APPI/IFPP Fourth Psychoanalytic Film Festival
Dublin 1/2nd February 2013
Friday 1st February 6.30pm
The White Ribbon
Salaam Bombay
Léolo
Dir: Michael Haneke 2009, 144m
Dir: Mira Nair, 1988, 113m
Dir: Jean-Claude Lauzon, 1992, 107m
From July, 1913 to the outbreak of World War I, a
series of incidents take place in a German village. A
horse trips on a wire and throws the rider; a woman
falls to her death through rotted planks; the local
baron's son is hung upside down in a mill; parents
slap and bully their children; a man is cruel to his
long-suffering lover; another sexually abuses his
daughter. People disappear. A callow teacher, who
courts a nanny in the baron's household, narrates the
story and tries to investigate the connections among
these accidents and crimes. What is foreshadowed?
Are the children holy innocents? God may be in His
heaven, but all is not right with the world; the center
cannot hold.
The boy Krishna is abandoned by his mother at the
Apollo Circus and she tells him that he can only return
home when he can afford 500 rupees to pay for the
bicycle of his brother that he had trashed. Krishna is
left behind by the circus and he takes a train to
Bombay. Krishna is called Chaipau by the street
children of Bombay and he works delivering and
selling tea for Chacha, who owns a street bar. Krishna
befriends the heroin addicted Chillum that sells drugs
for the drug dealer and caftan Baba Golub, and the
girl Manju Golub, who is the daughter of Baba with
the prostitute Rekha Golub. Krishna dreams on saving
500 rupees to return home, but the life on the streets
of Bombay is not easy.
Leo Lozeau is a French-Canadian pre-teen living with
his family in a working class inner city neighborhood
of Montréal. In Leo's mind, his family is not just
eccentric - they're crazy. His parents are obsessed
with everyone in the family having regular bowel
movements, even to the point of feeding them
laxatives. His slightly dim older brother Fernand is
obsessed with weight-lifting, all stemming from being
beaten up by a local bully when he was younger. And
his grandfather, Albert, once tried to drown him. But
Leo doesn't see himself as being crazy like the rest.
Beyond thinking about girls - most specifically their
neighbor Bianca, who preoccupies her time in her
own unusual way - Leo does whatever he can to make
sense of his life..
Sarah-Jane Reilly says:
Christine Campbell says:
Olga Cox Cameron says:
Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon is a thoughtprovoking and chilling tale of the roots of radicalism
in pre-world war 1 Germany (although, he himself
stresses that Germany is just a model and not where
the buck stops, so to speak).
The theme of the ‘sins of the father’ and the
perversions that arise from this are central to an
unforgettable and incredibly disturbing allegory that
reminds us of our responsibility to the children in our
society.
Far from ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ this powerful film, part
fiction part documentary in the cinema verité
tradition, gives an honest and haunting portrait of
childhood on the streets of Bombay. While these
children’s lives may appear pitiful to us, they
themselves have no sense of pity for who they are. In
direct contrast to ‘The Lord of the Flies’ where order
completely breaks down, without family or school to
support them the street children of Bombay maintain
a sense of their inherent humanity, and a capacity to
reach out to each other. It is this which captivates us.
A haunting portrait which lingers long after viewing.
‘Salaam Bombay’ enters into its subjects’ lives with a
rare authority and absolute compassion.
Leolo is the second feature film of award winning
French-Canadian screenwriter and director JeanClaude Lauzun who achieved immense critical acclaim
before his death in a plane crash in 1997. Named as
one of the 100 best films since 1923 by Time
magazine film critic Richard Corliss in 2005, it would
seem to be at least in part autobiographical. Leolo,
born Leo Lauzun into a Montreal family seething with
insanity, finds a way to avoid foundering into the
familial madness by way of a sustaining fantasy which
at least for a time, liberates him from the paternal
psychotic inheritance and opens up the possibility of
an exotic and erotic future. Blackly comic, surreal and
poignant by turn the script is poetry and the score,
which includes Tom Waits, the Rolling Stones, Sicilian
folk song and Nepalese religious chant is for me one
of the most beautiful and effective of film scores.
