"Derrida" The movie

Thomas Seay entheogens at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 13 12:02:54 PST 2003


This weekend I attended a showing of "Derrida", a

biographical documentary on the French philosopher,

Jaques Derrida, who is famous for

"deconstructionism".

A californian film crew follows Derrida as he gives

lectures, answers interviewers' questions and

discusses aspects of his life and philosophy. It's

not often that we in America get to see documentaries of famous living philosophers, so I was quite

enthusiastic about viewing this film.

Derrida observes towards the end of his film that

this documentary will have more to say about the

film crew than about him, Jacques Derrida, because it

will be the film crew to edit the shootings and decide

"which Jacques Derrida" is to be presented. If

that is indeed the case, then the movie tells us its

creators were young, inexperienced, not well-versed

in philosophy; they missed a golden opportunity to

meaningfully explore the life and philosophy of the

last great post-structuralist.

At regular intervals, difficult passages from

Derrida's writings flash on the screen, leaving us

little time to ponder them. Sound bytes dont work

well for Derrida! The interviewers questions are

haltingly broad, "What do you have to say on the

subject of love?", haltingly personal, "Tell us

about how you fell in love with your wife?", or

haltingly stupid, "which philosopher would you have

liked as a mother?". To his credit, Derrida either

refuses to answer such questions, or reformulates

them into intelligent ones. At one point Derrida begins to make interesting comments on the myth of "Narcissus" and "Echo", obviously alluding to the relationship between "source" and "simulacra", but the

interviwer fails to ask penetrating questions to draw him out on the matter.

After a family lunch, Derrida himself, turning the tables, asks an overly broad question of the interviewer: "What did you think of my

family?". "Il sont tres gentils, tres chaleureux" is the response. I wonder if the irony of this was lost

on Derrida and the film crew.

We see Derrida eat, get a haircut and meet

friends...a warm fuzzy to remind us that Gallic

philosophers are, after all, just like us. In

short,if Americans suddenly took more interest in the

lives of French philosophers than Britney Spears,

this film would be on "People" magazine's recommended

list. Tant pis.

-Thomas

===== "Nothing is true, everything is permitted."

"Money eats quality and shits out quantity" -William Burroughs

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