Author: Andreas Fraunberger
Translation: Mehrdad Fahramand
In the following, I would like to
present the works of three central figures of the Austrian avant-garde film
movement. The works of these authors will be analyzed from the perspective of
the possibility of expression of the unconscious mind in the film medium.
Hence, the main point of this project is the application of the metapsychological
model of Freudian theory and subsequent theories to the film theory.
Kurt Kren and the formalism of the absurd
Kurt Kren is one of the central
figures of the avant-garde film movement. He represents a radical, and
contentious, artistic approach. His works are characterized by precision as
well as an unbending devotion to his ideals. Kren’s experimental documentaries about
Viennese Actionism go beyond simple pleasentries. Out of this confrontation emerged
novel structural films, which would become harbinger for a new way of movie making.
The illegalization of the works of Viennese Actionism in Austria made the
continuation of any artistic work practically impossible. The course of these
events led to emigration of Kurt Kren from Austria to Germany before he
permanently resided in the United States. The works of Kren from this point on
are characterized by a certain conceptualism. The work 31/75 Asyl was
created during a stay in Saarland, where Kren visited the movie critics
Charlotte and Hans-Peter Kochenrath. This film is considered as one of the main
representatives of structural film. It consists of a single angle and take. In
21 consecutive days the camera captures pictures, which are filtered through a
black mask installed in front of the camera with variable number of holes. On
each day different parts of the film picture are illuminated. Peter Weibel
coins this methodology ‘temporally extended multiple lighting’. As a result,
each illumination captures only a small surface. This methodology expresses the
temporally oriented visions of Kren. The Film was made in late autumn.
Consequently, the pictures can be distinguished by weather changes. In some
pictures we can identify a brown summerhouse and in some others the fallen snow
on the ground. This technique enables a partial temporal differentiation of
each frame. Through a static take a view out of the kitchen window is presented:
a road, a fence, trees, and clouds. The different temporal frames which remind
on an objet trouvé allow the emergence of a time-sculpture. The chronological Order
of objects in a frame is reorganized through modeling within the movie length
of 8 minutes and 26 seconds.
The ‘multiple illuminations’
process of the mix-photography of Francis Galton represents, from the Freudian perspective,
an instance of primary function of condensation. Freud’s main interest was the
cognitive processes of the unconscious mind. From the onset of the
psychoanalytic movement there was a close relationship between the role of
metaphors in the manifestation of mental processes and film. In the Interpretation
of dreams Freud explains the process of condensation through theprinciples
of composite photographs.
The face that I
see in my dream is at once that of my friend R. and that of my uncle. It is
like one of those composite photographs of Galton’s; in order to emphasize
family resemblances Galton had several faces photographed on the same plate.
(Sigmund Freud: S.E. Vol. 4, 135)
Kurt Kren: 31/75 Asyl
For instance, the beard of the uncle
functions as frame for the head of the friend.
Freud explains the mechanism of dream
by the analogy of Galtons phototography. Thorston Lorenz indicates this process
is based on forensic picture identification (Thorsten Lorenz 1987: 108). In
1883 Sir Francis Galton developed a mix-photography techniques, in which the
pictures of up to hundred subjects, such as criminals, soldiers, or patients,
were illuminated on a single negative. The goal of this project was to identify
common features, which could reliably indicate criminal tendencies through
analysis of physical features. Here, the common features are spotlighted, while
the differentiating features are relegated to the background.
Freud was interested in the
relationship of presenting common features from different pictures to the
condensing function of the unconscious. The point that Freud is a protégé of
the cinematographic process presents an important realization for my project.
