bellour tourneur animals

26
From Hypnosis to Animals Raymond 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 Press DOI: 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

Upload: haneen-hannouch

Post on 24-Nov-2015

70 views

Category:

Documents


5 download

DESCRIPTION

By Raymond Bellour, about animals and hypnosis. Important example from Jacque Tourneur's films.

TRANSCRIPT

  • 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

  • 1www.cmstudies.org 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014

    this

    tra

    nsl

    atio

    n

    201

    4 b

    y th

    e U

    niv

    ers

    ity

    of

    Texa

    s P

    ress

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014

    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).

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.)

  • Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014

    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.

  • 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).

  • 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).

  • 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).

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.]

  • 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.

  • Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Cinema Journal 53 | No. 3 | Spring 2014

    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.

  • 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.

  • 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).

  • 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.

  • 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.