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An ordinary-looking bound notebook contained pages of Pyrofilm and came packaged with an incendiary pencil. To prevent notes from falling into the wrong hands, an agent could simply pull the eraser out of the pencil, causing the notebook to burst into flames.

 

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The poison-tipped flick-knife shoe worn by CIA agents during the Cold War. One quick, light kick to any part of someone’s body would kill them within twenty minutes.

 

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There are strange-looking remnants that stand alone in the isolated fields along Britain’s coast. They are the long-forgotten acoustic reflectors, dubbed by locals as the “listening ears.” These lonely structures were built to protect harbors and coastal towns from airborne attacks. Serving as an early warning system, microphones placed at the focal point of the reflector enabled it to detect sounds from flying aircraft over the English Channel, at a range of 30 kilometers.

 

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Perhaps the most exotic device used by British secret agents during World War II was the “explosive rat”. A hundred of the rodents were procured by an SOE officer posing as a student needing them for laboratory experiments. The rats were skinned, filled with plastic explosive, and sewn up. The idea was to place a rat among coal beside a boiler. When they were spotted, they would immediately be thrown on to the fire, causing a huge explosion.

 

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Well on Christmas 2012, I got this helicopter called the Sky Spy. It is like an Air Hog, but with a camera. You can take photos or videos. While my mom was passed out on the couch, I took my first video with the Sky Spy.

 

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A female agent could read the secret code from the mirror while pretending to be doing makeup. The code was only visible at certain angle.

 

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Upon first glance, The Sparrows UNCUFF LINK appears to be a standard pair of cuff links. However, a covert, hidden handcuff key has been engineered in to the design. This concealed hand cuff key will open all Standard Hand cuffs. It’s also designed to hold your French Cuffs closed. WARNING: The use of this product under some circumstances may result in you being shot.

 

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This was a top secret sulfurous stench weapon developed by the American Office of Strategic Services during World War II to be used by the French Resistance against German officers. It smelled strongly of fecal matter, and was intended to be unobtrusively sprayed on a German officer, humiliating him and, by extension, demoralizing the occupying German forces. The experiment was very short-lived, however. The weapon had a high concentration of extremely volatile sulfur compounds that were very difficult to control: more often than not the person who did the spraying ended up smelling as bad as the sprayed. After only two weeks it was concluded that the weapon was a dismal failure.

 

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MAV is a micro air vehicle that can be as small as 15 centimeters. The small craft allows remote observation of hazardous environments inaccessible to ground vehicles. These insect-sized drones of the future, otherwise known as bugbots, are unobtrusive and can sneak up on a suspected enemy as stealthily as a mosquito.

 

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Major Martin was a homeless man, who died of pneumonia and was then used as a weapon of deceit by the British in Operation Mincemeat. The body was disguised as a dead Royal Marines Officer and left to be found in the sea off the Spanish coast, with a briefcase full of top secret files chained to his wrist. When the body was brought to Madrid, those documents indicated that the Allies were preparing an invasion in Sardinia. However, this was all a trick to persuade the Germans into thinking that the Allies were going to invade Sardinia, instead of Sicily. The trick miraculously worked, and the Germans pulled thousands of troops from Sicily to defend Sardinia. Thousands of Allied troops owed their lives to the deception of Major Martin.

 

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This fake turd was a CIA transmitter.

 

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This pipe fired .22 calibre bullets through its stem and could be used to smoke tobacco even when loaded.

 

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This is the ballpoint pen that laser-scans documents as easily as it scribes notes. A high-precision auto-focus lens and 5-megapixel sensor built into the pen scan letters, recipes, or important documents as crisp, clear 2048 x 1536 pixel images. Pressing the shutter button halfway projects a visible red laser frame onto a document, and the pen automatically focuses the image just before the picture is taken. The device has 1 GB of built-in flash memory that holds up to 1,000 scanned pictures in JPEG format and the pen also captures voice memos in WAV format with the integrated microphone. Twisting the pen apart reveals a USB plug that downloads scanned images to a computer.

 

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These rubber soles would slip over SOE agents’ military boots to disguise their treads and make the enemy think the footprints were those of barefooted locals.

 

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The Spy Bluetooth Earpiece goes deep into the ear and is so low that it cannot be seen. Although it requires no batteries, it would take a super-strong magnet to pull it from your ear canal. It is in great demand now as it is a very useful gadget and the youngsters like the device very much because of its style and fashion senses and nowadays the youngsters need these high tech gadgets to be popular among the friend circles. The kids too are nowadays, gadget freak as new gadgets make them feel very modern and updated.

 

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This CIA tool kit was designed to be concealed anally by agents in the 60s.

 

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The Terrestrial Shrub Rover is disguised as a well-manicured shrub. The rover also includes a camera and an electric powertrain to make spying easier. On the plus side, it is solar-powered. Designed by Justin Shull, the rover has a Go-Kart frame and a fiberglass dome. Atop this dome the foliage is glued to dupe the unsuspecting victims.

 

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Many spies used a microdot camera, a device the size of a thimble that was easy to hide. It produced very tiny images that required a magnifying viewer to read. Photographic devices were hidden in wooden statues, chess boards and other objects. Information itself, especially in the form of microdots, could be hidden virtually anywhere. Film was stashed inside fake coins, fake batteries with hollow middles (with a real, functioning battery inside), shaving brushes, cigarettes, shoe heels, ashtrays, bolts and nails — even a fake eyeball. In many cases, these items had a mechanism that would release a small amount of acid if it was opened improperly. The acid would destroy the film, saving the spy from detection in the event of a thorough search by suspicious enemy agents.