The content of the optical condensation process represents a historical-structural
kinship to the Freudian model of the unconscious, where the former can be
derived from the latter. To this end, I will rely on meta-psychological
principles to analyze the film-photographic works. In 31/75 Asyl one
could also recognize the commonalities of various frames, which are informed by
the condensed pictures of the unconscious. This film simulates the unconscious
order of the mind at two levels, as Freud postulated it. At the first level,
the setting of the film represent the topic model of the mind and hence the
‘censor’. This is illustrated through the movie medium, where a mask is
inserted in between the theme and the recording material. This mask allows for
the manifestation of only certain parts. This characteristic of the mask simulates
the function of the censor, since here only parts of the present impressions,
or past wishes, are permitted to reach the preconscious/unconscious system.
Furthermore, condensation occurs at the level of censor as well, according to
Freud. What the censor allows to emerge from the unconscious system will be
available to our consciousness. The condensation of various temporal units
represents the second level of the representation of unconscious mind within
the technical setting of 31/75 Asyl. Condensation coordinates memories
and desires of various temporal origins and proceeds to reorganize them in a
new manner. The masked, or censored, parts in Kren’s work are of different
temporal origins. However, they are put together like pieces of a puzzle
generate a condensed time-sculpture. However in contrast to dreams, the
material of condensation are not the impressions of a whole life lived, such as
processing of the secrets of the previous day. Kren consciously chooses forms
which summarize the impressions of the same theme in 21 successive days. The
point of this is to relay a notion in a compressed manner. Through this, it
becomes possible to simulate through the film media, and technique, the
temporal functioning of the unconscious along with the process of condensation.
For a painter, the fleeting and not directly presentable moments are
fascinating. A filmmaker, in contrast, has from the onset the moment and the
temporal montage at his disposal. Jacques Aumont writes on this difference: the
filmmaker seeks “simply the ineffable, which is subject to a cumulative and
hence a contradictory temporality as if it has lost the most obvious quality of
time: its passage” (Jacques Aumont 2003: 22). The same essential quality of
time is also missing in the primary process of condensation: the unconscious
representations are rooted in past experiences. Instincts and representations,
which have various temporal origins, are dragged into the present in a way that
undermines their very temporal order and differentiation. In place of a linear
sensory-motor time perception, this process generates through the media of
pictures a direct connection between time and thinking. The aesthetics of Kren,
therefore, invades a level of reflection, in which our sensory-motor capabilities
are required to contemplate that which has been seen. According to Deleuze,
this would be the result of a process of crystallization of time: The time is
broken into crystal pieces and the movie presents on the screen the consequence
of this break. Parts of the pictures remain un-illuminated and descend into
darkness.
The incomplete presentation of the
theme reminds us on the fragmentary testimony of persons in everyday situations
as well as in clinical-therapeutic settings. The contents of the unconscious
are processed at the same level of reality as the content of the manifested
text, according to Laplanche/Pontalis (Jean Laplanche 1999: 224). Kren
simulates this dynamic relationship in his films. Every ‘gap’ is variously
illuminated, through which the temporal order thereof can be presented only
partially: In the frames of 31/75, for instance, the presence of snow can be an
indication of temporal differentiation of winter from the autumn as reflected
by characteristic tree colors. However, the majority of frames are not
temporally differentiable. Whether the pictures are of the past or the present
is not determinable. The observer is required to supplement the missing
information with the given features. 31/75 Asyl, consequently, represents the
Freudian characteristics of the unconscious: the pictorial representation, the
primary process of condensation and novel arrangement of temporality and themes.
Peter Tscherkassky – The cinematography of the psyche.
