Psychoanalytic Takes on Cinema 2012–2013

“Where they love, they have no desire; where they desire they cannot love.”

— Freud, 1912

The 2012–2013 film series examines the theme of desire.

• Course coordinator: Cindy Bollman, PhD
• Location: 6912 Ayr Lane, Bethesda, Maryland
• Time: 7:30 p.m.
• Cost: $300 with continuing education credit; $250 member rate; $175 for the general audience without continuing education credit

Film Schedule

September 21: The Piano Teacher (La Pianiste)

2001 · 130 minutes

Erika, played by Isabelle Huppert, is a respected and exceptionally disciplined piano instructor at a renowned Vienna conservatory. Known as a harsh taskmaster, she lives with her stern mother and has neither a husband nor a lover. Erika attracts the attention of Walter, a gifted and handsome student who is undeterred by her icy personality.

La Pianiste competed at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival, where Huppert and Benoît Magimel received acting awards and writer-director Michael Haneke received the Grand Prix.

Discussant: Tarpley Long, MSW

October 19: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon)

2007 · 114 minutes

Jean-Dominique Bauby, the real-life editor of the French fashion magazine Elle, suffered a stroke at age 43 that left him with locked-in syndrome: paralysis of his voluntary muscles apart from an eye and eyelid. The film is based on the memoir he dictated through approximately 200,000 eye blinks.

Although his body becomes a metaphorical diving bell, Bauby finds solace in the butterfly of his fantasies and memories. Julian Schnabel’s film considers the life of the mind, the possibilities of desire, and the limits of realization.

Discussant: Robert Winer, MD

November 16: 500 Days of Summer

2009 · 95 minutes

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel star in Marc Webb’s nonlinear romantic comedy about a man who falls for a woman who does not believe in love. Tom, an aspiring architect working as a greeting-card writer, becomes convinced that Summer is his soulmate. Summer, however, regards true love as a fairy tale and is not seeking romance.

Discussant: Angela Martin, MSN, CS-P

January 18: The Man Who Loved Women

1977 · 104 minutes

Scientist Bertrand Morane seduces women by night and writes about his experiences in the early morning. In François Truffaut’s hands, the spare story develops deep philosophical resonances. The film is neither an indictment nor an apology for philandering, but a portrait of an intelligent and complicated man with an intractable compulsion.

Discussant: Marcario Giraldo, PhD

February 15: The Night Porter

1974 · 118 minutes

Max, played by Dirk Bogarde, works as a discreet night porter at an upscale Vienna hotel in 1957. When Lucia, played by Charlotte Rampling, arrives with her husband, their shared past resurfaces. Flashbacks reveal that Max was an SS officer at a Nazi concentration camp where the teenage Lucia was his prisoner and sexual victim.

Their reunion renews a destructive relationship. Max attempts to conceal Lucia from former SS comrades who are eliminating witnesses to their crimes, and the pair retreat into his apartment while the group keeps watch.

Discussant: Bruce Sklarew, MD

March 15: That Obscure Object of Desire

1977 · 100 minutes

Adapted from Pierre Louÿs’s 1898 novel La Femme et le Pantin, the film was Luis Buñuel’s thirtieth and final feature. Told in flashback to a group of railway travelers, it follows Mathieu, a wealthy middle-aged Frenchman who falls desperately in love with his 19-year-old former chambermaid, Conchita.

A surreal contest follows as Mathieu pursues Conchita, she manipulates his desire, and each attempts to gain control over the other.

Discussant: Richard Waugaman, MD

April 5: Elegy

2008

Cultural critic David Kepesh has separated himself from romantic and familial commitments when a 24-year-old student reawakens his sexual excitement. Adapted from Philip Roth’s novel The Dying Animal, Isabel Coixet’s drama explores obsession and the relationship between a respected professor, played by Ben Kingsley, and a graduate student, played by Penélope Cruz. As the relationship deepens, her beauty challenges the professor’s ego. Dennis Hopper and Patricia Clarkson co-star.

Discussant: Julio Szmuilowicz, MD

Continuing Education

Educational Objectives

1. Identify selected psychoanalytic concepts and issues related to film characters and relationships.
2. Use psychoanalytic theory to understand or “read” the films’ texts, subtexts, and narrative devices.

The program is intended for Center members, mental health professionals and trainees who use psychoanalytic therapy, and other individuals interested in applying psychoanalytic principles to film.

Medical Education

The activity was planned through joint sponsorship involving the American Psychoanalytic Association, which is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education. The live activity was designated for a maximum of 21 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits. Physicians were instructed to claim credit only in proportion to their participation.

Disclosure: The page states that none of the program’s planners or presenters had relevant financial relationships to disclose.

Psychology and Social Work

The Washington Center for Psychoanalysis states that it is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists and that it maintains responsibility for the program and its content. The program offered a maximum of 21 credit hours.

The Center also states that its programs meet continuing education criteria defined by social-work examining bodies in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, as well as the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work. The program designated three social-work credit hours per meeting, up to a maximum of 21 hours.