Howls for Sade,
a film by Guy-Ernest Debord.
Howls for Sade is
dedicated to Gil J Wolman.
Article 115.
If a person has ceased to appear
at his place of residence...
and nothing has been heard
concerning him for four years,
interested parties...
may petition the civil court
to officially recognize...
the absence of said person.
Love is valid only in a
pre-revolutionary period.
Those girls dont all
love you, you liar!
Arts begin, grow, and disappear...
because dissatisfied people...
break through the world
of official expressions...
and go beyond its
festivals of poverty.
Tell me, did you sleep
with Franoise?
What a springtime!
Crib sheet for the history of film:
of Doctor Caligari.
Birth of Guy-Ernest Debord.
Howls for Sade.
Just as the projection
was about to begin,
Guy-Ernest Debord was supposed
to step onto the stage...
and make a few
introductory remarks.
Had he done so, he'd simply
have said: "There is no film.
Cinema is dead.
No more films are possible.
If you wish, we can
move on to a discussion.
Article 516.
Property is either
real or personal.
In order never to
be alone again.
She is ugliness and beauty
like everything we love today.
The arts of the future can be nothing
less than disruptions of situations.
In the cafs of
Saint-Germain-des-Prs!
You know, I like you a lot.
A sizable commando of
some thirty lettrists,
all wearing the filthy uniform...
that is their only really
original trademark,
showed up at Cannes
determined to provoke a scandal...
that would draw attention to themselves.
Happiness is a new idea in Europe.
I know people only by their actions.
In other respects they are
indistinguishable from each other.
In the final analysis, we are
differentiated only by our works.
And their revolts
became conformisms.
Article 488.
The age of adulthood is 21 years;
a person of that age is capable
of all acts of civil life.
She constantly reappeared
in his memory,
in a flash like sodium fireworks
on contact with water.
He was well aware that nothing
of his exploits would remain...
in a town that revolves with the Earth,
as the Earth revolves within a galaxy
that is only an insignificant
part of a tiny island...
endlessly receding from us.
Totally dark, eyes closed to
the enormity of the disaster.
A science of situations needs to be
created, which will incorporate...
elements from psychology,
statistics, urbanism, and ethics.
These elements must be
focused on a totally new goal:
the conscious creation of situations.
Lines from a 1950 newspaper:
Popular Young Radio Actress
Throws Herself Into the Isre. Grenoble.
Twelve-and-a-half-year-old
Madeleine Reineri,
who under the stage name Pirouette starred
in the Alpes-Grenoble radio program...
Happy Thursdays, threw herself into
the Isre River Friday afternoon...
after having placed her
schoolbag on the bank.
Little sister, were
not a pretty sight.
The river and the misery continue.
We are powerless.
But no one talks about
Sade in this film.
The cold of interstellar space,
thousands of degrees
below freezing or...
the absolute zero of Fahrenheit,
Centigrade or Raumur:
the incipient intimations
of proximate dawn.
The rapid passage of Jacques
Vach through the wartime sky,
his overwhelming sense of urgency,
the catastrophic haste that
led him to destroy himself;
the whipcracking spirit of Arthur Cravan
who vanished in the Gulf of
Mexico around that same time...
Article 1793.
When an architect or contractor
contracts with a landowner...
to construct a building...
in accordance with an agreed
plan and for a specified payment,
he cannot demand any increase
in that payment on any grounds,
whether because of an increase
in the work force or materials...
or because of any changes...
or additions made to the plan,
unless such changes, additions
or increases have been...
authorized in writing and the new payment
has been agreed to by the landowner.
The perfection of suicide
lies in its ambiguity.
What is a one and only love?
I will answer only in the
presence of my attorney.
Order reigns but does not govern.
The first marvel is to come before her
without knowing how to talk to her.
The imprisoned hands move no faster
than race horses filmed in slow motion
as they touch her mouth and breasts;
in all innocence the
ropes become water
and we roll together toward dawn.
I dont think well ever
see each other again.
The lights of the winter
streets will end near a kiss.
Paris was real fun because
of the transportation strike.
Jack the Ripper was never caught.
Telephones, theyre funny.
What a love-challenge,
as Madame de Sgur said.
Ill tell you some real scary stories
from my part of the country,
but they have to be told at night.
My dear Ivich,
unfortunately there are fewer
Chinatowns than you think.
You are fifteen years old.
One of these days people will
stop wearing such gaudy colors.
I already knew you.
Continental drift carries you
farther away each day.
The virgin forest is
less virgin than you.
Guy, one more minute
and itll be tomorrow.
Gun Crazy. You remember.
Thats how it was.
No one was good enough for us.
Nevertheless...
The hailstones on the banners of glass.
We wont forget this cursed planet.
Theyll be famous someday,
youll see!
I will never accept the scandalous
and scarcely credible fact...
that there is such a thing
as a police force.
Several cathedrals have been
erected in memory of Serge Berna.
Love is valid only in a
pre-revolutionary period.
I made this film while there
was still time to talk about it.
Jean-Isidore, in order to get
out of that ephemeral crowd.
On Place Gabriel-Pomerand
when weve grown old.
In the future all these little jokers
will be studied in the high
schools and colleges.
There are still many people
who arent moved to laugh
or to scream by the word "morality."
Article 489
An adult...
who is usually in a state of imbecility,
or dementia or who has
frequent fits of rage...
must be kept in protective custody
even if he has intervals of lucidity.
So close, so gently,
I lose myself in the hollow
archipelagos of language.
I bear down on you,
youre as open as a cry,
its so easy.
A hot stream.
A sea of oil.
- A forest fire.
- That sounds like the movies.
The Paris police are equipped
with 30,000 billy clubs.
"Poetic worlds close in on
themselves and are forgotten."
In a corner of the night
sailors are making war;
ships in bottles are
for you who loved them.
You lie back in the sand as
in the more loving hands...
that the rain and wind and thunder
slip under your dress every evening.
Life is wonderful in Cannes
in the summer.
Rape, which is forbidden,
becomes banal in our memories.
"When we were on the Shenandoah."
Yes. Of course.
And the silting up of those faces,
which once bore flashes of desire
like ink splattered on a wall,
which were like shooting stars.
Gin, rum, brandy
down the hatch like
the Grand Armada.
So much for the funeral oration.
But all those people
were so commonplace.
We had a narrow escape.
The most beautiful is still to come.
Death would be a steak tartar;
wet hair on the scalding
beach of our silence.
But hes a Jew!
We were ready to blow
up all the bridges,
but the bridges let us down.
Twelve-and-a-half-year-old
Madeleine Reineri,
who under the stage name "Pirouette"
starred in the Alpes-Grenoble...
radio program, Happy Thursdays,
threw herself into the Isre River.
Mademoiselle Reineri
of the Europe Quarter,
you still have your wonderstruck
face and that body,
the best of promised lands.
Like neon lights, the dialogues
repeat their definitive truths.
I love you.
It must be terrible to die.
See you later.
You drink far too much.
What are childhood loves?
I dont understand you.
I knew it.
And there was a time when
I regretted it very much.
Would you like an orange?
The beautiful breakups
of volcanic islands.
In the past.
I have nothing more to say to you.
Once again, after all
the untimely answers
and the aging of youth,
night falls from on high.
Like lost children we live
our unfinished adventures.