Howlings in favour of Sade
This is an internet translation of the 1952 French film Howlings in favour of Sade by Guy-Ernest Debord. Howlings was Debord’s first film, produced when he was 23 years old.
Translators note
This film involves several periods of silence during which the screen remains dark. In this internet version, 30 carriage returns have been inserted for each minute of silence. This will not consume the intended time for the viewer, but it will present some sense of scale. — Gregor Markowitz (December, 1994)
Voice 1 The film by Guy-Ernest Debord, Howlings in favour of Sade ...
Voice 2 Howlings in favour of Sade is dedicated to Gil J Wolman
Voice 3 Article 115. When a person shall have ceased to appear at his place of abode or home address for four years, and about whom there has been no news whatsoever, the interested parties shall be able to petition the lower court in order that his or her absence be declared.
Voice 1 Love is only worthwhile in a pre-revolutionary period.
Voice 2 None of them love you, you liar! Art begins, grows and disappears because frustrated men bypass the world of official expression and the festivals of its poverty.
Voice 4 (young girl) Say, did you sleep with Francoise?
Voice 1 What a time! Memorandum for a history of the cinima:
1902 — Journey to the Moon.
1920 — The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.
1924 — Entr’acte.
1926 — Battleship Potemkin.
1928 — Un Chien Andalou.
1931 — City Lights
1951 — Birth of Guy-Ernest Debord.
1952 — The Anti-concept. — Howlings in favour of Sade.
Voice 5 “Just as the film was about to start, Guy-Ernest Debord would climb on stage to say a few words by way of introduction. He’d say simply: ’There’s no film. Cinema is dead. There can’t be film any more. If you want, let’s have a discussion’.”
Voice 3 Article 516. All property is either movable or immovable.
Voice 2 In order never to be alone again.
Voice 1 She is ugliness and beauty. She is like everything that we love today.
Voice 2 The art of the future will be the overturning of situations or nothing.
Voice 3 In the cafes of Saint-Germain-des-Pres!
Voice 1 You know, I like you very much.
Voice 3 An important Lettrist commando made up of some thirty members, all donning the filthy uniform that is their only really origional trademark, turned up at the Croisette with the firm desire of indulging in some scandal capable of drawing attention to themselves.
Voice 1 Happiness is a new idea in Europe.
Voice 5 “I only know about the actions of men, but in my eyes men are transposed, one for the other. In the final analysis, works alone differentiate us.”
Voice 1 And their revolts became conformisms.
Voice 3 Article 488. The age of majority is fixed at twenty-one years; at that age one is capable of all acts of civil life.
Réalisation : Guy Debord
Numéro de visa : 113959
Longueur : 1 751 m
Film noir et blanc
Les voix entendues sont celles de Gil J. Wolman (voix 1), Guy Debord (voix 2), Serge Berna (voix 3), Barbara Rosenthal (voix 4), Isidore Isou (voix 5).
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