to inventmajorplot ele-mentsthataresimultaneouslywaysof
lookingatthingshypnosisandanimality,thuscombined,beingameans,forhim,bywhichle
corps du cinma [thebodyof cinema]isrevealed.
Weshouldnotethattheimageincludedinthecreditsequenceof Cat People
(the
engravedblackpantherfoundonapanelinIrenasapartment)isaccompaniedbyanorchestralversionof
thesongDodo,lenfantdo(Lullaby,Child,Lullaby),inter-posedbytheineradicablyFrenchJacquesTourneuratthispointinthefilmbeforeitbecomesapersistentleitmotif
fortheheroineandforthefilmasawhole.3Thepres-enceof thissongisawayof
referringtothechildwhosleepsineveryspectator,who,beingtheanimalthatheorsheis,entersintothehypnosisinducedbycinemaassoonasthefilmbegins.And,soasnevertoforgettheextenttowhichmusiccontributestothiseffect,weshouldalsorecallthatassoonasthecreditsequencehasfinished(withahighlightedFreudianphrase,attributedtoDoctorJudd),
fromtheopeningshotintroducing the real-lifepanther in its cagewith
its striking
turningmovement,wehearhauntingbarrel-organmusic,whichenhancesthehypnosis-inducingeffectof
thechildslullaby. Animality thus embodies the inner element of
hypnosis that is intrinsic to the
emo-tionalbodyinlinewithanimalhypnosisthroughaninfluenceoperatingfrombodytobody,asif
throughamechanismthatmultipliesitsmostsomaticaffectsmanytimesover
in the human organism. Thereisasecond,muchsubtlerwayof
accountingforthislinkbetweenhypnosisandanimality.Itinvolvesaddingtooneperspective,whichisalreadyobscure,asec-ond,whichisnolessobscure,intheconfidenthopethat,together,theyarecapableof
3 Bernard Eisenschitz, Six films produits par Val Lewton, in Le
cinma amricain: Analyses de films, ed. Raymond Bellour (Paris:
Flammarion, 1980), 2:50.
Figure 7. Cat People, directed by Jacques Tourneur (RKO
Pictures, 1942).
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
14
illuminatingoneanother.Thefirstperspectiveassumesthatitispossibletoregardtheinfinitevarietyof
emotionsarousedbyfilmsandtheeffectsof
hypnosisthattheyin-duce,toagreaterorlesserdegree,asbeingequivalent.Thesecondnotionleadsonetorecognizethat,asaconsequenceof
thisveryequivalence,thecomponentof
animalitydefininghumanbeingshasitsownformof
logic,andthatthisiswhatisreflectedintheattested primordial link
between animals and cinema evident throughout its history.
Weknowthatsincetheturnof
thenineteenthcenturyallthearts,beginningwithliterature,havewitnessedan
increaseof importanceattached to the representationof
animals.Thishas occurred in response to anuncoupling in the
realworld
thathasunderminedtheimmemorialcomplicitybetweenmenandbeastsanuncouplingforwhich,amongother
reasons, theadventof machineryand thedevelopmentof
industriallogichavebeenresponsible.Generally,itistheadventof
anotionof
life,asdescribedbyMichelFoucault,thatservedastheconceptualframeworkforapro-gressivetransformationof
naturalhistoryintobiology,whichhadtheeffect,inturn,of
ensuringthat,gradually,overthecourseof twocenturies,complicitiesof
anotherorderbetweenhumansandanimalswouldemergeeventhoughtheoldequilibriumbetween
the reality of the world was being increasingly threatened by the
daily disap-pearance of such a large number of
species.4Cinemahasbeen responding to
thissituationsinceitsinceptioninaverystrikingway,andtheproliferationof
suchalargenumber of animal images is also a direct response to it.
Inanarticlethathasbeenpracticallyforgottentoday,writtenatthesametimeasAndrBazinsarticleonhispetparrotCocoandmanyotheranimals(realaswellascinematicones),5tienneSouriauaddressedthestateof
thecloserelationsbetweenthefilmicworldandartinvolvinganimals.6Focusingontherelativeextentof
theirpresence,headducedasevidencethefactthat[thepresence]of
animalsinfilmicartmassivelyexceedswhatonewouldexpectincomparisonwithothercontempo-raryarts,if
oneispreparedtocomparetheaveragelevelof
curiosityaboutanimalsinourcultureandthetechnologicalsituationgenerally.Heobserved,
forexample,thatthesixtyyearsduringwhichcinemaconstituteditself
asanartcoincidedwithatechnologicaldevelopmentof
extremeimportanceinhumanhistory[:]...thesud-den and almost total
cessation of the use of the horse as a motive force (a practical
resultof railways),andasameansof
combat.Emphasizingthattheinventionof the combustion engine was far
more responsible for this change than the invention of
railways,henotesthedebtthatcinemaowestothehorseinreturn.Souriauseizestheopportunitytopointoutthattherehasbeenatitfortat,if
onetakesintoconsider-ationtheWestern(onecouldaddperiodfilmstothisgenre),characters,themes,andespecially
filmmaking resources (e.g., lighting, speed), given the importance
thatstudies of galloping horses had at the birth of cinema (in the
form of the stop-action
photographsmadebyMuybridge,andMareysdecisiveworkonanimalmovement).
4 Michel Foucault, Les mots et les choses: Une archologie des
sciences humaines (Paris: Gallimard, 1966), 238245, 275292.
5 Andr Bazin, De la difficult dtre Coco, Cahiers du cinma, no.
91 (1959): 5258.