 

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If a CIA operative were caught, he could choose capture or death by this pin. When twisted the right way, the silver dollar would unleash a pin coated in saxitoxin. Its user would die in seconds from the poison.

 

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Thanks Mr. E for all the help, you inspired me to do what i do best, spy!

 

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These CIA issued glasses contain poison in the arms.

 

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The famous bouncing bombs first used by RAF Squadron 617 were masterminded and created by inventor Barnes Wallis. The bouncing bomb, as the name portrays, bounces on water, partly due to the spherical shape (which Wallis discovered while skipping marbles in his garden pond). Therefore, it became very effective at avoiding torpedo nets, and its ability to be aimed directly at a target was seen as a huge advantage.

 

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The super secret spy lens works just like a periscope, it has a secret cut out on the side of the lens and a mirror inside. The lens fits on to your cameras SLR lens and it can be rotated 360 degrees so you can shoot from any angle. So basically you can point your camera at one subject and take a picture of another, in complete secrecy.

 

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This is a special very multipurpose brief case.

 

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This special type of device was used to remove letters from the envelopes without disturbing their seals. Its pincer like head is inserted into the envelope to wind-up the letter and remove it.

 

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This European-made electric suitcase is unlike any suitcase you’ve ever seen – it is made with real security in mind. The first line of defense is the ability to trigger a loud 107dB alarm via a remote control. With a simple push of a button, the noise should deter most robbers. If even the alarm fails and the robber manages to snatch the suitcase away from you, smile at him and hit the second button on the remote. This activates the suitcase’s 80,000-volt electric shock. Although not as deadly as a 900,000-volt stun gun, that shock is enough to make anyone drop that suitcase. If that doesn’t stop him and he grabs the suitcase again, push a third button that activates a 900,000-volt electric shock that will fry his nervous system and brain and kill him instantly.

 

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A tiny gun hidden on the inside of a glove.

 

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How to make a spy pen. The spy pen can write, conceal notes and shoot bb’s. I was 10 in this video.

 

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“Charlie” was an unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) disguised as a fish. Fitted with a hidden camera and listening devices, one human rider could fit inside and drive Charlie into enemy territory. “Charlie” was a line-of-sight radio control robotic fish that came complete with built-in ballast and propulsion systems that allow it to swim in a realistic fish-like manner.

 

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During World War II, German agents had designed Chocolate Bomb, steel bomb was disguised in a piece of chocolate, the bomb would explode seven seconds after the chocolate was broken off.

 

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One-time pads (OTP) were used for the encryption of messages using a secret key. They were issued in pairs by the CIA, one was used for encoding and other for the decoding. Once a sheet was used it was destroyed ensuring unbreakable security.

 

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HOW TO CREATE A SPY ID CARD. THIS IS JUST ONE OF MY SPY VIDEOS.

 

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A system for listening radar and air defense systems discovered by KGB agents.

 

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This CIA map was printed in silk, could easily be folded with compactness and concealed. It was also possible to wear it like a scarf. The colors of the map were not effected even if the agent made an escape through the water.

 

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This is a professional grade piece of counter-surveillance equipment, trusted by private investigators and law enforcement officials. The mini hidden camera detector scans frequencies from 900 MHz to 6 GHz, and for the most common formats, like PAL, NTSC, CCIR, and EIA. You won’t just find those cameras, though. You can access and view their feeds, thanks to the 2.5” color LCD screen right on the wireless camera detector. You can even attach the mini hidden camera detector to a DVR, and record those feeds that are keeping tabs on you.

 

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This 1880s pocket watch was really a collapsible camera.

 

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The Envelope X-ray Spray is a special spray that makes solid paper temporarily completely translucent, so that you can easily take a look at contents of the envelope without opening it. This effect remains on the envelope for only 30 seconds, after which the envelope returns to its original solid state without any trace of any discoloration, marking, stain or any other signs of tampering.

 

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“Belly Buster” is a CIA Gadget from the early 60’s. Consisting of many parts, it was used to drill holes into rooms for the implantation of the secret hearing devices.

 

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These military grade burning lasers are only the size of a pen but can cut like a knife, light things on fire, and have their beam be visible any where you point it; hundreds of miles away! They also contain a function where the beam can still ignite and carve things or human flesh but will be made invisible to the naked eye.

 

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A CIA bomb disguised as a rock (the box contains camouflage paint for the bomb).

 

_______________
This is a professional grade piece of counter-surveillance equipment, trusted by private investigators and law enforcement officials. The mini hidden camera detector scans frequencies from 900 MHz to 6 GHz, and for the most common formats, like PAL, NTSC, CCIR, and EIA. You won’t just find those cameras, though. You can access and view their feeds, thanks to the 2.5” color LCD screen right on the wireless camera detector. You can even attach the mini hidden camera detector to a DVR, and record those feeds that are keeping tabs on you.

 

_____________

 

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The Lighter DVR looks like an everyday lighter, and even function likes one also, it has a built in spy camera and can record secret videos at a resolution of 640 x 480. It measures 64.5mm (L) x 38.4mm (W) x 18.4mm (h), and comes with a microSD card slot which will take cards up to 8GB, it connects to you PC via USB, and also has a built in digital audio recorder.

