FILM ANALOG* / DIGITAL #2 – Theory

The Dissipating Aura of Cinema

By Kristen Daly

Long essay includes a ‘Godard’:

The idea of the original is tightly linked to the concept of the auteur. Digital technologies serve to undermine the status and authenticity of the auteur. Jean-Luc Godard, whose new mode of cinema helped solidify the concept of auteur, admits outrage at this state of events. He says, “The cinema, as we knew it and as it no longer exists, helped make things visible. . . . The metaphor of the film negative and the positive print was a moral metaphor. But with digital cameras the negative no longer exists – there’s no more negative!” (Bonnaud 40)

History: Digital and Analog

A post in Godard Montage, 28 November 2009. A video interview with film-maker Harun Faroki in which he says,

“In my early years I thought the haptic nature of film was very imortant. You could touch and measure your material a bit like with an old typewriter. Back then you had an entire page in front of you and not only a fraction of it. And you could really measure your work by the stack of paper next to the typewriter. But nowadays I got rid of these little delusions. You can actually work much better on 16mm material much better on your computer. The images on screen are much better and the sound tracks are easier to handle.”

Godard on e-books

Richard Brody 12 January 2011

Interviewed by Brody in Rolle in 2000 Godard:

…explained that he preferred to edit video with analog rather than digital technology, because, he told me, with digital technology, “time no longer exists.” And the example he gave me came not from the cinema but from literature and what he called “the electronic book.” He got up from his chair, brought a book from his bookshelf, and brought it back to his desk.

* Definition of Analog Film Camera


Perhaps chemical/digital might be a better distinction. Though analog-digital is used everywhere.


Though this article with its graphs:


Film versus Digital My Summary


is dated (see digital camera models and max megapixels) but there is a comparison summary at the beginning.