6 tienne Souriau, Lunivers filmique et lart animalier, Revue
internationale de filmologie 7, no. 25 (1956): 5162.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
15
Hefurtherstressesthreemajorfacts,whichhebrieflyreviews:theimportanceof
filmsmade for real animal personalities, all thehorses, elephants,
chimpanzees,anddogspresentedasstars(fromtheTarzanseriestothefaithfulLassie);theex-istenceof
realanimalstories,forwhichthescientificfilmsof
JeanPainlev(sodeartoBazin)provideamodel;andfinally,thelargenumberandenormoussuccessof
documentaryfilmssuchasNanook of the
North(RobertFlaherty,1922),thefirstfilmsof
ErnestB.SchoedsackandMerianC.Cooper,andtheWaltDisneyfilmsdevotedto
real animals.7 Souriau also appreciates the effects derived from
mixing
documen-taryandfictionasfound,forexample,inacasethatfascinatedhimtheparticularprovince
of theworld of underwater animals. Finally,mildly
reproachingHenriAgelforsilentlypassingoveranentirelynewanimalartinabookwhosetitle,Le
cinma a-t-il une me?
(Cinema,doesithaveasoul?),should,amongotherthings,haveengagedwiththisissue,giventhatcinemarevealsaconstant,intenselysympathetic,andsometimesalmostpiousexplorationof
thelifeandsoulof creaturesof instinct,Souriau endshis overviewby
identifying three genuinelyfilmicdimensions of
theanimalmotif.Theseinvolvekinetic motivations
(themostobviousone,thecurvesandarabesques of which he describes in
detail);morphological motivations (among which areincludedtheplayof
light,tones,andcolorsasanappropriatemeansof
makinganimalsfurnishthefilmicspace);andfinally,expressive
characteristics.Forhim,theseconstitutetheessentialattributes.AndalthoughSouriauemphasizesthebasic,cat-egorical
emotions when he asserts that the diegetic relationship between
animals and humansmakesavailablethewholegamutof
emotions,oneonlyhastoconsiderthethreelevelsof
motivationheidentifiesinrelationtooneanothertoseethatthisheartfelt
praise of animals in cinema relates to the fullest play of
free-ranging affects. Butisthereaclearerwayof relatingthisnetworkof
emotionsarisingfroman-imality to hypnosis? Such a relationship can
indeed be demonstrated by bringing togethertwoschoolsof
thoughtforthesakeof
integratingthemschoolsthat,al-thoughtheymaybedisparateinsize,bothpositthebody,initslinkwiththesoul,orspirit,orbrain,asthesiteof
aproblematicjuncture.Thefirst,foundinphilosophyatleastsinceAristotle,andthenattheheartof
aworldviewinformedbyChristianityoveralengthyperiodof
time,constantlyseekstodefineandredefinetheenduringmystery
surrounding human nature in terms of a purported degree of
intellectual consciousnessthatiscontrastedtothatof
animals.ThisistheprogramthatJacquesDerridasketchesinnegativeoutline:Oneunderstandsaphilosopheronlybyheed-ingcloselywhathemeanstodemonstrate,andinrealityfailstodemonstrate,con-cerningthelimitbetweenmanandanimals.8lisabethdeFontenayhascompletedamonumentalhistoryof
thissupposedopposition,emphasizingtheconclusionsshe
7 Souriau cites here, erroneously, Ltoile de mer (The Starfish;
Man Ray, 1928), which is a brief poetic fiction (adapted from a
poem by Robert Desnos). Nevertheless, the evocation presented in
the story is indeed subtended by the striking image of a starfish,
a living animal as well as an object, a vibrant analogy for the
feminine figure and the desire that informs the film.
8 Jacques Derrida, Lanimal que donc je suis (Paris: Galile,
2006), 147; passage quoted from Jacques Derrida, The Animal That
Therefore I Am, ed. Marie-Louise Mallet and trans. David Wills (New
York: Fordham University Press, 2009), 106.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
16
reachedasaresult:arealpowerlessnesstoidentifyanythingthatisuniquetoman.9
According to her, it seems that as far asmodern thought is
concernedwith theexceptionof Montaigne,of raremomentsof
enlightenment in
thegrandclassicalsystems(inLeibnizswritings,forexample),andthenof
thematerialistthinkersof
theeighteenthcenturyonehastogetpastthetangledscrublandsof
mingledintuitionsand reasoning that characterize the nineteenth
century to arrive at the present epoch
beforeonegenuinelyencounterswhatlisabethdeFontenaydesignates,atthebegin-ningof
herbook,asazoneof indeterminacy,of
indiscernibilitybetweenanimalsandmen.10Suchajudgmentisobviouslyatribute,whetheronedefinesitexplicitlyas
suchornot, to theadvancesbeingmade,morestrikingeveryday,
inmolecularbiologyandresearchonthebrainsolongasoneconceivesof
itaspartof thebody,rather than as a
computer.11Thisis,forexample,thepositionof
Jean-DidierVincent,whorelateshypnosistothevitalforcesof
animalsbygroundingthecommonspacebetween man and animals in a
subjective individuation of the body that occurs at the molecular
level.12
The second way of seeing involves a more restricted, but
nevertheless fruitful,interweavingof hypnosisandanimality,thatis
foundbothinphilosophicalthoughtandtheoriesof
hypnosis,whethermedicalorotherwise.ThiscanbeseeninFranoisRoustangswritings,inwhichtheconceptof
humananimality,inspiredlargelybytheworksof Jean-DidierVincent,
isacentraltenet.13Roustangproposesthatanimalsliveinastateof
permanenthypnosis,andthatinthissense,animalhypnosisdoesnotexist,becauseitisaconstantgiven.14Theconceptof
animalmagnetismitself,coinedbyMesmer,waspointing in
thesamedirection,especiallyas it isdevelopedwithrespect
tootherterms:animalbody,animalfluid,animalgravity.15But it is
inthewritingsof
PierreMainedeBiran,thefirstpersonwhotriedtothinkphilosophi-callyaboutmesmerism,accordingtoRoustang,thataconvergenceof
thetwothemestakesshape,throughakindof
coalescence.Indeed,MainedeBiranwastheauthorof Notes sur le trait de
la nature des animaux (Notes on a Treatise about the Nature of
Animals, 17941795)aswellasof Mmoire sur les perceptions obscures ou
sur les impressions gnrales
9 lisabeth de Fontenay, Le silence des btes: La philosophie
lpreuve de lanimalit (Paris: Fayard, 1998), 13.
