JLG/JLG: Self-Portrait in December (1994) - full transcript

Exercise 174.

Self-portrait in December

Cast the roles.

Begin the rehearsals.

Settle problems concerning the direction

Perfect the entrances and exits.

Learn your role by heart.

Work to improve your acting

Work to improve your acting

Get under the skin of your character.
Have the role of......

Do a rehearsal, or a general rehearsal



Be, as the case may be, a success

a triumph,
or, on the contrary, a failure

a triumph,

or, on the contrary, a failure

He possessed hope, but the boy didn't
know that what counts is to know

by whom he was possessed,

what dark powers were entitled
to lay claim to him.

Usually, it begins like this:

Death arrives,
then we put on mourning

Death arrives,
then we put on mourning

I don't know exactly why,
but I did the opposite

Dark Room

I first put on mourning,

But death never came.



neither on the streets of Paris,
nor on the shores of Lake Geneva.

What? It's his test

He could do very badly
We did it three years ago

Even late, I didn't have to go
to any far off Samarkind

The obstacles came themselves:
that is, life.

It's a stupid game for defending Toring.
You're chickening out.

But tell him what he needs to do!
-Yes, tell him

Soon, maybe

Which may explain my slightly
distressed look in the picture

not because I was bent out of shape,

but because I had bent the rules at
some imagined Last Judgement

The sole purpose of this film

should be to determine that.

No, I was already in mourning for myself,

my sole and unique companion.

I suspected that my soul had
stumbled over my body

and that it had left
without offering a hand.

Being and Time

Let it be seen

Listen

Yes, it's difficult,
this question of culture

They confuse everything with art.

If only,

I knew Latin to make things clear.

We'll talk tonight.

Until tonight

OK

There is the rule. OK
There is the exception. OK

The rule is culture . No.
Culture is a question of rules.

It is part of the rules.

Exception is a question of art.
It is part of art.

Everyone speaks the rule:
Cigarettes, computers, t-shirts,

television, tourism, war.

And....

No one

speaks

In a sense, fear is the daughter of God.

redeemed on Good Friday night.

She is not beautiful to see

sometimes mocked, sometimes cursed

repudiated by everyone.

And yet, don't be mistaken,

she is at every deathbed.
She intervenes for every man.

No one speaks the exception.

Everyone speaks the rule.
No one speaks the exception.

This cannot be spoken.
That cannot be spoken.

That cannot be spoken.

It can be written:
Flaubert... no

Pushkin, Flaubert, Dostoevsky
It can be written Flaubert, Dostoevsky

It can be composed:
Gershwin, Mozart

It can be painted: Cezanne, Vermeer.
It can be filmed:. Antonioni, Vigo.

No.
or it can be lived.

or it can be lived.
It is

the art of living

Srebrenica, Mostar, Sarajevo.

yes, and

It is part of the rules to want
the death of the exception.

It is part of the rules to want
the death of the exception.

No
It is...

It is therefore the rule of European culture

the rule of European culture

to organize the death of the art of living,

which was still flourishing at our feet.

In fact, in a rhyme

there are always three things

He said it in.....

in 'La Rime en 194O'.

'Le Creve-coeur'

''When I close the book,
I will have no regrets.''

''I've seen so many people live so badly,
and so many people die so well.''

The image is a pure creation of the mind.

It can not be born of a comparison,

but from drawing together two distant realities.

The more the ties between these
two realities are distant and right,

the stronger the image will be.

Two realities with no ties
cannot be usefully drawn together

No image is created.

and two contrary realities do not
reconcile with each other.

An image is not strong because it is
brutal or fantastic,

but because the association of ideas

is distant.

distant,

and correct.

Gone from Liverpool

Oh, how moving is the working

of the unconscious
(The heart of the problem)

When one knows

that the two forms of existence
between which a being navigates

Crystal

and smoke,

also signify the tragedy
of the dead,

which, in my parent's generation

struck down individuals,

vehicles of this tradition.

The 'Kristallnacht'...

and...

the fog of smoke.

121 , one might say,

''The Manifesto of 121 ''

''Might we say, that where doubt is lacking,
knowledge, too, is lacking?''

125:

A blind man asks me,
''Do you have two hands?''

Looking at my two hands
would not reassure me.

Yes, I do not know why I would trust
my eyes, if I were in doubt.

Yes, why woudn't I check my eyes

by looking at whether I see
my two hands?

Wittgenstein, ''On certitude''

Diderot, '''A Letter on the Blind''

She said that only the heart and mind
inspired fear in her.

One of the advantages of lacking sight,
especially for women,

''Never'' she said ''will a handsome man
make me lose my head.''

