APPI/IFPP/Independent Colleges Dublin presents:
6th Irish Psychoanalytic Film Festival
30/31 January 2015
Friday 30th January
5-6pm
Welcome reception with wine and
finger food
6-6.30pm
Festival Keynote Lecture by Debbie
Ging, author of Men and
Masculinities in Irish Cinema (2012)
Friday 30th January
6.30pm Screening Session I: Nor-Mal(e)?
Blue Velvet
Biutiful
Budawanny
Dir: David Lynch (1986) 120 min
Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu (2010)
148 min
Dir: Bob Quinn (1987)70 min
College student Jeffrey Beaumont returns to his idyllic hometown of
Lumberton to manage his father's hardware store while his father is
hospitalized. Walking though a grassy meadow near the family
home, he finds a severed human ear. After an initial investigation,
lead police Detective John Williams advises Jeffrey not to speak to
anyone about the case as they investigate further. Jeffrey is also
told that he cannot divulge any information about what the police
know. Detective Williams' daughter, Sandy, tells Jeffrey what she
knows about the case from overhearing her father's private
conversations on the matter: that it has to do with a nightclub
singer named Dorothy Vallens, who lives in an older apartment
building near the Beaumont home. His curiosity getting the better of
him, Jeffrey, with Sandy's help, decides to find out more about the
woman at the center of the case by breaking into Dorothy's
apartment while he knows she's at work. What Jeffrey finds is a
world unfamiliar to him, one that he doesn't truly understand but
one that he is unable to deny the lure of despite the inherent
dangers of being associated with a possible murder. Still, he is torn
between this world and the prospect of a relationship with Sandy,
the two who are falling for each other, despite Sandy already being
in a relationship with Mike, the school's star football player.
In the dirty periphery of Barcelona, Uxbal survives operating as
middleman in business with illegal immigrant workers in the Chinese
community, selling the slave labor and bribing the police and
receiving a percentage of each business. Uxbal has also the ability to
communicate with the dead and is the loving single father of the ten
year-old Ana and the little boy Mateo. Their mother Marambra is a
bipolar alcoholic prostitute with an unstable and self-destructive
behavior. When Uxbal learns that he is terminal with an advanced
prostate cancer and metastasis and has only a couple of months, he
saves all the possible money and seeks out a person to raise Ana
and Mateo. Uxbal buys the cheapest heaters to use in the
warehouse where the Chinese workers sleep and the equipment
leak gas and kill the twenty-five illegal immigrants. When Uxbal
meets the African illegal immigrant Ige, he brings her home and
after a few days, he believes he has found the appropriate person to
raise his two children.
At his house, the bishop reads from an advance copy of a novel
"Budawanny: A Bishop's Tale" by Thomas Connor, with a statement
on the flap saying that it is now a major film. He writes to the author
telling him he has no need to read it. The bishop asserts that his job
is to make religion work. The bishop recollects that the story is as
old as the hills. A young woman, Marian, arrives at a pier and
enquires of two boatmen whether the priest is on the nearby island.
Marian "falls" from the boat and is brought to the priest's house. At
the priest's house, she is ill and is cared for by a doctor and the
priest. While saying mass, the priest remembers a meeting with the
woman. Marian recovers and begins to take on the role of
housekeeper. When pressed by the priest about what happened on
the boat, Marian says that she panicked, though they both recall
their earlier liaison. Meanwhile, the bishop asserts the primacy of
the rules of religion in a letter to the priest. At the priest's house
during a night time storm, Marian comes to the priest's bedroom
and they embrace. The couple are observed being intimate on a
beach by the sacristan. Later, the sacristan arrives drunk at the
priest's house and gives money to the priest to say mass for him.
Marian tells the priest that she is pregnant, while the sacristan,
arriving at the house, overhears the conversation. The priest
fantasies that the bishop will accept his having the child. At mass,
the priest announces that soon they'll have another reason to call
him Father and that he intends to look after the woman and child.
On hearing this statement, the publican rings the bishop. As the
priest and Marian are intimate by the fire, the bishop rings,
summoning the priest to see him. While the priest is away, Marian is
refused service by the publican. At the bishop's house, the priest is
criticized for making such a statement from the pulpit, while he
counters that Christ would have done the same. On his return to the
island, he is met at the quayside by Marian who is leaving the island.
Told that there has been an accident, the priest finds that the
sacristan has committed suicide. At home, the priest reads a note
from Marian which declares that it is her life also. The bishop
reflects on the events and tells his secretary merely to acknowledge
the receipt of the book. Above all, he thinks, he needs to be
prudent.
