Film Studies Essay

How can the theories of Lacan and Freud be interpreted in films through the use of cinematic techniques?

In almost all films created since they first were shown to the public, no matter what genre, you can find psychoanalytical theories be implemented, whether they be implemented by accident or through choice of the director. It is said that "film has stunned us by its seeming capacity to reproduce reality transparently." (Film Studies critical approaches 2000) and by being able to add these theories to film adds to the verisimilitude and heightens the realism. These theories can be found implemented in almost any film created, I however will be looking at three films in particular that fit the two theories I will study. The theories in question are Freud's theory of the Id, Ego, and SuperEgo or how I will continue to refer to it as the Freudism theory for simplicity. The other theory that I will look at in relation to the films will be Jacques Lacans theory of the mirror stage and 'Lack'. Now the films that I believe these two theories apply to will be; 'Whiplash' released 2014 directed by Damien Chazelle, 'Fight Club' released 1999 directed by David Fincher, and 'Mother' released 2017 directed by Darren Aronofsky.

Firstly we'll look at the representation of Freud's theory in the movie 'Fight Club', now I feel that This film represents the theory best purely because it's story and narrative is designed to fit the theory almost perfectly. To go into more detail the film centers around the protagonist who develops a personality disorder, and this other personality ends up fitting the id from Freuds theory exactly. The protagonists Id acts upon desires and doesn't care at all about consequences, which fits Freuds description, "The id is the source of all instinctual energy" (Freud and Psychoanalysis 1983) suggesting it acts upon instinct and desires or the human body. Throughout 'Fight Club' the character Tyler is the physical and mental representation of the id, and for example one specific scene that shows this well is when the 'Narrator' is breaking 4th wall and talking to the audience about what it is that Tyler does, he mentions that Tyler urinates in the mushroom soup at the restaurant before giving it to the rich snobs. in this scene the Narrator is in a mid shot centered in the camera with Tyler stood off to the side. With the Narrator talking to us we know that we are inside of his head and by Tyler being shoved off to the side it suggests the narrators state of mind as drifting off from focus moving side to side between superego and id  Now because we eventually know that all of this is inside of the Narrators we can begin to see that this was clearly one of his inner desire to be rebellious that the Narrator has, hating the upper class and wanting them to suffer in some way, but never actually acting upon it himself and instead letting his subconscious id do it for him. Now while the Narrators id shows can show his state of mind whenever the id acts rebellious, it can also be argued that other unique things in 'Fight Club' such as the house that features a prominent part in the movie, which you can debate to say that it represents the state of mind of the Narrator, and we can see this clearly in the mine-en-scene when we first see the house, as it is old and decaying, suggesting that the Narrators mind has broken down and slowly decayed to what we see with the house. It is inside of this house that we get the most interactions between the id, ego and superego, like in the scene when the 'Narrator' is scrubbing his shirt in the sink we see how he as the ego interacts with his id and superego, he even mentions how "Marla and Tyler are never in the same room" showing how his id and superego never interact together only with himself as the ego. We can then go on to see how Marla fits the archetype of the superego for the 'Narrator' as Freud describes it as "The superego becomes and important source of inner conflict as moral teaching and the demands made by parents in western society" (Freud and Psychoanalysis 1983) Marla in Fight Club is the inner conflict that the Narrator suffers from as he is constantly torn between her and Tyler, and due to the lack of a father figure for the narrator he doesn't get the guidance that Freud talks about with demands from western parents, so because of that lack of a father figure he is always made to choose his id, which is shown when he creates fight club, then project mayhem, and it isn't till he realises that he's become his id that he finally chooses Marla to help him. We see evidence of Marla being the superego when she tries to take control of the 'Narrator' in the scrubbing scene as she hugs him from behind with the medium shot, shows that she wants to control him, but the later close up on the cigarette in the suggestive position shows how even the superego is influenced by the id and can't resist desires and natural instinct.


