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Guy Debord made six films between 1952 and 1978. Following the still-unsolved assassination of the films’ producer in 1984, all of them were withdrawn from circulation for nearly twenty years.
In 2001 Debord’s widow Alice began the process of rereleasing them with a complete retrospective at the Venice Film Festival, and asked Ken Knabb to make a new English translation of Debord’s complete film scripts, both for publication and for subtitling the films. He agreed, and worked on the project for the next year and a half. The book, entitled Complete Cinematic Works, was published in 2003 by AK Press. Click here for information on ordering it.
In October 2005 there was a three-week showing of all the films (a complete retrospective each day) in Paris, followed by similar retrospectives in several other French cities. Meanwhile a 3-DVD set of all six films plus the video documentary Guy Debord, son art et son temps (all in the original French) was released in November 2005. This boxed set, entitled Guy Debord—L’Intégral and including a 138-page booklet of texts and illustrations, was originally distributed by GCTHV (Gaumont/Columbia/Tristar Home Video), but it no longer seems to be available from that source. Used copies may be available at various Internet sites. Note, however, that these Gaumont DVDs are coded for Zone 2 (Europe) and will not play on Zone 1 (North American) machines. There are ways of getting around this coding, but they may involve downloading a special software program or getting an “all-region” DVD player. Be sure that you know how to deal with this problem before ordering the Gaumont DVDs.
There are as yet no authorized English versions of the films. Meanwhile, however, most of the films can be directly viewed or downloaded at www.ubu.com/film/debord.html and various subtitled or dubbed bootleg versions are circulating.
The first “official” American screening of a Debord film with authorized subtitling took place October 3, 2008, at the New York Film Festival (In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni). A complete retrospective of all six of Debord’s films with authorized subtitling took place March 1, 2009, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center (New York).
SCRIPTS*
Howls for Sade (1952)
On the Passage of a Few Persons Through a Rather Brief Unity
of Time (1959)
Critique of Separation (1961)
The Society of the Spectacle (1973)
Refutation of All the Judgments, Pro or Con, Thus Far Rendered on the Film
The Society of the Spectacle
(1975)
In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (1978)
DOCUMENTS
A User’s Guide to Détournement
Technical Notes on the First Three Films
Letter about On the Passage...
For a Revolutionary Judgment of Art
On The Society of the Spectacle (reply to a critic of the book)
Cinema and Revolution
On The Society of the Spectacle (announcement of the film)
The Use of Stolen Films
The Themes of In girum imus nocte...
Instructions to the In girum Sound Engineer
NOTES [not online]
CHRONOLOGY
FILMOGRAPHY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX [not online]
*The scripts published in Complete Cinematic Works
include the voice-over soundtracks plus detailed descriptions of each image, 62
illustrations, and numerous annotations. The above online excerpts reproduce the
voice-over soundtracks only.
Copyright. Unlike most of the other material that Ken Knabb has published or
put online at this website, the Debord film scripts are copyrighted (as
are the films themselves). The translations in
Complete Cinematic Works are copyright 2003 by Ken Knabb. Neither Knabb nor AK
Press
will enforce this copyright against personal or noncommercial
use. Commercial reproduction of any significant portion of those
translations, however, is prohibited without prior written
permission from Ken Knabb. For further information,
please contact knabb@bopsecrets.org.
Of related interest at this website:
The Role of Godard (SI)
New Forms of Action Against Politics and Art (Viénet)
On René Viénet’s Film Can Dialectics Break Bricks? (Knabb)
On Guy Debord’s Film The Society of the Spectacle (Knabb)
Radical Film (Knabb)
Designing Pacifist Films (Paul Goodman)
Situationist Bibliography
Bureau of Public Secrets, PO Box 1044, Berkeley CA 94701, USA
www.bopsecrets.org knabb@bopsecrets.org