"Le Chien Andalou" -The Movie

Paper Summary:

This paper analyzes the film "Le Chien Andalou", in the light of Freudian psychoanalytic theory of subjectivity. The paper notes that the film emphasizes the relationship between the rational and the irrational, the conscious and the unconscious. The symbolic representations of the battle between the conscious and the unconscious, which constructs human subjectivity according to psychoanalytic theory is analysed through some scenes of the film.

From the Paper:

"The symbols that can be found in the film derive from the unconscious/irrational, rather than the conscious/rational. The deliberate abandon of temporal and spatial coherence creates a dream-like context. Like the workings of unconscious, as in dreams , the film does not follow a logical time sequence, starts with 'Once upon a time' continues with 'Eight years later', 'Sixteen years ago' and so on. The spatial logic of the conscious is disfigured as well. For instance, when the woman changes the room by going through a door, again she gets into the same room. Yet in another scene, the appearance of a beach just out of the door does not fit into the spatial limits of the reason. Incongruent jumps in space abound, like when the man is shot in an apartment room, the falling motion ends up in a park, briefly clutching the shoulder of a statue-like woman. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Elliot, Anthony, 1994, Psychoanalytic Theory, Oxford, Blackwell
• Freud, Sigmund, 1977,On Sexuality, Trans: James Strackey, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth. -1984, On Metapsychology, Trs:James Strackey, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.
• Mansfield, Nick, 2000, Subjectivity: Theories of self from Freud to Haraway, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, NSW.
• Luis Bunuel (Dir.), 1923, Le Chien Andalou.

More papers on "Le Chien Andalou" -The Movie:

• Essay # 26357 : "Un Chien Andalou"
• Research Paper # 94251 : "'Bicycle Thief' and 'Un Chien Andalou'"
• Film Review # 33088 : "Triumph of the Will" and "Un Chien Andalou"."

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