Hideous Passion. Buster Keaton. Battling Butler

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Hideous Passion
Buster Keaton
Battling Butler

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema 1

Cinéma 1

Ch X. The Action-Image: The Small Form

Ch X. L'image-action : La petite forme

3c.

The Paradox of Keaton the Minoring and Recurrent Functions of the Great Machines

Le paradoxe de Keaton : la fonction minorante et récurrente des grandes machines

At the same time, a type of images which are unexpected in the burlesque rise up before our very eyes. For example, the opening sequence of Our Hospitality, with the night, the thunderstorm, the lightning, the double murder and the terrified woman: pure Griffith. Also the cyclone in Steamboat Bill Junior, the diver's suffocation at the bottom of the sea in The Navigator, the crushing of the train and the flood in The General, the terrible boxing match in Battling Butler. Occasionally it is, in particular, an element of the image: the sabre-blade about to be thrust into an enemy's back, in The General, or the knife which the The Cameraman slips into the hand of a Chinese demonstrator. Take, for example, the boxing match, since all burlesques have used this theme. […] in Battling Butler there are three contests: a match which appears to be genuine, perceived in all its violence; a training session, treated in a traditional burlesque fashion, with Keaton like an excited child leaping around, then being threatened by the father-trainer; then finally the settling of scores between Keaton and the champion in all its ugliness: the bodies tossed about, the distortion and crumpling of flesh under the blows, the hatred which appears on their faces. It is one of the greatest indictments of boxing. [Deleuze, Cinema 1, 1986: 177-178bc]

En même temps, sous nos propres yeux, naissent un type d’images inattendues dans le burlesque. C’est l’ouverture des « Lois de l’hospitalité » avec la nuit, l’orage, les éclairs, le double meurtre et la femme terrifiée, du pur Griffith. C’est aussi le cyclone de « Steamboat Bill Junior », l’asphyxie du scaphandrier au fond de la mer dans « La croisière du Navigator », l’écrasement du train et l’inondation dans « Le mécano de la General », le terrible combat de boxe de « Battling Butler ». Parfois, c’est particulièrement un élément de l’image : la lame du sabre qui vient s’enfoncer dans le dos d’un ennemi, dans « Le mécano de la General », ou bien le couteau que « Le caméraman » glisse dans la main d’un manifestant chinois. Soit l’exemple du match de boxe, puisque tous les burlesques sont passés par ce thème. Les matchs de Charlot répondent bien à la loi de la petite différence : match-ballet ou match-|ménage. Mais, dans « Battling Butler », il ya trois combats : un match qui semble vrai, aperçu dans sa violence ; une séance d’entraînement, traitée de façon burlesque traditionnelle, Keaton étant comme un enfant chatouillé qui sursaute, puis menacé par le père-entraîneur ; enfin, le règlement de comptes entre Keaton et le champion, dans toute sa hideur, avec le corps qui tressaute, la distorsion et le froissement de la peau sous les coupes, la haine qui apparaît sur le visage. C’est une des plus grandes mises en accusation de la boxe. [Deleuze Cinéma 1, 1985: 237c-238a]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image.Transl. Hugh Tomlinson & Barbara Habberjam, London: Continuum/The Athlone Press, 1986.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 1: L'image-mouvement. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1983.

The Shadows of a Phantom. F.W. Murnau. Phantom

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[The following is quotation]

The Shadows of a Phantom

F.W. Murnau

Phantom

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema 2: The Time Image

Cinéma 2: L'image-temps

Chapter III. From Recollection to Dreams: Third Commentary on Bergson

Chapitre III. Du souvenir aux rêves (troisième commentaire de Bergson)

3c

The 'implied dream': movements of world

3e

Le « rêve impliqué » : les mouvements de monde

in the nightmare in Murnau's Phantom, the dreamer pursues the carriage, but is himself urged on by the shadow of the houses which pursue him. [Deleuze Cinema 2, 1989: 57a]

dans le cauchemar de « Fantôme » de Murnau, le rêveur poursuit le carrosse, mais lui-même est poussé par l’ombre des maisons qui le poursuivent.[Deleuze Cinéma 2, 1985: 81b]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time Image. Transl. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta. London & New York: 1989.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 2: L'image-temps. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1985

The Poison of Youth. Claude Chabrol. Violette Nozière

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[The following is quotation. My notes are in red.]

The Poison of Youth
Claude Chabrol
Violette Nozière

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema 2: The Time Image

Cinéma 2: L'image-temps

Chapter III. From Recollection to Dreams: Third Commentary on Bergson

Chapitre III. Du souvenir aux rêves (troisième commentaire de Bergson)

2c: The two poles of the flashback: Carné, Mankiewicz

2c: Les deux pôles du flash-back : Carné, Mankiewicz

In Mankiewicz, the flashback always reveals its raison d'être in these angled accounts which shatter causality and, instead of dispersing the enigma, refer it back to still ever deeper ones. Chabrol will rediscover this power and use of the flashback in Violette Nozière, when he wants to indicate the heroine's continual forks, the variety of her faces, the irreducible diversity of the hypotheses (did she or did she not want to spare her mother, etc?) [ft.10] [Deleuze Cinema 2, 1989: 48c]

Toujours chez Mankiewicz, le flash-back découvre sa raison d’être dans ces récits coudés qui brisent la causalité et, au lieu de dissiper l’énigme, la renvoient à d’autres énigmes encore plus profondes. Chabrol retrouvera cette force et cet usage du flash-back dans « Violette Nozière », quand il voudra marquer les bifurcations constantes de l’héroïne, la variété de ses visages, l’irréductible diversité des hypothèses (voulait-elle ou non épargner sa mère, etc. ?) [ft. 8]. [Deleuze Cinéma 2, 1985: 70b]


[Violette is only a teen, but she works as a prostitute. She falls in love with a man whom she supports by stealing from her parents and by selling herself. This man gives her syphilis. To cover for herself, she convinces her parents that she inherited it from them. She slowly feeds them poison, telling them that the doctor has prescribed a medicine for their sickness.