10 Ibid., 37. Gilles Deleuze, whom lisabeth de Fontenay loosely
quotes, wrote that the paintings of Francis Bacon constitute une
zone dindiscernabilit, dindcidabilit, entre lhomme et lanimal [an
indiscernable, undecidable zone that exists between human beings
and animals], in Francis Bacon: Logique de la sensation (Paris:
ditions de la Diffrence, 1981), 20. At the beginning of her book,
lisabeth de Fontenay positions Deleuze among the intercessions.
11 See the two books by Jolle Proust, Comment lesprit vient aux
btes: Essai sur la reprsentation (Paris: Gallimard, 1997); Les
animaux pensent-ils? (Paris: Bayard, 2003).
12 Jean-Didier Vincent, Animalit de la pense et subjectivit
animale, in Importance de lhypnose, ed. Isabelle Stengers (Le
PlessisRobinson, France: Institut Synthlabo, 1993), 143.
13 Franois Roustang, Influence (Paris: ditions de Minuit, 1990),
910.
14 Franois Roustang, Quest-ce que lhypnose? (Paris: ditions de
Minuit, 1994), 910.
15 Animal magnetism (thierischen Magnetismus) was a term coined
by Franz Anton Mesmer in the late eighteenth century to describe an
invisible natural force, or universal fluid or energy, a quality
attributed to the animal part of an organism, which could be
directed by a magnetizer for the purpose of healing illnesses. See
George Bloch, ed. and trans., Mesmerism: A Translation of the
Original Scientific and Medical Writings of F. A. Mesmer (Los
Altos, CA: William Kaufman, 1980). [Editor's note.]
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
17
affectives et les sympathies en particulier (An Essay on Obscure
Perceptions, on General Affective Impressions, and on Feelings in
Particular,1807),andespeciallyof Nouvelles considrations sur le
sommeil, les songes et le somnambulisme (New Considerations of
Sleep, Dreams, and Sleepwalking,
1809).Disencumberingmagnetismfromtheneedforobjectivityubiquitousatthetimetoacknowledgeadimension
involving the influenceof an
intenselypsycho-logicalcomponent,MainedeBiranshedlightonthethreemainquestionsthatareraised,accordingtoRoustang,bythemysteryof
magneticinfluence:namely,Whatcharacteristics can be ascribed to the
state of crisis [duringmagnetism]?Throughwhat signs is
communication effectuated during this state? What is the nature of
the relationshipbetweenthemagnetizerandthemagnetized?16
Togettothecoreof
animality,letusaddressthesequestionsinreverseorder.Itisthroughdesireandtheimagination,ratherthanthroughthewill,thatthemagnetizerandthemagnetizedcommunicate.RoustangcitesMainedeBiranasfollows:
Therecanbesignsandmeansforcommunicationfromimaginationtoimag-ination
. . . specially adapted to the state of the soul and the body that
is called magnetic.Inthisstate...amultitudeof
impressions,non-existentorwith-outeffectintheordinarystate,havingthenbecomesensible,areabletoserveas
signs or means of communication from the magnetizer to the
magnetized.
Second, thesemultiple
impressionsarewhatMainedeBirancallsobscurepercep-tions. If one
considersRoustangs exploration of this issue, alongwithMaine
deBiransindefatigablepreoccupationwithitinhisMmoire,oneseesthatthesepercep-tionsorobscure
impressions (whichRoustangprefers tocallaffective
impressions),essentiallypassive innature,are set incontrast to
thecompleteperceptions thatrelatetotheactivityof
theself,justastheyarelinkedtoitspowersof
representation.Eachsense,assertsRoustang,canbethesiteof
adifferentiationof
thiskind.Hestressessightandhearing,andthespontaneoussenseperceptionsandemotionalval-uesthatMainedeBirandistinguishes,aheadof
anyformof
organizedconsciousness.OneisthereforeclosertoLeibnizstheoryof
smallperceptions,whichareobscureorconfusedcomparedwithconsciousperceptions,whichareclearanddistinctthepetites
pliures(smallfolds)inwhichDeleuzerecognizestheanimaloranimatedstate
par excellence.He also describes the continually unstable,
recurrentmove-mentthattakesplacefromonelevelof
perceptiontotheotherastheanimalonthelook-out,thesoulonthelook-out.17Third,Roustangimmediatelyinvokesasimilarreferencetoanimality(constantlypresentinMainedeBiran)assoonashetriestodescribethesleepwalkingstateinitsparadoxicalclosenesstosleep,fromwhichitisdistinguishedbyvirtueof
beinganactionof thepassiveimagination:Thisprincipleof inner impulse
is the same as that which motivates the primitive instinct in
differ-entspeciesof animals,andthemovementof thefetusinthewombof
themother,orshortlyafterbirth.18
16 See Roustang, Influence, 7176, on the passage quoted from
Maine de Biran.
17 Gilles Deleuze, Le pli: Leibniz et le baroque (Paris: ditions
de Minuit, 1988), 115116.
18 Pierre Maine de Biran, Nouvelles considrations sur les
rapports du physique et du moral de lhomme, in uvres, ed. Franois
Azouvi (Paris: Vrin, 1984), 5:120; Roustang, Influence, 72.
