“A Film Studies essay exploring 3 psychoanalytical film theories in contemporary film genres”
For my film studies essay, I have decided to look into how three psychological film theories are present and have been used in modern film texts of different genres - looking specifically at Deadpool (superhero genre), Grizzly Man (documentary genre) and Die Another Day (action genre).
The first psychoanalytical film theory I have studied is known as the Freudian trio. Sigmond Freud believed that “dreams are the royal road to the unconscious” (WEITER, 2004:195) and as such, characters in film texts are encoded or “designed” to reflect and represent different aspects of a personality - in some cases being assigned roles because of their ‘personal trait’. Freud believed that film texts follow the same principles as dreams - organising and describing the narrative to find true meaning - as characters are often driven by something in their subconscious world/inside their head.
Freud’s theory is that characters within a film can be broken down into three main roles: id, ego and superego. The id is the character that represents the desire or want - usually being shown as the person who the protagonist wants to be. When broken down to its most basic form the id is simply: the most primitive, emotional and irrational. Selfish, concerned with their own self-satisfaction, pleasure and instant gratification. The ego is, more often than not, the main protagonist of the text. They represent a more ‘down-to-Earth’ aspect of a person or the reality censor. Essentially the ego is: the reality principle, tries to match the needs of the id but also taking into account the real world, finding a balance between the id and superego. The superego of a film text is the over arching authority, whether it be a person’s boss, the law, someone’s family, etc. In its simple form the superego is: based of moral principles, anything that tries to regulate or control what the id is doing. “It is important to note that Freud did not mean to imply that id, ego and superego are identifiable processes in the human brain. Rather they are conceptualisations or abstractions used to refer to the interacting forces which govern behaviour: one of instinctual, hereditary origin; the others both a function of learning, in the case of the ego, learning the ‘realities’ which govern action and experience, in the case of the superego assimilation of key aspects of the culture and familial context in which a child is reared.” (STEVENS, 1983)
A film that can be used as a good example of the Freudian theory is Deadpool, directed by Tim Miller in 2016. In this film the id, ego and superego are Deadpool (id), Negasonic Teenage Warhead (ego) and Colossus (superego). Unlike most other film texts (such as Fight Club and Enemy) where the main protagonist represents the ego, the protagonist of Deadpool represents the id - constantly acting as he pleases and for his own gain. The ego is instead represented through Negasonic Teenage Warhead due to her seemingly acting as the middle ground between Deadpool and Colossus, wanting to be more like Deadpool but refraining from doing so as she can see the moral consequences and so balances out the two. Colossus therefore acting as the superego - representing moral understanding and a more controlling nature, attempting to reign Deadpool in and make him act with a little more self-control.
In terms of visual signification, a good example of these three characters acting as the Freudian theory is during the first few minutes of the film, where Deadpool is trying to kill Francis but Colossus and NTW (Negasonic Teenage Warhead) are sitting behind him, Colossus currently lecturing Deadpool on why he shouldn't do it. In this scene, which takes place on a motorway bridge in New York City, all three of the Freudian trio (id, ego and superego) are present, visually representing each of their roles. Deadpool's attitude and language convey to the audience how he is driven purely by what he wants - showing aggression towards anyone who goes against him or tries to control him (like the superego Colossus does).
When it comes to technical signification, the camera has been used in a series of mid-shots, causing the audience to see the situation from Deadpool's perspective as they are placed on the same level as him. Due to the fact that the viewer is also introduced to these characters through their dialogue - the audience is immediately introduced to Deadpool’s motives and desires, stating that “when you find out your worst enemy is after your best girl, the time has come to be a fucking superhero”, the fact that his want is almost heroic (wanting to go and save his fiancé - even though she gets taken because of his trying to kill someone) makes the audience further sympathise with him and, in the case of most superhero film texts, want him to achieve his goal. In terms of background music for the scene, what little diegetic sound there is encoded very subtly underneath all other sounds in the scene, not really adding anything to the atmosphere or feel of the scene (other than to add a very slight tense feel as it increases in volume when Deadpool attempts to attack Colossus in his outrage that Francis has escaped because of their arguing).
The second theory that I have looked at is split into two separate ideas that make one whole theory - the mirror stage and the notion of ‘lack’. Jaques Lacan proposed that there was a stage of development that occurred in babies between the ages of 6 and 18 months - he titled it the mirror stage/phase. Moving into the 1950s, Lacan furthered this idea proposed that, as opposed to it just being a stage in a child’s development, it represented a permanent and unreachable ideal or model of “imaginary order”.
This primary idea lead to the development Lacan’s notion of ‘lack’ - the theory that in our lives we are constantly striving for something but as soon as we achieve what we desire, we no longer want it and instead desire something else. Jacques Lacan once said in a seminar/lecture that ”Desire is a relation of being to lack. The lack is the lack of being properly speaking. It is not the lack of 'this or that' but the lack of being whereby the being exists”. This notion of ‘lack’ theory is quite similar to Freud’s theory with the id acting in a self-indulgent or hedonistic lifestyle, the superego acting on moral principles and the ‘lack’ (or the ego) acting as a balance or an in between for the two. There are a great deal of films that represent this theory, particularly through the text’s main protagonist, such as Vertigo directed by Alfred Hitchcock and Blue Velvet directed by David Lynch. In more simple terms, the notion of lack dictates that “Fantasies have to be unrealistic because the moment, the second that you get what you seek, you don't, you can't want it anymore" - The Life of David Gale (2003), and essentially we crave and strive for something that is forever out of reach.