''And'', she added,

''Surveyors''

''live most of their lives with
their eyes closed.''

And now, Jeannot.

Jeannot.

which rhymes with stereo.

Stereo is made for dogs
and blind people.

They always project like this,
but they should project this way

But because they project like this,

because I, who listen and watch,
am here,

because I am opposite,

because I receive this projection,

because I reflect it,

I am in the position described by this figure.

This is the figure of stereo.

But take this figure,

and examine it in history now,

and examine it in history now,

for stereo also
exists in history.

There was Euclid.

and then there was Pascal,

Pascal, who reflected,

and this is the mystical hexagram.

But in history,

the history of history,

there was Germany,

which projected Israel.

Israel reflected this projection,

and Israel found its cross.

And the law of stereo continues.

Israel projected the Palestinian people

And the Palestinian people,
in turn,

bore their cross.

That is the true legend of stereo.

Nivose

Goodbye Monsieur Jean.
I'll change the flowers tomorrow

Goodbye, Mme Levitz.
Goodbye, Clemence.

What are you doing?

A story?

She wants another story.

Yes? What story?

Stop asking for any old story!

''Any old story'' is very good.
Here is any old story:

There's a family of sharks
watching a ship sink.

And the father says to the kids
''Remember kids,

women and children first.''

Goodbye, Monsieur Jean.

He was stupefied,
but, strangely enough

he had no desire
to dwell on the point.

A thing is not
what you say it is.

It is much more.

It is a set in the
largest sense of the word.

A chair is not a chair.

It is an inconceivably
complex structure

Atomically

electronically, chemically, etc.

In turn,

Thinking of it as a simple chair

is what Korzybski termed ''identification''.

and the totality of

these identifications

produces nonsense

and tyranny.

Winter 1944,
at the beginning of spring

We wanted to be useful.

You know very well
there's not only one way to be useful.

and I am sure that she will
be useful

Ah, you are coarse!

OK, I'll leave you alone.
but who will help you here?

We came to Corsica expressly
to see you.

I didn't ask for anything.

An expensive trip for you
to find your pasha

and to get your money back.

and you greet us while getting a horoscope
with a disgusting blonde.

How many men have you forgotten?

As many women as you remember

Don't go away

I haven't moved

Tell me something nice

Sure, what do you want to here?

lie to me

tell me all these years you've waited,
tell me

All these years I've waited

Tell me you'd have died if
I hadn't come back.

I would have died if you
hadn't come back.

Yell me you still love me
like I love you.

I still love you like
you love me.

Spirit has such power

only to the extent

that it contemplates

the negative face to face.

The kingdom of France!

and...

with it....

Ah, my homeland! Is it true?

I have imagined you this
way for a long time.

Happy country,
magic, dazzling,

Oh beloved land,
where are you?

I can't see you alone any more,
you're always with him,

You're not leaving him,
you know where you are,

The signs among us

I want a great future for him.
You know what kind of life you will have here.

I have a great past,

Roads leading nowhere

Monsieur Jean!

Monsieur Jean!

I'm going.

What is tragic in sexual relations
- Monsieur Jean!

is the virginity of souls.
- Monsieur Jean!

I'm going
- What is it, Adrienne?

The departure of

the wet nurse.

Good luck, Monsieur Jean

Goodbye, Adrienne.
- Brigitte, Monsieur Jean. Brigitte.

I'm not sure.

''In this woman's extreme confusion
concerning earthly things,

''the sound of human speech
barely reached her.''

''But she no longer understood it.''

''Her eyes were set on the vision
that the dead contemplate forever.''

The end of Adrienne Mesurat.

Thank you, Monsieur Jean.

You are courageous
- Oh yes?

You'll end up on unemployment
-No

No.

Delors said on television yesterday

that Europe will build huge
information highways,

There will be work for everyone.

''Great piracy can only occur in
powerful democratic countries,

where the government
is run by few,

''and where the state is responsible
for immense enterprises.''

183O,

Alexis de Tocqueville.

This is the evening hour,
which P.-J. Toulet loved.

''The horizon is coming undone.

A great ivory cloud to the west,

from the zenith to the ground,
the twilight sky.

The immense solitude,

already frozen,

full of liquid silence.

It is the hour of the poet,
who distilled the life in his heart.

to extract the secret essence,

embalmed, poisonous.''

I entered his room for the last time..

It is the evening hour.

The memory of the struggle where we
confronted each other

came back to me so strongly that
I almost fainted.

Paul-Jean Toulet.

I opened the muslin veil,
touching my fingers

I said to her, be in peace, and she
received this peace on her knees

What a miracle that one can give that
which one does not possess oneself.

