International audienceGreatly influenced by the surrealist movement, Jean Rouch was keen on « putting challenging objects into circulation ». He clearly succeeded in doing so by coining « ciné-transe », a striking neologism he willingly acknowledged to be somewhat « mysterious ». Ever since, numerous academic publications allude to « ciné-transe », but no two with the same background meaning. Indeed, its discoverer, Jean Rouch, only very seldom mentions it, and even when he does, his definition varies from one occurrence to the next. Taking for granted that no new exegesis of « ciné-transe » will ever make it fully intelligible, the present contribution will make no attempt at revealing its hidden motivations. It rather intends to pave t...