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18
OnerecallsthatHegelalsopositsthisequivalencewiththefetusinthewombof
the mother as a means of trying to explain the unimaginable state
of animal
mag-netism.Roustang,whoevokesHegelinadditiontoMainedeBiran,hasalsopointedout
theanalogy thatHegel
establishesbetweenclairvoyantsandanimalsbecausetheyareinstructedbytheirinstinctconcerningwhatisabletocurethem.19
Speaking
withrespecttoboththemagnetizerandthemagnetized,Hegelinsistsontwoanimalspheresthattakeholdwhenoneisconfrontedbytheother,alsorecallingthattheinfluenceof
themagnetizerdoesnotonlyactonhumanbeings,butalsoonanimals,forexample,dogs,cats,andmonkeys.Becausemagneticsleepinducesthesoultowithdrawintoitself,
inawaythatpermitsareturn..
.toitssimpleuniversality,namely,aputtingasideof theinhibitionof
animallife...inordertorecoverthebeing-fluid-in-itself of
theorganism.RespondingtoPeterGabrielvanGhert,whowasquestioninghimaboutmagnetism,Hegelwasmorespecific:Itseffect,
inmyview,seemstoresideintheaffinitythatoneanimalindividualitycancontractwithanother,inasmuchastheaffinityof
thelatterwithitself,itsfluidityinitself,isinter-ruptedandinhibited.Thisunionof
thetwoaffinitiesleadslifetorevertbacktoitsgeneralcurrent.20
Throughoutthenineteenthcentury,therefore,magnetismandhypnosiswerefre-quentlyassociatedwithanimality.ThisismostapparentinSchopenhauer,aslisabethdeFontenayandBertrandMheusthavedemonstrated,eachfromtheperspectivethatinterestedthem.lisabethdeFontenayhasshownhowSchopenhauer,workinginthepsychologicaltraditionof
Locke,deCondillac,andRousseau,inparticular,arrivedatanontologyof
pity,acompassionof despair,basedonanassociationof
manandanimalinacontinuousunityof
existencegroundedinthewill(inthespecificsensethatheintends:thatis,aprimordial,vitalprincipleopposedtorepresentation).Scho-penhauerillustratesthiswilltoliveasanexperienceof
sympatheticaffinity,whichpromptedhimtogoasfarasformulatingalogicof
metempsychosis,inanoteincludedin the Monde comme volont et comme
reprsentation (The World as Will and
Representation,1818).AslisabethdeFontenayobserves,inthisnotethephilosopherrecountsastoryaboutthemagnetizationof
asquirrelbyasnake,asmuchforthesakeof expressingindigna-tion as to
present the event as further evidence of an inescapable identity
shared by animals and
man.21Additionally,inMheustsview,Schopenhauercanbeclassified,likeAmpreandWilliamJames,amongthemagnetists:inotherwords,thosewhomhesetsincontrasttothescientismof
institutionalmedicineasdisplayedbyhypnologists,onaccountof
themysteriesrevealedbysomnambulism.MheustthusrecognizesthatforSchopenhauer,magneticlucidityisintrinsicallyvaluableasproof
of
theinalienablecontinuitythatexistsbetweenlivingcreatures,acontinuitythatlinksmenandanimals.
19 For the passage on Hegel, see Roustang, Influence, 7678. I
quote the most recent translation in Georg W. F. Hegel, Le
magntisme animal, trans. Franois Roustang (Paris: PUF, 2005), 84,
79, 87.
20 Georg W. F. Hegel, Correspondance, trans. Jean Carrre (Paris:
Gallimard, 1962), 1:294.
21 De Fontenay, Le silence des btes, 577585. She also recalls
another example (584) given by Arthur Schopenhauer, Le monde comme
volont et comme reprsentation (Die Welt als Wille und
Vorstellung)the giant sea turtles that come ashore to lay their
eggs and have their offspring devoured alive by wild dogspointing
out that Joseph L. Mankiewicz picked up this episode in Suddenly,
Last Summer, directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1959; Culver City,
CA: Sony Pictures Entertainment, 2000), DVD.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
19
Assuch,itopensuparegisterof
experienceinwhichtheworldcanbesimultaneouslyperceivedbothaswillandasrepresentation,becauseof
theoverlapbetweenthetwoaspects.22
ItisundoubtedlyBergson,however,whoprovidesthemostpowerfulandstrikingaccount
of the intersection between the two lines of hypnosis and
animality. We know
thepointatwhichBergsonbecameinterested,veryearlyon,andwithanunflaggingassiduousness,
in the array of diverse phenomenadenotedby
thewordsmagnetism,hypnosis,somnambulism,clairvoyance,spiritualism,andtelepathy.23In1886,hewroteanar-ticlethatimmediatelyattractedattention:Delasimulationinconscientedansltatdhypnotisme
(OnUnconsciousSimulation in theHypnoticState).Three yearslater,
inEssai sur les donnes immdiates de la conscience (Time and Free
Will ), he invokesa suggestion received ina stateof hypnotism to
clarify apersonalobservationon psychological
determinism.24Muchlater,in1913,acceptingwithenthusiasmthepresidencyof
theSocietyforPsychicalResearch,hedeliveredthenow-famouslecture,Fantmesdevivantset
recherchepsychique (Phantomsof
LifeandPsychicRe-search),whichhetookupagaininLnergie spirituelle
(Mind Energy).Mheust,moreover,easilyrecallsthattheterraincognitaof
thefinalpageof Les deux sources de la morale et de la religion (The
Two Sources of Morality and
Religion,1932)putsinperspectivethecontribu-tionsof
metaphysicstoavisionof thebeyondinthecontextof
abroaderscientificexperience.25Withoutenteringintothemazeof
nuancesthatcharacterizesBergsonsviewof
anencounterwiththeirrationalthathasthesomnambulistictranceatitscore,furnishinghimwitharegisterthatisrepletewithequivalences,oneneedstoemphasizethelinkthatemergesbetweenitandanimality,inaccordancewithaprinciplethatisfundamentalinthiswork:thethreadthatoneoughtnevertoletgoof
isthatwhichbiologyprovides.26 It is necessary to reread the
sections of Lvolution cratrice (Creative Evolution) on
intelligenceand instinct,which follow thoseonanimality.On
theonehand,everythinginthemseemstojustifytheprimordialfunctionof
intelligence,27
butthisisproportionatetothenaturalincomprehensionconcerninglifethatmarksintelligence,owingtothefactthatitworksthroughdiscontinuity,asif
itsmotionweresubject to forced interruptions.28Of
itsowninvention,intelligencecanre-createnei-ther the jaillissement
[irruption]northegnialit[qualityof genius],whereasthisiswhat
22 Bertrand Mheust, Somnambulisme et mdiumnit, vol. 1, Le dfi du
magntisme (Le PlessisRobinson: Institut Synthlabo, 1999), 126, 237,
314. He bases his view mainly on the chapter Magntisme et magie, in
De la volont dans la nature (ber den Willen in der Natur, 1836),
and Essai sur les apparitions, in Parerga and Parali-pomena
(Parerga und Paralipomena, 1851). He explains in Bertrand Mheust,
Somnambulisme et mdiumnit, vol. 2, Le choc des sciences psychiques
(Le PlessisRobinson: Institut Synthlabo, 1999), that for
Schopenhauer, the sleepwalking trance is a figure for the Bridge,
for the Mediation that allows communication between the two worlds
(307).
