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Suspense and Film: a Lacanian View”

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Suspense and Film: a Lacanian View” DIPLOMARBEIT Titel der Diplomarbeit “SUSPENSE AND FILM: A LACANIAN VIEW” Verfasserin Katarína Kubová angestrebter akademischer Grad Magistra der Philosophie (Mag.phil.) Wien, 2011 Studienkennzahl lt. Studienblatt: A 190 344 353 Studienrichtung lt. Studienblatt: UF Englisch Betreuerin: Univ.- Prof. Dr. Eva Müller-Zettelmann DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY I confirm to have conceived and written this paper in English all by myself. Quotations from other authors and any ideas borrowed and/or passages paraphrased from the words of other authors are all clearly marked within the text and acknowledged in the bibliographical references. Vienna, in April 2011 ____________________________________ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to my family for their support, especially my mother. Thanks to my boyfriend Joe, without You, this paper will never see the light of the day. Thanks to my supervisor, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Eva-Müller Zettelmann for guidance. Dedicated to Babaj CONTENTS 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 2. Lacanian psychoanalysis .......................................................................................... 4 2.1. Imaginary Symbolic and Real ........................................................................... 5 2.1.1. Mirror stage ................................................................................................ 9 2.1.2. The “fort-da” game ................................................................................... 12 2.2. Linguistic Interpretation of psychoanalysis and structuralism ........................ 13 2.2.1. Signifier and signified .............................................................................. 14 2.2.2. Language and the unconscious ................................................................. 17 2.2.3. Splitting and Alienation of the subject ..................................................... 19 2.3. Need, demand and desire in Lacan’s theory .................................................... 22 3. Lacanian psychoanalysis and Film ......................................................................... 28 3.1. Imaginary and Symbolic or Suture in Film ..................................................... 30 3.1.1. Lacanian mirror stage and the film screen................................................ 31 3.1.2. Presence made of absence or “fort-da” game in film ............................... 32 3.2. Linguistics and film ......................................................................................... 32 3.2.1. Film as Language ..................................................................................... 33 3.2.2. Unconsciousness and film ........................................................................ 35 3.2.3. Perception of the images........................................................................... 36 3.3. Spectatorship, the gaze and desire ................................................................... 37 3.4. Cinema of desire and cinema of fantasy .......................................................... 39 3.4.1. The cinema of integration ......................................................................... 41 3.4.2. The cinema of intersection ....................................................................... 42 4. Suspense ................................................................................................................. 44 4.1. Philobat and Ocnophil ..................................................................................... 46 4.2. Suspense thriller ............................................................................................... 48 4.2.1. Psychotraumatic thriller ............................................................................ 49 4.2.2. The thriller of moral confrontation ........................................................... 50 5. Psycho: a psychotraumatic thriller? ........................................................................ 53 5.1. The importance of a spectator in relation to Psycho ........................................ 55 5.2. Notion of desire in Psycho .............................................................................. 58 5.3. The notion of gaze in Psycho ........................................................................... 59 5.4. The symbol of a mirror .................................................................................... 60 5.5. Lacanian tripartite system in Psycho ............................................................... 62 5.6. Form and structure of Psycho .......................................................................... 63 5.7. Analysis of the major scenes in “Psycho”: ...................................................... 64 5.7.1. Sam and Marion in the hotel .................................................................... 64 5.7.2. Marion steals the money ........................................................................... 65 5.7.3. Marion meets Norman .............................................................................. 67 5.7.4. The parlor and the shower scene .............................................................. 67 5.7.5. The shower scene...................................................................................... 69 5.7.6. Norman’s clean up of the bathroom ......................................................... 73 5.7.7. Lila and Sam search for Marion ............................................................... 74 5.8. Technical devices used in Psycho to create suspenseful atmosphere .............. 76 5.8.1. Camera ...................................................................................................... 76 5.8.2. Editing ...................................................................................................... 77 5.8.3. Music and sound ....................................................................................... 78 5.9. Viewing Psycho for the second time ............................................................... 78 6. My thesis ................................................................................................................ 80 7. Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 85 8. Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 86 DEFINITIONS OF TERMS Audience- the group of people gathered in one place to watch or listen to a play, film or someone speaking (CALD 1) Diegesis- realistic or logically existing, refers to the narrative elements of the film (spoken dialogues, other sounds, actions) Diegetic Effect- experience of the fictional world as the real world, illusion of being present in the fictional world (Tan 54) Gaze/look- refers to the exchange of looks that takes place in cinema. First used in the 1970s when French and later British and American film theorists started to define spectator-screen relationship. Considering especially Freud’s theories and Lacan theory of the mirror stage.(Hayward 149) Imaginary/Symbolic- key psychoanalytical concepts devised by Jacques Lacan to refer to the child’s unconscious and conscious drives in the development of its subjectivity (Hayward 185) Identity/Identification- a powerful feeling of affinity with another person or group, which sometimes involves regarding somebody as a model and adopting his or her beliefs, values or other characteristics Ocnophil- person who does not like situations with suspense and tension (Derry 23) Philobat- one who participates in dangerous activities, likes suspense and tension (Derry 23) Psychoanalysis- in literary theory psychoanalysis was present in the 1930s and 1940s but psychoanalysis did not enter the analysis of film until the early 1970s. The 1960s saw a widening of debates about psychoanalysis thanks to Jacques Lacan. (Hayward 273) Scopophilia- the desire to see in connection with Lacan’s mirror phase where the child is aware of his difference with the mother (Hayward 305) Shot- camera distance with respect to the object (extreme close-up, medium close-up, medium shot, medium long shot, long shot, extreme long shot) (Hayward 317) Suspense Film (Thriller)- a motion picture whose plot creates a high level of anxiety and tension through concern for the fate of the principal character or characters. Alfred Hitchcock is often referred to as the master of suspense thriller. (Beaver 333) 1 Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 1. INTRODUCTION Film is a very common form of leisure. While watching a film, people forget their problems. However, the film would not be that attractive without the notion of suspense. In this paper an innovative approach to film will be presented. This will be done by setting film and suspense in relation with psychoanalysis. This paper consists of four main parts. Namely, one part dedicated to Lacanian psychoanalytical theory, another part dedicated to film in relation to the Lacanian psychoanalytical theory, a third part dedicated to suspense in film and the final part dedicated to an analysis of Psycho together with the part where the author’s thesis is introduced and analyzed. In the first part, the Lacanian psychoanalytical theory is introduced. There are more sections dedicated to the theory of Jacques Lacan. The first section in this part explains in further details the tripartite system of the Imaginary, the Symbolic and the Real.
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