psychoanalytic film theory

[ contemporary film theory ][ Category - Film ]

Influenced by fellow pseudo-intellectuals (just kidding) Freudyboi and Lacan, film theorists began to take the developments in the field human nature and apply it to film.

Voyeurism

Pleasure in looking without being seen.

More Freudian, "pleasure in subjecting the Other to our gaze."

To Mr. Wackypants Freud, the gaze stems from the child looking through a keyhole trying to see his parents naked.

In Cinema, we can fulfill our voyeuristic fantasy by creating the illusion of looking into a private world. Indulging a fantasy.

Identification

Another Freud, that we all have an innate narcissistic scopophilia i.e. we want to see something that looks like us. We want to identify.

We're looking at the film to see an identification of the things of film.

Lacan says in his mirror phase that this is a key moment to recognizing subjectivity. By viewing our own reflection, we can see our place in the world. Our idealized subjectivity is pleasurable ex. Hero, Rebel, etc.

But why do we think these things? Why do we identify with some random pixels on a screen? That's clearly not us!
The posited answer is suture.