Tomas Pujol Owens says:
Magda says:
Garry McCarthy says:
David Lynch has never been the one to shy away from creating
powerful portrayals and contorted images of masculinity in his films,
with Blue Velvet being the most exemplary of this. Here we have an
insight into, and imagining of, one of the darkest and perverse
aspects of the masculine character with Dennis Hopper's
phenomenal portrayal of Frank Booth. This film demands further
thought upon viewing, and is open to much psychoanalytical
dissection and examination, with its intimidating buffet of dark
drives and sexual perversion.
“Biutiful” written and directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (the
author of "21 grams", "Babel" or "Amores Perros") is the story of
Uxbal, a street hustler in Barcelona, who deals in undocumented
African street peddlers and Chinese sweat shop workers. Dying of a
terminal disease, he can’t face leaving his children to the mean
streets, especially since their bipolar mother Marambra is too
unreliable to care for them. Uxbal is a father, husband, brother and
a son; a man living in this world, but able to see his death, which
guides his every move.
This biutifly [sic] filmed story opens up many important and
interesting questions from the psychoanalytic point of view
regarding masculinity in the contemporary world.
Ideally Budawanny would be screened with its companion film The
Bishop’s Story (1994). The latter is, according to its maker Bob
Quinn, the completion of Budawanny and not a sequel as is often
suggested.
I chose Budawanny for this year’s festival with the following
considerations in mind.
It is germane to the brief in that it raises questions around the idea
of clerical masculinity. It prioritizes native cultural expression, but
thematically, it is not culturally specific. It is also distinct in the
representational strategies it employs from the dominant
(Hollywood) style. Bearing in mind that Budawanny was released in
1987, it is strikingly prescient in the light of subsequent clerical
sexual abuse scandals and the ongoing debates on clerical celibacy.
It also features a beautiful original score by acclaimed Irish
composer Roger Doyle.
Saturday 31st January 10am
Screening Session II: Iconic Man
The Godfather
Dir: Francis Ford Coppola (1972) 175 min
Citizen Kane
North By Northwest
Dir: Orson Welles (1941) 119 min
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock (1959) 136 min
The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film (directed by Francis
Ford Coppola) Based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel. Marlon
Brando and Al Pacino are the leaders of a fictional New York crime
family. The story spans the years 1945-55, concentrating on the
transformation of Michael Corleone from reluctant family outsider
to ruthless Mafia boss. The emerging drug trade is there for the
taking but Vito Corleone disapproves of drugs and refuses to give
cover for the other Mafia families with his political connections. He
narrowly survives an assasination attempt by Sollozzo's men. Eldest
son Sonny retaliates for the attack on his father by having Tattaglia's
son killed. The families erupt into open warfare. Michael
assassinates Sollozzo and corrupt police chief McCluskey while they
are about to negotiate peace in a Bronx restaurant. The authorities
clampdown. Michael spends time in Sicily. Sonny is killed. Vito
withdraws his opposition to the heroin trade, declares his sadness
that Michael, who has returned from Sicily, has been drawn into the
violence. The old patriarch dies after warning Michael about
treachery to come. Michael descends into a violent spiral. Michael's
sister Connie arranges a christening for her son (Michael is the
Godfather). As the christening mass proceeds with beautiful music,
Corleone assassins, acting on Michael's orders, murder the other
New
York
dons.
(MC)
The story examines the life and legacy of Charles Foster Kane,
played and directed by Orson Welles, a character based in part upon
the American newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, and
aspects of Welles's own life. Multimillionaire newspaper tycoon
Charles Foster Kane dies alone in his extravagant mansion, Xanadu,
speaking a single word: "Rosebud". Narrated principally
through flashbacks, the story is told through the device of a
newsreel reporter seeking to solve the mystery of the newspaper
magnate's dying word: In an attempt to figure out the meaning of
this word, a reporter tracks down the people who worked and lived
with Kane; they tell their stories in a series of flashbacks that reveal
much about Kane's life.
Madison Avenue advertising man Roger Thornhill finds himself
thrust into the world of spies when he is mistaken for a man by the
name of George Kaplan. Foreign spy Philip Vandamm and his
henchman Leonard try to eliminate him but when Thornhill tries to
make sense of the case, he is framed for murder. Now on the run
from the police, he manages to board the 20th Century Limited
bound for Chicago where he meets a beautiful blond, Eve Kendall,
who helps him to evade the authorities. His world is turned upside
down yet again when he learns that Eve isn't the innocent bystander
he thought she was. Not all is as it seems however, leading to a
dramatic rescue and escape at the top of Mt. Rushmore.
