"The paradox of the 'outlaw'."

"If we ever get out of this mess and manage to create a sane, liberated society, future generations will look back on Guy Debord as the person who contributed to that liberation more than anyone else in the twentieth century." Thus begins the Introduction to the Complete Cinematic Works, a fairly, well, spectacular new publication coming out this month from AK Press.

Most people I know were first introduced to Guy Debord the same way I was, that is, via Griel Marcus's Lipstick Traces, as the founder of the Situationist International. Besides his writings and art, his posing about and genuine political agitation, Debord made films. But when his friend and producer, Gérard Lebovici, was assassinated in 1984, Debord clamped down on the circulation of his films and they've rarely been seen since. Now, his widow, Alice Debord, has asked Ken Knabb to translate the texts of the films into English. There's quite a lot already to sort through at the Bureau of Public Secrets site; the book is next, and then, sometime next year, English-subtitled versions of the films are to be released as well.

Here, by the way, is the preface to Debord's Contre le Cinéma (1964) from which the title of this entry is nabbed.



Posted by dwhudson at June 14, 2003 6:59 AM