AN EXAMINATION OF PSYCHOANALYTIC AND

SEMIOTIC FILM THEORY USING

METROPOLIS, BLADE RUNNER AND THE MATRIX

A CASE STUDY
by
Jonathan Zogby

Submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
in
Liberal Studies

Empire State College

State University of New York
2012

First Reader: Mark Soderstrom

Second Reader: Marianne Arieux

 UMI Number: 1508289

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 Zogby i

Abstract

Millions of viewers enjoy films every day. Whether we are consciously aware or unconsciously

unaware film images elicit emotions within viewers. They do this by providing visual

representations of abstract ideas such as conscious and unconscious elements of the human mind.

By producing images through the aid of technology (computer generated imagery in post-

production) and in-camera techniques (editing and shot selection), along with lighting and set-

design, images are enhanced and presented to viewers in a stylistic and realistic manner. By

applying psychoanalytic theories such as those espoused by Freud, Lacan and Jung, along with

the Semiotic theories of Roland Barthes, readers can explore how images can take on forms of

repressed aspects of the unconscious and present very interesting and entertaining readings of

classic films such as Metropolis, Blade Runner and The Matrix.

 Zogby ii

Table of Contents

Abstract i

Introduction 1

Chapter One: A Short History of Film Studies 4

Chapter Two: Freudian Theory and Films 9

Chapter Three: Lacanian Theory and Films 16

Chapter Four: Semiotics and Films 26

Chapter Five: Jungian Theory and Films 33

Chapter Six: Metropolis 42

Chapter Seven: Blade Runner 58

Chapter Eight: The Matrix 71

Conclusion 86

Works Cited 88
 Zogby 1

Introduction:

Almost everyone who has ever watched a film has experienced some sort of emotional

reaction, whether it’s laughter, sorrow, or excitement. Viewers who experience such emotions

while watching films are never consciously aware of how or why these feelings develop inside of

them. The issue has been addressed by theorists and researchers of film theories, who during the

last half century have outlined how and why viewers experience emotions while viewing film

images. Film Studies has only been treated as a serious academic field on the university level

since the 1960’s. Since then most research regarding films’ signifying capabilities has been

rooted in Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic schools of thought. This was the result of a tendency

starting in the 1970’s to utilize psychoanalysis and Semiotics in film studies to provide a

philosophical basis for the conceptualization of spectators. Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic

theories have provided vibrant and interesting interpretations of how film images signify

meaning and how they emotionally interact with spectators. They have also provided vibrant

analyses of the how film images relate to dreams, the unconscious, sexuality, philosophy, and

linguistics. Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic theories explain how film texts foster deep rooted

emotional expressions in spectators from an intellectual framework.

Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic theories provide excellent models through which films

can be interpreted, but it is also important that the psychoanalytic theories of Carl Jung be

included in the pantheon of influential theories which have come to dominate the field of film

studies because he provides an interesting new dimension of the emotional affect that occurs

between images and viewers. Although spectators can be perceived to be in a dream-like or

passive state while viewing film images, they are actually engaging in a complex and reciprocal
 Zogby 2

relationship in which film images construct meaning and viewers decipher codes, signs and

symbols embedded in film images, which when analyzed in the context of Jungian

psychoanalytic theory, provide for rich emotionally affective readings of films. By utilizing

Jungian theories pertaining to archetypes, the anima and animus and the collective

unconscious, there will also be a clear picture of how other elements of films such as technique

and technology play vital roles in the ability of film images to illicit viewers’ emotions. Jungian

psychoanalytic theory is an excellent avenue by which spectators and film images interact on

many important levels. I will examine groundbreaking film theories and films such as Metropolis

(1927), Blade Runner (1982) and The Matrix (1999) to provide rich examples and detail of how

films utilize film techniques and technologies to construct meaning in the form of aesthetically

pleasing imagery, and comment on themes such as apocalypse, technology as a form of

oppression, and technology in relation to ones’ identity.

First, the following chapters will analyze Freudian, Lacanian and Film Semiotic theories

in their own right and how they document the signifying process that occurs between film texts

and viewers. Besides each theory’s contributions and importance to the field of film studies, the

following research will examine the important aspects of each psychoanalytic theory that have

been applied to film interpretations such as Freud’s infantile stages, dreams and the unconscious;

Lacan’s mirror phase, desire and the phallus, and Film Semiotics use of myths.

