The Couch and the Silver Screen The Couch and the Silver Screen is a collection of original contributions which explore European cinema from psychoanalytic perspectives. Both classic and contemporary films are presented and analysed by a variety of authors,including leading cinema historians and theorists, psychoanalysts with a specific expertise in the interpretation of films, as well as the filmmakers themselves.This com- posite approach offers a fascinating insight into the world of cinema. The Couch and the Silver Screen is illustrated with stills throughout and Andrea Sabbadini’s introduction provides a theoretical and historical context for the current state of psychoanalytic studies of films.The book is organized into four clear sections – Set and Stage,Working Through Trauma, Horror Perspectives and Documenting Internal Worlds – which form the basis for engaging chapters including: • Easily readable and jargon-free film reviews. • Essays on specific subjects such as perspectives on the horror film genre and adolescent development. • Transcripts of live debates among film directors, actors, critics and psycho- analysts. The cultural richness of the material presented, combined with the originality of multidisciplinary dialogues on European cinema, makes this book appealing not only to film buffs,but also to professionals,academics and students interested in the application of psychoanalytic ideas to the arts. Andrea Sabbadini is a psychoanalyst in private practice in London and a lecturer at UCL. He is founding editor of Psychoanalysis and History and book review editor of The International Journal of Psychoanalysis.He chairs the European Psychoanalytic Film Festival and a series of film events at the ICA. THE NEW LIBRARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS General Editor Dana Birksted-Breen Advisory Board Catalina Bronstein, Sara Flanders, John Keene and Mary Target The New Library of Psychoanalysis was launched in 1987 in association with the Institute of Psycho-Analysis, London. It took over from the International Psychoanalytical Library,which published many of the early translations of the works of Freud and the writings of most of the leading British and Continental psychoanalysts. The purpose of the New Library of Psychoanalysis is to facilitate a greater and more widespread appreciation of psychoanalysis and to provide a forum for increasing mutual understanding between psychoanalysts and those working in other disciplines such as history,linguistics, literature, medicine, philosophy and the social sciences. It aims to represent different trends both in British psycho- analysis and in psychoanalysis generally.The New Library of Psychoanalysis is well placed to make available to the English-speaking world psychoanalytic writings from other European countries and to increase the interchange of ideas between British and American psychoanalysts. The Institute, together with the British Psycho-Analytical Society, runs a low-fee psychoanalytic clinic,organizes lectures and scientific events concerned with psychoanalysis and publishes The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. It also runs the only UK training course in psychoanalysis which leads to membership of the International Psychoanalytical Association – the body which preserves internationally agreed standards of training, of professional entry, and of professional ethics and practice for psychoanalysis as initiated and developed by Sigmund Freud. Distinguished members of the Institute have included Michael Balint, Wilfred Bion, Ronald Fairbairn, Anna Freud, Ernest Jones, Melanie Klein, John Rickman and Donald Winnicott. Previous General Editors include David Tuckett,Elizabeth Spillius and Susan Budd. Previous Associate Editors include Ronald Britton, Christopher Bollas, Juliet Mitchell, Eglé Laufer, Donald Campbell, Michael Parsons, Rosine Jozef Perelberg, David Taylor and Stephen Grosz. ALSO IN THIS SERIES 1 Impasse and Interpretation Herbert Rosenfeld 2 Psychoanalysis and Discourse Patrick Mahony 3 The Suppressed Madness of Sane Men Marion Milner 4 The Riddle of Freud Estelle Roith 5 Thinking, Feeling, and Being Ignacio Matte-Blanco 6 The Theatre of the Dream Salomon Resnik 7 Melanie Klein Today:Volume 1,Mainly Theory Edited by Elizabeth Bott Spillius 8 Melanie Klein Today:Volume 2,Mainly Practice Edited by Elizabeth Bott Spillius 9 Psychic Equilibrium and Psychic Change: Selected Papers of Betty Joseph Edited by Michael Feldman and Elizabeth Bott Spillius 10 About Children and Children-No-Longer: Collected Papers 1942–80 Paula Heimann. Edited by Margret Tonnesmann 11 The Freud–Klein