Lacan in Grizzly Man

Lacan's theory of the 'Lack' is that all humans constantly search for perfection however we will always be one step away from this level of perfect as once we gain something we want there is always something else we want more. This is present in this scene from Grizzly Man where the mise en scene of the dialogue tells the audience that hurricane like winds are building yet he still chooses to remain in the wilderness. This shows that he is risking his own life to stay with the bears. Timothy Treadwell's 'Lack' is the need to be seen as a bear and fit in with life in the wilderness. You could argue that his other lack is the need to be famous as he is filming himself.
The subtitle at the start of this scene shows his dedication to living in the wild as it tells us that this was the last shot of him alive and that hours later he was dead. The footage itself is blurred due to the rain covering the camera, this shows the verisimilitude of the film. Another technical feature that highlights the verisimilitude is the use of the hand held camera and the use of the rocks as a tripod which also shows that Timothy Treadwell wants his survival to be even more impressive as he is living with only his camera and the bears. Timothy Treadwell only uses the natural lighting that he has available to him on the island as he wants to be at one with the bears and not scare them away with lights.

Video explaining Mulvey's theory

Video explaining Lacan's theory

Video explaining Freud's Theory

Films I will use in my presentation

Freud-
Ferris Bueller's Day Off:
I have chosen to focus on this film as it follows Freud's theory of the 'ID' the 'Ego' and the 'Superego'. The three main characters of the film fit into these roles, these are: Ferris Bueller as the ID, Sloane as the Ego and Cameron as the Superego. I will be using the parade scene for my presentation as It highlights the characters as these three roles. Ferris flaunts the fact he is skipping school by performing on a float in a parade drawing all of the attention on himself. Cameron initially tries to stop Ferris from doing this but then allows him to carry on. Sloane appears impressed and laughs as Ferris performs at the parade.

Lacan-
Grizzly Man:

Grizzly Man is documentary about Timothy Treadwell, who voluntarily lived in the wild with bears. Timothy filmed himself talking about and to the bears he was around. Timothy is in close proximity to the bears. Timothy lives up to Lacan's theory of 'The Lack' as he wants to be accepted by the bears as one of them. However he never achieved this as the bears natural instinct is to hunt its prey, which in this case was Timothy.


Mulvey-
Easy A:

Easy A is about a girl, Olive, who helps boost her male friends reputations by pretending that she has slept with them. She wears a scarlet A on her chest to relate to the book 'A Scarlet Letter'. 'A Scarlet Letter' is a book about a women who has an illegitimate child and has to live with the guilt of her sin. Olive has to deal with being called derogatory names by her classmates due to the rumours of her sleeping around.

Basic history of psychoanalysis

Bibliography

Films:

The Breakfast Club (1985) Directed by John Hughes .

Die Another Day (2002) Directed by Lee Tamahori .

Grizzly Man (2005) Directed by Werner Herzog .

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1987) Directed by John Hughes .

Easy A (2010) Directed by Will Gluck .

Website:
http://www.biography.com/people/sigmund-freud-9302400 (Accessed: 6 December 2016).

Books:

Butler, A. (2005b) ‘psychoanalysis’, in Film studies. London, United Kingdom: Pocket Essentials, .

Essay:Mulvey, L. (1975) Visual pleasure and Narrative cinema 

Mulvey in James Bond

Lee Tamahori's  2002 film 'Die Another Day' conforms to Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory. 'Die Another Day' is part of the James Bond franchise. James Bond is very famous for it's convention of using stereotypically beautiful women to play the romantic interest to the male protagonist. These females are known as the 'Bond Girls'. These 'Bond Girls' have become iconic for things such as: appearance, clothing or how they die. The very first Bond Girl, Ursula Andress, is known for the white bikini she wears rather than her acting skills or her role in the film. The white bikini has become iconography for the 'Bond Girl' convention.

At the start of the scene where the audience are first introduced to Halle Berry's character 'Jinx' Bond is stood at a bar on a beach. Bond looks through a pair of Binoculars, as soon as he does this a point of view shot is used to position the audience to only see what Bond sees. As the point of view shot begins the non diegetic sound of violins, which give a romantic sound to the scene. Bond then removes the binoculars and a long shot is used to reveal a silhouette of Jinx's head in the sea. A mid reaction shot then reveals that Bond saw Jinx in the sea and he looks through the binoculars again. The point of view shot now positions the audience to look at Jinx as she stands up. A mid shot is used, however her head is almost cut out of the frame as the camera fragments her body to just her chest. This relates to Mulvey's Male Gaze theory specifically her scopophilia theory and that  due to her idea of the camera being male as the females in the audience are forced to view Jinx in the same way that Bond is, voyeuristically.  This is also shown through the use of slow-motion, which elongates the time the audience look at Jinx in the voyeuristic way. The lighting used is high key and shining behind Jinx so that she appears almost angelic, however this also makes it difficult to see her face and draws the audience's attention to her chest.