O sweet miracle from
our empty hands

''While the orchestra plays

its outdated repertoire,

amid the banal crowd

I see you from afar

''And you, divine, in silence,

Your chin poised on one finger

your eyes half closed, you think.

''I want you to be thinking of me.''

I am Anne Marie.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Filmcenter. Test.

They are the Filmcenter inspectors.

OK, see you later, my good Joseph

Let's not waste any time.

Mr. Bernard, you've done the
universities, the books, and the photos,

Mr. Andre, the films

The reproductions of films

In 1955, JLG announced that
we will never see films on TV,

only reproductions.
-and Vietnam, it's not a person

Shut up, Cassandra!

Help! Help!

And first, a few things because
the truth is amongst us.

This imbecile JLG

should have known

that by creating

two

or three Vietnams

ipso facto...

he would create

two,

or three Americas
- Yes, even here we see the result.

For America

1, 2, 3,...

16 Shelves

For Germany,

2 shelves

Russia

1 shelf

Italy, the same

Jean Renoir.

an entire set of shelves.

This imbecile J.L.G....

Monsieur Jean.

in 1939, in ''The Rules of the Game''
- Anything else to declare?

after ''The Grand Illusion''

and ''The Great Dictator''

by his friend Charles Spencer Chaplin,
-Shut up, Cassandra

Nothing else to declare?

they were planning a second world war
- Europe and its memories.

Shut up, Cassandra
-America has its T-shirts

Your opinion on the Bern Convention
and the GATT talks?

Films are merchandise.

They must be burnt.

I told that to Langlois.

But be careful

of the fire within

Art is like fire,

It is born from what burns.

'Man's Hope', Andre Malraux.

In 1914, Senator MacBridge...

declared to Congress:

''Trade follows films!''

Only JLG noted this, in his
''Histoire(s) du Cinema 1A

where he tells us that Melies
had offices in New York,

where he tells us that Melies
had offices in New York,

and that they were stolen by Paramount
during the Verdun offensive.

That's true, boss.

We project our images at the same
speed as the Americans

24, and not 25.

The beginning of this story takes place
in the minutes between night and day

during the twilight of morning.

In 'The Children Play Russian'
JLG notes that in 1873

in his journal, a skinny, small,
poor, sick Russian

declared with assurance

Europe is condemned to death.

in 1873, in his journal, a skinny, small,
poor, sick Russian

declared with assurance:
Europe is condemned to death.

But what is Europe dying of?

Dostoevsky

Born in autumn,
died in winter

But why was he fascinated by

by the torture of an innocent
child by a brute?

Because there must be a Russian people
in swaddling clothes.

These political slaves must
have moral liberty,

These brutes must have

in the hell of drunkenness
and massacres,

must have a rich unconscious,
unequalled in Europe,

These people

who are capable of anything,
like cruel children

who sleep the rest of the time
in a terrible impotence

must remain the only people in Europe
who still have a God.

Shut up, Cassandra!

And that?

Jean Cocteau.

Bravo mademoiselle, continue.

Roads leading nowhere

Blank paper is the true
mirror of man

Landscapes traversed

By whom?

By what?

If JLG by JLG exists

What does this ''by JLG'' mean?

It will concern childhood landscapes

and of the past, with no one in them

and also more recent landscapes

where things were filmed.

''Land'' is in ''Landscape''

and two notions of fatherland
can perhaps emerge,

A homeland given,

and a homeland conquered.

Such as the negative
Kafka spoke of,

which was to be created,

the positive having been given to us at birth.

Thunder and lightning!
Corpus christi!

Is something wrong?

These secretaries are all bitches.

They've forgotten the main thing.
-Really? What?

Yes, all the films
you've never made.

Nothing to say?

The list is long, Monsieur.

Speak more loudly, my friend.

What is it?

I'm here for the
assistant-editor job.

When the blind Justice Fielding
entered my room,

she proclaimed with confidence

''This room is 9 meters wide

35 meters long

and 5 meters high.''

And that was in keeping
with the truth.

Do you think I can have
the job, Monsieur?

No problem, Mademoiselle.

Just a moment....

The producer guarantees
that nothing

will obstruct the free exercise
by the distributor

of the rights granted herein.

Let's get to work.

Come this way.

She is blind, that bitch!

A shady business
OK, we have to go from shot
6/4 to shot 6/5

We see Rachel who
-from 6/4 to 6/5

Exactly, Mademoiselle

We see Rachel saying:
''I'll start over, too, then.''

Then she faints.

Otherwise, how would I know that..

56 images later,
God takes her in his arms.

If I know something

And shot 6/4's time is up.

while shot 6/5's is just beginning
- 6/5.

I am infallible

And you must think there is a card.