Controversies 1941–45 Edited by Pearl King and Riccardo Steiner 12 Dream, Phantasy and Art Hanna Segal 13 Psychic Experience and Problems of Technique Harold Stewart 14 Clinical Lectures on Klein & Bion Edited by Robin Anderson 15 From Fetus to Child Alessandra Piontelli 16 A Psychoanalytic Theory of Infantile Experience:Conceptual and Clinical Reflections E. Gaddini. Edited by Adam Limentani 17 The Dream Discourse Today Edited and introduced by Sara Flanders 18 The Gender Conundrum: Contemporary Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Femininity and Masculinity Edited and introduced by Dana Breen 19 Psychic Retreats John Steiner 20 The Taming of Solitude: Separation Anxiety in Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel Quinodoz 21 Unconscious Logic: An Introduction to Matte-Blanco’s Bi-logic and its Uses Eric Rayner 22 Understanding Mental Objects Meir Perlow 23 Life,Sex and Death:Selected Writings of William Gillespie Edited and introduced by Michael Sinason 24 What Do Psychoanalysts Want? The Problem of Aims in Psychoanalytic Therapy Joseph Sandler and Anna Ursula Dreher 25 Michael Balint: Object Relations, Pure and Applied Harold Stewart 26 Hope:A Shield in the Economy of Borderline States Anna Potamianou 27 Psychoanalysis, Literature & War: Papers 1972–1995 Hanna Segal 28 Emotional Vertigo: Between Anxiety and Pleasure Danielle Quinodoz 29 Early Freud and Late Freud Ilse Grubrich-Simitis 30 A History of Child Psychoanalysis Claudine and Pierre Geissmann 31 Belief and Imagination: Explorations in Psychoanalysis Ronald Britton 32 A Mind of One’s Own:A Kleinian View of Self and Object Robert A. Caper 33 Psychoanalytic Understanding of Violence and Suicide Edited by Rosine Jozef Perelberg 34 On Bearing Unbearable States of Mind Ruth Riesenberg-Malcolm 35 Psychoanalysis on the Move:The Work of Joseph Sandler Edited by Peter Fonagy, Arnold M. Cooper and Robert S.Wallerstein 36 The Dead Mother:The Work of André Green Edited by Gregorio Kohon 37 The Fabric of Affect in the Psychoanalytic Discourse André Green 38 The Bi-Personal Field: Experiences of Child Analysis Antonino Ferro 39 The Dove that Returns, the Dove that Vanishes: Paradox and Creativity in Psychoanalysis Michael Parsons 40 Ordinary People, Extra-ordinary Protections. A Post Kleinian Approach to the Treatment of Primitive Mental States Judith Mitrani 41 The Violence of Interpretation: From Pictogram to Statement Piera Aulagnier. Translated by Alan Sheridan 42 The Importance of Fathers: A Psychoanalytic Re-Evaluation Judith Trowell and Alicia Etchegoyen 43 Dreams that Turn Over a Page:Paradoxical Dreams in Psychoanalysis Jean-Michel Quinodoz 44 The Couch and the Silver Screen: Psychoanalytic Reflections on European Cinema Edited and introduced by Andrea Sabbadini THE NEW LIBRARY OF PSYCHOANALYSIS 44 General Editor: Dana Birksted-Breen The Couch and the Silver Screen Psychoanalytic Reflections on European Cinema Edited by Andrea Sabbadini First published 2003 by Brunner-Routledge 27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Brunner-Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. Brunner-Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group © 2003 selection and editorial matter, Andrea Sabbadini; individual chapters, the contributors All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. This publication has been produced with paper manufactured to strict environmental standards and with pulp derived from sustainable forests. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data The couch and the silver screen : psychoanalytic reflections on European cinema / edited by Andrea Sabbadini.–1st ed. p. cm. – (The new library of psychoanalysis) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Motion pictures–Europe–Psychological aspects. 2. Psychoanaylsis and motion pictures. I. Sabbadini, Andrea. II. Series. PN1993.5.E8C68 2003 791.43′75′019–dc21 2003004236 ISBN 0-203-35720-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-38745-7 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 1–58391–951–1 (hbk) ISBN 1–58391–952–X (pbk) Contents Contributors x Foreword xv LAURA MULVEY Acknowledgements xix Introduction 1 ANDREA SABBADINI Set and stage 17 1 The inner and outer worlds of the filmmaker’s temporary social structure 19 BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI, FIONA SHAW AND CHRIS MAWSON 2 One in the Eye from Sam: Samuel Beckett’s Film (1964) and his contribution to our vision in theatre, cinema and psychoanalysis 35 IAN CHRISTIE, JULIET STEVENSON AND HELEN TAYLOR ROBINSON Working through trauma 53 3 Sons and fathers: a room of their own – Nanni Moretti’s