The multifaceted works of Peter
Tscherkasky are characterized, since his first work at the beginning of the
1980s, by a continuous transformation. This process of change can be best noted
in ‘Tilogie’ (L’Arrivee, 1998; Outer Space, 1999; Dream Works, 2001), which
received worldwide acclaim. His Œuvre awakes the interest of this project due
to the artist’s direct critical dealing, both in his films as well as his texts,
with respect to film theory and history. His short films are characterized by a
focus on the relationship of the Ego, desires, and the material, which comprise
the typical subject matter of the psychoanalytic theory. That is also the
reason why Tscherkasky’s Œuvre provides an appropriate platform for the
analysis of the presentation of the unconscious in the Avant-garde film. In the
film Parallel Space: Inter View (1992), which is the subject of my
analysis, is the relationship of film and psychoanalysis unpacked. Parallel
Space: Inter View leads us through a regressive temporal journey of the
inner psyche by mirror pictures, psychoanalytic symbols such as the couch and
the chair as locale for the memory of dialog, parental bonding, and baby or
youth pictures. The accompanying text indicates to the audience the conceptual
intention of the film and a view of the scrutinizing of the subject’s
constitution through the given medium: ‘The Physics of Seeing’ and ‘The Physics
of Memory’. The production of this work, in which partially very personal
themes are dealt with, lasted more than four years. During this time
Tscherkasky underwent psychoanalysis, the theme of which are presented in some of
the sequences within the context of this experience. On the computer appears
the script ‘all I remember…I was looking for you’ followed by pictures of a
Fauteuil and a couch, which are at beginning abstract and gain in clarity with
time. Through this sequence a picture in picture montage becomes recognizable,
which is presented through Flicker technique.
Peter 
Tscherkassky: ParallelSpace: Inter-View
In a small cadre, which is shown to
the audience by the filmmaker where he films himself in the mirror, every frame
is alternated with the frame of psychoanalytic furniture. This evokes the
impression that the picture is located between the couch and the chair.
Following this sequence the autobiographical intention is clarified by zooming
on a portrait. Shortly after that the phrase appears: ‘When I got conscious,
there was nobody’ followed by the picture of a woman, who looks through a door
at the audience. Gabriele Jutz writes with this regard: “not as a body is
she present (no body), but as a gaze”(Gabriele Jutz: 2007). The subject of
the gaze is presented not only through the picture of the woman, but also
through a wall with a window in it. The coming to consciousness, which is
announced by the text (‘when I get conscious’), does not succeed in
psychoanalysis by the patient through looking at the picture of the mother, for
instance. The actual gaze is achieved by looking at the walls and windows of
the practice (‘there was nobody’). This reflects the important distinction made
in psychoanalysis between the remembered and the imagined. This point signifies
a turn in the film, in which various pictures and themes are brought in action,
for instance the psychoanalytic encounter with the mother, the family, the time
of the Oedipal conflicts, or the sexuality. In this context, we could interpret
the picture of the woman as dealing with the symptoms. While we see the picture
of a boy, we hear a neurotically interpretable voice (‘you say what mother says…’),
where the subject is lead by unconscious motivations. The familial codes
comprise an important component of the picture material, which is constantly
presented through the triad of mother-father-child and seeks an interpretation
thereof. The critics of the Oedipus by Deleuze and Guattari, which are rooted
in the object-relation theory of Melanie Klein, point to the societal
composition of the unconscious. Tscherkasky succeeds in portraying this
criticism by the pictures of Parallel Space: Inter View, which
correspond to the typical representations of the Oedipus complex that are made
of Found Footage-Material. These pictures of the actor bring forth the
intuition of the parent-child scenario. At the same time, they refer to
Hollywood, which represents the media culture and the ability to regulate and
control the production of desires. It is through this reference to a public
that familial limitations are resolved. In other words, the nature of group
fantasy is revealed through portrayal of the individual fantasy and the “theatre
of representation is transferred back to production of desires...” (Gilles
Deleuze, Felix Guattari 1989: 351) The application of ‘found’ material could
function as reference to the public aspect of the medium. Before, I go into details
about this claim; I would like to discuss the technical and perception relevant
aspects of the film, which is necessary for a more intimate understanding of
the content of this work.
In a conversation with Tscherkasky
I found out that he makes a crucial distinction between the order in the
optical and the visual. Dream and memory relay pictures out of the inner world
of subjectivity. Hence, they are based on the visual representation,
which cannot be optically represented in a direct way. The intention of
this film, among others, is to take the optical representation and subsume it
under a subjective visual regime through the application of the film processes.
