''La Société du Spectacle'' (English: ''Society of the Spectacle'') is a black-and-white 1974 film by the

Situationist The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...

, based on his 1967 book of the same name. It was Debord's first feature-length film. It uses found footage and

détournement A détournement (), meaning "rerouting, hijacking" in French, is a technique developed in the 1950s by the Letterist International, and later adapted by the Situationist International (SI),'' Report on the Construction of Situations'' (1957) t ...

in a radical

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

critique Critique is a method of disciplined, systematic study of a written or oral discourse. Although critique is frequently understood as fault finding and negative judgment, Rodolphe Gasché (2007''The honor of thinking: critique, theory, philosophy ...

mass marketing Mass marketing is a marketing strategy in which a firm decides to ignore market segment differences and appeal to the whole market with one offer or one strategy, which supports the idea of broadcasting a message that will reach the largest numb ...

and its role in the alienation of modern society.

Film content

The 88 minute film took a year to make and incorporates an apparent jumble of footage from feature films juxtaposed with still photographs, industrial films, early 1970s glossy 'lifestyle' TV ads, and news footage of unrest in the streets. The feature films include '' The Battleship Potemkin'', ''

October October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 31 days. The eighth month in the old calendar of Romulus , October retained its name (from Latin and Greek ''ôctō'' meaning "eight") after Januar ...

'', '' Chapaev'', '' The New Babylon'', '' The Shanghai Gesture'', ''

For Whom the Bell Tolls ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'' is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American volunteer attached to a Republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned ...

'', ''

Rio Grande The Rio Grande ( or ) in the United States or the Río Bravo (del Norte) in Mexico (), also known as Tó Ba'áadi in Navajo language, Navajo, is one of the principal rivers (along with the Colorado River) in the Southwestern United States a ...

'', '' They Died with Their Boots On'', ''

Johnny Guitar ''Johnny Guitar'' is a 1954 American independent Western film directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Joan Crawford, Sterling Hayden, Mercedes McCambridge, Ernest Borgnine, and Scott Brady. It was produced and distributed by Republic Pictures. ...

'', and '' Mr. Arkadin'', as well as other Soviet films. Throughout the film, there are intertitles consisting of quotations from ''

The Society of the Spectacle ''The Society of the Spectacle'' () is a 1967 work of philosophy and Marxist critical theory by Guy Debord where he develops and presents the concept of the Spectacle (critical theory), Spectacle. The book is considered a seminal text for the Si ...

'', along with Debord (in voice-over) reading texts from

Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

, Machiavelli, the 1968 Occupation Committee of the Sorbonne, Tocqueville, Émile Pouget, and Sergey Solovyov and others. Without citations, these quotes are hard to decipher, especially with the conflicting subtitles (which exist even in the French version): but that is part of Debord's goal to "problematize reception" (Greil and Sanborn) and force the viewer to be active. In addition, the words of some of the authors are détourned through deliberate misquoting. Footage of historical events is included, such as the murder of

Lee Harvey Oswald Lee Harvey Oswald (October 18, 1939 – November 24, 1963) was a U.S. Marine veteran who assassinated John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, on November 22, 1963. Oswald was placed in juvenile detention at age 12 for truan ...

(the alleged assassin of U.S. President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

in 1963), the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

of 1936-1939, the

1956 Hungarian Revolution The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

and the Paris riots in May 1968, along with clips of people such as

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban politician and revolutionary who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and President of Cuba, president ...

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

and the Spanish anarchist Buenaventura Durruti. In 1984, Debord withdrew his films from circulation because of the negative press and the assassination of his friend and patron Gerard Lebovici. Since Debord's suicide in 1994, Debord's wife Alice Becker-Ho has been promoting Debord's film. A DVD box set titled ''Guy Debord: Oeuvres cinématographiques complètes'' was released in 2005 and contains Debord's seven films.

Music

The piece used in the film is ''Les Délices de la Solitude'', Op. 20 No. 6 - Sonata in D Major : I. ''Allegro Moderato'', by Michel Corrette.

References

Sources

*Marcus, Greil and Sanborn, "On the films of Guy Debord", Keith; Feature; Artforum; February 2006 *Bracken, Len; ''Guy Debord: Revolutionary''; Feral House; 1997; California *Knabb, Ken; ''Guy Debord's Complete Cinematic Works''; AK Press; 1978; Canada *Marshall, Peter; '' Demanding the Impossible: A History of Anarchism''; Fontana Press; 1992; London *Lasn, Kalle; ''Culture Jam: How to Reverse America's Suicidal Consumer Binge - And Why We Must''; Quill; 1999; New York

External links

*
Observations on the English translation of Guy Debord's ''Oeuvres Cinématographiques Completes''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Society Of The Spectacle, The French documentary films Situationist International Documentary films about the media French collage films 1970s French films Films directed by Guy Debord