Rebecca Louise
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Essays
Maya Deren | Whips, chains & videotape
In Maya Deren’s theories and in her films, she developed ways to experiment with time and space. In particular her theory of poetic editing, gave her a way to explore themes in her films, without the constraints of the linear narrative. This essay will explore the ways in which Deren conveyed a sense of magic in her films and how her interest in poetry gave her the tools to do this.
In Deren’s film theory and in her film practice, we can find evidence of her desire to conjure a heightened awareness in the spectator. Deren likened the role of the artist to the role of the shaman. She felt that it was the artist’s responsibility to shed light on the society in which they live. In “Anagram” she writes: “The artist is a magician who, by his perception of the powers and laws of the non-apparent, exercises them upon the apparent. . . The master-magician commands: he makes manifest the other dimensions to those who have no power to make them manifest.” (Deren, 1988: 142 –43) In “Meshes of the Afternoon” (1943), Deren exposes the “powers and laws of the non-apparent.” This can be witnessed in Deren’s dream sequence in which the objects we see from her waking life, take on a significance. Objects such as: the telephone, the key, the bread knife, all come to life. These objects disappear and reappear in different spots of her home. In this film, Deren designates power to domestic objects, giving them a magical quality.
Given Deren’s passion for Haitian Voodooism, it can be assumed that Deren’s perception of the world was heavily influenced by it’s philosophies. Deren felt that film was a valuable tool for manipulating reality. Deren writes: “I had always been impatient with what I felt was a criminal neglect (in the cinema) of (it’s) potent magic power.” (Deren,1988:308) Deren complicates ideas of identity, time and space in her films. In this way, the viewer is brought into a world that is not bound by the rules of “the real world”. Deren’s films represent the interior world, a world where the generally accepted rules of geography are broken. In this world, exists the imagination’s geography, where anything is possible.
In Deren’s films, there is not a clear separation between the interior and the exterior world of the characters. Instead, the character’s interior world, is the world we see. She writes in her article “Anagram”:“. . .the distinction of art is that it is neither simply an expression, of pain, for example, nor an impression of pain but is itself a form which creates pain (or whatever it’s emotional intent).” (Deren,1999:17) Through her films, Deren creates a filmic world that does not merely represent a response to the world, but rather, is the response itself. Rather than describing or explaining an experience, the film is the experience. Deren describes her films, saying: “They are certainly not documentaries. Or rather, they are documentaries of the interior, in a sense.” (Deren,1988:306) In Deren’s films, a person’s environment, and their perception, are one. “Meshes of the Afternoon” blurs the line between the interior and exterior world of it’s main character, played by Deren. The film opens with Deren arriving home. As she approaches her front door, she notices a shadow of someone walking around the corner of her street. Trying to get the key in the door, she drops it. Once she opens the door, she looks through the kitchen, notices a knife standing in a loaf of bread, the telephone off the hook. She goes into her living room, sits at the window, looking out onto the street corner where the mysterious person disappeared, and falls asleep. From that point onwards, we enter her perception. This moment is heralded by a switch in our point of view. At first we are seeing Deren’s eyes close, and then we are drawn into her dream. From her point of view we look out the window, and our view along with hers fades to black. We have now entered her dream. Our view then cuts to the window. We see a black hooded figure with a face made of mirror, walking down the path outside. The black hooded figure becomes a central character in this dream sequence, entering Deren’s home, the whole time Deren trying to catch up with him and failing. The domestic objects also, become a significant theme in this dream, as they take on a life like quality.
Deren sits at the kitchen table with two other versions of herself. The three of them watch the sleeping Deren. At one point one of the Derens goes to stab the sleeping Deren. At this moment, we watch the sleeping Deren, as the knife goes down towards her. In this movement, our point of view then becomes the sleeping Deren’s. From her perspective, we see, surprisingly, not the knife coming towards us, but her lover (Alexander Hammid), waking her. At this point, it appears that all is back to normal. Deren wakes and follows Hammid upstairs. The objects are back in there usual place: the knife in the bread, the phone back on it’s hook. She lays down on the bed next to Hammid. We see a knife on her pillow. She then goes to stab Hammid’s face, which smashes into pieces of mirror. We then see Hammid arrive home. He opens the door, to find Deren dead on the armchair, where she fell asleep. He sees evidence of the dream, fragments of mirror, surrounding her. In “Meshes of the Afternoon”, the reality Deren experiences in her dream, is the reality of the film. In this film’s reality, waking life and dream life become one. We can not comfort ourselves with the idea that it is only a dream. This film challenges the categories of the interior and exterior world, as for Deren’s character, these two worlds merge.
Despite the dream like quality of her films, Deren does not identify with the Surrealists. P. Adams Sitney, links Deren with the surrealists, referring to “Meshes of the Afternoon” (Sitney,1979:3) In Deren’s “Anagram” however, she explains that the random outpourings of such artists as Bunual and Dali, inhibit the artist from accomplishing, what in Deren’s view, is the ideal result. Deren explains that through their journey into the unconscious the surrealists attempt “to achieve, and end by only stimulating, (what) can be accomplished in full reality by the atom bomb.” (Deren,1999:10) For Deren, in order to create a valuable product, the artist must use their conscious control. A work of art must acknowledge the conditions of the contemporary society that he/she lives in, and must endeavour to illuminate these conditions. The route to this illumination: “involves a conscious manipulation of it’s material from an intensely motivated point of view.” (Deren,1999:33) The creative process must be a deliberate one.
Rejection
of the conscious, to Deren, is the rejection of an ethical code. According to
Deren, this rejection reduces us to amoral beings, stripped of what primarily
makes us human. In Anagram, Deren explains the beginning of human consciousness.