One of these transformation techniques is the Flicker film technique, which has
been partially adopted from the structural films of Peter Kubelka or Paul
Sharits and further developed. The 35mm photographs, which originated partially
from film pictures, are vertically illuminated on 16mm film stripes. Since the
negatives are exactly double so wide as a picture of the small film format,
throughout the projection the bottom half or the top half is alternatively
presented (see picture 8; ‘film formats’). A location on the picture or film is
projected and it is simultaneously divided in two moments. However, the
observer experiences this duality as a unity, since the pictures are presented
at a speed of 24 frames per second. Moreover the top and the bottom are
abstracted under the Flicker technique. The fact that picture parts are
composed of isolated cadres becomes surprisingly manifest when the film is
stopped during playing. While during play this fact is hidden by Flicker
technique. Similarly, in the pictures of dream and memory, which are composed
of two pictures, are united as single impression.
Film formats, explained by sequential photography
(Eadweard Muybridge), Illustration by Andreas Fraunberger
This technical setting of uniting
of pictures corresponds to the mental process of condensation, which
characterizes the primary process of the unconscious mind. Condensation is
regulated according to the visual and auditory representability, according to
Freud (Joseph Sandler 2003: 136). Through this process various contexts are
united into a closed inner representation. The observer tries to recognize each
part separately. However, this fails due to the high speed of the presentation
of the frames. Inference about individual parts is only possible, when
significant correlations between different parts become apparent.
Psychoanalysis recognizes the latent meaning of dreams through manifest symbols
of dreams.
We arrive at a
knowledge of these by dividing the dreams manifest content into ins component
parts, without considering any apparent meaning it may have (as a whole), and
by then following the associative threats which start from each of what are
more isolated elements. These interweave with one another and finally lead to a
tissue of thoughts which are not only perfectly rational but can also be easily
fitted into the known context of our mutual processes (Sigmund Freund, S.E.
Vol. 9: 160)
Parallel Space: Inter-View
evokes through the technical setting a gaze, which is the object recognition of
the individual pictures. Through generation of correlation between the
‘Flickers’ condensed frames a new sense of meaning emerges. Here, it is not the
unconsciousness of the film which becomes manifest. It is more about the
position of manifest symbols, which should not be perceived as isolated
phenomena but as requirement for the recognition of hidden qualities of an
internal unification of separate components. An Inter-View tries actively to
see behind the manifest meaning of the pictures and establish the relationships
thereof. Throughout this process, the optical presentations of the observer are
transformed into visual regiments, which require the intellectual participation
of the observer. Refering to Bergson Mauritio Lazzarato follows a similar model
in which the optical perceptual model is juxtaposed to simulation technologies:
“technologies that simulate formations, which compete against each other in
the process of the subject-constitution” (Lazzarato 2002: 95). In Parallel
Space: Inter-View the condensation process is not used exclusively for
unification of different components of a picture. The film also condenses in a
autobiographical journey back to childhood various temporal and spatial moments
through Flicker technique: Parents and child, loving and loved objects, window
and couch, the couch and the picture of the filmmaker, man and woman, child and
baby, which are all instances with psychoanalytic significance. Temporal and
symbolic dualities are juxtaposed separately and then presented together again
through montage. According to Freud, the processes of unconscious mind are
timeless:
They are not
ordered temporally, are not altered by the passage of time; they have no
reference to time at all. Reference to time is bound up, once again, with the
work of the system Cs [Consciousness].
(Sigmund Freud: S.E. Vol. 14, 187)
The combination of various moments
of different chronological origin into a condensed picture, which is generated
through accelerated projection, corresponds to the Freudian secondary process
within the topic model of the mind. Here the unconscious representations, which
are temporally unrelated to each other, are condensed and they are treated by
the secondary process, where the temporal aspect of the unconscious system
functions. Tscherkasskys film simulates those processes, which, according to
Freud, deal with the novel presentation of the temporal relationship of
condensation in the secondary process. Here, as well, the observer is addressed
as an active decoding participant.