Second, this paper will also provide Jungian readings of each film with the goal of

analyzing how Jung’s psychoanalytic theories of archetypes, the anima and animus, the shadow,

and the collective unconscious deserve more consideration through which academics and
 Zogby 3

scholars can interpret film texts due to their identification of the emotional affect film images

have on spectators. The different dimensions that Jungian theories provide concerning the

emotional relationship between images and viewers also permits for more value to be placed on

the technical and technological applications of filmmakers, which also have a hand in creating

film texts which are laden with emotionally rich material.

Chapter one will document the genesis of film studies and provide a short historiography

of how the field came to be influenced by theorists Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Roland

Barthes and Christian Metz. Chapters Two, Three, Four, and Five respectively will discuss

Freudian, Lacanian, Semiotic and Jungian theories’ meaning and significance in the previously

mentioned films. Chapters Six, Seven and Eight are dedicated to exploring the meaning signified

in Metropolis, The Matrix and Blade Runner through the lens of each corresponding school of

thought. Each film also presents excellent examples of film’s technical and technological

advances and how they have helped to create innovative ways to express ideals and motifs on the

big screen, which have an impact on viewers’ unconscious and emotions. Lastly, Chapter Nine

will analyze how Jungian theory can be applied films and provide analysis relating to the

construction of meaning and how images laden with archetypes, the anima and animus and the

shadow produce a free flowing movement of ideas, which in turn rouse deep seated emotions in

the conscious and unconscious elements of viewers’ psyches.

 Zogby 4

Chapter One: A Short History of Film Studies

Film theory has been in existence since the early days of silent filmmaking which

occurred at the dawn of the twentieth century. It has always had a presence as a topic of

discussion amongst critics and academics, but it has not always been treated as a serious topic of

study at the university level. Film Theory became acknowledged as a serious field of study at the

university level only in the late 1960’s. Most academic study has occurred in Europe, where

French film theorist, Jean Mitry “took film studies out of the era of the club and into that of the

university” in the 1950’s (Andrews 54). The influences and subject matter within film studies

have run a wide gamut over the years and the field has drawn inspiration from other inter-

disciplinary studies such as literary criticism, psychoanalysis, linguistics and semiotics.

Film Theory first became prominent in the silent era of filmmaking, due to advanced

theories and techniques of influential filmmakers, Sergei Eisenstein, Dziga Vertov, and Jean

Epstein. It was also heavily influenced by other theorists such as Sigfried Kracauer, Rudolph

Arnheim, and Bela Balazs during the 1940’s and 1950’s. These filmmakers and theorists were

labeled expressionist because they saw film images as differing from reality and film constituted

an art form. They subscribed to pioneering theories that focus on the formal and technical

elements of a film, and which have the effect of blurring the boundaries between reality and

fantasy (Monaco 395-400). These filmmakers and their theories felt that the utilization of

editing, lighting, color, and a wider screen enormously strengthen the illusion of reality. Jean

Mitry described the effect that film images have on viewers as the "wow" experience. The

“wow” experience entails how cinema elevates us from the everyday; “presenting a vivid

concrete world of ‘other’ experiences, pregnant with symbolic meaning and deep feeling, a
 Zogby 5

world which is ‘same’ but ‘other’” (Lewis ix-x). Eisenstein also expressed how film could be

utilized to connect emotionally with spectators. He is considered one of the most important and

influential contributors to the art of filmmaking. Eisenstein’s most recognized contribution is the

establishment of the technique “montage” editing, where two or more shots, whether related in

subject matter or not, are woven together that creates a third meaning out of the original two

meanings of the adjacent shots. Eisenstein saw relationships between shots as a collision, which

could impact viewers experience in the a way that “every aggressive moment…every

element…that brings to light in the spectator those senses or that psychology that influence his

experience—every element that can be verified and mathematically calculated to produce certain

emotional shocks in a proper order within the totality (Eisenstein 231).

In opposition to the idea that film images can alter reality is film theorist Andre Bazin

who rejected all the commonly accepted notions of film images as creations and expressions of

an art form (Mitry 5). Bazin proposed a radical change of perspective in which he believes in the

objective reality of the filmic image. In opposition to expressionists who felt film images can

manipulate reality, Bazin suggested that film should not exceed limitations such as sound, color,

widescreen, and so forth. He felt physical limitations are precisely its esthetic virtues and

advocated the use of deep focus, wide shots and true continuity, through “mise en scene,” in the

hopes that scenes would be left to the interpretation of the spectator. Mise-en-scene can refer to

whatever is put in front of the camera, the use of props and set-design, or as the information

derived from the use of a single shot and movement of the camera. Bazin felt mise-en-scene is

more realist than editing techniques such as montage because mise-en-scene has higher regard

for the subject in front of camera, while montage editing and other visual techniques can
 Zogby 6

manipulate the subject in front of the camera.