She describes a shift in Western thought from god fearing (the belief that events
in the world are controlled by the will of a supreme being) to a belief that
these events can be explained through scientific logic. (Deren,1999:8) With
this development came the choice for humankind: to either accept the moral responsibilities
previously assigned by divinity or to enjoy the irresponsibility of being part
of a nature that is devoid of moral obligation. (Deren,1999:9) Aesthetics for
Deren, are inseparable from ethics, they are our values materialised. She writes:
“For the serious artist the esthetic problem of form is, essentially and
simultaneously, a moral problem.” (Deren,1999:37) Deren felt that it was
the artists responsibility to enlighten. She felt that ethics and aesthetics
should be considered the same, for the artist. What the artist chose to create
should reflect their ethical duty to the community.
For the artist’s work to be culturally relevant, the artist must acknowledge
the current advancements in technology and in thought. She explains in “Anagram”,
how in an age of the invention of the radio, airplane and Einstein’s discovery
of relativity, our conception of time and space have been altered. As Deren
writes: “And so, ready or not, willing or not, we must come to comprehend,
with full responsibility, the world which we have now created.”(Deren,1999:52)
It is the artists responsibility to respond to this advance in thought. We can
see how Deren challenges the idea of linear time, in “Meshes of the Afternoon”.
Deren looks out the window to discover that the hooded figure is walking past
her house. We see her running after it. She is unable to catch it. We see her
chasing it, in real time, but the black hooded figure walks away from her, in
slow motion. We watch him disappear around the corner and see her stop chasing,
in frustration. In this way, they are co existing in different times. We see
them covering the same ground. Although they inhibit the same space, they travel
at different speeds. In this sequence, Deren is portraying a relativistic universe.
Deren stresses the importance of adding something new to the world, rather than reproducing the familiar. According to Deren, if film is the chosen art form, the filmmaker must utilise what is unique to this form. For Deren, a significant aspect that separates film from other art forms, is it’s ability to manipulate space, time and movement. Therefore, the filmmaker must not imitate the reality of life (found in theatre and the novel for instance) but rather should transform this reality by utilising films tools of manipulation. In this way, the artist can add something new to the world, a new kind of reality that can exist in the film. (Deren,1999:46) In “The Very Eye of Night”(1955) , Deren creates a new world. This film shows dancers in negative dancing in outer space. We see their white bodies moving across a black, star filled landscape. The bodies of the dancers are being spun upside down, they float across the frame. They do not live by the universal laws of time and space as we know them.
For Deren, film can be utilized to represent a subjective reality. Through it’s ability to edit time, it can liberate it’s characters from the boundaries of linear time. She writes on her discovery of film: “Here was a medium which, instead of being bound by the astronomy of clocks and calendars, could make manifest the astronomy of the heart and mind – that which knows an evening is endless, or the walk back always being shorter than the first walk there. Here was a medium which could project in real terms those inner realities by which people truly live.” (Deren, Legend: 308) In “Ritual in Transfigured Time”(1946), Deren illustrates a relativistic concept of time. This film alternates between footage of a party and footage of two dancers, dancing in a park. Through use of slow motion and repetition of sequences, Deren exaggerates the gestures of the party guests, so that their movements look like a dance sequence. Gestures such as kissing someone hello, walking across a room to greet someone, moving away from someone else, become so stylised, that they resemble the dancer’s movements in the park. In this way, Deren conveys the overall feeling of a party. Deren, writes of film’s ability to portray a relativistic universe saying: “In what other medium except film can we achieve such a startling illustration of the relationship of point of view to a given situation?” (Clarke,1988:465)
Just as the notions of trance, possession and magical ritual (central in Voodoo religion) fall outside the realm of Western logical scientific reasoning, so too do complex concepts of an emotional nature, fail to be fully conveyed within the constraints of the Hollywood narrative. Deren explains, how, although in Hollywood, the horror and psychological genres play with film’s ability to represent imaginative forces, inevitably by the end of the film, we see that the imaginative individual must be punished or reformed. She writes: “Thus, the imaginative experience, which is, for the artist, a desired normality, is for the motion picture industry a dangerous, psychic illegality.”(Deren, :315) In the classical narrative, wherein the restraints of causality are tightly drawn by linearity and a conservative moral code, there was no room for the kind of film Deren was interested in making. For Deren to properly induce a heightened state of awareness, in the viewer, she needed to discover another route. It was through applying the methods of poetry to film, that Deren found a way to express the inner world.
Deren likens film to the art of poetry, as time is of central importance in both of these art forms. She says of film: “it is not the way anything is at a given moment that is important in film, it is what it is doing, how it is becoming; in other words, it is composition over time, rather than within space, which is important. In this sense. . . structurally it is much more comparable to the time – forms, including poetry.” (Deren,1963:68.) Renata Jackson, in her article: “The Modernist Poetics of Maya Deren”, points out that, although Deren claims that film should be utilised for it’s specific formal traits, Deren implies that film can be best utilised as an art form, by using the methods of poetry. Jackson links Deren’s film theory with the theories of the imagist school poets. She explains how Deren, (who wrote a thesis titled: “The Influence of the French Symbolist School on Anglo-American Poetry”) was heavily influenced by their belief: “in the poet’s ability to synthesize emotional content with form.” (Jackson,1999:60) Pound, who was influential in his concept of “imagism” regarded the reproduction of an image as: “that which presents an intellectual and emotional complex in an instant of time.” (Pound,1999:60) Jackson suggests that it is this concept of Pounds, that informs Deren’s own ideas, comparing it to Deren’s statement: “A work of art is an emotional and intellectual complex whose logic is it’s whole form.” (Deren,1999:25) For Deren, a work of art should directly convey a concept.
As in the art of poetry, the rhythm of Deren’s films is dictated by the emotion expressed. In “Meshes of the Afternoon” the rhythm of the editing changes according to the emotional state of Deren. In the opening of the film, in Deren’s waking state, the transition between shots is fluid and not as visible, as in the dream sequence, wherein the shots are shorter in duration and the cuts are more inconsistent and jarring in their rhythm. In this way the emotion and the form of the film are one.