Some of the pictures of this work
are as negatives presented and compared to the developed pictures. This also
provides an avenue for treatment of the relationship between the latent and the
manifest memories. Here, the question is posed whether the negative stage of
the pictures can be developed freely, or is it subject to censorship. Freud
formulated this question in terms of an illustrative example for his theory of
mind. Accordingly, “…every psychical act begins as an unconscious one, and it
may either remain so or go on developing into consciousness, according as it
meets with resistance or not” (Sigmund Freud: S. E. Vol. 12, 264). A movie
picture serves in the movie theatre and the production of desires and
consciousness. However, it is not essentially of such characteristics. When the
negatives and the positives are juxtaposed, then the cultural-industrial
process of production of desires and with it the censor function is reflected
upon. The negative represents those aspects, which were banned form the
production domain, but, nevertheless, succeeded in the conscious production.
The
Repetition
Techniques of Martin Arnolds as film-time
In the following section, we will
examine the repetition based presentation of the unconscious in the films of
Martin Arnold. His work Piece touchee (1989) was produced by self-built
optical printers. Here, an 18 seconds frame of the movie The Human Jungle
(1954, director: Joseph M. Newman) is analyzed in terms of movements, where
short parts that last few single frames are played in fraction of seconds
alternatively in forward and rewind manner. This microscopic method examines
and interprets the given material in a novel way and enables a new perspective.
Through this process those aspect of the movie, which would go unnoticed in
viewing of a typical Hollywood production are brought to the forefront through
this process of repetition. This provides the opportunity to examine the
manifest meaning in terms of latent meaning of the material. Through repetition
and the novel arrangement the details gain a life of their own. The early phase
of Martin Arnold’s work with respect to repetition can be distinguished in two
types. The first type consists of historical film material, which are imparted
a new actuality by appropriation. This is followed by decomposition into
smallest possible temporal units, which are played forwards and backwards. The
meaning emerges through this second process of repetition is manifested as a
differentiation from the original material. This process does not reproduce a
copy but an interaction is expressed: the repetition brings forth the
difference. The length of the production is extended in order to confront the
observer with a new modus of perception through these repetition loops. This
process indicates commonalities with the process of bringing into
consciousness-repressed material, as postulated by psychoanalytic theory.
Martin Arnold: Piece Touché (1989)
Maurin Turim, who holds Arnolds
movies as a meta-commentary to the history of Avant-garde films, maintains in
his analysis of the first scene of Piece touché (1989) a relation to the
dynamics of the unconscious. I would like to add the following in order to
establish the possibility of portrayal of the unconscious mechanism through
cinematic medium:
Here the women
sits, alone, reading her newspaper, on the right a table with a lamp, on the
left, parallel to it, a vase and behind her fauteuil the anteroom/hallway with
the closed door. The only thing moving are the fingers of her right hand,
absentminded drumming against her left forearm – the slightest of all displacements,
a tremor/wince. Yet with the obsessive repetition of alternating cuts, the
movie raises this tremor to the frenetic center of attention of the viewer. Her
waiting becomes nervous – a tremor, a symptom. (Maureen Turim 1995: 300)
The ‘symptom’ can be understood as
the symptom of the fictitious waiting woman in particular, or the general
symptom of the film. Through a persisting and repetitive presentation it seems
that any Hollywood production can be portrayed in terms of latent symptomatic
potentials. For instance, the nervous hand movements at the beginning can be
observed simultaneously closing and opening of the ajar door in the background.
This process of condensation exposes the latent anxiety of the woman. The
tapping of her fingers symbolizes the anxiety of the woman and her expectation
that something unpleasant is about to occur. Although, it turns out that a
friendly man enters through the door.
Psychoanalysis assumes that the
symptoms of the patient repeat themselves in the everyday life of the patient,
because an unconscious drive is being repressed continuously. Hence, this
repressed drive will manifest itself in different ways in everyday situations
instead of being represented in the consciousness.