In this clip we will see at first a couple of flashbacks where there is a forking in her behavior and in the plot direction. So in these cases there is a moment of her acting deceptively or erratically that changes the course of the story. These forks mark themselves with the character of the past even while they are happening. It is very similar to what we saw in Mankiewicz, where the forks are memorable even as they happen, and thus they are like flashbacks in advance [See especially these entries on Barefoot Contessa, All About Eve, (also this one), A Letter to Three Wives, and Suddenly Last Summer]. So for example she sleeps with a man with syphilis, which is a fork in her behavior, and because it has far-reaching consequences, it is a fork in the story. That is what we see in the first flashback below.

Later we see how she ends up killing her father and nearly killing her mother. She explains to the authorities that she did not intend to kill her mother. But she did want to kill her father, she claims, because he molested her when she was younger. We see flashbacks which then make this explanation seem plausible. For example, we learn in one flashback that she remains silent when making love.]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time Image. Transl. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta. London & New York: The Athlone Press, 1989.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 2: L'image-temps. Paris:Les éditions de minuit, 1985.

Youthful Dreams. Vincent Minnelli. Gigi

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[The following is quotation. My own notes are bracketed in red.]

Youthful Dreams
Vincent Minnelli
Gigi

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema I
Cinéma I

Ch.7
The Affection-image: Qualities, Powers, Any-space-whatevers
L'image-affection : qualités, puissances, espaces quelconques

3d
Colour and Absorption(Minnelli)
La couleur et absorption (Minnelli)

[...] from the beginning of a total cinema of colour, Minnelli had made absorption the properly cinematographic power of this new dimension of the image. This is the source of the role of the dream in his work: the dream is only the absorbent form of colour. His work in musical comedy, but also in all other genres, follows the obsessive theme of characters literally absorbed by their own dream, and above all by the dream of others and the past of others (Yoldanda and the Thief, The Pirate, Gigi, Melinda [sic: English title, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever]) by the dream of power of an Other (Les Ensorcelés [sic: English title: The Bad and the Beautiful]). [Deleuze Cinema 1, 1986: 122a.b]

[…] dés le début d’un cinéma total de la couleur, Minnelli avait fait de l’absorption la puissance proprement cinématographique de cette nouvelle dimension de l’image. D’où chez lui le rôle du rêve : le rêve n’est que la forme absorbante de la couleur. Son œuvre, de comédie musicale mais aussi de tout autre genre, allait poursuivre le thème lancinant de personnages littéralement absorbés par leur propre rêve, et surtout par le rêve d’autrui et le passé d’autrui («Yolanda », « Le pirate », « Gigi », « Melinda »), par le rêve de puissance d’un Autre (« Les ensorcelés »). [Deleuze Cinéma 1, 1985: 167b]

[Gaston is a wealthy and socially prominent bachelor. He has had a friendship with Gigi while she was a child, and now that she has grown, he has fallen in love with her. Gigi's grandmother and great-aunt 'dream' of Gigi marrying into Gaston's fortune and fame. In these clips we see Gaston partly inclined toward Gigi, and guided a little bit into the marriage, as a result of him being absorbed by the dreams of Gigi's caretakers.]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Transl. Hugh Tomlinson & Barbara Habberjam, London: Continuum, 1986.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 1: L'image-mouvement. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1983.

Bulls & Guns. Buster Keaton. Go West

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Bulls & Guns

Buster Keaton

Go West

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema 1

Cinéma 1

Ch X. The Action-Image: The Small Form

Ch X. L'image-action : La petite forme

Go West effects very varied 'minorations'; from the minuscule revolver to the little calf who has the task of rounding up the vast herd. [Deleuze, Cinema 1, 1986: 180d]

« Go West » procède à des monorations très diverses, du revolver minuscule au petit veau chargé de rassembler l’immense troupeau. [Deleuze Cinéma 1, 1985: 241a]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image.Transl. Hugh Tomlinson & Barbara Habberjam, London: Continuum, 1986

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 1: L'image-mouvement. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1983.

The Birth of St. Vitus' Dance. Mark Sandrich. Top Hat

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[The following is quotation. May I thank the source of the St. Vitus image, allposters.com. Image credits given below.]

The Birth of St. Vitus' Dance
Mark Sandrich
Top Hat

[Second image above obtained very gratefully from: allposters.com]

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema 2: The Time Image
Cinéma 2: L'image-temps

Chapter III. From Recollection to Dreams: Third Commentary on Bergson
Chapitre III. Du souvenir aux rêves (troisième commentaire de Bergson)

3e
From Donen and Minnelli to Jerry Lewis
3g
De Donen et Minnelli à Jerry Lewis

Between the motor step and the dance step there is sometimes what Alain Masson calls a 'degree zero', like a hesitation, a discrepancy, a making late, a series of preparatory blunders (Sandrich's Follow the Fleet), or on the contrary a sudden birth (Top Hat). [Deleuze Cinema 2, 1989: 58d]

Entre le pas moteur et le pas de danse, il y a parfois ce qu’Alain Masson appelle un « degré zero », comme une hésitation, un décalage, un retardement, un série de ratés préparatoires (« Suivons la flotte » de Sandrich), ou au contraire une brusque naissance (« Top hat »). [Deleuze Cinéma 2, 1985: 83bc]

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time Image. Transl. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta. London & New York: 1989.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 2: L'image-temps. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1985.



Image credits:
http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG/17/1746/1BM3D00Z.jpg