Margaret Coughlan says:
Barbara Fitzgerald says:
Sarah Meehan says:
What do men want in the world of the Godfather? As Don, Vito
Corleone wants respect which forms the basis of the mafia social
order. Respect establishes power. These men pursue power,
demand family loyalty and respect, all of which brings with it the
burden of responsibility carried by men. While Don Corleone
became a Don to take care of his family and amass wealth, his son
Michael, had choices and is at first a reluctant criminal. The power
of the film is Michael's position in his family and his transformation
from reluctant criminal to ruthless cold-blooded murderer. Is his
quest for power for its own sake ultimately more important to him
than family ties or personal relationships?
This film has attracted the attention of many of the most prominent
writers on film, across the spectrum from both popular critics to
academics. Why does this film evoke such curiosity? It is told in
layers, through a series of flashbacks and riddles. The story reveals
itself to the viewer. We are challenged to struggle with what is unsayable yet only glimpsed. Through the story of Kane’s life, the film
seeks to examine contradictory views even of life itself in
attempting to arrive at an understanding of the meaning of an
individual single life. It could be seen as an commentary on power
and narcissism as we are led into an enticing journey into the multi
layered realities of this iconic man !!
Welles’s identification with the role leads to a perceptiveness and
genuineness about the central character that lends a substance to
his hesitant portrayal. The Oedipal residues of the separation from
his mother and ambivalent strivings towards a surrogate father are
overlaid with a fierce intensity of focus in his rise to power. This is a
wonderfully rich film, layered with theatrical device and illusion,
visible and invisible worlds, only revealed through a deep listening
and revelation in our seeing the film.
This iconic man captivated by all that is unsayable yet revealed in
glimpses in how he lived his own life.
North by Northwest (1959) has been dubbed as ‘the quintessential
Hitchcock movie’, comprising espionage, comedy, irony a plenty,
and a steamy romance (steamy for the times!).
The glamourous lead roles support the drama, Cary Grant as Roger
Thornhill, the quintessential American male of the fifties dressed in
a ‘grey flannel suit ‘, who’s suit and polished shoes remain intact
even when hanging off Mount Rushmore, and the seductive and
dreamy tones of femme fatale Eve Kendell, played by Eva Marie
Saint (a Hitchcock blond with a resonant name).
Potentially read as a movie that represents or prescribes the ideal
of heteronormativity in this era, note the salvation of Thornhill by
the implicated sexual rapport with Eve, it wouldn’t be Hitchcock
without a more subversive and menacing layer to the plot, such as
the themes of misrecognition and confused identity suggest .
In this sense, one could ask, is Thornhill’s display of normative
masculinity a decoy for its inherent instability? Are we confronted
with the alienation and unravelling of male identity in the face of a
sadistic and obscene Other or does the film offer rather, more
simply, a prescription for a happy ending?
Plenary Session 1pm
Irish Lads
The Stag will be screened in the company of director John Butler after which some remarks will be presented by Olga Cox
Cameron. Following this Carol Owens will chair the plenary session during which clips from Disco Pigs (Kirsten Sheridan) and The
Crying Game (Neil Jordan) will be shown and discussed by Raphael Montague and Dave Rush and opened up to the floor.
The Stag (2013)
Disco Pigs (2001)
The Crying Game (1992)
The Stag is a comedy with the so-called new man centre stage, but
is also a very interesting take on the possibilities and impasses of
tackling the imaginary sexual identities prescribed by each culture
and each historical era. To what extent can one exit traditional
masculinity (or traditional femininity) without reaching for the
signifiers of the other sex? We know how this played in the 19th and
early 20th history of lesbianism. Is it now a dilemma for men? The
Stag allows us to laugh our way through some of the issues raised by
this dilemma.
A seminal Irish film released in the early noughties, adapted for
screen by Enda Walsh from his 1996 stage play of the same name,
originally produced and directed for stage by Pat Kiernan
(Corcadorca, Cork) and starring a young Cillian Murphy as ‘Pig’.