We can apply Freuds theory to the movie 'Mother' too however it is less obvious and not easily noticeable in the story as it is with 'Fight Club', in fact it is fair to say that 'Mother' is a lot more liquid like when it comes to being interpreted by the audience as the The theory can be interpreted in many different ways. I like to think that the house itself can be interpreted as the ego, being the place where the subconscious id and superego live in. The superego can be interpreted as 'Mother' and the id being the guests and visitors that come to the house, and we can interpret this from the scene where they host the dinner party after Kane kills his brother. The house is where it all takes place as the camera is constantly panning around the house and showing the strain on the house, therefore we can assume that the house represents the mind as it's the ego, the character Mother is clearly the superego as she attempts to prevent people from ruining the house, we see through the tracking shots of her that she shouts and complains about the people who are sitting on the hardtop, as she knows the risk of sitting on it. The guests that sit on the counter are clearly the id as they act upon their desire, they want to sit so they do but they do't care about the consequences that the superego warns them about, then the inevitable happens, the mid shot with the camera centered on the counter, it shows the first sign of house beginning to decay from the id as the counter breaks off and the superego panicking about the irreparable damage. Now that is just one way of interpreting the theory in 'Mother', another way that could be argued for the interpretation of the Freud theory is that the individual levels of the house represent the id, ego and superego. The id being the basement of the house as we see it in the shots with low key lighting, and eerie diegetic sounds giving that tense and uneasy feeling of chaos being there. Then you have the ground floor being the ego, it is shown in low key lighting as well and high key lighting suggesting how it switches between the id and superego as they fight for control, and it is where the most damage to the house occurs. Then of course finally is the superego being represented as the upper floors of the house, for example when we see the wide long shot of the husbands office it's in high key lighting with medals and accomplishments on the walls, and it is where they consider to be safe among the chaos of the later acts. We can go further into this when we look at the scene when the guests break the crystal in the office, lighting becomes darker and the sound becomes tenser, as the husband locks off his office meaning now that only the id has control over the ego. This goes deeper as with the scene when Kane kills his brother the blood seeps through to basement, allowing the id to fully have access to the ego, we see from the long shot of mother standing under the light, that is the only source of brightness in the basement, it blows out suggesting that now there is no sign of the superego, just the id.

Now moving onto Lacans theory we're going to be looking at 'Whiplash' as I feel it allows for good interpretation of the Mirror Stage from the characters. Now 'Whiplash' doesn't directly mention the theory but the use of some techniques allow for the interpretation of the theory from the narrative. I think the scene where he goes through a practice montage almost trying to learn the song, is a good example of the mirror stage in 'Whiplash'. Firstly the fact that it is set out as a montage to show a passage of time as he spends most of his days and the hours in those days practicing one song in order to be perfect at it shows his desire to be the best drummer, and along with this montage we get the mix of diegetic and non-diegetic sound of the actual song being played, with it being diegetic when we see him physically practicing, and when he's not it's non-diegetic. This suggests that no matter what he's doing, his desire to play this song the best is stuck in his head, it's taken him over and it's all that he strives for, and "according to Lacan, we are born into a condition of 'lack', and subsequently spend the rest of our lives trying to overcome this condition." (Storey, 2001) To further support the idea that the main character is experiencing from this lack we can see in the next few shots with an  extreme close up on his hand where he has injured himself through relentless practicing, and then a reaction shot with a close up of his face, where we see how he is barely fazed by the fact he has injured himself and see it just as an annoyance preventing him from achieving his desire to fill that lack. Another good scene that shows how the idea of lack can take control is the car crash scene, we get quick jump cuts between everything he does showing us the rush he is in and how willing he is to try and fill his lack that we don't have time to see the specifics, and then there's the extreme close ups on the digital clock between them once again reinforcing the idea that he he is desperate to achieve his desire. We then get the actual crash, which is shot from a side profile of the character to show us what's coming and how unaware he has become of his surroundings. This once again plays into that idea of being so absorbed into his desire that he loses any sense of self preservation.

In conclusion, the theories of Freud and Lacan do not need to be deliberately included by the director, and can be interpreted in any way by the audience due to how they are shown through the use of cinematic techniques. In Fight Club we see Freuds theory shown through the use of character archetypes and how they fit the archetypes in Freuds theory. In Mother it is a lot more fluid about it's interpretation and can be applied to a lot of different things through devices such as the mise-en-scene, and audio. In Whiplash, Lacans theory can be interpreted also due to the mise-en-scene and audio. So therefore just by use of cinematic techniques we can interpret psychoanalytical theories from films, no matter how they are represented or interpreted.