Deren’s
metaphors of “horizontal” and “vertical’ film form,
can give us insight into her link between poetry and film. Deren writes of this
relationship: “the poetic construct arises from the fact, if you will,
that it is a “vertical” investigation of a situation, in that it
probes the ramifications of the moment, and is concerned, in a sense, not with
what is occurring but with what it feels like or what it means. A poem, to my
mind, creates visible or auditory forms for something that is invisible, which
is the feeling, or the emotion, or the metaphysical content of the movement.”
She calls this method, the “vertical” attack, and contrasts it to
the “horizontal” attack of drama. She describes the horizontal attack
as being: “concerned with the development, lets say, within a very small
situation from feeling to feeling.” (Deren: 1950, 173)
Annette Michelson, in her article: Film and the Radical Aspiration” compares
Deren’s “vertical” and “horizontal” structures
with linguist Roman Jacobson’s theory on language, wherein he discusses
the contrasts between the ‘paradigmatic’ and ‘syntagmatic’
axes of language. (Michelson,1974:632) The paradigmatic concerns a more symbolic
use of language, and allows for word substitutions according to qualitative
similarities. Syntagmatic on the other hand, relies on rules of grammar, stringing
words together in a linear fashion to create sentences. Jakobson compares the
paradigmatic to the poem, and the syntagmatic with prose. (Jakobson,1990:115)
We can see in “Ritual in Transfigured Time” how Deren captures the
feeling of a party by using the “vertical” attack of inquiry. Through
the stylisation of the guest’s movements, she conveys the feeling of social
anxiety. As people move in slow motion across the room to get to each other,
the desperation felt in this situation is expressed. By drawing this movement
out, the feeling of this movement, which if shown in real time would not be
as apparent - is appropriately captured.
We can gain a deeper understanding of the magical quality of Deren’s films, by comparing them to the primitive magic films. In her article: “The Eye for Magic” Lucy Fischer, points out that in all the attempts to link Deren’s films to different film movements, her link to the primitive cinema has been largely overlooked. She claims that Deren’s work bears comparison to the “trick- film” genre, pioneered by Georges Melies. She compares Deren’s films with that of Melies, explaining that for Melies, the representation of magic is a “trick”, but for Deren, it is a pathway to enlightenment. (Fischer,1999:187) Fischer writes: “(F)or Deren, Melies’s beloved camera “tricks” are not mere technological stunts but sacred devices for linking the “real” to the “unreal.”” (Fischer,1999:187) Fischer explains how for Melies the film trick is emphasised and treated as sensational. For Deren however, her transitions are fluid. She writes: “her figures fluidly transmute into other beings (in a manner opposed to Melies’s shocking substitution cuts) what is communicated is a sense of characters existing without boundary or individuality- a stance consonant with a mythic worldview.” (Fischer,1999:196) In “Meshes of the Afternoon” we can see Deren’s fluid transition between the world as we know it, and the world of the imagination. Throughout this film, objects turn into other objects. They transform in such a way that it is as though no element of this “trick” is hidden from us. It is as though it is taking place right before our eyes. In one scene, Deren is sitting around the kitchen table with two other Derens. She opens hand out to them, revealing a knife. She closes her hand and opens it again, this time, revealing a key. Again she goes through this motion, this time revealing a black hand with a knife. This repetition of movement, along with the fluidity of editing, does not make the trick sensational, but rather lures the spectator into a world where the everyday and the nightmare are one. Deren makes the magic in her films appear real. In this way, Deren blurs the line between the “real” and the “unreal” world.
Deren
applies the ideas of ritual to film. One of the ways in which she does this
is through blending the persona of her characters. Deren writes: “(T)he
ritualistic form treats the human being not as the source of the dramatic action,
but as a somewhat depersonalised element of a dramatic whole. The intent of
such a depersonalisation is not the destruction of the individual; on the contrary,
it enlarges him beyond the personal dimension and frees him from the specializations
and confines of personality.” (Deren,1999:20) In “Ritual in Transfigured
Time”, identity is complicated. One of the dancers, a young man, is running
past a building with pillars. As he passes each pillar of the building, he is
hidden, and then re-emerges once he has passed it. A pattern is created, as
he runs, of him appearing then disappearing. As he is concealed by the final
pillar, Deren repeats this same sequence. Again, we see him running the same
distance, so that it appears that he is being chased by a double of himself.
Through editing, Deren has multiplied characters and has given the impression
that these multiple selves have a relationship to each other.
We also see this multiplication of selves in “At Land”. We see Deren
desperately collecting rocks from the beach. Another Deren stands up high on
the rocks, watching yet another Deren playing chess with two women. The Deren
playing chess, notices the Deren on the rocks watching her. We see her worried
expression. The film then cuts to a shot of the other Deren (we are led to believe,
the one who was watching the chess game from the rocks) running away with a
chess piece. This sequence implies that all these Deren’s are existing
in the same space and the same time. Although we do not see them in the same
shot together, Deren, through editing, (shot reverse shot, facial expression
showing responses) gives the impression that they are interacting with each
other. In this way, Deren complicates ideas about time and space. Fischer describes
Deren’s universe of unexpected relations as “creative geography”
(Fischer, 1999:194) In “At Land”(1944) we see this use of creative
geography. The settings of this film, the cocktail party, the forest and the
beach, merge, challenging the distinction between them. In the beginning of
the film, Deren appears to roll onto land with the ocean’s tide. She then
enters a cocktail party. The film alternates between shots of her crawling through
a forest, and shots of her crawling across the dinner table. It is as though
she is continuing the same movement, on the same journey, and is simultaneously
crawling through both the spaces. She eventually reaches a chess board at the
end of the table. One of the chess pieces falls off the board. The film then
cuts to this same chess piece in a different setting, following the same falling
motion. Surprisingly, the chess piece falls into a rock pool at the beach. This
challenges our separation between inside and outside and also our distinction
between culture and nature.