An example of Lacan's notion of "lack" is the film text Grizzly Man, a documentary made in 2005 by Werner Herzog. The entire narrative of the text is about how a man, Timothy Treadwell, wanted and even believed that he had made friends with a tribe of grizzly bears in an Alaskan reserve. The physical representation of "lack", shown through Treadwell, is that he wanted to become friends with bears and even to an extent become one of them which is impossible - due to the massive differences between the human species and bears.
In terms on technical signification in the film, the editing that has been used to create the narrative of the text also allows the director to encode and construct his own opinion into the text. Werner Herzog chose to encode clips from Treadwell's original footage (of which there is over 100 hours worth) and accompany it with contrasting clips of interviews that he filmed of/with his close friends and people who didn't know him personally - such as the mortician, rangers/agents who worked at the Alaskan reserve, and ecologist. This choice to edit clip of other interviewees, in itself, actually presents Lacan's notion of "lack" as each of the individuals being interviewed acts in a false manner with the presence of the camera in the room - particularly the lady introduced as Timothy Treadwell's ex girlfriend - who acts overtly fake and overly sympathetic towards both him and the lady he was killed with (his present girlfriend of the time). The music or non-diegetic sound that has been added in during the editing process (quite "happy" and almost relaxing guitar music), makes the clips feel more empathetic and also causes audience members to feel more sympathy and understanding towards Treadwell.
In terms of a specific scene that presents Lacan’s notion of ‘lack’, at around 00:36:22 - 00:37:43 we see that this perfect and almost dreamlike life that Treadwell has been leading - telling the camera all about what he’s doing with the bears and what it’s like being friends with them - is in fact constructed by Treadwell himself with the addition of the director/editor of the documentary. This is shown to the viewer via a rule of thirds composition mid shot (set up by Treadwell himself to show him and the sanctuary/the area where the bears live in the background. In this shot, the audience is presented with him walking across and then standing on the left of the scene and speaking a monologue with a few pauses. Whereas this is what we’ve seen for the majority of the rest of the documentary, the director chooses to keep the rest of the footage of that small clip in, showing the viewer that Treadwell is a great deal more of a film maker than everything else would let on. He proceeds to complain about the way in which he carried out the monologue and pauses before repeating it with more pace - hinting that it will be better edited in if it’s shorter. This short clip actually present the audience with the idea that, not only is Timothy Treadwell obsessed with the idea of befriending (and in a way becoming) a bear, he also presents the lack of wanting to be a movie star in the way that he perfectly plans out shot and repeats takes until he’s happy with them. When looking at technical signification within this scene, the voice over of the director allows us to see into the mindset and lack that Treadwell has - stating that this was often done in numerous areas of footage that Treadwell took and talking about how he almost seemed to be lost in a world of his own where he becomes friends with bears and strives to become a movie star because of it.
The third and final psychoanalytical film theory that I have studied is the male gaze. Laura Mulvey proposed the theory of 'The Male Gaze', in 1975 which states that in the majority of film texts produced, rather than remaining gender neutral, the camera is male and usually views females in a way which gratifies male audience members with visual pleasure or scopophilia. The aim of Mulvey's essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, was "to discover where and how the fascination of film is reinforced by pre-existing patterns of fascination already at work within the individual subject.". Through her essay, one of her most prominent findings was that females are forced to identify with the way that males look at females in film and that a film text "codes the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal order".
A simple outline and explanation of Mulvey’s male gaze theory is: “women as image, man as bearer of the look” - the pleasure of looking is split between active/male and passive/female. The visual presence of the woman ' works against the development of storyline' and 'freezes the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation'. As such, when watching the vast majority of film texts, female viewers are forced to adopt a male point of view as it is the male protagonist that controls the events in the narrative - the audience has to identify with his point of view. “Woman's desire is subjugated to her image (...) as bearer, not maker, of meaning.” (MULVEY, 1975)
Clear examples of the Male Gaze theory are the James Bond films, having a reputation among the film industry of strongly objectifying women. The film text Die Another Day, directed by Lee Tamahori in 2002, has a narrative where the male protagonist views women as objects of his desire/pleasure. In the film, the first introduction that we get to Jinx, the object of male pleasure, is as she appears emerging from the sea and walks up the beach towards where Jame Bond is standing, watching her.
In terms of technical signification, the footage has been slowed down in the editing meaning that the viewer is forced to look at the slow panning of Jinx’s body as she walks out of the water. In addition to the mid shot which reveals Jinx’s entire upper body to the audience, the music reaches it’s crescendo when she (essentially) bursts through the surface of the water in one sweeping motion. This use of diegetic sound over the top of the shot of her exiting the sea, could even be seen as drawing more attention to the her and her body - music often being used in film texts to heighten the atmosphere and cause the audience to focus on certain aspects of a scene.
When it comes to visual signification, it is a great deal more obvious how the scene is an example of the male gaze in contemporary film texts - particularly action films like Die Another Day. Where the male observer in this scene, Bond, shows next to no emotion or reaction, Jinx as the female object presents facial expressions that connote to erotic pleasure or desire. The fact that only she shows emotion in this scene gives off the impression that the image we are shown of her is one that Bond is creating in his own mind, furthering the connotation that Jinx is just an object of sexual attraction/interest for James Bond. The visual signification of his scene is most linked to the technical signification because of the meaning and male gaze being encoded through the camera a great deal more evidently than any of the other theories - due to it being purely about showing and fragmenting the female form.
Overall, I find that the three psychological film theories are all very present in modern day film text - and particularly in films of different genres. The more frequently reoccurring theory that I have found in contemporary film texts is Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory which appears across a range of different types of media texts.