Saturday 2nd February 9.30/10am
Fanny and Alexander
The Bicycle Thieves
Hard Candy
Dir: Ingmar Bergman, 1982, 188 m
Dir: Vittorio De Sica, 1948, 93m
Dir: David Slade, 2006. 104m
The title characters are children in the exuberant and
colorful Ekdahl household in a Swedish town early in
the twentieth century. Their parents, Oscar and
Emilie, are the director and the leading lady of the
local theatre company. Oscar's mother and brother
are its chief patrons. After Oscar's early death, his
widow marries the bishop and moves with her
children to his austere and forbidding chancery. The
children are immediately miserable. The film
dramatizes and resolves those conflicts.
A poor young father in post war-ravaged Rome who
finally finds work putting up Rita Hayworth movie
posters around town, has his precious bicycle stolen
the first day on the job. He and his son walk the
streets of Rome, looking for the bicycle. Ricci finally
manages to locate the thief but with no proof, he has
to abandon his cause. But he and his son know
perfectly well that without a bike, Ricci won't be able
to keep his job.
After three weeks of chatting with the thirty-two year
old photographer Jeff Kohlver over the Internet,
fourteen year old Hayley Stark meets him in the
Nighthawks coffee shop. Hayley flirts with him in spite
of the age difference and proposes to go to his house.
Once there, she prepares a screwdriver for them and
Jeff passes out. When he awakes, he is tied up to a
chair, and Hayley accuses him of pedophilia.
Ivana Milivojevic says:
Carles Pujol Tarres says:
Therese Maguire says:
Belonging to the late phase of Bergman’s oeuvre, the
semi-autobiographical film Fanny and Alexander
pictures the author’s return to childhood. Given from
the children’s perspective, it is also a return to a much
lighter, ‘easier’ poetics than most of Bergman’s pieces
are characterised by.
The long opening scene of Christmas dinner itself
offers a flamboyant stage for the family of the people
involved in theatre production, but also a background
for the complex characters and relationships between
them. But it as well provides a contrast to what will
happen to Fanny and Alexander soon after their
father dies and their mother marries a strict,
controlling, austere Lutheran bishop, living in a
barren, gloomy house.
The radical turn in the lives of Fanny and Alexander
sheds a light at the same time on their attempt to
adapt, as well as to their ability to hate and rebel, and
on the very figure of the father within a family. A
possible psychoanalytical interpretation is only
reinforced by fairy tale- and dream-like scenes
through which the reality and fantasy overlap to
enable the children’s rescue...
In this movie, De Sica presents us with the fortunes
and misfortunes of Antonio Ricci (Lamberto
Maggiorani) in post-war Rome. The movie starts with
the unexpected job that Antonio receives. The job
requires for him to have a bicycle and he has to pawn
the family sheets to be able to get his bicycle. Antonio
starts fantasizing on the opportunity to stand out of
the crowd with a fine desired salary. Unfortunately,
his fantasies are shattered due to the bicycle being
stolen and the movie follows Antonio through his
desperate search for the stolen bicycle. This movie is
highly enriched by the role of the secondary figure
Bruno Ricci (Enzo Staiola), as the young son of
Antonio. Bruno is presented in the movie more as an
‘adult figure’ than as a child. He has a job (before his
father does) and commutes daily to work. Also, he
knows more about the bicycle than his father and is
brought along during the bicycle search as he is the
most likely one to be able to identify the bicycle. His
character also stands out against his father, showing
high incentive when he calls for the Police to help his
father. The movie is perturblingly emotional in its
portrayal of this particular father-son relationship,
where so often their roles appear to be reversed and
little Bruno has to cope with the harrowing effects of
his father’s ineptitude and fantasies.
In David Slade’s 2005 film, Hard Candy, commonly
held perceptions of the victim/monster dyad in
paedophilia are grabbed by the scruff of the neck and
shoved fiercely in our faces for scrutiny. When Hayley
Stark, the 14 year old protagonist turns shrewdly and
ferociously into the monstrous, raging, vengeful
predator and the 30 year old stalker, Jeff Kohlver, is
rendered her hapless prey, perceptions of good/evil,
right/wrong, masculine/feminine, victim/predator are
tested to the extreme.
Perversion; the gaze; aggression; voyeurism;
fetishism; castration anxiety; and the representation
of the castrating female; psychoanalytically, Hard
Candy has it all!
Plenary Session 1.30pm
Of interest in this session will be the distinction immanent in cinema’s treatment of childhood on the one hand
as a strictly designated time and position during which the being of a child is variously narrated and on the
other hand, there is the cinematic scrutiny of the child as other, as exception. Teasing out and discussing this
distinction will take place via a selection of film edits and arguments.