The
space in “At Land” is represented as being unstable, and defies
laws of gravity. Deren describes “At Land” as being: “concerned
with the continuity and location of the individual identity in an animated,
relativistic universe.” (Legend: 460)
Through creative use of camera, Deren makes the rocks in the beach appear to
be unstable. Leaning against the rocks, Deren grabs onto them, as the foundation
on which she relies, seems to be moving. The camera spins in a certain way,
as to give the impression that the rocks are throwing her around. She throws
herself backwards and forwards, grabbing onto the rocks, giving the impression
that she is falling from one rock to the other. This same camera method is used
in “Meshes of the Afternoon.” Deren is attempting to walk up the
stairs to follow the black hooded figure lurking in her bedroom. In slow motion,
she tries to walk, but cannot, as the walls of the stairway that she grabs onto
seem to be swaying from side to side. The camera’s angle alternates from
side to side, making both Deren and the walls appear as though they have no
foundation. In both of these sequences, Deren’s hair is being blown, so
that it appears that a powerful force is at work in the space. In these films,
she has no control over her environment and instead it controls her.
“Meditation on Violence” (1948) also challenges generally accepted
ideas of geography. This film shows us a young Oriental man performing shadow
boxing. In the beginning of the film, we watch him shadowboxing in a white room.
He is topless, moving toward and away from the camera. African drumming fills
the soundtrack. We are lured into the trance that is created through the repetition
of the music and his movement. As he jumps up, Deren cuts to a shot of him completing
this jump in another setting – outside. He lands in this new setting,
changed. He is now dressed in a battle costume, and uses a sword. The music
continues throughout, but becomes faster and more intensified upon his landing.
He then brings us back to the original space, through a spinning motion that
begins outside and continues, bringing us inside, where he continues to shadow
box, as his original self again, topless and without the sword.
Fischer suggests that, considering Deren’s interest in Voudoun, a way to think of her cinematic cut, is likening it to a formal “crossroads”, a symbol central to Haitian religious literature. She writes: “In Voudoun, the crossroad represents an intersection of two worlds – precisely the same power Deren harnessed through the filmic cut.” (Fischer,1999:200) Deren used the cut as a vehicle for transformation. She writes of the cinematic cut: “(S)uppose that the fact that a camera can stop, wait indefinitely, and then start again, was used, not as a substitute for the intermissions during which the stage scenery is shifted, but as a technique for a metamorphosis. . . in spatial dimension?” (Deren, 1999:50) For Deren, film was a tool for enlightenment. As a film maker, she aimed to introduce a world where the only boundaries that existed, were the boundaries of the mind.
Maya Deren used film as a means to take the audience into an alternative reality – a place of magic, where the laws of gravity and time are challenged. Her poetic influence and also her magical belief system gave her a language separate from the confinements of the Hollywood narrative.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
At Land. Dir. Maya Deren. 1944.
Brakhage, Stan. Film at Wits End – Essays on American Independent Filmmakers. Edinburgh: Polygon, 1989.
Clarke, A. V`e V`e, Millicent Hodson & Catrina Neiman. Ed. The Legend of Maya Deren – A Documentary Biography and Collected works : Chambers (1942 – 47). Volume 1 Part 2. N.Y: Film Culture, 1988.
Deleuze,
Gilles. Cinema 1: The Movement Image. MN: U of Minnesota P, 1986.
Deleuze, Gilles. Cinema 2: The Time Image. MN: U of Minnesota P, 1990.
Deren, Maya. “An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film.” 267 –325.
Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde. Ed. Bill Nichols. Berkley: U. of Cal.
P., 1999.
Deren, Maya. “New directions in film art” Film Culture 29 (Summer 1963) (64 –68.)
Meshes of the Afternoon. Maya Deren. 1943.
Meditation on Violence. Maya Deren. 1948.
Deren: “Poetry and the film: A Symposium”, Film Culture Reader: 173 –74. 1950.
Fischer, Lucy. “The Eye For Magic – Maya and Melies” 185 –206. Maya Deren and the American Avant-Garde. Ed. Bill Nichols. Berkley: U. of Cal. P, 1999.
Jackson, Renata. “The Modernist Poetics of Maya Deren” 47 – 76. Maya Deren and the American Avant Garde. Ed. Bill Nichols. Berkley: U. of Cal. P, 1999.
Jacobson, Roman. On Language. Ed. Monique Monville-Burston & Linda R. Waugh. Cambridge: Harvard U. P., 1990.
Michelson, Annette. “Film and the Radical Aspiration.” Film Theory and Criticism. Ed. Marshall Cohen & Gerald Mast. N.Y: Oxford U. Press, 1974.
Ritual in Transfigured Time. Maya Deren. 1946.
Sitney, P. Adams. Visionary Film: The American Avant-Garde: 1943 –1978. N.Y: Oxford U. Press, 1979.
Very Eye of the Night. Dir. Maya Deren . 1955.
Winnicott, D.W. Playing and Reality. Lon: Tavistock Pub., 1971.
Whips, Chains and Video Tape – gender and power in film noir.
This essay will discuss the power play between men and women in film noir. Because the power play between the male and female is commonly a central theme in the film noir, it is a valuable cycle of films to explore in terms of issues of gender and spectatorship. Through the narrative and mis en scene, an ever shifting power play can be observed between the male and female characters. The representation of male – female relationships in this cycle of films challenges the notion that the woman is only perceived as a submissive object in cinema. These representations also challenge the idea that spectatorship is a male driven process.
In Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” she claims that women are forced to identify with the male spectator, when viewing a film. This is due to the male gaze that is created by the camera, male characters controlling the narrative, and the sexual representation produced for a male audience. Mulvey explains: “The man controls the film fantasy and also emerges as the representative of power in a further sense: as the bearer of the look of the spectator, transferring it behind the screen to neutralize the extra-diegetic tendencies represented by woman as spectacle.” (Mulvey, 1987:11) She uses the psychoanalytic concept of the oedipal complex, to explain how the female character in the Hollywood film is objectified. In the oedipal complex, the male goes through a process of separating from his Mother. During this process, he will experience Disavowal. Disavowal is the denial that the male experiences, when he discovers that the female does not have a penis. According to Freud, he will experience one of two possible reactions. One of them being: horror, and as a consequence, feeling contempt for females or devaluing them, the other - Fetishism. Fetishism is when the male clings onto the last moment that he was able to believe in the female phallus. In his fetish, she has a phallus. The realisation that his Mother does not, results in him defining their difference, as him endowing something that she lacks. In this way she is castrated. As a result, in his mind, the feminine becomes submissive and passive and the masculine – active and powerful. Mulvey describes this: “Woman then stands in patriarchal as signifier of the male other, bound by a symbolic order in which man can live out his fantasies and obsessions through linguistic command by imposing them on the silent image of woman still tied to her place as bearer of meaning, not maker of meaning.” (Mulvey, 1987 :6) She uses this oedipal complex to explain how the female in cinema is a submissive object, viewed through the controlling male gaze.
Galyn Studler, in “Masochism and Visual Pleasure: The link to Pre – Oedipal Development” challenges the idea that spectatorship is dependant upon the female lacking what the male endows. Studlar states that in psychoanalytic film theory, the concepts of Disavowal and Fetishism are “widely regarded as fundamental to visual pleasure.”(Studlar, 1988:29) She explains how, Disavowal and Fetishism are based on the castration fear in psychoanalytic theory, and this castration fear is an exclusively male process. In her article, Studlar asks whether disavowal and fetishism are based purely on this castration fear. She uses the framework of the masochistic aesthetic to answer this question. The masochistic aesthetic suggests that film may form: “spectorial pleasures divorced from castration fear and sexual difference defined exclusively as feminine lack.” (Studlar, 1988:29)
In
masochism, disavowal and fetishism spring from a longing to remain attached
to the Mother. Studlar suggests that these processes originate in the pre –
Oedipal stage, rather than the Oedipal. It is in the pre –Oedipal stage,
that primary identification with the Mother exists. Fetishism serves to protect
this primary identification with the Mother. She says that “The original
fetishistic disavowal attempts to erase separation from the Mother and repudiate
the child’s lack in relation to her.” (Studlar, 1988:41)
In masochism, this Fetishization is dependant upon: “the child’s
wish for reincorporation into the Mother’s womb.” (Studlar,1988:40)
The Piano Teacher (2001) plays with the idea of returning to the womb. It’s
heroine, Kohut, longs to return to her Mother’s womb. Her sexual fantasies
are based on the desire to be completely powerless and she longs to play this
submissive role in her relationship with her lover, Walter. We see her attempt
to get back into her Mother’s womb, when Kohut confesses that she is in
love with her Mother. They are lying in bed, side by side, when Kohut suddenly
rolls on top of her, and kisses her passionately, telling her: “I love
you.” When her Mother tries to push her away, Kohut grasps at her stomach,
as though she wants to crawl back into her Mother’s body. The song that
Kohut’s student sings, describes her internal struggle with this longing
to be devoured by the all controlling Mother. He sings:
“What is this foolish desire driving me into the wilderness?”
This “foolish desire” is the desire to return to the womb. Because her fantasy of blissful powerlessness is not fulfilled by Walter, or her Mother, her only route to this place of dark, warm comfort, is suicide.
In masochism, the mother is powerful rather than submissive. Studlar claims that the pre –oedipal stage of child development is neglected in psychoanalytic film theory, and plays a significant role in the development of the idea of Mother as powerful. In masochism, the child is subject to the Mother’s power. Studlar explains this: “In masochism, as in the infantile stage of dependence, pleasure does not involve mastery of the female but submission to her body and gaze. This pleasure applies to the infant, the masochist, and the film spectator. In the pre – Oedipal period of development, the mother is the object of the child’s fantasized oral introjection, a narcissistic taking in of the object.” (Studlar, 1988:30) She urges that psychoanalytic film theory needs to consider the maternal authority when discussing spectatorship. She says that film theory must recognize the existence of the maternal imago: the unconscious, primal image of the Mother. (Studlar, 1988:30) In The Piano Teacher , we are presented with a powerful Mother figure. Professor Kohut’s Mother controls her life. She constantly calls her at work to keep track of where she is. Her intrusive nature is shown us, in the opening scene, wherein the Mother goes through Kohut’s bag, when she comes home from shopping. She looks in her bank book, commenting on how much money she has spent, and criticises her for buying a dress. When Kohut reaches for the dress, the Mother snatches it away, as though Kohut is a rebellious child. At the end of each day, they sleep together in the same bed, where her Mother interrogates her about her day. At the piano recital where Kohut first meets Walter, her Mother spies on them talking, like a jealous lover. When Walter is in Kohut’s bedroom with her, her Mother listens to them at her door, needing to be in control of Kohut’s actions. When she is unable to get into the bedroom, because Kohut has pushed a dresser against the door, she is furious, screaming at Walter, demanding that he leave.
Sunset Boulevard (1950), presents us with an authorative Mother figure, through Norma Desmond. Throughout the film, Norma Desmond seeks to control Joe Gillis. From the moment he stumbles across her house, she entraps him. He plays the role of her child, relying on her to provide for him financially. His response to her neediness and demands resembles a child’s for he is resentful of her, but at the same time is dependent on her. Gradually, he comes to fear her, and his only rebellion, through the most part of the film, is through his voice over narration, in which he belittles her. It is significant that when Gillis first meets Norma, she is preparing the burial for her recently deceased chimpanzee. The chimpanzee resembles a child. From the moment he enters Norma’s life, he is it’s substitute. He becomes her new pet, her substitute for a child.