If the ego, by
making use of the signal of unpleasure, attains ist objects of completely
surpressing the instinctual impulse, we learn nothing of how this happened. We
only find out about it from those cases in which repression must be described
as having to a greater or less extent failed. (Sigmund Freud: S. E., Vol.
20, 94)
This function of repression is also
of great relevance in the modern theories of psychoanalysis, such as that
proposed by Howard Shevrin:
As it is true for manifest dreams (and glosses and associations) in
relation to the latent dream thoughts they simultaneously disguise and
represent, we must remember that symptoms (and conscious explanations) are
displacements; thus, they are more consciously acceptable versions of the
underlying conflicts, contents, and fantasies that have remained largely
unconscious. (Howard Shevrin 1996: 30)
The repressed drives find
substituted expression through displacement, distortion, or suppression. This
substituted expression takes the form of a compulsion, which leads to a
constant repetition of the symptoms without being noticed by the patient. The
analyst becomes aware of this repetitive phenomenon during therapy session and
tries subsequently to expose the latent thoughts behind it. At the beginning of
the therapy the patient is confronted with an opaque, and hard to decode,
‘message’, which represents the symptom. However, the patient feels this as externally
imposed. The goal of the therapy is to enable the patient to take ownership of
this ‘message’, which makes it possible for the patient to deal with the
disease.
Freud, and psychoanalysts consider
the repetition, as an impetus for the patient to revisit the repressed memory
continuously. This technique is described as ‘working through’, by which the
patient actively confronts the memories. One comes closer to the contents of
the unconscious, as it manifests itself, through repetition. This ‘working
through’ points to the rhythmic nature of the mental apparatus as well the
therapeutic process. In his essay ‘The Uncanny’ Freud portrays his encounter
with the phenomenon of repetition during his walk in an Italian city as he
continuously finds himself returning unintentionally to a street that is
occupied by ‘made-up women’ (Sigmund Freud: S.E. Vol. 17). A walk always takes
distractions and never takes the direct path. Therefore, from its essence it is
something that harbors the repetition within itself, since it is an expression
of the pleasure principle. The pleasure principle leads always the subject
within its own psychic organization in a way that the subject constantly feels
compelled to perform those actions, which consciously or unconsciously lead to
a satisfaction of the pleasure principle. One could think of a film as a path,
which runs from a beginning to an end. When a feature of a film is played over
and over again, this can function as a continuous return. Normally, in film
this serves as style point, which functions as an orientation tool for the
audience in order gain a level intimacy with the topic rather than being
distracted. Martin Arnold performs this principle through his loop technique to
a point that the sense of intimacy is converted into a sense of loss. His early
works function not as a direct path, but as a detour.
The mainstream culture, from which
Arnold takes his sources, produces a reality with respect to which the desires
of subjects develop, for instance, an expression such as dream-factory points
to the function of Hollywood. This movement can be analyzed from a film
perspective. In the beginning sequences of Pièce touché the man and the
woman move to a different location in the room after they have greeted each
other ‘extensively’. In the original version, the sequence, in which the man
makes a gesture with his hand as he goes ahead, would have been rarely noticed.
This movement, through which the man points with his index finger, functions as
revealer of the way to be taken. This gesture can give a threatening
impression. The extent of this gesture comes to light through persistent
repetition of the frames. It becomes apparent the male actor prompts the female
figure to act through his hidden gestures. The backplay of the same sequence
indicates that the man compels the woman simultaneously to take a seat.
Consequently, one can see that the Hollywood film relays latent, hidden, and
patriarchal behavior recipes. The symptomatic here is the hidden power
relationship within the sexual organization of the gender roles. This pattern
can be recognized through a psychoanalytic-like examination modus.