Laura Mulvey

Film fascinates us (engages our emotions) through images and spectacle.

Mulvey uses psychoanalysis ‘to discover where and how the fascination of film is reinforced by pre-existing patterns of fascination already at work within the individual subject’= spectator.

She says she is using psychoanalytical theory ‘as a political weapon’

Hollywood/mainstream/narrative cinema manipulates visual pleasure.

It ‘codes the erotic into the language of the dominant patriarchal society.’

Scopophilia- pleasure in looking( Sigmund Freud 1905 in Three Essays’)

Examples of the private and curious gaze: children’s voyeurism, cinematic looking.

The most pleasurable looking= looking at the human form and the human face, figural looking. (psychic patterns)

‘Woman as image. Man as bearer of the look’

Pleasure in looking split between active/male and passive/female.

Women connote’ to be looked at ness)

The visual presence of women ‘works against the development of a storyline, freezes the flow of action in moments of erotic contemplation.’

The woman functions as both erotic object for the characters within the screen story and erotic object for the spectator within the auditorium (object of fantasy)

The spectator is led to identify with the main male protagonist

Lacan Theory

Initially Lacan proposed that the mirror phase was part of an infant’s development from 6 to 18 months.

By the early1950’s, Lacan’s concept had changed. He no longer considered the phase as a moment of life but as representing a permanent structure of subjectivity, or as the paradigm of ‘imaginary order.’

Lacan created the idea of ‘Lack’ and that is causes desires to arise.

“Desire is a relation to being to ‘lack’. The ‘lack’ is the lack of being properly speaking. It is not lack of this or that, but lack of being whereby the being exists.”

similar to the ID acting on the hedonistic lifestyle ‘lack’ relates to the ego.

‘The moment you get what you seek, you will want something else.”

Freud

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who founded and developed the idea of psychoanalysis.  Freud believed that “Dreams are the royal road to unconscious” and that they contained important clues into the human psyche (Weiter, 2004:195)  much of his initial research methods involved questioning his patients on their dream experiences and using their descriptions as a means of uncovering their true motivations.

“Film operates on much the same principle… film speaks directly to the unconscious, the language of dreams is one that is not an abstract form of communication such as narrative, but is one that is filled with images they carry hidden meanings on a latent level. Just so is the language of film organized so that only a part of film.”

Therefore the nature that is film can be deconstructed in order to unveil a universal understanding of our thoughts and behaviours that through identification. 

Freud's theory in The Breakfast Club

Freud believed that people could be split into three different categories: the ID, the Ego and the Superego.

ID: Most primitive, irrational and emotional, selfish concerned with self-satisfaction. Pleasure and instant gratification. Key word: Want

Ego: Reality principle, tries to meet the basic needs of the ID, But also takes into account the real world. Key word: Balance


Superego: : Based on moral principles. Key Words: morals, compromise.

There are many film texts where these tropes are used, these include: Star Trek, Shrek, Beauty and the Beast and Avatar. 

One film where these tropes are present is The Breakfast Club. Throughout the films these characters fall into Freud's tropes:

ID: Bender- Bender says exactly what he wants to who he wants without a care for the consequences of his actions. He is anti-authority and regularly clashes with the superego. 

Superego: Andy- Andy tries to restore the order of the group after Bender constantly threatens it. 

Ego: Brian- Brian tries to balance out the superego and the ID's disagreement by reasoning with them , which doesn't work.
In the scene below the ID, Bender, is mocking Claire because of her virginity. At this point we hear the superego's, Andy, voice from off camera telling him to "Leave her alone". A reaction shot of Bender is then used to show him scowling and looking at Claire up and down. A jump cut then shows us Andy walking into frame and staring at Bender and Claire whilst repeating "Leave her alone". As Andy continues to walk forward Brian, the superego, comes into frame looking nervous at what is happening. A mid reaction shot is then used showing Bender looking annoyed as he says "You gonna make me?". A jump cut to a wide shot of Brian and Andy is then used to show us their reactions to this, Brian is slouched and still looks nervous and unsure whilst Andy is standing tall with his head high with a blank expression, showing he isn't scared of Bender, he then replies to Bender "Yeah". A close up then shows the audience Bender looking confused at the fact that Andy doesn't back down from the stand off.  A wide shot then shows the audience Bender and Andy standing face to face however Brian is sat between the two looking nervous and unable to help as the two go head to head. Andy physically gets Bender onto the floor and tries to hold him down . However the Andy soon lets go after Bender appears to give up the fight. A long shot is then used to show the audience that Bender has a flick knife. A jump cut is then used and we see a mid shot of Andy's face looking unsure of how he can stop Bender. Bender then stabs the knife into a chair to show his primitive nature and his lack of respect for his surroundings.  The lighting throughout this scene and the rest of the film is artificial as they are inside the library and are stuck inside the school all day.