In this discussion, filmmaker Helen Rollins, an expert in film and psychoanalysis from Northern Ireland, shares insights from her groundbreaking book, Psychocinema. She explores how watching films is a psychoanalytic experience, revealing hidden truths about desire and subconscious cues. Topics include the tension between personal creativity and capitalism, the evolving nature of cinematic storytelling, and the intersection of class and the 'gaze' in film. Rollins critiques the commodification of art and sheds light on the challenges faced by independent filmmakers today.
The podcast explores how everyday visual details, like unmade beds, challenge perceptions of intentionality in filmmaking and media representation.
It emphasizes the transformation of public spaces in the digital age, where privatized experiences complicate authentic public engagement amid capitalist commoditization.
The conversation reveals cinema's unique ability to provoke profound understanding of desire and subjectivity, contrasting sharply with superficial digital media interactions.
Deep dives
The Fascination with Staging and Intention in Visual Media
The discussion begins with the intriguing notion of how everyday visual details, such as an unmade bed, can evoke questions about intentionality in filmmaking and media presentation. This observation highlights the convoluted relationship between what is perceived as staged versus incidental, prompting a reflection on the viewer's desire to locate hidden meanings. The speaker notes how this tendency reflects a conspiratorial impulse, suggesting that audiences often resist the idea of randomness in favor of attributing intent to visual choices. This dynamic plays an essential role in both film creation and analysis, questioning the boundaries between conscious artistic choices and the inherent messiness of reality.
The Shift from Public to Privatized Spaces
The conversation explores the transformation of public spaces in the digital age, particularly how social media and online interactions have shifted towards a privatized public sphere. The speaker emphasizes that platforms, including podcasts, offer a semblance of private honesty yet contribute to the commoditization of subjectivity, complicating the notion of public discourse. This privatization leads to a distorted form of expression where personal narratives become marketable commodities, blurring the line between public conversations and personal branding. The commentary suggests that as our interactions on these platforms become increasingly entwined with capitalist logic, finding authentic public engagement becomes more challenging.
Cinema's Unique Emancipatory Potential
The podcast articulates cinema's distinctive ability to challenge and provoke viewers on a deeper intellectual level compared to other media, such as social platforms. Through its structured narratives and comprehensive visual experiences, film holds the potential to induce a more profound understanding of desire and subjectivity. This contrasts sharply with the superficial engagement often experienced in digital media, where addictive content perpetuates a cycle of desire without meaningful introspection. Ultimately, film's narrative depth may guide viewers toward confronting their reality, allowing for an encounter with the lack that defines human experience.
The Complexity of Prohibition and Transgression in Cinema
The discussion highlights the intriguing tension between prohibition and transgression as it relates to cinematic storytelling, especially in context of audience expectations. While today's mainstream cinema often portrays explicit content, it simultaneously maintains a conservative approach, suggesting a complex relationship with viewer sensibilities. The speaker identifies this paradox, where the historical constructs of censorship generate a kind of excess within films, inviting audiences to engage with transgressive narratives. This dynamic reflects broader societal norms and the way media can manipulate experiences of desire, drawing viewers into an exploration of their own boundaries.
The Economic Landscape of Art and Film Production
The conversation sheds light on the economic challenges facing filmmakers today, particularly regarding the balance between artistic ambition and the realities of funding and production. With the rise of monopolistic practices in the industry, independent creators struggle to find opportunities within a market dominated by large corporations and state-sponsored initiatives. The discussion underscores the detrimental effects of an environment where artistic expression is often subordinated to capitalistic imperatives, leading to a homogenization of creative works. Ultimately, this economic scrutiny invites a reconsideration of how art can thrive amidst systemic inequities, questioning the sustainability of current artistic practices.
Helen is a filmmaker, academic, and writer from Northern Ireland who writes and lectures on film and psychoanalysis. Her latest book, Psychocinema, was published in 2024 in the Theory Redux series.
We’re talking the le non-duped err and messy bedrooms, the Gaze, the Master’s Discourse, the form of cinema, the politics of film as an industry today, and why film itself is a psychoanalytic experience.
And here’s an endorsement from Slavoj Žižek for Helen’s new book…
“Helen Rollins’ Psychocinema does something that is very rare: it aims at changing the very frame of how cinema and psychoanalysis are related. Rollins shows that viewing a film is in itself a psychoanalytic experience, the effect of film on the viewer is that of psychoanalysis on the analysand.
Watching a film confronts us with the truth of our desire in all its inconsistencies, with the lack that sustains this desire. This ground-breaking thesis is demonstrated by dozens of illustrious examples, and they make the book not only insanely readable but also an important contribution to today’s politics of emancipation.
I didn’t dare even to imagine that a book like Psychocinema could exist. But miracles happen, and Rollins’s book is one of them.”
Thanks Helen!
See you in Paris,
Ž&...
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