Thèse de doctorat en Études cinématographiques et audiovisuelles
Sous la direction de Jacques Aumont.
Soutenue en 1999
à Paris 3 .
L'experience cinematographique n'est pas l'experience du miroir. Elle est plutot celle de la metamorphose du corps propre: corps propre du spectateur qui occupe une place publique, mais aussi corps propre du spectateur qui surgit comme sujet du mouvement. Mais qu'est-ce que le mouvement? est-ce le deplacement d'un mobile d'un point a un autre? ou est-ce le scintillement de la profondeur de champ ? est-ce un personnage qui marche? ou est-ce un rapport entre un mouvoir et un emouvoir? est-ce bien ce qui se passe dans le champ? ou est-ce bien ce qui passe entre le champ et le tout-champ? ces questions rencontrent la pensee de gilles deleuze, mais surtout son imagemouvement et son image-temps. Elles s'y confrontent. Et, par-dela la confrontation, elles i aboutissent a une reflexion sur les regimes perceptifs, en general, et la perception cinematographique, en particulier. Mais elles aboutissent egalement a la necessite d'une image-lumiere comme paradigme de la contemporaneite, et la necessite d'une theorie du spectateur tel qu'il apparait comme sujet du mouvement ou des mouvements.
From one mode of perception to another the spectator as he appears through philosophy, cinema and film
The cinematographic experience is not the experience of the mirror. It is more the metamorphosis of the body: the body of an individual spectator who is physically present in a public place and the body of the spectator which surges as a subject within the movement. But what is movement? is it the displacement of an object going from one point in space to another? or is it the shimmering light in "the depth of the field" ("profondeur de champ")?. Is it a character walking? or is it the discusrelationship between a motion and an emotion? is it really what happens on the "field" ("champ")? or is it more accurately what happens between the "field" ("champ"} and the "open-ended - field" ("tout-champ": in french this has the same pronounciation as the word "touchant" which means touching in both the physical and metaphorical sense)? these questions meet the thinking of gilles deleuze, especially his concept of the movement-image and the time-image. They are in direct confrontation with his thought. Through this confrontation these questions lead to a reflection on modes of perceptions in general and the cinematographic perception in particular. This discussion ultimately shows the need for a light-image theory as a paradigm of contemporaneousness, and the necessity of a theory to show the spectator as he appears : subject within movement or movements.