The portrayal, as well as
deconstruction, of the family in the Hollywood films is the subject matter of Passage
a l’acte (1993), in which a 33 second sequence of the movie To Kill a
Mockingbird (1962) made by Robert Mulligan is deconstructed. Again
sequences that last approximately 3 to 15 pictures with an alterative speed of
24 frames per second are presented. These frames are played again successively
and alternatively forward and backward. The film is dedicated to a criticism of
the family situation and the sequence begins with the father voicing an
incomprehensible utterance as a result of which the son runs out of the room.
This frame lasts about 5 seconds and does not require the usage of a
time-manipulating technique. Subsequently, Arnold proceeds, using the loop techniques,
to work out the tension in the scene. The father looks at the mother with
raised eyes. The mother, in return, makes a small movement, which through
further repetition gives the impression as if she would shake as a result of
this further filmic repetition. Arnold stays at this sequence for a noticeable
15 seconds. Through this sequence the critical intention of the film, in form
of a significant examination of this subject matter, is clarified.
As this sequence further develops,
the father raises his brow, to which the mother responds with agreeable nodding
that does not give the impression of being the result of a free choice.
Moreover, the impression is relayed that gestures of the father demand the
gestures of the mother. The patriarchal quality of this sequence would not have
been recognized in the original version. This emerges clearly as a result of
the analysis. The movie focuses on the details like a microscope. However, it
is not a spatial dimension, which is magnified but the temporal dimension. The
latent fear of the mother, which is hidden in the manifest version, is
recognized. The methodology used by Arnold to reveal these symptoms is the same
used in psychoanalysis to ‘work through’. The existing claims and pictures are
piece by piece over and over again looked at, through which the internal
meaning is revealed. Akira M. Lippit applies this mechanism to the functioning
of the memory:
„Like the work
of memory, the reworking that passage accomplishes uncovers entirely new
movements and gestures within the original footage”. (Akira M. Lippit 1997: 6)
The repetition is accordingly
always a reference to the past and might lead to a change of perception
thereof. One could certainly also recognize drive-based symptoms in the
original version (To Kill A Mockingbird). The repetitive treatment of
the film leads to a deepening of the recognition of this resistance within the
context of the familial reality of the Hollywood film, which were otherwise rarely
noticeable in the original version.
Short sequences are divided into
single streams, taken on, abandoned, and newly re-worked. In this process the
audience is engaged in a dialog of the pictures and action informed by the deep
structures of the work. The modeling process generates a work of art the
structure of which indicates commonalities with the psychoanalytic methodology.
This is further revealed through subsequent sequence of the movie. As the son
enters again through the door, the father indicates to him to take a seat. The
hand movements of the father, at first, generate a tapping sound, which through
the repetition process is revealed to be more a knocking. After the hand moves
upward, it points to the empty chair as the seat to be taken by the son.
Arnold, through his analysis, succeeds in showing the nervous character thereof
and the symptomatic nature of the whole situation. A certain comical, and
childish, element accompanies the father’s hand gesture as if it were toy gun.
This impression is magnified by the sound of the closing door. The repetition
of this element imparts an impression of a gun shot sound. Here the imposing
seriousness of the father is condensed with a certain naiveté as well as
reference to violence of gunshots. This condensation generates a joke, which
tends to portray a critic of the ruling master relationship that is ‘invited to
dance’. The Freudian formulation of the nature of joke, which is treated along
with repetition techniques, portrays two different variations of humor in the
films of Arnold. One variation is characterized by tendency, while the other
lacks any tendency. The pleasure ground of the variation without tendency lies
in recognition of the already acquainted. Through the repetitive presentation
of the pictures comes into being, as it happens by the repetitive pattern of
the joke, a relief of the psychical effort that is perceived as pleasure.
Patrizia Giampieri- Deutsch concurs with Freud on this matter and formulates
this as relief-pleasure, ‘which through relief of psychic load comes
into being’ (Patrizia Giampieri-Deutsch 1998: 65). According to Freud,
the same type of pleasure is generated in poetry and arts. In Arnold’s film
relief-pleasure is generated through the fact that the pictures from their
first appearance are recognizable and subsequently they are repeated. The
observer already knows the content after its first appearance. As a result
there is no further necessity to generate a psychical load, which would be
required to recognize and decode. The slow and stepwise revelation of the
novel, and hence the unknown pictures, contains an excitement that avoids the
descension of boredom.