The masochistic aesthetic, challenges the psychoanalytic film theory of female spectatorship. Studlar explains that in psychoanalytic film theory, the female is forced, through cinematic structures into a masculinization of her view: “women, it is theorized, must assume a dialectical stance between masculinization of looking and a negative feminine identification.” (Studlar, 1988:34) Psychoanalytic film theory also does not consider that the male may identify with the represented female. (Studlar, 1988: 34) Studlar challenges the idea of castration fear resulting from the female lack. She says we must consider the male’s envy for the breast, the female’s ability to nurse, conceive and give birth. She says that: “within masochism, the Mother is not defined as lack nor as phallic in respect to a simple transfer of the male’s symbol of power; rather she is defined as powerful in her own right.” (Studlar, 1988:30) In the Noir cycle of films, the male character often desires what the female possesses. Women, in this cycle of films, are represented as being powerful if not dangerous. Often, the Noir male protagonist, undergoes a process of internal conflict, that is caused by his relationship with the woman. Unlike the typical Hollywood hero, the noir hero is represented as being flawed and weak. Andrew Spicer says of James M. Cain’s male characters: “This figure is not admirable or innocent but morally weak, apparently helpless in the throes of desire and attempting to escape the frustrations of his existing life.” (Spicer, 2002:85) This description could also be applied to many of the male protagonists in Film Noir. In Sunset Boulevard , Gillis is morally weak, willing to sell himself for the sake of his career. He desires the money that Norma has, and plays the role of gigolo to get it. He also has an affair with his best friend’s fiancé. In Gilda (1946), Johnny’s is a weak character, easily giving way to his jealousy of Gilda’s lovers and of Gilda, who has Ballan’s affection, which Johnny also longs for. He is sadistic, wanting to own Gilda as an object, not so he can be united with her, but so that he can control her sexuality. It is Gilda’s sexual power that Johnny longs to possess. In Film Noir, the male seeks what she woman endows. Therefore, often in noir, it is not what the woman lacks that is the story’s focus, but what she has that the man in drawn to. This films play out the masochistic idea of the male being envious of what the female possesses.
Masochism
challenges the polarities that psychoanalytical film theory is based on.
Because it demolishes the idea of clearly defined polarities, the masochistic
aesthetic opens up new possibilities for spectatorship. Studlar explains this:
“Polymorphous, nonprocreative, nongenital sexuality undermines the fixed
polarities of male and female as defined by patriarchy’s obsession with
presence/lack, active/passive, and phallic genitality.” (Studlar, 1988:32)
Masochistic desire is finding pleasure through pain – therefore: “It’s
structure confronts the very applicability of a construct dependant on polarities.”
(Studlar, 1988:35) In Secretary (2002) we see the polarities and active and
passive being blurred. Lee and her boss, E Edward Grey have a sado – masochistic
relationship. Although it is Lee’s wish to be controlled by her Grey,
she plays an active role in initiating this control. This is particularly noticeable
when Grey stops punishing her, because he feels guilt over his sadistic behaviour.
She longs for his punishment and for his control. In order to get it, she orchestrates
situations to tempt him into punishing her. She continually makes typing errors
in his letters, hoping that he will punish her for them. She walks into his
office, handing him the letters, waiting with a hopeful expression. Although
it is a passive position that she seeks in their relationship, she is active
in her initiation of the punishment scenario.
The
Piano Teacher also represents the polarities of active and passive as being
problematic. When Walter tries to conquer Professor Kohut , by arranging to
have private piano lessons with her, she finds sadistic pleasure in watching
his frustration when she keeps him at bay. This film explores the perversity
of the seduction process. Walter’s crush on Kohut resembles an animal
hunting his pray. We see this aspect of his desire, when he watches Kohut in
the theatre, during a rehearsal. She is sitting in front of him in the theatre.
He watches the back of her, finding sadistic pleasure in his position of control.
He can freely watch her, as she does not return his gaze. His voyourism of her
is an act of mastery, and she is the object of his desire, that he aims to possess.
Her rejection is not a factor in his need to conquer her. Her seeks to do so,
reguardless. In this way, his act of seduction is a sadistic one. She then returns
his gaze, however, and sees him watching her. This blurs the polarity between
the spectator and the object. Kohut is both. Likewise, she is both sadistic
and masochistic.
However, because she continually rejects him, his persistance is masochistic.
Her teasing him, only fuels his energy to chase her. Kohut has a paradoxical
desire to be active and also passive. She attempts to escape this fate of him
mastering her, by orchestrating the way in which he will do it. She finds sadistic
pleasure in teasing him. Initially, in their first love making session, she
will not allow him to be active. She watches his frustration with sadistic pleasure,
as she brings him to the point just before climax, and then stops, leaving him
completely desperate and vulnerable. She tells him that he can only be satisfied
under her conditions. However, in the letter that she gives him, outlining these
conditions, she reveals her fantasy of being “completely powerless”.
It is revealed that she has a masochistic desire to be completely controlled
by him.
In Gilda Johnny also has a paradoxical sado/masochistic desire for Gilda. It brings him pain to see Gilda with other men, yet he seeks this pain when spies on her when she is with them. When finally does come to possess her, through marriage, he finds sadistic pleasure in depriving her of sex. When she comes begging to him, to fulfil his role as husband, his sadistic role in their relationship is exposed to us. She cries, falling at his feet, in a position of powerlessness and desperation. He tells us through the voice over narration, that it feels “Wonderful”.
Within
masochism, the spectator’s identificatory positioning is flexible.