 

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A camera disguised as a watch, from the German Secret Service.

 

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Spying on the neighbors

 

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There is nothing worse than knowing something is being said in the next room that you cannot hear. So, to solve this problem, you can grab yourself one of these devices. It is so high tech it comes with a set of earphones to help you position the device on the wall where needed while not compromising your ability to get your ear to it.

 

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A bomb disguised as a canteen.

 

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This camera shirt is totally inconspicuous and will turn you into a contemporary indie frat-boy spy, untrained videographer and pervy voyeur liable to get arrested, all in one swift move.

 

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These are Real X-Ray Glasses. And while you won’t be able to see through a safe (like Superman), you will be able to see through a vast majority of swimsuits. The glasses utilize infrared viewing technology. This allows them to penetrate certain materials (i.e. swimwear and various synthetic materials) much better than ultra-violet based optics. They function indoors and in the wild — low light doesn’t appear to be a problem with these glasses. They also come with a palm sized portable digital video recorder so you can have a memoir of your peeping at 470 lines of resolution-in color. This device hooks up to the glasses through a thin cable. A wireless version is available as well.

 

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Become the perfect undercover Goth spy with this tiny camera concealed in a gloomy cross.

 

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Spy Gear Lie Detector Kit comes with a hand book and an LED light that occurs when the suspect tells a lie. Portable and easy to carry with you to the office, parties, clubs, and even hot dates, it is ideal for the person who wants to find out the truth from a person who tends to make up stories. You attach a sensor to the suspect’s finger and then you will start by asking easy to answer questions before you reach the hard or more technical questions.

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Yeah, I did zip yesterday, which felt good. Today we start full on, full time into the sound mix, so the nothingness was needed. ‘The Nice Guys’: I don’t know what that is, I don’t think, but, since it’s a potential three timer for you, I will. Urgh, but also high hopes on the webinar entree. I’m so hopeless on paying taxes I should be on display in a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not museum. Love giving your clothing many, many secret compartments filled with spy gear to let you ace any life situation *like that* (fingersnap), G. ** Corey Heiferman, I think announced, named movements are also both a community building device and time proven successful clickbait. That video sounds potentially lettrist, at least on the loose end of the scale sense? Your life tinkering sounds ideal. Actually, it sounds like my life when I’m not locked into a heavy work schedule like now. You in Paris potentially, nice! And thanks for the Temenos dates. Noted. For better or worse, my life is going to be tethered to whatever the film and its release requires of me for the next while. Shouldn’t be an onslaught though. I’d love to hit that. ** _Black_Acrylic, Awesome, I was so wondering when the next Play Therapy would grace us. Everyone, _Black_Acrylic’s riveting and must-do radio show Play Therapy has its third episode, which he describes as ‘splitting up the moment between Scotland, our European future and a Yorkshire present’, online and right here. Treat yourselves! I’m going to let PT3 wake me back up after my long work day today. Thank you, savior. ** Misanthrope, Marionettes are much scarier than androids, or maybe that’s just me. Counterintuitive, yes. But you’ve got to love counterintuitivity. Sweet weekend you had right there, mister. ** Steve Erickson, Yeah, I wish JPEGMAFIA and Playboy Carti would stay away from that disaster, but what can one do. You’re right, doing all of that alone is probably even harder. So sorry. I’ve never read Percival Everett. His stuff always seemed like it would be way too connectional with a capital ‘c’ for me. And the film only reinforced that suspicion. I also have never read Christopher Priest, but I’ve been similarly curious to try him what with the death spotlight. ** Bill, I do think those lettrist guys had a blast. Goodreads wouldn’t let me in. Weird. I really don’t think you need to see ‘American Fiction’. ** Justin, Hi, pal. I do want to see ‘The Iron Claw’. Slow, okay, emotional payoff, excellent. I’ll try it. Monday’s here … what do you think? ** Uday, Hey. Our ghost is sweet, feckless, and meandering. Happy that NYC worked its vaunted magic on you. I miss it. Or I miss parts of it. I only really love the East Village and Lower East Side. I guess I’m a gentrified bohemian. My pleasure! Have a great-y today. ** Right. I haven’t devoted a post to spy tech in many years, and, since it’s one of those childhood fascinations that seems not to have entirely died in my adulthood, I went there. Please have some kind of fun. See you tomorrow.

 

‘Lettrism [or Letterism], founded in 1946 by Isidore Isou and Gabriel Pomerand, uses letters as “sounds” and then as “images”. Poetry turns into music and writing becomes painting. The letterists extend these changing relationships to film, culture and society. In 1952 the movement divides because of diverging objectives: living art or the art of living. Jean-Louis Brau, Guy Debord and Gil Wolman founded the Lettrist International to “transcend art”. Marc’O set up the group “Externalists” to encourage the uprising of youth. The Isouists asserted that their only doctrine came from a single creator.’ — monoskop

‘As a Lettrist of the first hours, Maurice Lemaître is the only one, with exception of Isou, who contributed major creative works to the whole spectrum not only of art but in many of the fields of knowledge, while at the same time throughout his life challenging us with his intellectual writings to transform humanity into a people of conscious creators – making him a major figure in the history of art and ideas of the 20th century.

‘From the moment he met Isou in December of 1949, Maurice Lemaître became both the greatest propagandist of the movement (whose name is sometimes confused with his!), and also one of the major artists of Lettrism, to which he has been contributing ideas continuously for over sixty years.

