The Society of the Spectacle
La Société du spectacle
FRANCE / 1973 / French and others / B&W / 35mm (1:1.37) / 80 min
Director, Script: Guy Debord
Original Text: La Société du spectacle, Éditions Champ Libre, 1967
Editing: Martine Barraqué
Researcher: Suzanne Schiffmann
Sound: Antoine Bonfanti
Production Manager: Christian Lentretien
Production Company: Simar Films
Producer: Gérard Lebovici
Music: Michel Corrette
Voice: Guy Debord
In the “détournement“ of the preexisting films, the works made use of are: John Ford, Rio Grande Nicholas Ray, Johnny Guitar Josef von Sternberg, Shanghai Gesture Raoul Walsh, They Died with Their Boots On Orson Welles, Mr. Arkadin Sam Wood, For Whom the Bell Tolls as well as “the works by a certain number of bureaucratic filmmakers of the so-called socialist countries“
International Distribution: Love Streams Production agnès b.
Source: Carlotta Films
The film was produced on the basis of Debord’s 1967 book of the same title, a compilation of his thoughts and SI theory. While listening to Debord’s incessant narration, we are exposed to the continuous images of the world that has become an extreme spectacle: aerial bombings in Vietnam; the Spanish Civil War; the Hungarian Uprising; May ’68 in Paris; Lee Harvey Oswald, JFK’s assassin; Richard Nixon’s meeting with Chairman Mao; Stalin’s political speeches; factory workers under the Hitler regime; fashion shows; women in bikinis; pictures of Monroe; and the westerns by Raoul Walsh, John Ford and Nicholas Ray. The “detourned” images and language present to us the reality of capitalistic society, which has become a spectacle. At the same time, they criticize the very social relationships that individuals form through the intermediary of images. “In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation.” (Debord)