Hi there
Deleuze's crystal image has been my love and my burden for the past couple of
years.
I've only realised in the last few months that you can't find the crystal image
in Chapt 4 of his cinema book. Why? well, it's a slippery concept. it may be
that the crystalline regime is constituted from a constellation of points, such
as the actual/virtual, real/imaginary, seed/ milieu -- it mutates and
transforms itself. So that you'd find in Deleuze's examples in Chapt 4 -- the
crystal image is different in different films.
You will need to find the crystal image in Mulholland Drive -- it is obvious
(to me) that it is a crystal image -- but where does the crystal begin? what
sort of a crystal image is it? What does it enable in the film? these are
questions that you'll need to find out ... (I can only imagine that the crystal
is the 'key' -- literally perhaps --- or the 'black void'?) But how I can argue
that would take some work. (it's clear that it's a crystal image because of the
indiscernibility element in terms of not only the narrative, but the images
themselves)
I'm in a hurry to get to a class, but I hope to resume this discussion with
you... oh - and I suggest you read Rodowick's take on it in Citizen Kane --
it'll give you some insight.
As to a 'pure state of time' -- well that's another story...and a long one at
that...
later,
Janice
The MOTHOR wrote:
> REF: reality in Lynch/ Mulholland Drive...
>
> Firstly, thanks to everyone for their replies...I'm still checking out a lot
> of the films mentioned...
> I'm also tackling Deleuze:Cinema 2:time-image...
> Looking through chapter 4 on the crystal image, it seemed relevant to
> Mulholland Drive...
> Can anyone highlight for me how the crystal image bears reference to
> Mulholland Drive?
> Can I see Mulholland Drive as a crystal image...
> Or does the idea of the crystal image usually refer to an exact,specific
> moment?
> He says it is
> '... the point of indiscernibility between the actual and the virtual, while
> what we see in the
> crystal is time itself, a bit of time in the pure state, the very
> distinction between the two
> images which keeps on reconstituting itself...'
>
> ...I need to read it several more times...and get a bit more of a grip on
> it...
> just wondered if any of you could help? : )
> Or perhaps point me in the direction of a useful URL/book that may clarify
> his ideas for me a little more?
>
> Sincerely
>
> Sam Rees
>
> >From: Ross Macleay <[log in to unmask]>
> >Reply-To: Film-Philosophy Salon <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Mister Lynch...
> >Date: Sat, 19 Oct 2002 12:01:30 +1000
> >
> >I am not so sure that I would say that Mulholland Drive is an alternative
> >realities story or a hyperreality story. Although the film does just
> >present
> >them that way with each one being given the same epistemological value as
> >the other, the second story (the key) seems to provide the empirical
> >version
> >of an experience that the first story dreams. The first story is almost a
> >Freudian dream version of the second. It seems to be a dream that tries to
> >censor the shameful details of the second by juxtapositions, substitutions
> >and such.
> >
> >Ross
>
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--
Janice Tong
Department of Art History and Theory
University of Sydney
Ph: 9351 6908
Fx: 9351 7323
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