‘When one examines the year 1950, for instance, one becomes aware of his extraordinary odyssey, starting with publishing the first articles on Isou’s economic theory, Le soulèvement de la jeunesse /Youth Uprising, then helping Isou bring out a book of poetry, Précisions sur ma poésie et moi / Details about Me and My Poetry, helping design the illustrations in his hypergraphic novel Les Journaux des Dieux / The Gods’ Diaries as well as helping edit his film, Le Traité de bave et d’éternité / Treatise on Drool and Eternity. In 1950 Lemaître also published Isou’s first theoretical text on art, and the first writings of Wolman and Brau, and founded two legendary journals: a political one, Front de la Jeunesse / Youth Front and the other devoted to esthetics and becoming the emblematic journal of the Lettrist Movement – Ur. And while doing all this, Lemaître carried on a correspondence with the novelist Céline and published articles on the French concentration camps!

‘But the energy he exhibits does not flow in just one direction, because unlike other members of the Lettrist movement, he responded to Isou’s ideas with his own creations and contributions in all the disciplines taken up by Isou (such as law, economics, psychology…). Thus, still in this year of 1950, he published his first poems (which he would perform at the end of the year at the Club Tabou and the Rose Rouge) and he drew the first ten illustrations for Canailles / Scoundrels a hypergraphic novel that has become a classic.

‘This activity, both furious and joyful, is consistent with how Lemaître has worked throughout his life, despite severe hearing loss in the 1970s, which constitutes a major handicap in his life but never drove him into isolation.

‘In 1951, only 25 years old, Lemaître directed the ingenious film, Le film est déjà commencé?/ Has the Film Started Yet?, which overturns the concepts of cinema by creating a total performance, called “syncinema,” involving the spectators and advocating the destruction and renewal of the screen, which had become conventional, and replacing it with different projection materials.

‘Starting in 1952, he took on photography, which would become, along with cinema, one of his favorite fields. Indeed, Lemaître is the major photographer of the movement, with series like Canailles IV / Scoundrels IV (1952), Un soir au Cinéma / A Night at the Movies (1962), Au-delà du déclic / Beyond the Click (1964), Les Diapos du Colbert / Slides of the Colbert (1967), Chronique d’un amour / Chronicles of a Love (1971), Photos banales et photos ratées / Banal Photos and Failed Photos (1971), 24 photos refuses /24 Rejected Photos (1984), Mon Egypte / My Egypt (1984) … as well as making the largest collection of infinitesimal or supertemporal photos.

‘But it is cinema, a field in which he made more than 100 films, that would finally allow him to have a retrospective at the Pompidou Center in 1995, where Lemaître demonstrated numerous ideas that would be picked up by experimental filmmakers. Lemaître is one of the true pioneers of experimental cinema, with films as varied as Le film est déjà commencé? / Has the Film Started Yet? (1951), Un soir au cinéma / A Night at the Movies (1962), Pour faire un film / How to Make a Movie (1963), Chantal D. Star / Chantal D. Star (1968), Le Soulèvement de la jeunesse / Youth Uprising (1968), Positif-négatif, notre film / Positive-Negative, Our Film (1970), Montage / Editing (1976), Tous derrière Suzanne pure et dure / All Behind Pure and Hard Suzanne (1978), 4 films anti-supertemporels / 4 Anti-supertemporal Films (1978) up to the ultra-contemporary Résilience / Resilience (2005-2007).

Lemaître has also produced an impressive number of paintings, drawings and sculptures, where he developed his hypergraphic or imaginary theories and styles. First, in an avalanche of styles, paired with a multitude of techniques, as the new movement allowed, but with certain constant features that give a stamp to his style. Lemaître paints with an esthetic and technical mastery that is often absent from the works of many of his Lettrist comrades, achieving works that are at the level of the Surrealist painters for instance, and at the same time he produces very rarefied radical and innovative works. Hardly a day goes by without my seeing a graffiti tag in the street that reminds me of numerous works of his from long ago, where he made use of all kinds of found objects to superimpose his signature-writing that is distinct from all the others.

‘Among the numerous shows that he organized let us note the Lettrist Room at the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris in 1968; or the very first International Symposium on this movement at the Lewis & Clark University, Portland, Oregon, USA, in 1975; or the founding three salons to exhibit Lettrist painting, including the salon “Ecritures” / “Writings”. And of course, through the Centre de Créativité, which he founded in 1956, Lemaître published beyond the editions of books by Isou and a considerable number of journals, his own self-published books and brochures, probably close to 500 publications today. Many of his own editions reveal his originality as a writer, especially his novels such as Les Existentialistes / The Existentialists or Canailles / Scoundrels, up to Roman Futur / Future Novel in a hypergraphic style tying notions and materials together – the way the internet does – but with a constant effort to maintain legibility and clarity, for anyone who takes the time to decode his messages. Lemaître’s style is self-quotation, continuous self-consumption, permanently mixing up story lines, in works which are both contradictory and carefully leave numerous obvious shared meanings.

‘Lemaître put a lot of effort into Lettrist theatre and dance, fields where he did choreography and works such as Chorées surprenantes / Surprising Palsies, Kreach / Kreach, L’Ascension du Phénix M.B / The Rise of the Phoenix M.B, Le Ballet du cerveau /Brain Ballet.

