Hurlements en faveur de Sade : The Negation and Surpassing of "Discrepant Cinema"

Abstract

Asger Jorn writes in his introduction to Debord's Contre Le Cinema that Debord's films like long experimental notes on the development of the general theory of deetournement (6).2 The Situationist practice of ditournement was one of the most important and widespread techniques employed in their artistic and political endeavors, reaching its apex during the events of May 1968. De'tournement comprises both an aesthetic and political critique. The technique is defined by Guy Debord and Gil Wolman as the mutual interference of two worlds of feeling, or the bringing together of two independent expressions which, through this juxtaposition, supersedes the original elements and produces a synthetic organization of greater efficacy (Knabb 9). Debord employed ditournement cinematically, since his films are mostly comprised of preexisting materials. The images in his 1973 film version of La Socidt du Spectacle are taken from preexisting films, advertisements, newsreels and still photographs. These images appear as he reads the text of the book on the soundtrack.