Murphy again takes up the role in the film-version along with co-star
Elaine Cassidy as ‘Runt’, this time directed by Kirsten Sheridan in
what is an exceptional piece of gritty, unsettling - and at times
poignant – cinematography, earning Sheridan nominations for best
director at the Irish Film & Television Awards and the British
Independent Film Awards In 2003. ‘Pig’ and ‘Runt’ are literally
inseparable from birth, born in the same hospital within minutes of
each other and while growing up as next door neighbours develop a
lifelong, devoted - if somewhat unhealthy - friendship. An unearthly
performance from Murphy, as the narcissistic and grandiose ‘Pig’ is
magnificently offset by Cassidy’s sensitive portrayal of ‘Runt’s’
innocent beauty and unconditional platonic love for her friend. The
pair share a private language, brilliantly scripted by Walsh in a style
reminiscent of Kubrick’s Droogs in ‘A Clockwork Orange’, their
communication with the outside world is minimal, confrontational
and equivocal. ‘Pig’s’ violent tendencies and a penchant for mental
cruelty towards others emerge early on in the film: the context of
the absent father, ‘Pig’s’ extreme separation anxiety from ‘Runt’ as
the primary object of his world and a destructive envy surrounding
the intrusion of the ‘sexual relation’, is what finally triggers a
complete psychotic break, resulting in the killing of ‘Runt’s’ young

suitor ‘Darren’. All this combines to make the film an excellent
choice for psychoanalytic exploration. Murphy’s portrayal of a
young man, coming of age while attempting (or not) to cope with
psychosis, is fascinating and at times beyond disturbing. The final
scene on the beach always leaves me wondering as to whether The
Man is not somehow merely a feminine fantasy – let’s just say it is
not without good reason that ‘Disco Pigs’ has become a cult classic!
I lived in Cork for some years. Being a lover of cinema, the cork film
festival was for me a cultural highlight. I often took a week off from
what I was doing to attend as many films as possible. The festival in
1992 was no exception. That year, the new Neil Jordan Film, “The
Crying Game” was to be screened and was much anticipated. On the
evening of its screening, to a packed house, the talk was of a film
that had a twist. I took my seat with 997 others. Twenty minutes
into the film something occurred that really surprised me and I
thought “ah, that was a clever twist”. Towards the end of the film
998 people appeared to simultaneously experience a “wow”
moment. I had never experienced such a reaction in a cinema
before nor have I since.
Olga Cox Cameron
Raphael Montague
Like a few other films I have seen in 50 years of cinema going, I
never wanted to watch “The Crying Game” again, and I haven´t. My
fear is that the initial impact the film made on me would be
somehow be diminished on a second viewing. The film blew me and
many others away in 1992, and I will say sowed in me a perspective
changing seed. When Olga sent around the request for films
relating to this year’s topic, I didn’t think twice about my
nomination.
Dave Rush
(I have been told on more than one occasion that Cork Opera house
has 998 seats. I have no idea how true this is.)
Saturday 4pm
Screening session III: Men at Work
The Office
Fight Club
The Hunt (Jagten)
Dir: Ricky Gervais 2001-2003
Dir: David Fincher (1999) 139 min
Dir: Thomas Vinterberg (2012) 115 min
A mockumentary about life in a mid-sized suboffice paper merchants
in a bleak British industrial town, where manager David Brent thinks
he's the coolest, funniest, and most popular boss ever. He isn't. That
doesn't stop him from embarrassing himself in front of the cameras
on a regular basis, whether from his political sermonizing, his standup 'comedy', or his incredibly unique dancing. Meanwhile, longsuffering Tim longs after Dawn the engaged receptionist and keeps
himself sane by playing childish practical jokes on his insufferable,
army-obsessed deskmate Gareth. Will the Slough office be closed?
Will the BBC give David a game show? Will Tim and Dawn end up
with each other? And more importantly, will Gareth realize what a
hopeless prat he is?
A young man leads a pretty humdrum life assessing car crashes to
determine if his automobile company should issue recalls to fix
problems. He also suffers from insomnia and takes to attending
group therapy sessions for people who have survived various
diseases. There he meets Marla who like him attends these
sessions though she is neither a victim nor a survivor. His life
changes when he meets Tyler Durden on a flight home. Tyler
seems to be everything that he's not and together they create a
men-only group for bare knuckle fighting. It soon becomes all the
rage with fight clubs springing up across the country and group
itself becoming an anti-capitalist domestic terrorist organization.
Tyler and Maria develop a relationship leaving him often on the
outside of what is going on. He soon finds that the group is out of
control and after a major self-revelation decides there is only one
way out.
