The restoration is beautiful and highlights the imagery Debord so carefully put together.About the Book For the first time, Guy Debord's pivotal work Society of the Spectacle appears in a definitive and authoritative English translation.įew works of political and cultural theory have been as enduringly provocative as Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle. “ A must-have for any collection with a focus on film history, art history or media studies. “A theoretical post-Marxist film offering extended blocks of text (to be read or heard) about media and spectacle along with clips of movies ranging from silent Russian classics to softcore porn, it isn't put together to entertain or even to go down easily, but it rarely ceases to be stimulating… remains a priceless document.” -Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader It remains a potent and at times exhilarating critique of contemporary society and of the power of the image untethered from its original context. THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE can be viewed simply as an artifact of a particular moment in French and Western modern history in the aftermath of May 1968. Of course, a film itself is a spectacle, but Debord, with the manner of his delivery and irreverent pacing, seems determined to both undercut viewers’ expectations while simultaneously drawing them in.

In the nearly five decades since it was released, the issues raised in THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE have become more entrenched. He accompanies these images with his critique of life both mediated and sustained by the spectacular, as the central pillar of a capitalist alienation so all-encompassing, even revolution may seem futile. The result is a kind of organized chaos that nonetheless manages to provide a sharp commentary on a world dominated by image and power.ĭebord casts a wide net, drawing in footage of topless women, manufacturing, fashion shoots, Hollywood movies, and scenes of wars, uprisings, and protests being crushed by police. Using the classic Situationist technique of “détournement” (think pre-digital remixing), Debord overlays a dizzying array of still and film images with text from the book. Six years after the publication of his Situationist classic The Society of the Spectacle, Guy Debord released this semi-experimental, essay-film adaptation.

“The spectacle sings not of arms and the man but of commodities and their passions.”

Society of the spectacle