My understanding of psychoanalysis is really rudimentary – but, as many of you (I imagine), thoroughly enjoyed Slavoj Žižek ride through ideological critique, Lacanian psychoanalysis, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2006) and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012), directed by Sophie Fiennes. One does not have to agree with the Slovenian philosopher and analyst, or consider him a “clownish thinker”, the perfect example of all the bourgeois liberal favorite philosopher, maybe (I guess what Germans would call „Salonfähig“) – to actually appreciate the incredible symbolical and allegorical treasure trove he finds in all sorts of movies. Dear reader, we do not look lightly on cultural conservatism on this movie blog.
Daniel Tutt is a former student of Zizek, but as his own ideological and critical Marxist toolbox has been expanding (in his own words), he keeps a constant flow of interviews with invited guests, recommendation videos on Emancipations, and one can always support his efforts through either Patreon or a Paypal one time donation. One can be a total nuub with Lacanian theory – and still appreciate how productive and generative the application of the Lacanian conceptual apparatus to film and what an incredible and engaging interlocutor Helen Rollins is.
In spite of the total domination of capitalism and the entire autophagic festival movie industrial complex, one can still find surprising movies (she mentionsPIG with Nicholas Cage as one of those miracles). Watch Daniel and Helen Rollins discuss Citizen Kane, universal “lack”, the role of capitalism in directing and shaping desire and structuring subjectivity, go into why movies by Jordan Peele such asUs (2019) about the black middle class in the US or The Hunt (2020) are so remarkable, or why John Cassavetes is the quintessential anti-Hollywoodian film director or indeed why directors like Spielberg are mostly unintentionally such remarkable carriers of symbolism and US fears (such as JAWS – “US falic fear of communism”). I fully agree that ideological critique can fall flat, or making a political movie can be tied with the kind of proggy liberal politics that has such a short shelf life bc it is mostly tied in the US with the politics and myopic tactics of the Democratic party.
Really liked the point about cinema being the pervert’s experience par excellence, leading and shaping under capitalism desire something that we are familiar with from the advertising industry and Century of the Self – in presenting as a commodified utopia, that isn’t a utopia actually. Rollin’s work is also interesting since she treats cinema as a totality returning to a sort of universalist core of both cinema and subjectivity. She also argues that it is rather watching movies in the cinema than your usual theoretical readings that can generate true (unconscious) political change. Even if it were too good to be true, it is still an arresting thought.
>>I’m joined by filmmaker and theorist Helen Rollins for a discussion on her new book on psychoanalysis and cinema, “Psychocinema.” In this work Helen argues there is a fundamental relationship between the structure of psychoanalysis and that of cinema. Cinema acts upon the viewer like psychoanalysis upon the analysand and can expose them to the universal lack inherent in their desire. This process undermines the unconscious logic of capitalism, which relies on a promise in fulfillment. We also discuss Helen’s experiences in the film industry, her many film projects (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm7184276) in addition to the theoretical topics raised in Psychocinema.<< (YT channel)
Get a copy of Psychocinema: https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Psychocinema-p-9781509561155
And read some reviews on Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218450499-psychocinema
TimeSpace Warps 