23 A very complete inventory can be found in Somnambulisme et
mdiumnit, 2:240256.
24 Henri Bergson, OEuvres (Paris: PUF, 1970), 103104. This
example is discussed by Jacqueline Carroy, Magn-tisme, hypnotisme
et philosophie, in Importance de lhypnose, ed. Isabelle Stengers
(Le PlessisRobinson: Institut Synthlabo, 1993), 187188.
25 Ibid., 1245.
26 Ibid., 1295.
27 These phrases occur in the table of contents; they rarely
figure in Bergsons text.
28 Ibid., 635.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
20
instinctneverceasestodo,constantly,withintheobscuritythatdefinesitsownlimits.29
Therefore,eventhoughbetweenmenandanimalstheremayexistnotadifferenceof
degree but of nature,mannevertheless sits astride animality.30 It
is through this thathe relates to life,which is . . . awhole that
is sympathetic tohimself.31
Here,weseetheessentialtermsympathiethathauntsthesepagesinthenameof
ametaphysic,withrespecttoscience.32Instinctissympathy[empathicaffinity].33
Sympathy,moreover,isdivinatory,regardingthephenomenarelatingtothesensesandfeelings,justasitisintheorganizationsof
nature.34Bergsonthuspresentsuswithanextraordinarypassage:
Thediverse formsof the same instinct indiverse species of
hymenopter-ans . . . [are reflected in]acertainmusical theme that
isfirst transposed, initsentirety, intoacertainnumberof
tones,andthen,again in itsentirety,subjected todiversevariations,
someof whicharevery simple,
theothersinfinitelycomplexandsubtle,thatareexecutedonit.Asfarastheoriginalthemeisconcerned,itiseverywhereandnowhere.Itwouldbefutiletotrytocaptureitintermsof
representation:originally,itundoubtedlyarosefromthe felt rather
than the thought.35
Theexpressionmusical theme,emphasizedbyBergson,
isessential,becausetheexistenceinmanof
anaestheticfacultyalongwithnormalperceptioninheresinaninstinctthathasbecomedisinterested,awareof
itself.36
Wealsofind,inthefirstsectionsof Time and Free
Will,thewordsympathy at the heart of anevaluationof
aestheticfeeling.Importantly,however,Bergson,whenseekingtoassesstherealityof
thisfeelingbothinnatureandinart,usesasubjectaccustomedtoobeyingthegestureof
themagnetizerasameasureof thismobilesympathy.37 Even
moretothepurpose,distinguishingdegreesof
intensityinaestheticemotionasde-greesof
elevation,heequatesthemovementbetweenthesedistinctphaseswiththosethat
occur during a state of
hypnosis.38Wethusseehypnosis,emotion,andanimalitybeingalignedintoasingletraitof
anexemplarykindspecifictoartasarhythmicalextension of nature.
Why,then,doesBergsondeny,inchapter4of Creative Evolution
(TheCinemato-graphicalMechanismof
ThoughtandMechanisticIllusionacontinuationof thefinalsectionsof
chapter3,oninstinctandintelligence),thatthereisanyvalidanalogybetweencinemaandhypnosisas
the realityof,andmetaphor for,aesthetic feeling,
29 Ibid., 634.
30 Ibid., 650, 725.
31 Ibid., 637.
32 Ibid., 644.
33 Ibid., 645.
34 Ibid., 644.
35 Ibid., 640641.
36 Ibid., 645.
37 Ibid., 13.
38 Ibid., 1415.
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21
whenheaccordsthisstatustotheotherarts,includingmusic,poetry,andpainting,atthe
beginning of Time and Free
Will?WearefamiliarwithDeleuzesresponse,whichunravelsapparentcontradictionsinthethreethesesBergsondevelopsinCreative
Evolu-tion.
Deleuzedemonstratesthat,whereasBergsondenouncedthefalseformof
move-ment based on immobile sections [coupes immobiles] found in
early cinema, cinema,becauseof
thewayitdevelopedasanart,especiallyasaresultof
editing,makesitpossibletoconceiveof
arealmovementtakingplaceacrossaconcreteduration,awholewhichendures,akindof
movementwhichthereforeisitself amobilesectionof
duration.39Cinemathusbecomestheartparexcellencethatembodiestheideaof
animage-movementcomparabletothatwhichBergsonconceptualizedinMatire
et mmoire (Matter and Memory).
