Projection is a word found both in cinema and psychology. The former is fairly obvious, it concerns the way images on film stock are projected onto the blank screen within a darkened cinema. In the latter case it is the way in which unconscious material can be projected onto the “blank screen” of the therapist – the non-judgmental listener. Both senses are used in Woody Allen’s Purple Rose of Cairo as well as in Buster Keaton’s Sherlock Jr which, being out of copyright, can be downloaded for free from the Internet.
Thursday 31 March 2011
Tuesday 29 March 2011
A Flickering Reality
This Blog is a companion to David Peat's new book "A Flickering Reality: Cinema and the Nature of Reality".
In it Peat argues that our sense of the reality of the world and of ourselves has undergone radical changes through discoveries everything from quantum physics to depth psychology, from post modernism to parallel universes, from manipulated memories to butterfly effects. And where better to experience these changes than when "dreaming in the dark" with film.
In this blog I will be discussing films and directors, from some of the great classics to the latest movies to hit the screen - and you TV set!
To start the ball rolling does anyone have comments on Black Swan - in which a dancer is chosen for the principal part in Swan Lake. She is ideal for the role of the White Swan because of her control and perfection but must also dance her shadow side - the Black Swan. It is in essence an attempt to come to terms with what Jungians call the Shadow - that part of us we attempt to deny, often by projecting it onto others. And so as she struggles to reveal this darker side her world begins to fall apart.
And now there is an interesting parallel with real life for the publicity surrounding the film portrays Natalie Portman as doing nearly all the dancing, however a body double, Sarah Lane, is now claiming that nearly all the dancing, and all of the foot work, was not by her and not Portman. So the film itself now has its own shadow side!!
In it Peat argues that our sense of the reality of the world and of ourselves has undergone radical changes through discoveries everything from quantum physics to depth psychology, from post modernism to parallel universes, from manipulated memories to butterfly effects. And where better to experience these changes than when "dreaming in the dark" with film.
In this blog I will be discussing films and directors, from some of the great classics to the latest movies to hit the screen - and you TV set!
To start the ball rolling does anyone have comments on Black Swan - in which a dancer is chosen for the principal part in Swan Lake. She is ideal for the role of the White Swan because of her control and perfection but must also dance her shadow side - the Black Swan. It is in essence an attempt to come to terms with what Jungians call the Shadow - that part of us we attempt to deny, often by projecting it onto others. And so as she struggles to reveal this darker side her world begins to fall apart.
And now there is an interesting parallel with real life for the publicity surrounding the film portrays Natalie Portman as doing nearly all the dancing, however a body double, Sarah Lane, is now claiming that nearly all the dancing, and all of the foot work, was not by her and not Portman. So the film itself now has its own shadow side!!
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