‘But Lemaître’s force lies in the strength of his conviction that makes him engage in Lettrist political creation. Lettrism was the only avant-garde movement that did not join a political party, preferring to create their own, and thus Lemaître was a candidate for the French Legislative elections of 1967. The nuclear economic theories of Isou and Lemaître favor the youth movement, seen as a class, beyond the Marxist-Capitalist dialectic, with numerous new ideas, some of which have since passed into our modern systems (e.g. micro-loans). But these partial gains were nothing for someone who wanted a total and concrete paradise, for himself and for others. And that is why, as a good polemicist, he continues ceaselessly to this day, scolding the least little wayward act or thought of politicians or artists, probably up to the day you read these lines.

‘The incessant back-and-forth with Isou would finally, by the end of an infamous “Isou-Lemaître dialogue,” distance them from each other on several occasions and in various ways, leading Lemaître to create “Lemaître circles” within the Lettrist group and endlessly promote the supporters of his philosophy of Lettrism, such as still recently in the preface of the exhibition, Trois Lettristes / Three Lettrists at the Satellite Gallery, with Christiane Guymer, Marie-Thérèse Richol-Müller and Hélène Richol.

‘Today in 2012, Maurice Lemaître is the only living member from historical Lettrism, the memory of Lettrism: an artist that cannot be bypassed and a ceaseless creator with a thousand facets.’ — Frédéric Acquaviva

 

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Stills

 

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Further

Maurice Lemaitre Website
Maurice Lemaitre @ IMDb
Podcast: Maurice Lemaître, l’enragé du lettrisme
Audio: Enregistrement sonoreMaurice Lemaître présente le Lettrisme
Maurice Lemaitre @ Light Cone
Maurice Lemaitre @ Re-Voir
Bismuth-Lemaître Papers
Maurice Lemaitre @ Collectif Jeune Cinéma
Hypergraphy: A Note on Maurice Lemaitre’s Roman Hypergraphique
Maurice Lemaitre “La danse et le mime ciselants …

 

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Extras

Maurice Lemaître – Poémes Et Musiques Lettristes Et Hyperphonie

Lettrisme, letterism, letrismo, poesia sonora

La Création et Germaine Dulac (fin) (2006)

 

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Artworks

 

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Interview (1963)

 

ML: Maurice Lemaitre, you were part of the anarchist movement. You are now one of the most active members of the Lettrist movement. Can you tell us which reality corresponds to Lettrism?

Maurice Lemaitre: I have a lot of sympathy, friendship, and even respect for the anarchist movement, in which, as soon as I joined in 1950, I launched myself fully. I also made my debut as a journalist and politician. I kept, on a personal level, of my passage in the Federation, a strong distrust towards the authority, the State, as well as a constant will of freedom and individual life. I even suspect that I am sometimes an anarchist in the bad sense of the word.

I first supported the Lettrist movement because of the economic ideas it presented. Then I accepted and enriched myself all the paths it offered in the field of art, philosophy, etc … Lettrism, in its broadest sense, should satisfy every anar, for it posits as its primary goal the real and personal fulfillment of every individual. For this, it first requires to consider precisely the area where it wants to act and indicate a concrete direction to its action.

ML: Every creative artistic group has to take a political position. The surrealists did it, what about you?

Maurice Lemaitre: The surrealists have only adhered to economic solutions invented by others and naturally they have suffered the consequences and avatars of the mistakes of others. But we want, at the beginning, especially not to mix anything. There is art that has its own evolution and in the various branches from which we create our own wealth, and there is the economic realm in which we bring our own doctrines, the nuclear economy or the youth uprising. The sectors of activity are distinct and never, unlike the surrealists, we do not crush each other. With regard to the uprising of the youth who wants to definitively close the problem of the circuit by the discovery of a factor ignored by all economists, including Marx, a factor which is as much among the capitalists as the proletarians, I I had an open action in the 1950s, which I temporarily put to sleep to complete some aesthetic creations. I propose to resume this year the fight for a better economic resolution. I hope the libertarians will help me. In any case, I will call on them on a specific program.

ML: Given what literalism is, it is obvious that all current forms of expression different from yours can not be attached to your school. What is your attitude towards your contemporaries? Do you think of them as delayed insignia, or, on the contrary, do you think that it was from modern thought that literalism came?

Maurice Lemaitre: All the creators for whom we once gambled against all the critics and the whole sheep public have now defeated. We bet for Joyce and Céline against Sagan and Hervé Bazin. For Breton and Perret against Prévert, Minou Drouet, Pichette and Aragon. For Picabia and Kandinsky against Buffet. For Bunuel, Clair, Cocteau, Stroheim, etc … against Berthomieux, Daquin. This is pretty infuriating, I concede, but in art time has always proved us right. Besides today our generation has followed us. Joyce’s followers with the new novel; the new wave was created by us but unfortunately diluted our contribution to the cinema; in poetry, there was no other avant-garde school between the dadas-surrealists and us, nor after us. In painting, the school of the letter and the sign won over abstract firefighters, whether geometric or lyrical like Mathieu.

ML: In the particular case of painting, do you think that a Lettrist painting could have been generated by abstract art, or simply that it flows from your artistic theories without taking its roots elsewhere?