WithregardtobothBergsonandDeleuze,itrequiresaleaptoassumethatcinemaislinkedasmuchtohypnosisasitistoanimality.Yetthisiswhatthemysteriouscorporealand
sensory reality associated with the one as with the other
inevitably suggests. One
caninferinBergsonsview,aswehaveseen,theexistenceof
aninstinctualcomponentthatextendsfromtheanimalbodyintothehypnoticrelationshipitself,penetratingtheart
of the distinctive kind of awareness that develops through this
relationship with-out losinganyof the
instinctualcomponentsoriginalpower.EventhoughDeleuzehimself
renderstheidea-reality[lide-ralit]of
hypnosissomewhatautonomous,itin-tervenes suddenly in a strangely
powerful way in at least two instances in Limage-temps (The
Time-Image),nottomentionhiscommentsrelatingtoLang-MabuseandHerzogin
Limage-mouvement (The Movement-Image).
Atonepoint,inthechaptertitledThoughtandCinema,heintroducesitforthesakeof
describingthecinemaof image-move-mentintermsof
hypnoticthought(includedasathirdcategoryalongwithcriticalthoughtandaction-thought),definedastherelationshipwithathoughtwhichcanonlybeshapedinthesubconsciousunfoldingof
images.40Onthesecondoccasion,itiswithrespecttoResnais,whom,asoneknows,Deleuzeviewedasimportantwithregardtotherelationshipbetweencinemaandthebrain.Toclarifytherelationinhisfilmsbetweenlayersof
thepast(inparticular,inLanne dernire Marienbad[Last Year at
Marienbad;AlainResnais,1961],astoryof
magnetism,hypnotism),Deleuzemakesuseof
Bergsonsdistinctionbetweenanimage-memoryandapurememory,recallingthat
the latter is compared (in Matire et mmoire,asinLnergie
spirituelle) to a magnetizer
standingbehindthehallucinationsthathesuggests.Hespeaks,withrespecttoVan
Gogh (AlainResnais,1948),of
amagneticoperation[,]...thatexcesswhichtransformstheagesof
memoryortheworld,andtotheseparadoxical,hypnotic,hallucinatorysheetsthatarecharacteristicof
aworkof art.AccentuatinginResnaisfilmsallthestratifiedstatesof
mentaltransformation,Deleuzearrivesatthefollowingmysteriousand
extreme formulation: It is hypnosis that reveals thought to itself
(remindingoneof
Kubiesformulationsconcerninghypnosisasatransitionalphenomenon).41
39 Gilles Deleuze, Cinma, vol. 1, Limage-mouvement (Paris:
ditions de Minuit, 1983), 22. (See also the whole of chapter 1 for
this first commentary by Bergson); passages quoted from Gilles
Deleuze, Cinema 1, trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam
(London: Continuum, 2005), 1112.
40 Gilles Deleuze, Cinma, vol. 2, Limage-temps (Paris: ditions
de Minuit, 1985), 212, passage quoted from Gilles Deleuze, Cinema
2: The Time-Image, trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta (London:
Continuum, 2005), 158.
41 Passages quoted from Deleuze, Cinema 2, 119120.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
22
Deleuzespeaksinthissenseof amethodof critical
hypnosis,combinedinResnaisfascinationandawareness,attainingpurefeelingsbygoingbeyondthecharacterstofeelings,andbeyondfeelingstothethoughtof
whichtheyarethecharacters.AndheappropriatesBilysintuition,turningthelifeof
thebraininPtersbourg intotheunrollingof
acinematographicfilmsubmittedtotheminuteactionof occultforces.42
Hedrawsthistogetherinthetableof
contentsintoonestrikingformula:Dessenti-mentslapense:Lhypnose(Fromfeelingstothought:Hypnosis).
AlthoughanyreferencetohypnosisinDeleuzethusremainsinasemilatentstate,weknow,ontheotherhand,thepointatwhichanimalthoughtandthoughtrelatingto
animals were a determining factor for him.43Withinhis
oeuvre,whichoperatesthroughcrisscrossesandmultiple
levelsratherthananyattemptatsynthesis, it is inbooksother than
thosedevoted tocinemathat thisviewof animals is
formed.Butwhereitreachesitsfullestexpression,inthetenthof
fourteenplateaus,itisafilmthatopensaseriesof memorieswiththoseof
aspectator.44Tobecomeintense,tobecomeananimal,tobecomeimperceptibletheseterms,whichimplymanydiffer-enttypesof
becoming,canbeappliedbothtothemotifsof
astoryandtheslightestinflections,alltheswarmingof
matterthroughwhichthismatterismadeperceptible,infilmsasinallworksof
art.Whollyinkeepingwiththeprincipleof ruptureelabo-rated in
Lanti-Oedipe,basedonthemodelof therhizomepropoundedatthebeginningof
thebook,thedeterminingconceptsareasfollows:multiplicity,divisibility,intensity,modulationasopposed
toamold,becomingasagainsta seriesor structure,andamolecular regime
as against a molar regime. It is by way of a milieu and a territory
that an animal is grasped and thought (in accordance with a play of
forces that cause a
constantvariationbetweenthreeinterlockingterms:territorialization,deterritorializa-tion,reterritorialization).45Thisishowartbegins,perhaps,withananimalwithamelodicconception,inwhichonenolongerknowswhatisfromartandwhatisfromnature,46extendingfromthebecoming-animaltotheethologyof
affects.47
AsAnneSauvagnarguesputsit,becoming-animalinnowaysignifiesapreferencefortheanimal,animitatingof
it,orabecominglikeit,butratheranenteringintoazoneof
molecularproximitythatallowsonetovarytheextentof onesownspeed
42 Deleuze, Cinma, vol. 2, Limage-temps, 163164; passage quoted
from Cinema 2, 121.