During the 1940’s and 1950’s when cinema, radio and television became the primary

sources of information for individuals, these forms of mass media began to be looked at as

dubious and considered instruments of mass control. Some scholars of mass culture and mass

media see viewers’ relationship with film as passive and one-sided. This theory was adopted by

the Frankfurt School Theorists of mass media, who felt corporate and elitist interests control film

from atop the hierarchical ladder. They also felt that due to new technologies and the mass

consumption of goods and products that a culture industry was produced through the production

of radio, television and films. The Frankfurt school also contended it did not occur to consumers

to question the ideologies being communicated to them. This group of academics included

Theodore Adorno, Max Horkenheimer, Herbert Marcuse and Walter Benjamin. According to

their model of how social implications such as mass media function, viewers are political

subjects of the messages being broadcast to them in different aspects of culture. This seems to be

the prevailing view among some scholars who have written about the relationship between film

and audiences. Scholars who would also come to share this sentiment later on in the 1960’s and

1970’s include Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall, Frank Couvares, and Stuart and Elizabeth

Cohen.

Also, during this era, two of the forefathers of Mass Media studies, Vachel Lindsay and

Marshall McLuhan, saw film more in terms of its universal qualities in terms of internationalism

of filmic language. Vachel Linsday and Marshall McLuhan spoke about film in the context of its

universal and global qualities which offer viewers a new perspectives and visions of the world

(Gunning 57).
 Zogby 7

By the mid 1970’s film theory took up a comfortable residence in academia and

universities by drawing on disciplines and more established fields, such as literary criticism,

psychoanalysis, linguistics, and semiotics. Theorists such as Slavoj Zizek from a psychoanalytic

perspective of Lacan’s “The Real,” have offered new interpretations of the ‘the gaze” (Zizek 34).

Academics who have written about film’s social and psychological meaning during the last forty

years have tended to associate the unconscious roots of mainstream cinema with either the

perversions of the sexual drive, infantile stages, dream states and/or the passive position of

spectators. Film theorists during this period also identified fetishism, voyeurism, and

exhibitionism as cinema's visual regimes (Izod 6). These interpretative theories have their roots

in Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic schools of thought.

These theories and interpretations have provided vivid and fascinating analyses of films

as metaphors for dreams and insight into the unconscious elements of the mind and development

of the psyche, but the result of being influenced by theories espoused by Sigmund Freud, French

sage Jacques Lacan and Semiotician Roland Barthes also have created an environment that

distanced the reader from the feel and emotion of the resembled screen text (Izod 6). In addition

to the inclusion of Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalytic theory during the 1970’s, authors who

analyzed film’s psychological properties, also made the dominant modes of psychoanalytical

film theory derive partly from structural linguistics. What transpired was an offspring of

Structuralism known as Film Semiotics, which justified the study of film as “similar to a

language” or linguistic system, often referred by the French term “la langue.”

The field of Film Studies has always been heavily influenced by outside fields and other

schools of thought. Some academicians have attested this to the field’s overall lack of focus and
 Zogby 8

direction over the years, especially since the 1970’s when film studies saw a confluence of

interpretative theories such as Freudian, Semiotic and Lacanian find their way into essays,

journals and text books. Other observers might argue that in addition to a lack of direction, the

field of film studies has had a short history, which puts the field’s scholarly works still in the

early stages of development. Film as a form of entertainment has only been around a little more

than one-hundred years and the field of film studies has only been taken seriously by academics

since the early 1960’s.

Although Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic theories have provided interesting and vibrant

approaches to explain how viewers’ interpret meaning and emotionally interact with film texts,

Jungian psychoanalytic theories should also command the same respect and be considered

among these popular schools of thought because they too can explore the relationship between

film images and emotional affect through such Jungian concepts as archetypes; the anima and

animus, the collective unconscious and conscious elements of spectators’ psyches. Another

important aspect of Jungian theory is it permits us to include specific film techniques and

technologies employed by filmmakers, which establish an environment that affects a wide array

of viewers’ emotions, as way to better understand the connection between film images and the

emotional experience viewers’ encounter while viewing them.

