Film, Lacan and the Subject of Religion This page intentionally left blank Film, Lacan and the Subject of Religion A Psychoanalytic Approach to Religious Film Analysis Steve Nolan Continuum International Publishing Group The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane 11 York Road Suite 704 London SE1 7NX New York NY 10038 www.continuumbooks.com © Steve Nolan 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-0-8264-2760-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nolan, Steve. Film, Lacan and the subject of religion: a psychoanalytic approach to religious fi lm analysis/Steve Nolan. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. ISBN: 978-0-8264-2760-1 (hb) 1. Motion pictures--Religious aspects. 2. Motion pictures--Psychological aspects. 3. Motion pictures--Ethical and moral aspects. 4. Religion in motion pictures. 5. Lacan, Jacques, 1901–1981. I. Title. PN1995.5N65 2009 205'.65--dc22 2008048872 Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group to the man who came before and the men who come after thank you for giving and sharing my love of fi lm to Jack, David and Daniel This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Abbreviations x Introduction 1 An Overview 3 With Thanks 6 Part One: Current Approaches to Religious Film Analysis Introduction to Part One 9 1 Phenomenological Interpretations: Film as Sacrament 11 André Bazin: The Parameters of Cinematic Protestantism 11 Paul Schrader: ‘Protestant cinematic sacramentalism’ 12 Other Cinematic Sacramentalists: Cunneen, Bird and Fraser 14 Critique of Cinematic Style as Sacrament 15 Two Other Phenomenological Interpretations: Martin and Thompson 16 2 Literary Interpretations: Film as Visual Story 20 The Auteur in Theological Film Criticism: Kreitzer 22 The Missed Point of the Emerging Orthodoxy: Deacy 25 3 Anthropological Interpretations: Film as Religion 28 Lyden: ‘fi lm itself functions as a religion’ 28 Marsh: ‘the religion-like function of fi lm’ 32 Part Two: Representation in Liturgy and Film Introduction to Part Two 39 4 Liturgical Representation: ‘Others’, Narratives and Ideological ‘Realities’ 43 The Liturgical ‘other’: Priestly Representation 44 Sacramental Narrative of the Cross 47 Participation in the Ideological ‘Reality’ of Episcopal/Ecclesial Authority 54 viii Contents 5 Cinematic Representation: ‘Others’, Narratives and Ideological ‘realities’ 58 The Cinematic ‘Other’: The Film Star/Hero 59 ‘Ordinary guy/extraordinary situation’: The Overcoming-the-Other Narrative 62 Soviet satellites 63 Islamist militants 64 Participation in the Ideological ‘Reality’ of Hollywood Realism 66 The Siege (1998) 72 Part Three: What Can Film Theory Offer Liturgy? Introduction to Part Three 79 6 Cinematic Identifi cation: Suture and Narrative Space 80 Cinematic Perspective and Narrative Space 80 Jean-Pierre Oudart and Stephen Heath: Suturing the Subject in Cinematic Discourse 83 Slavoj Žižek: When Suture Fails 87 Critique of the Subject Sutured in Cinematic Discourse 90 7 Suturing Suture: Joining the Theory Together 94 Cinematic Impression of Reality as Unconscious Effect 95 Symbolic reality, Imaginary reality and the Real of the subject’s truth 96 Imagos and the representational nature of the complex 97 Anamnesis: the subject’s participation in the impression of reality 100 Mapping imaginary reality to cinema’s impression of reality 102 Cinematic Discourse and Lacan’s Linguistic Theory of Dreams 104 The (overdetermined) ‘Thing’: ‘dumb reality’ and (forbidden) objet petit a 104 Lacan’s linguistic theory of dreams 106 The signifi er as representative not signifi cant 108 The repeated Real, the Real as missed encounter 110 Mapping unconscious desire to cinematic discourse 112 Suturing Identity with a Cinematic Other, Suturing Subjectivity 114 Identifi cation with represented desire: a ‘genetic theory of the ego’ 114 Libidinal investment, narcissistic identifi cation: ‘dialectic of identifi cation’ 115 The confusion of identity: jealousy, paranoiac knowledge and transitivism 117 Procuring subjectivity: circulating the ‘rim’ and superimposing the lack 119 Procuring subjectivity: the double operation of the ‘rim’ 119 Representation and the fading of the subject 120 Procuring subjectivity: the superimposition of the two lacks 121 Contents ix Modes of subject identifi cation: the Ideal-I and the ego-ideal 123 Symmetrical identifi cations: Imaginary projection and Symbolic introjection 124 Mapping suture to identifi cation with a cinematic other 126 8 Suturing Religious Identity in the Sacramental Narrative 131 Identifi cation with the Priest as a Liturgical Representation 132 Constructing the priest as a liturgical representation 132 Priestly representation (i): a fi ction sustained by erotic attraction 136 The Mission (1986) 136 Priestly representation (ii): a fi ction sustained by negation/disavowal 139 Father John McNeill 139 The worshipper’s solipsistic identifi cation with priestly representation 141 Joining the Narrative and Participating in Its ‘Reality’ 144 Signifying for: the reinscription of desire into the sacramental narrative 144 The Exorcist (1973) 144 On the Waterfront (1954) 146 The Fugitive (1947) 148 The worshipper’s participation as a subject of Episcopal/ecclesial ‘reality’ 150 By Way of Analysis 155 Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan) 156 Bewitched (Nora Ephron) 159 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Tim Burton) 162 Conclusion: A Third Task – Moving beyond the ‘So what!’ 165 Notes 167 Bibliography 185 Bibliography of Religion and Film 185 Select Bibliography 196 Indexes 207 Author Index 207 Film Index 209 Subject Index 211