Playing cards?

A title card, Mademoiselle.

Everything was asleep.

as if the entire universe

were a vast mistake.

And then we find Rachel
facing the sea.

After 153 images...

she asks:
''Did you sleep with me?''

And she adds

34 images later

''I want to know''

I have cut there.

May I repeat that?

Gladly, Mademoiselle.

-So
Are you kidding? Just like the others.

100% for the distributors
- I, too, start again...

until the film breaks even,
-then, I too

Until the producer's net receipts
equal the cost of the film.

56.

56.

1 53.

153.

You slept with me.

Yes. 34.
- 34.

I want to know.

the nothing and the almost nothing

Everything was asleep

as if the entire universe

was a vast

mistake.

Choice of the chosen

I said to her one day:

''Mademoiselle, imagine a cube.''

I see it.

Imagine, in its center, a point.

It 's done.

From this point, draw
straight lines to the angles.

You have now divided the cube.

Into six equal pyramids

each having the same face and
base of the cube

each having the same face and
base of the cube

and half of its height

This is true.

But where do you see it?

In my head, like you.

I took three steps in the veranda
-In the veranda

It can't continue like this!

Simon went into this room,
and I fainted

And nothing happened.

and it is the day,
and I don't know

And you, Simon,
you kill me

I begin my explanation again.

It is night.

Everything must be clear between us.

I return to this room.

I begin again.
-Me, too.

I don't understand.

To have a lover is disgusting

I think that a lover loves only love

Not the other, opposite.

I love open windows and
cool sheets

The temptation to exist

Lord

It is a film that has never been made

You speak the truth, Mademoiselle.

It is a film that no one has seen.

If my left hand
can touch my right hand,

as it touches things

touch it while touching

Why,

in touching the hand of another,

will I not be touching

the same power of joining things together
that I touched with my hands?

Yet........the domain, we quickly realize,

is unlimited.

If we can show that the flesh

Is an ultimate idea

that it is neither union nor
composition of two substances.

but can be conceived in itself.

If the visible has a relationship
to itself

that goes through me

and becomes me as I watch

watching this circle,
which I do not create

but which creates me,

this winding of the visible
within the visible

can go through and animate
other bodies, as well as mine.

And if I could understand how
this wave is born in me,

how the visible over there

is simultaneously my landscape.

I can understand that elsewhere, too,
it closes in on itself

(I am a legend)

and that there are other
landscapes than my own.

When we express ourselves,
we say more than we want to

We think we express the individual,
but we express the universal.

I am cold. It is I who
say ''I am cold''.

But it is not I who is heard

I disappeared between these
two moments of speech.

All that remains of me
is the man who is cold

and this man
belongs to everyone.

Where do you live?

In language,
and I cannot keep quiet.

In speaking, I throw myself
into an unknown place

a foreign land.

and I suddenly become in charge of it.

I have to become universal.

To realize, with humility, with caution

by means of my own flesh,

the universality I carelessly
threw myself into out of thoughtlessness

that is my sole possibility,

t hat is my sole commandment

I said that I love.
That is the promise.

What have you lost?
What is this darkness?

Ask, rather, what is a government?

I said that I love.

A group of people who govern.

''No,'' he said, with a a pale smile,

''a government is your accepting
to let yourself be governed.''

But that's ridiculous. That would
mean that there's nothing up there.

Truly nothing.

Exactly That is to say,
to finally deserve the name

That is what darkness is.
-the name that was given to me.

Precisely

Self-portrait

Not autobiography.

Fourth thirty
3O/4O. - No,game, game

Our pre war

The past is never dead

It hasn't even passed yet

I am as happy to be passed

I am as happy to be passed

as not to be passed.

And now my work is done,

which neither the anger of Jupiter

nor fire, nor sword,

nor the gnawing tooth of time

shall ever be able to destroy.

Let that day, that only has power

over my body, end when it will

my uncertain span of years

But that's my coat.

yet the best part of me will be borne

immortal, beyond the distant stars.

Wherever America's influence extends,
over the lands it has civilized

Whatever the extent of American
power over occupied lands,

I will be spoken, on people's lips
and, famous through the ages

if there is truth in the poet's prophecies

if there is truth in the poet's prophecies

and once famous

I shall live

throughout eternity..

If I believe

If I believe

If there is some truth

in the mouths of poets.

I shall live

It is not even the past yet

I said that I love

I said that I love
That is the promise.

Now, I have to sacrifice myself

so that love exists on earth.

so that love exists on earth.

As a reward

at the end of this
long undertaking

I will end up being he who loves.

That is, I will deserve the name
I gave myself.

A man,

nothing but a man,

no better than any other,

But

no other better than him.