Hhmm.. Debord, the Situationists. Being a neoist I occassionally read somewhere that NEOISM has followed in the footsteps of FLUXUS & SITUATIONISM. There's a slight case to be made for this, but not, IMO, that strong of one - esp regarding the latter. It's seems noteworthy that I read something written by a Situationist somewhere long ago that there is no such thing as Situationism - that there are only Situationists. That one statement resonantes profoundly w/ me since I don't think that there's exactly anything called NEOISM - that there're only neoists. Nonetheless, both 'movements' have been oversimplified for historical purposes - in the case of neoism by someone who cd make his career off such oversimplifications. Oh well..

Back to this bk (well, sortof): I've seen some of these movies thanks to my friend Keith Sanborn who subtitles them in English & then releases video copies. He & I teamed up to give what must've been a fairly early English-subtitled screening of "The Society of the Spectacle" in Buffalo in 1995. I like his work but, in a way, it leaves me feeling the way much Andre Breton does: a bit stultified rather than liberated. I wish Debord had made MORE movies b/c having absorbed somewhat what little I've had access to, I feel like it's sortof 'closed' to me now. Still, Debord occupies a fairly unique place in film history - "The Society of the Spectacle" alone is one of the most incisive critiques of capitalism ever made. ( )

Guy Debord (19311994) was the most influential member of the Situationist International, the avant-garde group that triggered the May 1968 revolt in France.
While Debord's written work (including The Society of the Spectacle) is some of the most notorious in the world of political and cultural radicality, deemed "the cornerstone clich of postmodernism," his films have until now remained tantalizingly inaccessible.
Ken Knabb's translation of Debord's Complete Cinematic Works accompanies the long-awaited English versions of these films, which will be coming soon to the United States. The scripts are illustrated with 62 stills, and Debord's own annotations help elucidate the subtleties of these astonishing works, unparalleled in cinematic history.