Introduction To Film And Psychoanalysis

Friday evening course 13 March-24 April 2020 19:00-21:00

Lecturer: Mary Wild

Film and Psychoanalysis emerged in the same year, when the Lumière brothers patented the cinematograph in France in 1895, just as the Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud published the very first psychoanalytic book Studies on Hysteria with his colleague Josef Breuer. For 125 years these two disciplines have grown alongside each other; influencing and challenging one another. This 6-week course provides an introduction to film and psychoanalysis, featuring popular theoretical concepts such as the Uncanny, Oedipus Complex, the Primal Scene and Neurosis represented in the cinematic arts. A special focus will be placed on the film medium’s unique capacity to communicate unconscious motives often considered taboo by society. Ultimately, it will be argued that psychoanalysis applied to moving image empowers spectators to express subjective associations they consider to be meaningful. Advanced viewing is optional; brief bespoke video montages will be screened.

13 March, Week 1: Dreams 

Suggested Viewing: Surviving Life (2010) Jan Švankmajer, Dancer in the Dark (2000) Lars von Trier

20 March, Week 2: The Uncanny

Suggested Viewing: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Luis Buñuel, The Secret Beyond the Door (1947) Fritz Lang

27 March, Week 3: Oedipus Complex

Suggested Viewing: Braindead (1992) Peter Jackson, Luna (1979) Bernardo Bertolucci

3 April, Week 4: Primal Scene

Suggested Viewing: Bad Timing (1980) Nicolas Roeg, Eyes Wide Shut (1999) Stanley Kubrick

No class on the 10th April - skipping a week for the bank holiday

17 April, Week 5: Neurosis

Suggested viewing: Into The Wild (2007) Sean Penn, Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) Mike Newell

24 April, Week 6: Civilization

Suggested Viewing: The Dark Knight (2008) Christopher Nolan, Zelig (1983) Woody Allen

Tickets are £80 for the full six-week course (£75 concession / £70 Picturehouse Members).