Films include: Pixote/Children of God, We need to talk about Kevin, Life is Beautiful, Edward Scissorhands,
The Sixth Sense, and Let the right one in.
Saturday 4pm viewing
The Rat Catcher
Les Quatre Cent Coups
Ma Vie en Rose
Dir: Lynne Ramsey, 1999, 84m
Dir: Francois Truffaut, 1959, 99m
Dir: Alain Berliner, 1997, 88m
Glasgow, summer, 1973. Dustmen are striking; bags
of garbage add to the blight of council flats and a fetid
canal. Ryan, who's about 12, drowns during a play
fight with his neighbor, the jug-eared James. James
runs home, a flat where he lives with his often-drunk
da, his ma, and sisters, who live in hope of moving to
newly-built council flats. The slice-of-life, coming-ofage story follows James as he tags along with the
older lads; has a friendship with his quirky wee
rodent-loving neighbor, Kenny; spends time with
Margaret Anne, myopic, slightly older, the local sexual
punching bag; and, has a moment or two of joy. The
strike may end, but is there any way out for James?
A young Parisian boy, Antoine Doinel, neglected by
his derelict parents, skips school, sneaks into movies,
runs away from home, steals things, and tries
(disastrously) to return them. Like most kids, he gets
into more trouble for things he thinks are right than
for his actual trespasses. Unlike most kids, he gets
whacked with the big stick. He inhabits a Paris of
dingy flats, seedy arcades, abandoned factories, and
workaday streets, a city that seems big and full of
possibilities only to a child's eye
The film's title may be intended as a reference to the
song "La Vie en rose" where being en rose (in pink)
means being in love; in the film it refers to Ludovic's
female-gender identity. It tells the story of Ludovic a
child who was born male but consistently insists that
she is supposed to be a girl. The film shows the
struggle over the gender identity she and her family
experience. Ludovic cross-dresses and generally acts
like a girl, talks of marrying his neighbour's son and
cannot understand why everyone is so surprised
about it. His actions lead to problems for him and his
family. He can't wait to grow up to be a woman.
When his family discovers the little girl blossoming in
him they are forced to contend with their own
discomfort and the lack of understanding from their
new neighbors. Their anger and impatience cave and
Ludovic is sent to see a psychiatrist in the hopes of
fixing whatever is wrong with him.
Aoife Twohig says:
Margaret Spelman says:
Michelle Sludds-Hickey says:
In ‘The 'Ratcatcher' the child James' experiences of
love, loss, play and tragedy are conveyed for me with
the immediacy of the child's perceptual world. The
film evokes the olfactory, tactile, kinaessthetic as well
as visual and auditory senses, to provide the viewer /
observer glimpses of the child's internal world. This
capacity to evoke the internal world of a child is what
drew me to suggest the film for the festival.'
In this rich film set in Paris, we see what post-war life
is like for a young ‘unclaimed’ boy and his peers. In
Truffaut’s autobiographical film, life is seen through
the eyes of a ‘latch-key’ thirteen year old who is
alienated from the ‘club’ of adulthood and who feels
himself to be bad and a burden. Truffaut ‘s film can
be seen as a single case study of deprivation and
delinquency - and perhaps the triumph of hope and
ingenuity?
The reason I chose "Ma vie en rose" is because of my
ongoing interest in gender identity and in how people
treat those who are different negatively. I particularly
admire the way the movie works so well on many
different levels. Alain Berliner has dramatically moved
this question of gender confusion into an entirely new
cinematic realm in Ma Vie en Rose by the simple
change of register from an adult's to a 7-year-old
child's perspective. He wanted the child's innocence
and his amazing certainty to make his questions touch
our hearts and allow us to understand them. Being a
musician, I especially like the 19 amazing pieces of
music that make up a 1st-class soundtrack. One
interesting part of this film is that, despite the general
belief that children can often be most cruel to each
other, it is the adults who misbehave and cause all
the problems. Definitely a first-rate story with a great
blend of comedy, drama, and tears. The movie
presents a touching commentary on social attitudes
and childish innocence. The parents are particularly
well portrayed by Michèle Laroque and Jean-Philippe
Écoffey - swinging between their own desire for Ludo
to behave like a normal boy, and their loyalty to him
in the face of bigotry and prejudice from friends,
neighbours and even Ludo's school.