Giséle Freund photograph of Walter Benjamin in les Bibliothèque nationale de France (1937).
“We have to distinguish between on one side quotation, remake, ‘repetition’ of oneself, and, on the other side of the surpassing disaster, resurrection. […] Past a surpassing disaster, and taking into account the withdrawal of tradition, as a historian and archivist of myself, I can imitate myself, ‘repeat’ myself, but as a filmmaker I cannot do so even if I wished since my previous work is no longer available—I have to resurrect it before being able to ‘repeat’ myself.”
Jalal Toufic, The Withdrawal of Tradition Past a Surpassing Disaster.