 Zogby 9

Chapter Two: Freudian Theory and Films

Sigmund Freud was the first to coin the term psychoanalysis and his theories have had

over a century to be analyzed, scrutinized and digested. His concepts and phrases have become a

part of popular culture and have been influential outside of the field of psychoanalysis. This is

also the case in university based film studies, which in the 1970s saw psychoanalysis become the

key discipline called upon to explain a series of diverse concepts regarding the nature of the

relationship between film images and spectators. This was not the first era of film studies to be

interested in Freudian psychoanalysis. The 1920’s through the1930’s saw an interest in Freudian

concepts by surrealist filmmakers such as Salvador Dali and Louis Brunuel. Application of

Freud’s theories and concepts greatly influenced the use of advanced filmic techniques employed

by Dali and Brunuel such as superimposition, screen-splits, dissolves, and fades (Bordwell and

Thompson 412). These techniques helped deal with Freudian topics such dreams and repressed

desires of the unconscious in the narratives of their films. By the 1970’s Freudian psychoanalysis

had been introduced into the field of film studies with the aim of showing how film’s meaning

presents visual examples of emotions and expressions repressed by the unconscious. Many of

Freud's psychoanalytic concepts have been addressed in films and film theories such as the

unconscious; the return of the repressed; Oedipal drama; narcissism; castration; and hysteria.

Possibly his most important contributions were his accounts of the unconscious, subjectivity, and

sexuality. These ideas have influenced film studies by way of psychoanalytic critics exploring

the 'unconscious' of the film text, commonly referred to as the 'subtext,' by analyzing it for

repressed contents, perverse utterances, and evidence of the workings of desire.

 Zogby 10

Sigmund Freud saw a symbol as a sign or symptom of a repressed idea or wish, normally

sexually in origin. Over the years Freudian film theories have paid a great deal of attention to

what is referred to in film theory context as oneiric or "pertaining to dream." Oneiric refers to the

depiction of dream-like states in films, or to the use of the metaphor of a dream or the dream-

state to analyze films. Freud argues images in dreams cover-up secret impulses too disruptive to

be contemplated. (Marinell 87-90). This is an important aspect of Freudian film interpretation

because according to Freud, traumatic memories do not go away, they fester and will repeat

themselves and only banishment of painful, emotionally charged memories in the consciousness

requires an active repressive mechanism operating at an unconscious level.

The dream metaphor for film viewing is “one of the most persistent metaphors in both

classical and modern film theory” (Rascaroli). Scholars such as Roland Barthes, a French

literary critic and semiotician describe film spectators as being in a “para-oneiric” state, feeling

“...sleepy and drowsy as if they had just woken up” when a film ends (Rascaroli). French film

scholar Jean Mitry's seminal text The Aesthetics and Psychology of the Cinema also discuss the

connection between films and the dream state. Freudian concepts, when applied to films, address

the emotions of viewers as byproducts of traces of dreams, reveries, desires, and fears, which in

Freudian film theories investigate repressed aspects of the unconscious. Freud’s theories have

come to be heavily associated with the solution to the meaning of dreams, usually in the form of

a wish unfulfilled. In Freud’s Interpretation of Dreams, dreams provide systematic evidence of

the existence of the unconscious. Usually these wishes are hidden or only partially revealed. This

is what is known as latent content, which usually contains a sexual desire, and is only allowed to

appear if it is disguised in manifest content. Dreams are used in films as way to look into the
 Zogby 11

unconscious elements of the mind, which we as humans cannot see, feel or touch.

Dreams as a form of repressed desires are addressed in the film Un Chien Andalou

(1929). The film utilizes dream logic as form of narrative to examine certain topics and themes.

An example of this occurs when the main character, played by Pierre Batcheff, goes to sleep and

then a title card reads three in the morning. The next shot shows him being awakened by two

arms through a hole in the wall shaking a martini shaker. A young woman answers the door only

to never return and then another young man, also played by Pierre Batcheff, chastises the main

character and forces him to throw away his nun’s clothing. When the scenes is examined in

terms of Freudian psycho-analytic theory, the dream could represent Pierre Batcheff’s repressed

sexual desires for the androgynous looking female character in the film and that society, mainly

the church, is getting in the way of his sexual desires, thus forcing him to repress his sexual

desires. In order to reconcile these feelings he must remove the church from his life, which is

represented in the throwing away of the nun’s outfit at the end of the scene.

