Deleuze Cinema, Bk1 Ch1 Pt1 Pr1 Movement Thesis 1 Intro: Space is Distinct from Movement

by Corry Shores
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[The following is summary; original text is given below. My own comments are in brackets.]

[Citation format:
(C1: [1983 French]; [1986 English]; [2005 English])
(C2: [1985 French]; [1989 English]; [2005 English])
Page break: ‘||’ for 2005 English, otherwise ‘|’ ]

Gilles Deleuze

Cinema 1
Cinéma 1

Ch1
Theses on Movement: First Commentary on Bergson
Thèses sur le mouvement: premier commentaire de bergson

Pt1
Première thèse: le mouvement et l’instant
First thesis: movement and instant

Pr1
Movement Thesis 1 Intro: Space is Distinct from Movement

Summary

 

Bergson has three theses of movement.

Thesis 1: Movement is distinct from the space covered.

We cannot consider movement and space as being of the same sort of thing. They are essentially different.

The temporality of space and motion in the first thesis on movement:

(a) Space is past, it is what has previously been covered by the movement.

(b) Movement is present, it is the act of covering which secondarily produces space, temporally speaking.

The metrics of space and motion:

(a) The space covered is divisible into qualitatively homogeneous parts. [One meter of distance is divisible into two half meters of distance.] In fact, space is infinitely divisible into parts.

(b) Movement is indivisible in this sense, or at least we can say that  if we do divide it, the parts are heterogeneous: “movement […] cannot be divided without changing qualitatively each time it is divided.” [Movement is like complete change and not just change in place. Spatial distance does not measure the change of movement, it measures the change of place. Movement is more than displacement. Movement is not constant departure of place, rather it is constant departure of state. The status of things is constantly altering. In physical motion, there is both the qualitative change of the state of the things in motion (and the whole of all things), but as well, there is the change in place.]

“the spaces covered all belong to a single, identical, homogeneous space, while the movements are heterogeneous, irreducible among themselves.” (9; 9; 1)

Quotation of the summarized text:

Bergson ne présente pas une seule thèse sur le mouvement, mais trois. La première est la plus célèbre, et risque de nous cacher les deux autres. Elle n'est pourtant qu'une introduction aux autres. D'après cette première thèse, le mouvement ne se confond pas avec l'espace parcouru. L'espace parcouru est passé, le mouvement est présent, c'est l'acte de parcourir. L'espace parcouru est divisible, et même infiniment divisible, tandis que le mouvement est indivisible, ou ne se divise pas sans changer de nature à chaque division. Ce qui suppose déjà une idée plus complexe : les espaces parcourus appartiennent tous à un seul et même espace homogène, tandis que les mouvements sont hétérogènes, irréductibles entre eux.
(1983: 9)

Bergson does not just put forward one thesis on movement, but three. The first is the most famous, and threatens to obscure the other two. It is, however, only an introduction to the others. According to the first thesis, movement is distinct from the space covered. Space covered is past, movement is present, the act of covering. The space covered is divisible, indeed infinitely divisible, whilst movement is indivisible, or cannot be divided without changing qualitatively each time it is divided. This already presupposes a more complex idea: the spaces covered all belong to a single, identical, homogeneous space, while the movements are heterogeneous, irreducible among themselves.
(1986: 9; 2005: 1)

Texts:

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinéma 1: L'image-mouvement. Paris: Les éditions de minuit, 1983.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Transl. Hugh Tomlinson & Barbara Habberjam, London / New York: Athlone; Minnesota: University of Minnesota, 1986.

Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement-Image. Transl. Hugh Tomlinson & Barbara Habberjam, London / New York: Athlone, 1986; Continuum 2005.