Studlar claims that we have a desire to be both sexes. She says that cinema
allows us the experience of : “reintegrating opposite –sex identification
repressed in everyday life dominated by secondary process.” (Studlar,
1988:35) She refers to the pre – Oedipal period in which Freud claims
the child is bisexual in nature, to explain how gender does not limit us in
our desire and identification when viewing a film saying: “The ability
to simultaneously desire the opposite sex and also identify with it, as well
as the desire to overcome sexual difference, complicates current notions of
spectatorial identification and it’s relationship to gender.” (Studlar,
1988:33) In masochism, the identificatory process of the spectator is not limited
by gender. In Gilda , through the mis en scene, the spectator is urged to desire
both sexes. Johnny and Gilda are both represented as objects of desire: for
Ballan, for the camera and each other. They are both glamourised through soft
lighting. Each shot of her looking at him is returned by a shot of him reciprocating
the look, and each shot is of equal duration. (Dyer, 1989:94) Throughout the
film, we desire Gilda though Johnny’s eyes and Johnny through Gilda’s
eyes. In Richard Dyer’s “Resistance through Charisma –Rita
Hayworth and Gilda” he says of Gilda: “What is surprising about
the film is the degree to which Johnny/Ford is inturn established as an object
of her desire.” (Dyer, 1989:94) The spectator is able to desire both the
male and the female in this film.
The Piano Teacher also alternates the spectators identification between characters. In the scene when Kohut and Walter first make love in the bathroom of the music school, we identify with Walter’s frustration when she won’t bring him to orgasm. There is a shot from his perspective, of her face. We see her though his eyes. Her expression is unrelenting. She will not give us satisfaction, or her desire. We are placed in a masochistic position. We are placed in his position of frustration. We then see from her perspective. We see the frustration in his face, and are encouraged to play the sadistic role that she plays.
In the Secretary we are able to identify with both Lee and Grey. In the scene when Grey bends Lee over the desk and spanks her while she reads out a letter full of errors, we see the both of them, front on. Simultaneously, we are able to see what he is doing to her, and her response to it. We are able to alternate with between both perspectives. This scene conjures up a paradoxical identity in the viewer. We become both the sadist and the masochist, because simultaneously, we can experience the sadistic desire of Grey and the masochistic desire of Lee.
Although
the protagonist often dominates the narrative through voice over, his authority
as a hero and as a male is continually questioned. In Frank Krutnik’s
article: “Masculinity and it’s Discontents”, Krutnik suggests
that the noir narrative tests the protagonists masculinity by: “not merely
a testing of his ability as a detective or criminal, but of how he measures
up to more extensive standards of masculine competence.” (Krutnik, 1991:86)
It is often the ‘femme fatal’ woman who brings the protagonist’s
fears and inadequacy’s to the surface, forcing him to question his masculinity.
In this way, it is the woman who dictates the story. In Gilda, it is Gilda’s
presence that brings up Johnny’s past with her. Because he is reminded
of the failure of their marriage, his insecurity’s are aroused and as
a consequence, his masculinity is challenged. It is Gilda’s presence that
drives his sadistic behaviour. She represents his inadequacy, and so is punished
by him.
In
Sunset Boulevard , Norma reminds Johnny of his weak position, as he needs to
rely on her to revive his career and take care of him financially. This weak
position threatens his masculinity. In Secretary Lee arouses in Grey the urge
to punish her, something he has moral problems with. Throughout the film, he
struggles to overcome his sadistic tendancies, but her presence only feeds this
urge. In The Piano Teacher , it is Kohut’s fantasy of being beaten and
raped, that brings his violent tendencies to the surface. Despite being initially
repulsed by this fantasy, he inevitably fulfils his role in it. She is punished
for inciting his sadistic desires, through his eventual raping of her, his revenge
for arousing his unconscious drives.
Often in Film Noir, the protagonist’s need to understand the femme fatale,
is the narrative’s driving force: Spicer says of the femme fatal: “The
figure’s enigmatic qualities stimulate the central narrative drive, which
comes from the desire to understand her motivations and thereby to reassert
the rational control of the male ego, an impossible project.” (Spicer,
2002:92) In Noir, it is often the woman who is the cause for the action in the
plot. In Gilda, it is Johnny’s need to watch over Gilda, that drives the
narrative. The story revolves around his need to define her. We are constantly
updated with Johnny’s latest impressions of Gilda. In Sunset Boulevard,
it is Norma Desmond who steers the story, for she controls Gillis. He must not
upset her, as he is relying on her to revive his career. Even when it becomes
apparent to him that she cannot do this, because Hollywood has closed it’s
doors to her, it is her dependance on him, that locks him into submission to
her. Through his voice over, we are constantly hearing his judgement of her
character. In this way, the female characters control the plot.
However,
the woman is often trapped in the prison of the protagonist’s subjectivity,
and therefore is perceived according to the male’s perception of her.
In her article: “Women in Film Noir”, Janey Pace suggests this saying:
“. . .women are defined in relation to men, and the centrality of sexuality
in this definition is a key to understanding the position of women in our culture.”
(Pace, 1989:35) The woman’s place in the film noir is defined by her sexual
relationship to him, and therefore is often not relevant in her own right. In
Gilda , we are brought into Johnny’s subjectivity through his voice over
narration. Although, this voice over places the spectator subjectively with
him, it does not necessarily make the spectator accept his authority. We are
still able to doubt his perception. In Elizabeth Cowie’s article: “Film
Noir and Women”, she explains this: “The authority of the voice-over
tends to be assumed by convention; but it also conventionally includes the voicing
of hesitations and doubts about the hero’s perception and interpretation
of events, including self-doubt.” (Cowie, 1993:138)
We are able to question Johnny’s perception of events, when Gilda has
a solitary moment. The mis en scene in this scene contradicts what we are hearing
in Johnny’s voice over. Gilda is lying on the bed with her hands over
her head. We can see that she is feeling sadness. As we watch this, we hear
Johnny’s perception of her. He tells us in his voice over that she is
“superstitious” and is fretting over the punishment fate may bring
her for her wrong doings towards Johnny. What we see however does not entirely
convince us of this and indicates that she instead, has a deep sadness about
her past with Johnny. Dyer says of private moments in film: “What they
tell us about the character is privileged over what the character says (and
even does) in public.” (Dyer, 1989:95) Through his voice over we are encouraged
to side with him throughout the film, to hate her, and to feel satisfaction
when he finally controls her. Although Johnny controls the narrative, we are
able to identify with Gilda. After they marry, we see Gilda begging him for
his love. We are able to see the effects his punishment has on her. By this
stage of the film, it is hard to identify with him. Johnny’s sadistic
nature comes to the surface. Throughout Gilda, there is an increasing separation
between Johnny’s voice-over narration and the actual narration of the
film.