Maurice Lemaitre: Lettrist painting aims to go beyond the abstract towards a new creation. We have considered that there was figurative painting in Western painting, from Giotto to Picasso, who broke the object, and then after Picasso to Kandinsky there was a liquidation of the object, the second sector, which is non-figurative painting. Non-figurative painting has also been exhausted, now we think to bring a third sector, lettrist plastic, that is to say that we will try to find the common origin of painting and writing and to do with all the means of communication a new cathedral of communication.

ML: How can a Lettrist cinema be of interest to the public, how can it evolve, what can it achieve?

Maurice Lemaitre: We are very careful to separate values. There are domains, philosophy, novel, poetry, in these fields there are creations, for example the abstract in painting, the accelerated editing and the introduction of the revolutionary anecdote in the cinema by Eisenstein, in music there is the dodecaphonism … We take a domain, and in this area, any creator to advance must first recognize the previous domain, suitably. There is a certain wild and primitive step in the creator, it relies on an absolutely necessary culture, in the same way that Jarry who trampled certain theatrical rules, in fact knew very well these rules, and his hoax was the result of some knowledge. When we talk about Lettrist cinema, we mean the own creation of the Lettrist movement within the cinema. In fact, this creation is not called lettriste, it’s called what we called, we, cinemas chiselling and discreet. Why shitty, because we think that all art has two periods, which we call amplic, which goes from the creation of its material until its classical period, and then a shining period: the art comes back on itself and begins to think about his own matrices and then get to the Dadaist liquidation phase. We thought that the cinema so far had arrived at its classical period, that it had to be turned on its own subjects and techniques, in the same way that the impressionists had brought back the painting on itself, Baudelaire poetry, Debussy and Satie the music. We want to start a new phase for cinema, which is this chilling period. That is to say, the film will be worked in itself, and no longer focus on a certain anecdote that is usually his backbone.

In the 50s, all critics said that cinema is an industry, and even today some types of the new wave say that cinema is an industry, and you can not make movies. We were the only ones to rise up against the cinema industry, for the cinema art, and finally, we had the pleasure to see that all that we bet has won and that the cinema “disgusting”, that is to say to say cinema art, has conquered the cinema industry.

ML: You said earlier that after the shining period, art destroys itself according to the Dadaist formula. In the case of the cinema, when it will be destroyed itself, what will come behind?

Maurice Lemaitre: After cinema without image, there is what we call, we, the supertemporal cinema, the infinitesimal cinema, that is to say the new subjects … One can never stop. As long as man is alive, he will want to create, and he will never stop. We will invent other areas. The cinema was invented at a certain moment, one can invent another art.

ML: What are your immediate goals?

Maurice Lemaitre: We must start to get people to have fun with Lettrism, so we have to record, we have to publish literary anthologies, everyone starts to make literacy, then there is in the ballet, in the mime … We will make the film commercial lettrist, then we will go further still … As we never gave in to the aesthetic reaction of the post-war, we do not will yield neither before the new wave, nor before its after-effects. It will be they who will move, since we are right. Whenever there is a reactionary thing somewhere, we will rise up against it.

Anarchists are concerned to the extent that anarchists are interested in art, because literacy is at the forefront of pleasure in art, in fact at the forefront of culture. In terms of political economy, lettrists offer solutions, and I believe anarchists should consider these solutions, and perhaps even act with us if these solutions seem valid to them.

 

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14 of Maurice Lemaitre’s 106 films

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Le film est déjà commencé? (1951)
‘One of the major works of letterist cinema, LE FILM EST DEJA COMMENCE? had as much of a direct or hidden influence on the New Wave as it does on today’s Avant-Garde. Its first screenings in Paris in 1951 became major events. The critics despised it, but this work is and will remain a landmark in film History.’ — Experimental Cinema

‘This film must be projected under special conditions: on a screen of new shapes and material and with spectacular goings-on in the cinema lobby and theatre (disruptions, forced jostling, dialogues spoken aloud, confetti and gunshots aimed at the screen…). This is not just a projection, but a true film performance, the style of which Maurice Lemaitre is the creator..’ — Maurice Lemaitre, 1951

Trailer

Excerpt

 

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Chantal D. Star (1968)
‘The attached text should be read by a presenter before the meeting: “In March 1967, Maurice Lemaitre published in the magazine Cinémonde an ad reproducing the famous painting by Théodore Chassériau, The toilet of Esther. This painting particularly fascinated him and he wanted to take it as a starting point for a film, looking for an actress who looked like a painting. His idea was first to film in film-truth, without the knowledge of the filmed person, the classic and odious interview of the Starlette by the producer. The story would then have continued, still in the style of the “camera-eye”, by building all the work on this young girl eager to make cinema. This theme was to bring new reflections on love, cinema and creation in women. But for various practical and ethical reasons, the director’s project took an unexpected turn: first, he could record only the sound, then he found himself involved at a cruel level, in the meeting, because of the the exceptional human quality of the young person interviewed, that he could not bring himself to sing until the end. Wanting to turn this adventure into a work of art, he resolved to upset his initial project and to produce a film of a mono-image, infinitely tortured, as the so-called starlet had been, and whose sound would be the sound interview herself. He then added cartons, which are not just comments, as in the silent films, but a rewarding dimension of the work.’ — Maurice Lemaitre

the entire film

 

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Une Oeuvre (1968)
1968 / color / sound / single screen / 15 ’00

Excerpt

 

