The Films and Paradox of Guy Debord

This article focuses on Guy Debord’s films and his paradoxical claim that his works do not qualify as “films”. Debord viewed cinema as an alienated form. of communication, whose inherent logic opposes the transformation of cinema into a spectacle, a process that would reinforce the dominance of the society of the spectacle. By rejecting the totality of cinema’s conventional narrative and form, Debord aligns with the situationists’ goal of liberating everyday life. This article analyzes Debord’s core tactic of Détournement as a form. of negation and opposition to the medium itself, repurposing existing forms and subverting them from within to generate critical tension and open up new possibilities. In the contemporary context, as individuals shift from passive consumers to active participants in image production, reclaiming the agency of viewing becomes possible. The author argues that war imagery is a means of reclaiming visual representation and assigning it new meaning. Through these visuals, a form. of visual resistance is mounted against the spectacle, thereby constructing a personal image of the world.