43 See Anne Sauvagnargues, Deleuze: De lanimal lart, in La
philosophie de Deleuze, ed. Franois Zourabichvili, Paola Marrati,
and Anne Sauvagnargues (Paris: PUF, 2004), 117227. She demonstrates
how the issue of animals is affirmed very early on as a strategic
zone for the elaboration of system concepts.
44 Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari, Mille plateaux (Paris:
ditions de Minuit, 1980). For Souvenirs dun spectateur (devoted to
Willard, a film by Daniel Mann, 1971), see 285286; for the entire
plateau, the longest one, 284380. The animal theme is developed by
Deleuze and Guattari in their Kafka (1975), then taken up by
Deleuze again in his book on Bacon, Francis Bacon: Logique de la
sensation, and given a fresh treatment in Gilles Deleuze and Flix
Guattari, Quest-ce que la philosophie? (Paris: ditions de Minuit,
1994). And it is with A comme animal, that Deleuze begins his
Abcdaire, interview by Claire Parnet, directed by Pierre-Andr
Boutang (1988; Paris: ditions Montparnasse, 2004), DVD.
45 The fact that there can be no deterritorialization without a
specific reterritorialization should make us think in another way
about the correlation that always inheres between the molar and the
molecular: no flow, no becoming-molecular can escape from a molar
formation without molar components accompanying it, forming
perceptible passages and points of reference for imperceptible
processes (Deleuze and Guattari, Mille plateaux, 372373).
46 Deleuze and Guattari, Quest-ce que la philosophie?, 174,
176.
47 Sauvagnargues, Deleuze, 202ff.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
23
andslowness,andtheintensityof onesaffects.48Suchistheideaof
becomingitself,at the reversible boundary between the perceptible
and imperceptible. And if animals
embodythissostrongly,itisbecausetheanimalischaracterized,aboveall,bymove-ment,asoneseesinBergson;andasfarascinemaisconcerned,becauseitsnaturalmovementseemsparexcellencetocontradict,evenwhileembodyingit,
thehiddenmovementof
theintervalsdefinedbythecinemamachine,whichreinventsinitsownway a
kind of movement that is apparent in life itself. A very Bergsonian
passage inMille plateaux (A Thousand Plateaus) construes this
movementassomethingthatisimperceptiblebyitsnature.49DeleuzeandGuat-tariexplain,Movements,becomings,thatistosay,purerelationshipsof
speedandslowness,pureaffects,arebelowandabovethethresholdof
perception.Theyin-voketheexampleof
sumowrestlers,whoseadvanceistooslow,andtheattacktoorapidandsuddentobeseen,adding,Onewouldneedtoachieveaphotographicor
cinematographic threshold, but, comparedwith a photo,movement and
affecthave again taken refuge in the above and below. In its
elliptical suggestion,
thispropositionapplies,evenmorethantophotos,tocinema,and,withregardtoit,thequestionof
intervals(theyspeakalittleearlieraboutintervalsinexpansionandincontractionmicro-intervals).50Intervalsthataremovementwithoutbeingit,andtheanimationof
whichinitself raisesagainahighlypertinentquestionconcerningthe body
of cinema (le corps du cinema): the calculation of its intervals,
in fact, hasalready been prescribed before the recording can carry
out in the black chamber of thecamera the transformationof fixity
intoapparentmovement,even
thoughthemechanicalmystery,tocapturesupposedlyreallife,seemstogofrommovementtomovement,howeverdissimilartheymightactuallybe,andhoweverclosetheymightseemasanillusion.Theincarnationof
thismystery,inheringinthedispositif (record-ing-projection)of
cinema,couldbeoneof
thereasonsthecartooninthestrictsense,withinthevastfieldof
animatedcinema,hasprivilegedtheanimalfiguretosuchanextraordinarydegreeasthepotentiality,aboveall,of
allitspossibleblendswiththehumanfigure.51Thisisalsolikelytobewhythecartoonhasbeenabletobesopre-dominantly
American.52
Allof
thatisindeedinproportiontothefactthatanimals,theanimalfigure,end-lessly
provide logics for symbolic representations through which societies
historically
seektounderstandandjustifythemselves,withreferencetoastateof
naturethatismythical,toagreaterorlesserextent,inwhichtheyimaginethemselvesbornthemorethey
experience the daily reality of death.
Suchisthedualitythatonewouldwanttofollowwithanimals,fromandaroundanimalsadualitywhich
ismultiple (as therearemultiplicitiesof multiplicities).
48 Ibid., 203.
49 Deleuze and Guattari, Mille plateaux, 344 (as for the
quotations that follow).
50 Ibid., 281.
51 See Note sur Disney comme sur Eisenstein at the end of this
chapter. [Bellour is referring to an appendix included in the
original version of this essay in Le corps du cinma, 434436
(translator)].
52 See, for example, the invaluable exploration of this issue by
Robert Benayoun in Animation, in Dictionnaire du cinma, ed.
Jean-Loup Passek (Paris: Larousse, 1991).
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
24
Buttoanevengreaterextentthanitwouldhavebeenimpossibleforthisprojecttoattempttheconstructionof
ahistoryof hypnosisincinema,itisnotfeasibleheretogive a history of
the animal in cinema.53This isan
immensehistory,whichwouldbeimpracticabletoaccomplish,giventhattherearesomanyfilmsfromsuchalargerangeof
periodsandcountries,touchingallsidesof cinema,allitsregimesof
fictionandall itsdocumentary levels,without forgettingeitherfilms
thatarepurelyaboutanimals,norexperimentalcinema,northeanimatedfilm.54Thisisnottocountnearlythree
hundred dogs in the index to the AFI Catalogforthedecadeof
19301940,fromamongwhichIwillselectonlyone.Thismeansthatitisallthemorenecessarytolookatseveralexemplarysamplesinadomainwithincalculableandfluidparameters,tobetter
understandwhat implications the animal, or animality, in its
singular-pluralsense,hasforourthinkingaboutabodyof
cinemaalwaysneedingtobegraspedanew,as hypnosis and as emotion.