In
Sunset Boulevard we see Norma from Gillis’s perspective. His voice over
informs us of her nature. When he is reading her script, he tells us that her
writing is like a “childish scrawl”. When we see her watching him
read the script, he tells us: “I could sense her eyes on me from behind
those dark glasses, defying me not to like what I read.” We are constantly
told by Gillis what to make of what we see.
Although Gillis controls the story through his voice over, she clearly has the
control within the story. His voice over is like a child secretly rebelling
against her. As we see her, he secretly mocks her to us. The screenplay of “Salome”
that she writes, tells the story of the fate of her relationship with Joe. She
describes this story to Gillis:
NORMA:
Salome – what a woman! What a part! The Princess in love with a Holy man.
She dances the Dance of the Seven Veils. He rejects her, so she demands his
head on a golden tray, kissing his cold dead lips.
(Wilder, 1949:30)
Even when it becomes apparent that he does not need her, because she threatens to kill herself if he leaves her, he is entrapped by her dependence. It is this dependence that eventualy kills him. When he finally does walk away from her, she destroys him.
In Secretary the female controls the narrative through voice over. We are able to hear her emotional responses to what is going on between her and Grey. Because Lee is in a masochistic position, Secretary’s narrative revolves around the male’s attention , or lack of it. In The Piano Teacher even though the main character is a female, it is Walter’s fluctuating desire for Kohut that drives the narrative.
In
masochism, the spectator does not necessarily playing a dominant role.
Studlar says that “visual pleasure is not automatically an action of control
and mastery.” (Studlar, 1988:37) She points out that there is also a return
of our look , by the person on camera, and therefore there are passive as well
as active elements in spectatorship. She brings this back to the pre –oedipal
stage, saying: “This act is akin to the powerful oral mother’s return
of the child’s gaze; her gaze asserts presence and power.” (Studlar,
1988:48) Voyerism is a central theme in The Piano Teacher. When Kohut watches
pornography, the spectator does not watch what she watches, but instead, we
watch her. Because she is looking into the camera, is as though she is returning
our gaze. In this way, the spectators position is not one of sadism. This scene
reminds us that we are submissive to the images, as we don’t have the
control to see what we want to see. We can easily be excluded from what is taking
place in the film. We are unable to remain in a position of sadistic voyerism,
as our gaze is returned. In this way we are in the position of the masochist,
having no power over what we will see. This lack of power is also exposed to
us, when Kohut and Walter make love in the change rooms of his ice hockey club.
The scene is shot from behind a shelf. We are only given glimpses of them, through
the gaps in the shelf, and these glimpses are of the lower halves of their bodies.
It is difficult to see exactly what is going on.
In Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond often dominates the spectator through the mis en scene. Norma’s mansion is filled with portraits of herself. Everywhere he turns, he is faced with images of her. After he initially moves into her shed, he is moved by Norma into her house. Throughout the film, she is like a spider, luring him into her web. She is unable to escape the sight of her. When Norma is showing Gillis her old silent films in her home cinema, the spectator is dominated by her larger than life image on the silver screen. Throughout the film, both Gillis and the spectator are submissive to her gaze.
In
Gilda our gaze alternates between the dominating and the submissive. After Gilda
has had her troubled solitary moment in her and Ballan’s bedroom, he enters
the room. Throughout the conversation that takes place between them, our percpective
alternates between Ballan’s and Gilda’s through point of view camera
shots. Gilda is lying on the bed, and Ballan sits over her, watching her. The
conversation they have states their roles in their relationship:
BALLAN:
Your’e a child Gilda, a beautiful greedy child and it amuses me
to feed you beautiful things, because you eat with such a good appetite.
GILDA:
But I shouldn’t make any mistakes.
BALLAN:
No, you shouldn’t. . . But hate can be a very exciting emotion. Very exciting.
Haven’t you noticed that? There is a heat in it, that one can feel. Didn’t
you feel it tonight?
GILDA:
No.
BALLAN:
I did. It warmed me. It is the only thing that has ever warmed me.
This diologue we hear between them, tells us that Ballan has a sadistic desire to control Gilda. Like Gillis in Sunset Boulevard, Gilda is a pet for her lover to own. Thoughout this conversation, we are looking up to Ballan, through the perception of Gilda, experiencing her submissive position. We are then brought into Ballan’s subjectivity, looking down at Gilda with a controlling gaze.
In Secretary we alternate between a masochistic, and sadistic view, through point of view shots from both characters’ perspectives. When he has asked her to wait for him at his desk, we watch her, from his point of view, through the window, as she patiently waits for him. We are placed in a controlling position. Yet, this scene also reminds us of our submissive position as spectator. We are unable to relieve her patient paralysis. Instead, we are forced to watch this from his unrelenting position of power. When we see him through her point of view, we are subject to his control. In this instance, we identify with her need to be hurt by him.
The power play shown through the mis en scene and narrative of Film Noir, illustrates the spectators ever changing position between the controlling and the submissive gaze. The possibilities of paradoxical desire in the masochistic aesthetic, opens up the possibility for complex motivations. The complexity of motivations is a central theme in the film noir, which explores the perversity of it’s characters. The masochistic aesthetic represents the spectator’s motivations as being complex also. Exploring this complexity, can bring us closer to an understanding of the often puzzling nature of human beings.
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©
2003 - 2005 Rebecca Louise
Last updated
February 1, 2005