MIND OVER MOVIES by Sharon Packer, M.D.: Adam Resurrected (2009), King of Hearts (1966), Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Adam Resurrected (2009), King of Hearts (1966), Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)

Why did Inglorious Basterds become a box office success when Adam Resurrected (2009), a film with equally renowed stars, fade into grey so fast, and play just one week at an art house cinema?
How does cinema chronicle an individual's life struggles as a way of commenting on society at large?
How do the blurred boundaries between sanity and insanity, and the breakdown of behavioral mores during wartime, present themselves in Adam Resurrected (2009), King of Hearts (1966), Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)?
Does the fact that King of Hearts (1966) and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) focus on, or were influenced by, the generic insanity of World War I--rather than on WWII and the specifics of the Holocaust--change their impact on audiences?
Why is the fantasy/parody/tongue-in-check theme of Ingloureous Basterds buddy film more tolerable to the public than the twisted (but possibly slightly true) individual tale told in Adam Resurrected?

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WHY ARE WE HERE? IS THIS SITE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SITES?

Psychoanalysis and cinema are kindred cousins. They were born of the same century. Each emerged within a year of one another. Perceptual psychology and cinema are also linked, for how could we perceive separate celluloid images as if they were a single stream, were it not for the fact that our brains misconstrue motion, because of the "flicker effect"?Dream and film also share many similarities. Both are visual. Both are viewed in the dark. Both are unreal but seem real. Some people call their dreams "mind movies." Some movie makers turn to dreams for inspiration, and for good reason.

In early cinema, dream scenes showcased newly-discovered special effects, editing, and camera skills. German Expressionist films (and the films noirs that followed in their wake) showed signs of Freudian influence (and also reflected German Romanticism’s intrigue with the dream state).Filmmakers found that dream scenes enriched the drama and also exploited their ever-expanding cinematic skills, proving that "moving pictures" offered more than living theater or still photography.

Today, we tend to be more concerned with restful sleep than with meaningful dreams. After all, more than a century has passed since Freud published his century-changing book about Interpretation of Dreams (1900). For better or worse, sleep studies are more common than dream interpretation, at least in the medical world. So it's not surprising that today's films often show strange somnambulistic states or odd events that occur in insomniacs.

As contemporary as that sounds, that concept is not new. Charcot, one of Freud's mentors, and a neurologist himself, was also interested in somnambulism, as were many Frenchmen and women of his era, scientists and spiritualists alike. Symbolist artists of the late 19th century often depicted sleepwalkers. They, too, attended Charcot's lectures at the Salpetriere in fin-de-siecle Paris. Artists and actors were as interested in the antics of Charcot's hysterics as doctors, and people of different professions sat in the audience together.

Fortunately for us, we need not decide which films we favor--for we have more than a century's worth at our disposal. Unfortunately, many older films are no longer available, and only their memories remain. But we can use our own imaginations to fill in the blanks--and some current filmmakers do exactly that when they use stills remaining from old films to influence their recent creations.

Before I say too much too soon, let me stop, and simply restate why we're here on this site, In this site, we will discuss films that pertain to the mind, be it asleep or awake, conscious or unconscious, under the influence or without any outside influences. Because films are a form of art (the 7th art), there are times that we will also discuss art and its intersection with film.

Our purpose is NOT to promote psychoanalysis (or any other variant of psychiatry). If anything, we will shed light on the ways that cinema itself promoted psychoanalysis, simply because the "couch cure" makes for such interesting movie scenes and themes. This made many viewers believe that psychoanalysis was all that psychiatry had to offer--or at least that it was better than Bedlam (with Boris Karloff) or those old asylum-based treatments seen on screen from back in the days of Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919).

We will try to “take the pulse” of society by examining its cinema—but we promise no cures, and we cannot guarantee an accurate diagnosis (or, I should say, a lasting diagnosis). For we know for a fact that society constantly changes, and that culture evolves, cinema included. Today’s “diagnosis” will undoubtedly need revision tomorrow, but that’s what makes this endeavor so interesting.

To be truthful, our purpose here is to have fun as we focus on films that concern themselves with mind, memory, brain, behavior, trance, truth, psychiatry, neuropsychiatry, or neurology. If we happen to learn something factual about the brain or behavior in the process, all the better. But this site is intended to be a fun site, nothing more, nothing less. For more fact-based information about clinical concerns, please consult http://www.neurospotlight.com/ or academic or government-sponsored websites that will be listed in the index.

BTW, you don’t need to turn off your cell phones for this site!

MIND OVER MOVIES by Sharon Packer, M.D.

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Thursday, September 3, 2009

Adam Resurrected (2009), King of Hearts (1966), Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)

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WHY ARE WE HERE? IS THIS SITE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SITES?

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