Despitethepowerfulappealof dealingwiththecinemasof theEast(
Japanese
cin-emainparticular,withImamura,whowasgreatlyinspiredbyanimals,Oshima...),Iwillrestrictmyself
tothetemptationsof theWest:ontheonehand,Americancinema,which was
destined to establish an almost anthropological relationship with
animals as an aspect of American identity (for which I will provide
a very fragmentary
geneal-ogy),andontheotherhand,Europeancinema,especiallyFrenchandItalian,whichadopted,
instead, inawaythatbecamemoremarkedafterWorldWarII,anonto-logical
vision that sprang more directly from speculation about animals and
thinking about cinema.
53 Deleuze and Guattari, Mille plateaux, 47. It is one of the
conditions of forming an organization.
54 To my knowledge, there exists only one book of a truly
general character on this subject: Jonathan Burt, Animals in Film
(London: Locations, 2002), for which, see Note on Electric Animal
by Akira Mizuta Lippit at the end of this chapter. [Bellour is
referring to an appendix he includes in the original version of
this essay as printed in Le corps du cinma, 436437.] Its interest,
apart from expository passages on the films that he has chosen to
examine, for the most part involves information that he provides on
the documentary and ethical dimensions of the individual and social
relationships with animals. Undoubtedly, the reason for this, as
the author explains, is that he is a historian of animals who is
interested in cinema, and not the other way around. All the other
works, which are numerous, are concerned, whether or not they say
so explicitly, with a particular country (mainly the United
States), or this or that animal, or group of animals, this or that
genre, or this film and that author of films. Valuable collections
include: Sylvie Astric, ed., Lanimal cran (Paris: Centre Pompidou,
1996)published on the occasion of the Animalia cinematografica
exhibition, December 511, 1995which is devoted to documentary
cinema; CineZoo, Cinema, no. 42 (1997); Animal, Vertigo 1, no. 9
(1999); and Ted Goot and Kathryn Weir, eds., Kiss of the Beast:
From Paris Salon to King Kong (Brisbane, Australia: Queensland Art
Gallery Publications, 2005), catalog of an exhibi-tion accompanied
by a program, presented at the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane
by the Australian Film Archive, November 16, 2005January 22,
2006.
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Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014
25
Contributors
Alistair Fox isEmeritusProfessorintheDepartmentof
EnglishattheUniversityof Otago. His translations included Cinema
Genre,byRaphalleMoine(Blackwell,2008),withHilaryRadner, andFranois
Truffaut: The Lost Secret, byAnneGillain
(IndianaUniversityPress,2013).HisbookJane Campion: Authorship and
Personal Cinema (Indiana
UniversityPress,2011)waslistedbyChoiceasanOutstandingAcademicTitleinFilmStudies.Hispublications
includefive single-authoredmonographs,
twocoauthoredmonographs,andtwocoeditedvolumes,mostrecentlyNew
Zealand Cinema: Interpreting the Past(Intellect,2011).
Cecilia NoveroisSeniorLecturerintheDepartmentof
LanguagesandCulturesattheUniversityof
Otago.ShedidherdoctoralstudiesattheUniversityof
ChicagoandhastaughtinvariouscollegesanduniversitiesintheUnitedStates.HermonographThe
Antidiets of the Avant-Garde: From Futurist Cooking to Eat
ArtwaspublishedbytheUni-versityof
MinnesotaPress(2010).Thebookdiscussesthetemporalrelationsbetweenthehistoricalavant-gardeand
theneo-avant-garde.Noveros researchand
teachinginterestsencompassaesthetics,theFrankfurtSchool,Europeancinema,travellitera-ture,theformerGermanDemocraticRepublic,especiallywomenwriters,andmostrecently,animalstudies.ShehaspublishednumerousarticlesonVienneseaction-ism,theSwissartistDanielSpoerri,theDadamovement,andtheculturalhistoryof
foodandfilm.
Hilary RadnerisProfessorof
FilmandMediaStudiesandcoordinatestheVisualCultureProgrammeintheDepartmentof
HistoryandArtHistoryattheUniversityof Otago. Her books include
Shopping Around: Feminine Culture and the Pursuit of Pleasure
(Routledge,1995)andNeo-Feminist Cinema: Girly Films, Chick Flicks,
and Consumer Culture (Routledge, 2011), aswell as six coedited
volumes. She is currently
coediting,withRaphalleMoine,AlistairFox,andMichelMarie,A Companion
to Contemporary French
Cinema,forthcomingfromWiley-Blackwell,December2013.
Masha
SalazkinaisResearchChairinTransnationalMediaArtsandCultureandAssociateProfessorof
FilmStudiesatConcordiaUniversity,Montreal.Herworkin-corporates
transnational approaches to film theory and cultural history. She
is theauthor of In Excess: Sergei Eisensteins Mexico (Universityof
ChicagoPress,2009)andcoeditor(withLilyaKaganovsky)of Sound, Speech,
Music in Soviet and Post-Soviet Cinema
(IndianaUniversityPress,forthcoming).Salazkinaisalsothecoordinatorof
theglobalfilmtheorytranslationprojectforthePermanentSeminaronHistoriesof
FilmTheo-riesandof thenewcollaborativeprojectonthehistoryof
theTashkentFestivalof Asian,African,andLatinAmericanCinema.