Abstract

Histoire(s) du cinéma, Godard’s 90’s series on the history of cinema in the 20th century, has virtually infinite perceptions to be extracted from. Considering the specific editing effect of speed differentiation, which Godard uses to bring out hidden virtualities from the classic cinematographic imagery, this article will focus on the direct relation to Gilles Deleuze’s actualization on Henri Bergson’s philosophy, specifically concerning the critics on cinema of the last one. Bergson’s “instantaneous crosscuts” of perception are inherent in the character of differentiation, and as Deleuze shows, even having a mechanical automatism face, the cinema images, in the immediacy of its result, are also inherent in the perception. Thus, it can be deduced that cinema images present a differential kind of automatism. It happens that Godard’s interventions in the images perverts the equidistance of their compositions, by means of differential speed manipulation, facilitated by video technology. By doing so Godard also actualizes Bergson’s critics regarding the cinema, and just as Deleuze, he demonstrates the differential character inherent, or virtually hidden, in the images of the history of cinema. The present article will reveal different aspects in some of the “differential automatons” created by Godard in his Histoire(s) du cinéma.