Guillaume Basquin's 'Fondu au noir' Defends the Negative Against Digital

Guillaume Basquin's first book 'Fondu au noir' (published by Paris expérimental) argues against the widespread digitization of cinema, claiming it destroys the medium's essence by eliminating the negative. Basquin, born in 1969, lives and works in Paris, and occupies the former apartment of André Bazin. The book presents a thesis that digitization is a metaphysical shift, not merely a technical one, replacing real images with virtual copies. Basquin cites Godard, Sollers, Walter Benjamin, and Guy Debord, and references an 'effet Musée Grévin' where actors' lips appear plastic. He argues that all past and present films are being reduced to zeros and ones, and that this process is a form of falsification. The book is described as an experimental novel about a man witnessing a catastrophe of derealization. Basquin calls for a defense of the negative against the propaganda of digital projection.