Lucas is a Kindergarten teacher who takes great care of his students.
Unfortunately for him, young Klara has a run-away imagination and
concocts a lie about her teacher. Before Lucas is even able to
understand the consequences, he has become the outcast of the
town. The hunt is on to prove his innocence before it's taken from
him for good.
Rob Weatherill says:
Mark Griffin says:
Genevieve Watters says:
The critically-aclaimed "mockumentary" about (dead) life in the office
of a paper merchants in the boring English post-industrial town of
Slough, of 'come friendly bombs' fame. Manager David Brent (Ricky
Gervais) believes he's the coolest, most popular and motivational
boss ever. Tim (Martin Freeman) fancies receptionist Dawn (Lucy
Davis), who is engaged to a control freak, Finchy (Ralph Ineson).
Desk-mates Gareth (Mackenzie Crook) and Tim play childish practical
jokes on each other. Gareth is obsessed with the army. Will the
Slough office be closed when it is merged with the Swindon branch?
Will David Brent be in overall charge after the merger?
Fin de siecle 20th Century saw one final cinematic punch to the
cerebral cortex in Fight Club. Based on the novel by Chuck
Palahniuk, adapted for the big screen by Jim Uhls and directed by
David Fincher, Fight Club was seen both as a commercial flop and
a critical smash, which now has its own cult following (numbering
in the millions). The film is stuffed full of Nietzschean ideals (Tyler
Durden), globalisation (Fight Clubs), fascism (Space Monkeys) and
is (in my opinion) ultimately very Freudian as seen in the last shot
of the phallus in the film.
The Hunt is set in motion when an accusation of paedophilia is
leveled against Lucas an innocent kindergarten teacher played by
Mads Mikkelsen. I found the police interview of the little girl to be a
wonderfully subtle scene in this movie. Klara says very little and it is
in the inference of the adults that brings this small town to a state of
mass hysteria. In relation to the theme of ‘masculinities’ this movie’s
subject matter is certainly very topical. Our awareness and sensitivity
to the abuse of children, to sexual violence, etc is incredibly high at
the moment. Known perpetrators are, in the vast majority, men and
so it may enter our conscious (or unconscious associations) with
‘maleness’. I wonder if this effects how men are looked at, how they
themselves wish to appear to others? Does it result in the adoption
of a certain type of masculinity? Mikkelsen plays Lucas wonderfully,
his imposing physical presence and stern countenance means he is
frequently cast in villainous roles, yet he portrays Lucas as a man who
is somewhat lost, frail and sensitive
David Brent: 'People see me, and they see the suit, and they go:
"you're not fooling anyone", they know I'm rock and roll through and
through. But you know that old thing, live fast, die young? Not my
way. Live fast, sure, live too bloody fast sometimes, but die young?
Die old. That's the way - not orthodox, I don't live by "the rules"...yes
I've hit the odd copper, yes I've enjoyed the old dooby, but will you
piss off and leave me alone, I'm walking to John O'Groats for some
spastics. It's almost like my work here (in Slough) is done. I can't
imagine Jesus going 'Oh, I've told a few people in Bethlehem I'm the
son of God, can I just stay here with Mum and Dad now?' No. You
gotta move on. You gotta spread the word. You gotta go to Nazareth,
please. Team playing-I call it team individuality, it's a new, it's like a
management style. Again guilty! Unorthodox! Sue me'.
David Brent heads up the masculine masquerade, ducking and
weaving, appealing, offending, laughing, everything desperately for
the other. Tim is domesticated. Gareth is perverse. Finchy is sexist.
And so on. The Office made Gervais a star and was shown in more
than 100 countries. What is its appeal? Nothing happens! How to do
nothing with words? Occasionally racist and sexist, much of the
humour is about the hypocrisy of people who think they're politically
correct and the resultant awkwardness when they try too hard. For
instance, on a motivational training day, determined to regain
everyone's attention, Brent shouts: I think there has been a rape up
there.
I loved the film and for this festival I thought about the scene
where Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and the unnamed protagonist
(Edward Norton) agree that they live in an age of men raised by
women. The issue of alienation is no stranger to Psychoanalysis,
nor is searching for meaning in one's life. When the resolution
results in fascism and anarchy, this begs the question does man
merely want to create (Eros) and destroy (Thanatos) and is the
bar of soap the yardstick of western civilisation?! Fight Club is a
dark comedy right down the choice of music in the closing credits
(the Pixies 'Where is My Mind'). Enjoy!