Deleuze Cinema

1. The first section of the text deals primarily with neo-realism and what it is exactly. Deleuze begins with the subject of the ASA and the SAS, saying that different parts of space are separated now. “The small form ASA is therefore no less compromised than the large form SAS.” The main point here is that actions and situations have become more disconnected from each other and actions do not necessarily belong to a specific person. Deleuze use the term “white events” referring to events which have no effect on the bearer of the action because he is “internally dead.” He compares this to the driver in Taxi Driver because the driver has not decided what he is going to do, but no matter what happens, it essentially is going to have the same effect on him.

2. Clichés are the answer to the linkage between everything in this world according to Deleuze. He says, “what forms the set are clichés, nothing else. Nothing but clichés, clichés everywhere. . . .” These clichés have to do with political or social events on the news dispersed within a movie or the voice-over that is common in most cinema. He refers to these as “actualities” and the “eye of the camera.” The unknown person behind the camera is cliché that penetrates each and every one of us because he somehow knows what is happening in the story. He is saying that clichés are important in making the connection between the viewer and the characters in a film. There are physical, optical, auditory, and psychic clichés, all of which contribute to the others, creating a vivid connection and adding to neo-realism.

3. In neo-realism, “the real is no longer represented or reproduced but ‘aimed at.’” Deleuze says that there is no motor extension anymore, but rather a “dreamlike connection.” This “dreamlike connection” could be looked at as something that does not really end but continues as an action in a situation. In neo-realism there is no sensory-motor situation but instead optical and sound situations. He uses the term “any-space-whatever” to talk about optical and sound situations in neo-realism that are disconnected. These situations in the “any-space-whatever” created opsigns and sonsigns that can deal with variable images from everyday life. In order to get to a pure optical and sound image, sensory-motor image is completely dissolved and the clichés are left behind.

-Danny Ponticello