Today I must leave Paris for some time and I unfortunately can't wait to see you to discuss the Dutch [situationists] and other problems.
After my exchange of letters with the Dutch, they are still resolved to make the exposition[1] but their project still appears to me very vague and insufficient (the labyrinth must be conceived as a collective project, which is something they still don't realize, and not as a summary disposition of a [local] place that we will be called upon to furnish. The Dutch must first furnish us with a plan and have the modesty to open a discussion among us on this collective project).
I have done my best to arrange a distribution of #3 of the [situationists'] journal. As I wrote to you on a recent card, we now have a commercial distributor, which will certainly be very useful for publicity and perhaps even for our finances. I leave here for you the corrected text of Critique of Political Economy[2] and the original manuscript.
From Liege, I wrote to Herman[3] that the film [On the passage of several people through a brief unity of time] will be at his disposition at [Maurice] Wyckaert's place in Brussels (10, place de la Justice), starting from 15 January [1960]. People in Liege have planned to show it at their cinema-club. I haven't received a response from Herman: will it be necessary to foresee his replacement? I insist that a minimum of effort be made to develop this film, without any further delays, which will not only affect its potentially important financial returns but also its artistic significance.
The state of our debts is the following:
-- 120,000 Francs to the printer, who, from all points of view, it would be good to pay quickly.
-- 140,000 Francs, still due to the G.T.C. Laboratory, for the last bits of work on the film, printing the 2 copies of it that we have. This can certainly wait until February.
In addition, it will be necessary to anticipate about ten thousand Francs as the payment to submit the film to the commission of censorship, and perhaps as many [Francs] for a small information campaign concerning its interdiction.
Michele [Bernstein] will explain to you the details of the distribution of the [situationists'] books and journals. It is also necessary to understand the programme of work in Holland, or its abandonment. Starting on Monday evening, you can find Michele at the impasse de Clairvaux.
Amicably,[1] Project to transform rooms 36 and 37 of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam into a labyrinth (cf. I.S. #4, p. 5).
[2] Completed by the printer in Brussels, May 1960.
[3] Wolsgaard-Iversen [of the Danish-French Film Company].
(Published in Guy Debord, Correspondance, Volume 1, 1957-1960. Footnotes by Alice Debord. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! May 2005.)