After the scene in Passage a
l’acte, in which the son was compelled to take a seat, it ensues an
argumentative dialog between the siblings. Again, the verbal exchange is
temporally manipulated so that it lasts longer. The primary medium of
interpretation here for Arnold is the picture and tone. After switching the
frames back and forth between the quarreling siblings, Arnold establishes a
direct connection between children’s desiring and the parents. This happens as
voices of the children, or parts thereof, are being presented in relation to
parents. While one could hear the boy uttering ‘come on’, we see the parents.
Moreover, since the father is seen to move his mouth during this utterance, we
get the impression that it is indeed he is who speaks. This succeeds to
illustrate the determinability through the superego, which chooses the claims
of the subject determined by the father. The figure of father, or mother,
conveys the presence of the whole society and its involvement, such as the
father’s boss, the nanny, or the sister. The forcing choice of father is that
of the whole community. Žižek maintains that this structure leads to a
rejection. The subject finds the subordination under the authority of the name-
of-the-father as bad and “thereby the subject ‚yields its desire’ and thus
saddles itself with an indelible guilt” (Žižek 1993: 74). This guilt
corresponds to the Freudian dis-ease in the culture. Žižek, hereby, also
explains Lacan’s theory, in which the subject is reduced to a forced choice and
an empty gesture.
Lacans
pronouncement states that it is possible for the subject to disengage itself
from the oppressiveness/pressure of the super-ego, as it repeats the choices
and in that way frees itself from the constitutive guilt. The price is
exorbitant. If the first choice is ‘bad’, the repetition in its formal
structure is ‘worse’, for it is an act of dissociation from the symbolic
community. (Žižek 1993: 76)
For Lacan, the subject can rarely
free himself/herself from the symbolizing and repressive real and through which
generated repetition compulsion. The subject finds always himself in a
simultaneous effort to act against it and yield to it. In contrast, the
Freudian theory maintains that subject through the process of therapy adapts to
the repressive ground and proceeds consciously to evade the compulsion and deal
with it. The quarrel scene in Arnold’s film illustrates the Lacanian variation.
The symbolized quarrel between the siblings results in an association of the
voice of the son with that of the father. The ‘come on‘ of the son, which
refers to the forced choice, appears in the moment when the discussion runs out
of control and the ego loses its integrity. Parallel to this sequence, the girl
reaches for a cup, which relays an impression to flee. This movement is
associated with the mother through a process of acceleration, who sits across
the daughter, with a bowed head, and drinks from her cup without uttering a
word. This too portrays the symptomatic contained in the scene. The forced
choice finds its expression continuously from the father through the son; while
the silence finds its manifestation from the mother through the daughter, who
does not speak. This is rooted in a continuously present traumatic symptomatic.
This repressed symbolization, which is noticed through repetition, gives rise
simultaneously through the same repetition to a resistance. Arnold shows via
his technique the hidden symptoms of the Hollywood movies, which are brought to
consciousness. The aspects, which in the original material were not completely
symbolized and in the universe of meaning not integrated, are made for the
observer comprehensible through a pulsating rhythm of the picture. This occurs
both in strengthening of its repression and intimation for the audience.
As I indicated, we encounter
repetition in Freud twofold: on one side, it compels, under the influence of
the unconscious, the subject to wrong actions, such as taking detours during a
walk. The relationship of the perception to primary function of condensation is
rhythmically organized. However, there is repetitive movement in therapy, where
the symptom can be acted against through a repetitive movement. The film
techniques rely on those structures of the psychoanalytic methodology as well
as the constitution of desire. Consequently, there emerges a justified
comparable view between film and theory.