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Toujours à l’Avant-Garde de l’Avant-Garde, Jusqu’au Paradis et Au-Delà! (1970)
‘This film is a supertemporal work. The support for public participation consists of an image, which has varied several times during the various screenings. A screening of Maurice Lemaître, himself, in the soundtrack, sheds light on how the session works, ending with a challenge to the audience.’ — Light Cone

Excerpt

 

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Un navet (1977)
‘We can say that movie fans will be spoiled! The director and his assistant, René Charles, spared no effort to offer screen addicts a real cinema punch. Of course, not everyone can be of this opinion and there will always be smart faces of the pelloche who prefer to go on the boulevards or on the Champs-Élysées to burp at their leisure… It’s true that you don’t have to be disgusted to see this film. Even connoisseurs of the underground, the different, the experimental, et cetera (and even more so the calves of arthouse cinemas…) will balk at this screen!’ — Lightcone

Watch the trailer here

 

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L’Amour Réinventé (1979)
‘If, as Rimbaud asked, love must be reinvented, it can only be by poets, to whom it owes its birth. And the forms it will take then can be described – filmed – only by poets, and in particular poets of the screen. Images and sounds never seen, never heard, was still possible today, such was the challenge that this film had to face. Erotic? Certainly. But then… also a stage of deepening of the photogrammatic particle, anterior to the series of all different images of the film is already started?, but really all visible, enchanting. The chiseling stage in this area had not been fully explored and Maurice Lemaître cleared the ground here. The sound, composed of Lettrist poems, adds its strange variety to the splendor of the work.’ — Light Cone

the entire film

 

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Films imaginaires (1979)
‘Films Imaginaires (Imaginary Films) consists of texts from a range of works that had already been published here and there, and that were included in the revised edition of my collected Cinematic Works. I filmed these texts and converted them into intertitles for projection. The conversion of these texts to frames of film, and their subsequent projection, transforms these “films” into an even more progressive type of cinematic creation.’ — MAURICE LEMAÎTRE

Trailer

 

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Fin de Tournage (1985 – 1990)
‘“Héléne Richol: – Why do you title your film Fin de Tournage? Maurice Lemaitre: – Firstly because most of my films have a title that has something to do with cinema: since Le Film has already begun?, Vos Film, etc (…) Then, because when I thought about making This film, I was very depressed… Not very good… and I thought it would be my last film.” — Lightcone

Watch the trailer here

 

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L’AYANT-DROIT (1991)
‘Extract of the sound of the film: Sir, Following your first letter and according to your indications, the viewing of the press conference of General de Gaulle on May 16, 1967 was carried out by us. I regret to inform you that the questions – of which you had sent me the text – not appearing in the document archived at the INA, no copy of this press conference can be transferred to you.’ — Letterboxd

Watch the trailer here

 

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KAMI E NO MICHI (2000)
‘The «Second World Premiere” of his films took place on the 28th of September 2001 at the Cinematheque Française, at the Boulevard Bonne Nouvelle theatre, as part of a syncinematographical representation, organised by the Braquage organization, as well as the support of spectators. A sort of «Monsieur Loyal” of my proper synfilm, I animated this presentation and had it filmed by 3 different crews each with different points of view. From the original film, as well as the 3 videos made during that very evening, I then created an original video with sounds that I had at my disposal: music used during the evening, from the «first wordl premiere” (already published in Volume 1), sound from the séance itself, and even some old tapes, whether it be a song by my mother, or a text that i read during my retrospective show at the Pompidou Center in Paris during the 1980s. Constantly enriched by new elements, chemical film treatments, photographs, as well as videoediting techniques, this video was subjected to a number of successive publications, progressively complex, and given the possibility to continue being, by me or by others. We find here the sounds of my presentation during the «Second World Premiere”, that sheds more light on the profound direction of my work, from ludic presentations to political manifests and even theology.’ — Maurice Lemaitre

Excerpt

 

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KAMI E NO MICHI OU LA VOIE DES DIEUX – LA VOIE DIVINE (2001)
‘Having accomplished a very important, sometimes essential, cinematographic work in this field, and also in a relative physical state, I have recently only devoted myself to films that are more of an imaginary aesthetic. Thus, meeting, by chance, a filmmaker of Japanese nationality – Japanese rather, to the extent that this name means, for this country, much more than a simple passport -, allowed me to reconnect with some memories ( the works that Henri Langlois revealed to us in the 1950s, at the Cinémathèque Française, with their major questions for the young man and filmmaker that I was, but which I was unable to delve into later, due to too many creative tasks), and to take up at another level the ethical, religious questions, etc., that these films (of “samurai”, for example, then those of the Japanese “new wave”, too long obscured by the French) had aroused At my house. I then embarked on the production of a new “film” film with my own means (miserable, as always), which was to answer these questions in a new and more profound way.’ — M.L.

