{3776}{3811}Whenever you're ready... {3854}{3913}Histories of cinema and television. {4308}{4414}They could only be told|by someone from the New Wave. {4682}{4757}The New Wave is perhaps|the only generation {4861}{4963}which came to the fore mid-century|and perhaps mid-cinema. {5318}{5414}Cinema is a 20th-century enterprise. {5670}{5784}A 19th-century enterprise|resolved in the 20th century. {6032}{6108}You were lucky to arrive early enough {6120}{6203}to inherit a history|already rich and complicated {6208}{6235}and eventful. {6240}{6343}To have taken enough time|to see enough films {6410}{6456}and decide for yourself {6461}{6562}what was more or less important|in this history. {6568}{6610}To have a time-line... {6635}{6712}We know that Griffith|comes before Rossellini, {6740}{6832}Renoir before Visconti. {6885}{6939}And your arrival in a history {6944}{7017}that could already be told,|could still be told. {7261}{7347}Told as a tale,|but the story remained untold. {7352}{7404}But there was already enough... {7516}{7571}enough knowledge and passion {7576}{7609}to be able to say... {7671}{7717}to know that we come {7770}{7841}before one thing|and after something else. {7846}{7898}Coming to the fore mid-century... {9943}{10002}To constitute your own history. {10007}{10069}To know who comes after you. {10548}{10611}The only occasion to make history... {11022}{11091}Not because there are too many films. {11162}{11255}There are very few.|Fewer and fewer. {11282}{11345}Historians of literature say {11350}{11387}there was Homer {11407}{11453}Cervantes {11491}{11529}Joyce. {11681}{11764}After these three, they add Faulkner {11833}{11876}and Flaubert. {11945}{12014}There were very few. Ten films. {12019}{12062}Ten fingers. Ten films. {12177}{12274}The cinema. My idea {12284}{12344}that I can now express {12349}{12410}is that it was the only way {12472}{12559}of bringing about, of telling,|of realizing {12571}{12639}that I have my own history. {12644}{12750}Without cinema,|I wouldn't have known this. {12755}{12797}It was the only way. {12831}{12874}It was my duty. {12994}{13058}The guilty, accursed side. {13063}{13155}Marguerite said I was accursed. {13263}{13375}The only way,|if we can ever tell a story {13391}{13435}or make history. {13476}{13545}And it never occurred.|There was no history... {13729}{13778}History of art, a little. {14081}{14141}By the French. Not the others. {14288}{14335}Diderot, Baudelaire, Malraux. {14340}{14424}I place Truffaut after them. {14450}{14517}A straight line. {14544}{14572}Baudelaire... {14620}{14681}on Edgar Poe {14729}{14815}is the same as Malraux on Faulkner, {14820}{14864}the same as Truffaut {14924}{14961}on Edgar Ulmer {14997}{15033}or on Hawks. {15094}{15155}Only the French related this history. {15391}{15457}They suspected they were in a history. {15462}{15517}They wanted to know what it was. {15563}{15649}Their history in History.|History in their history. {15905}{15990}History with a big "H"|is the history of cinema. {16038}{16080}Bigger than the others {16085}{16130}because it projects itself. {16994}{17116}In a Moscow jail, Poncelet,|engineer in Napoleon's army, {17133}{17180}reconstructed by memory {17185}{17278}the geometry he learned|from Monge and Carnot. {17306}{17389}<i>His Treaty on the Projective|Properties of Figures,</i> {17394}{17431}published in 1822, {17436}{17563}makes a general method of the principle|of projection used by Desargue {17568}{17651}to extend the properties|of the circle to the conics {17656}{17747}and by Pascal in his proof|of the mystic hexagram. {17774}{17888}It took a Frenchman going round|in circles in a Russian prison {17893}{18015}for the application of the idea|of projecting figures onto a screen {18026}{18072}to take flight practically {18085}{18167}with the invention|of cinematic projection. {18794}{18824}For the child, {18903}{18988}in love with maps and engravings, {19056}{19153}the universe is equal|to his vast appetite. {19321}{19356}How great the world is {19399}{19434}by lamplight! {19539}{19579}In the eyes of memory {19619}{19654}how the world is small! {19729}{19766}One morning we set off, {19789}{19828}our brains full of ardor {19865}{19930}our hearts swollen with rancor {19984}{20032}and with bitter desires, {20189}{20278}and we go,|following the rhythm of the waves, {20349}{20386}rocking our infinity {20448}{20495}on the finite seas. {22537}{22600}Some, happy to leave {22611}{22655}an infamous homeland; {22715}{22744}others, {22783}{22830}the horrors of their cradles, {23122}{23145}and some, {23189}{23215}astrologers {23239}{23292}drowned in the eyes of a woman, {23815}{23905}tyrannical Circe|with her dangerous perfumes. {24123}{24182}So as not to be changed|into beasts, {24195}{24226}they get drunk {24234}{24327}on space and light and skies ablaze. {25054}{25097}The ice that bites them, {25128}{25181}the suns that bronze them, {25194}{25249}slowly efface {25328}{25369}the trace of kisses. {26146}{26201}Strange destiny {26237}{26289}in which the goal moves, {26351}{26409}and being nowhere, {26446}{26490}may be anywhere! {26530}{26559}In which Man, {26616}{26645}for whom {26713}{26759}hope is never wearied, {26798}{26864}to find a moment's rest, {26894}{26921}runs, {26941}{26962}always, {26977}{27006}like a madman. {27191}{27228}We want to travel {27257}{27286}without steam {27307}{27343}and without sail! {27373}{27400}Project, {27435}{27505}to enliven the boredom of our prisons, {27578}{27622}project over our minds {27674}{27715}stretched out like a canvas {27780}{27852}your memories|with horizons for their frame. {27990}{28028}What have you seen? {28191}{28271}We have seen stars and waves; {28291}{28345}we have seen sand dunes too; {28355}{28421}and despite many shocks|and unforeseen disasters {28426}{28489}we were often as bored|as we were here. {28503}{28571}The glory of the sun|on the violet sea, {28590}{28642}the glory of cities in the sunset, {28677}{28747}kindled in our hearts|an unsettling ardor {28765}{28805}to plunge into a sky {28819}{28865}whose reflection was alluring. {28960}{28997}The richest cities, {29036}{29072}the grandest landscapes {29077}{29139}never contained {29163}{29199}the mysterious attraction {29223}{29299}of those which chance|creates with clouds. {29397}{29427}And always, {29492}{29554}desire made us anxious. {29804}{29881}We bowed before idols|with elephant trunks; {29918}{29947}thrones {29970}{30014}studded with luminous gems; {30049}{30097}elaborate palaces {30124}{30168}whose fairytale pomp {30203}{30271}would be a ruinous dream|for your bankers; {30330}{30364}costumes {30386}{30437}that intoxicate the eyes; {30485}{30515}women {30544}{30587}whose teeth and nails {30592}{30616}are dyed, {30660}{30701}and skillful jugglers {30734}{30764}caressed by snakes. {30919}{30963}And then, and then what else? {31069}{31108}There is a projection: {31113}{31168}History with a capital "H", {31191}{31236}because it can project itself. {31241}{31291}The other histories|can only be reduced. {31495}{31549}That little poem by Brecht. {31616}{31681}"I examine with care my plan. {31711}{31758}"It is unrealizable." {31861}{31914}Because television reduces. {31976}{32056}Or it projects you,|but you lose consciousness. {32061}{32101}It projects the spectator, {32106}{32181}whereas the moviegoer is attracted. {32223}{32286}The TV viewer is rejected. {32306}{32362}But we can make a memory|of this history. {32472}{32523}History with a capital H. {32772}{32828}Not to forget the capital thing, {33010}{33047}we saw everywhere, {33052}{33102}and without having sought it, {33361}{33395}from the top {33422}{33457}to the bottom {33527}{33565}of the fatal ladder, {33597}{33634}the tedious spectacle {33646}{33672}of immortal sin. {34433}{34474}What bitter knowledge {34489}{34534}we gain from travelling! {34566}{34597}The world, {34625}{34667}monotonous and small, {34702}{34770}today, yesterday, tomorrow, always, {34818}{34861}shows us our own image: {34904}{34932}An oasis of horror {34972}{35014}in a desert of tedium! {35107}{35145}Should we go? {35184}{35213}Stay? {35294}{35343}If you can stay, stay. {35378}{35402}Leave, if you must. {35761}{35818}O Death, old captain {35849}{35876}it is time. {35899}{35939}Let us raise the anchor! {35948}{35988}This country bores us, {36026}{36086}O Death! Let us set sail. {36148}{36219}If the sky and sea are black as ink, {36241}{36322}our hearts which you know|are filled with light.
Merlin-Ka