Excerpt

 

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Nos Stars (2002)
‘A chronicle of the fantasies and dream of women in avant-garde contemporary cinema The faces and bodies of new women haunt the paths and alleyways of avant-garde cinema.’ — Re-Voir

the entire film

 

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Le Retour (1998 – 2003)
‘It’s known, that since 1951, the film going public, place themselves in front of a screen, not only to digest, to burp, but also to participate, in order that art and life can come together and meld. But as I’m an old hand at public participation in art, I know that not all the spectators have talent, even if «anyone can write poetry” and some confuse the feast of the gods with the orgy of hogs. The film viewers, like their ancestor the pithecanthrope, have to learn to stand up on their own creative feet.’ — Maurice Lemaitre

Excerpt

 

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Resilliance (2005 – 2007)
‘At the end of 2004, I read in the newspapers that Japan was saddened by a wave of collective suicides which were being organized through the internet. Despite the specifically Japanese cultural aspect of voluntary death, I wanted to link these particular adolescent suicides to those affecting every other country, including France, where the number of suicides is growing among adolescents and even among children. I asked my videographer friends in Tokyo to send me images concerning these collective suicides, images which I proposed to insert into my film on the subject and which I would combine with other images which, to me, seemed pertinent to this massacre of youth, a historical Cancer which I have always denounced and to which we have always proposed radically new solutions. It was necessary for me to approach the project with all the formal audacity of which I was capable, out of respect for the vital audacity of my young comrades and also out of respect for those who had committed suicide. If the mechanical term “resilience” – the capacity of a particular metal to resist shock – sprang immediately to mind, as the title of the piece, it’s because I would like to call upon all children and adolescents (who are tempted by suicide) to resist the chaos of the infernal world in which they find themselves, in order to build a better humanity – where the idea of destroying oneself would become absurd.’ — Maurice Lemaitre

Excerpt

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Corey Heiferman, Hi, Corey! You hit the States since I last saw you. I’m glad the Mutter Museum tip paid off. There’s a great short Errol Morris documentary about/with Mutter director Gretchen Worden if you’re interested. Here. Incredible that Marshall Allan still performs. I saw him ten years ago and thought it was surely his swan song. Nice haul, obviously. I did know some guys who wrote those pulpy porn novels back then. A couple of them were writers, most were in advertising, if I remember right. A few of them took it really seriously, but I never could tell how from reading their books. Welcome back to your locale. And to here. What’s next? ** Dominik, Hi!!! Well, I did go out of my way to pick the scariest looking ones. There are a lot of cutesy-wootsy Disney types. Yes, you/love found the last awesome escort phrase — the ones that were on my post title short list. Love is so loveable. Love very much looking forward to not staring with intense concentration at a color grader’s screen for 10 hours every day as of tomorrow, G. ** _Black_Acrylic, I think if you press most people on the subject of marionettes, their opinion will fall on the positive side, yes. Mostly just a guess. Very happy to hear the class went well and that they dug your story! Smart folks. Oh, I would really like to see that doc on Folk Horror History. I’m going to try to find it this weekend. Thanks, pal. ** Misanthrope, Seems to me that being scary is built into the DNA of marionettes. How could they not be? There’s a kind of voodoo doll vibe about them even when they’re supposed to be tiny darlings. ‘Team America’ is a super classic, for sure. A bonfire sounds alluring, enjoy. And the rest. ** Thomas Moronic, Hi, T! Wow, right, I forgot about the ‘Nightmare’ scene. It’s so good. Everyone, the honorable Thomas Moronic tips us to one of the great marionette employing movie scenes ever that I highly suspect you will enjoy to have partaken of should you choose to press down here. And I’m happy the Kinkel post timing was spot on. I hope you’re doing super great, man! ** Jack Skelley, Bonjour to you, and you’ll get a bon soir later. It’s up to Sypha. I’m open armed. Most curious to hear about that profoundly disturbing experience and will quiz you once your sun rises. xo, me. ** Sypha, Would he? I’ve still never read more than one story of his. That is an interesting geographical tidbit. Glad you’re on the move re: the post. ** Steve Erickson, Yes, we need to finish the color grading today. Then tomorrow is our day off before we plunge full time into the sound work on Monday. I remember going through that estate planning period with my mom. Hopefully, unlike me, you don’t have a greedy, semi-psycho sibling to make it even harder. Nice, I’m excited to see that Coen/Cooke film. I watched, or tried to watch ‘American Fiction’ the other night, but I only got 20 minutes into before I had shut it off. What a miserable, middlebrow, a-cinematic, witless piece of faux-erudite drivel that is. ** Charalampos, Hi. Aw, pal, I’m sorry for the nothingness feeling, but you know it’ll pass. It’s just occasion-inspired, and that occasion will retreat, and your brilliant rambunctious self will take over you again. I really liked the first Placebo album, but then I kind of faded out on them. Kaomojis, huh, okay thanks. Now I know how to google search for them. Get through your weekend, power up, and let’s continue our vibrating back and forth hence. What do you say? ** Justin, Hi. If you’re referring to the project that I think you are, it involves a ventriloquist dummy not a marionette. It does have a title but I’m not sure if I can leak it yet. Give me a bit. I hope to see a film in a theater for the first time in ages tomorrow, but fuck knows what and if. What did you end up dragging your boyfriend to, or vice versa, or maybe no dragging was required? ** Matthew Doyle, Howdy, Matt! Marionette Mickey is very photogenic, thank you. We’re getting close to finishing the film barring the next disaster! ** Uday, Hi. Kathputli: I’ll look that up. My mosquito vacuuming probably is a laugh riot, but it requires tremendous grace and concentration so they don’t feel the breeze of the approaching death void and skitter away, those deft little bastards. Nice: the review of the nonexistent book. I like that. Good form. Enjoy your weekend in NYC if I’m reading you right. Envy from me and here to you and there. This blog has weird, mysterious, playful ghosts in the machine, I swear. ** Okay. This weekend I welcome/urge you to explore the works of the great Letterist filmmaker and artist Maurice Lemaître, and why not give doing precisely that a shot, eh? See you come Monday.