Freudian theories relating to dreams are important because they work to identify ways in

which motion pictures mobilize unconscious processes. Another way to examine Freudian

concepts is through the comparison of the filmic experience to that of the dream state, which

came about from theorists who were looking to psychoanalysis for insight, and who made useful

parallels between dreams, darkened theatres and the resulting dizziness experienced by audiences

when leaving the theatre. Freud’s seminal work, The Interpretation of Dreams, outlines how the

unconscious exhibits unruly and disturbing material, which is censored by the super-ego (pre-

consciousness) in the form of dreams. This material reaches the consciousness in an altered form

during the dreams. Freudian film theories draw parallels between the cinematic
 Zogby 12

experience and dreams partly due to the environment in which audiences view films. They argue

viewers tend to exhibit the same cozy and comfortable position of someone engaged in a dream,

where according to Freudian theory, the lax position of the preconscious allows only certain

censored codes to reach the conscious due to the passive and dream like state of viewers. The

passive and false sense of being in a dream state allows for viewers to possibly see their impulses

and desires in films images in a latent form, without their knowing it, but the process may create

opportunities for viewers to make real discoveries about repressed images. All viewers’

experiences will differ but the relaxed environment might open another portal into the

mysterious channels of the unconscious, which we as humans are not conscious of.

When Freudian theories are applied to films they can be used to describe viewers as

being in an environment of isolation in which they lose inhibition, or feel a sense of security as if

they were once again in their mother’s womb, completely dependent on the meanings signified

from film images, similar to the complete and utter dependency of an infant’s early years when

the child’s mother exists only to please the baby at every waking moment. In both Freudian

dream and womb analogies, viewers are in a position of dependency in which film images take

the form of the pleasure a mother would provide for their infants. Freud’s theories address this

dependency on the mother in the oral stage, which represents the first stage of the psycho-sexual

development. The infantile stage ends with the repression of the Oedipus complex by the super-

ego. From about the age of six until puberty, the sex drive seems to disappear, which Freud

labels the latency stage. Ideas associated with a child’s earliest sexual stages are pushed into the

unconscious and stored away, except in the cases of disturbed individuals who exhibit symptoms

such neuroses, fetishes, and fixation, which are common of psychopaths or hysterics. The
 Zogby 13

sexually organized memories of the oral, anal and phallic stages will always influence future

associations and they can be used to analyze the dependent relationship a viewer has on film

images (Appignanesi and Zarate 92). While viewing film images, spectators depend on film

images for satisfaction, much like a child who depends on their mother for satisfaction.

Daniel Dervin’s use of a Freudian assertion to interpret films, which states that the impact

of the primal scene, namely a child witnessing or fantasizing about his parents having sex with

each other, comes at a time when the child is emotionally and mentally ill-equipped to deal with

it, hence it gets repressed. Dervin contends that the scene’s force is so great that it underlies

much of cinema-“the vast imagery in its darkened chamber recalling the parents so much bigger

than the infant in the original nocturnal scene” (Dervin 10-14). Freudian theory is very useful

because it allows to present stark interpretations of images which contain important keys and

answers to the human condition. The genre of science fiction and the fascination with time travel

is also another example of referencing the Freudian primal scene. The idea of leaving Earth

(mother) is a mission to establish an independent sense of self from the mother. Also,

fascinations with gestation, creation and pro-creation are related to the primal scene in the sense

of being able to imagine one’s own conception (Izod 3). Film also presents interesting

opportunities for film texts to express other key events in the psycho-sexual development of

humans, which according to Freud everybody experiences but would really like to forget.

Freud built his theories of surrounding the development of the human sex drive around

the Greek myth of Oedipus. The concept of the Oedipal Complex has been dealt with in film

studies on numerous occasions. Freud’s idea is that part in the early sexual development of
 Zogby 14

humans, in which at the earliest developmental stages of sexual development children will

fantasize about falling in love with the mother and experience jealousy from the father. The

Oedipal riddle addresses both boys and girls on their way to adult sexuality. Both boys and girls

feel they possess phallic power of some sort and the mother becomes their incestuous love

object. In boys there is a fear of the Father, which results in castration anxiety and in girls once

they discover they are the same as mom, repression of incest does not depend on fears of

castration (Appignanesi and Zarate 87-88).

Freud’s theories of Oedipal desires are exemplified in films such as Star Wars and Return

of the Jedi between the characters of Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker whose characters are

father and son. The relationship between Luke and Darth Vader can be examined in the context

of Freud’s Oedipal theory but there are a few twists. Since Luke’s mother died during child birth,

Luke expresses his sexual desires toward his sister Leia. Darth Vader does castrate Luke when he

cuts his hand holding his lightsaber. Ultimately, Luke castrates Vader’s saber hand to protect

Leia from Vader, which is the reversal of Freud’s Oedipal complex. According to Freud, the boy

fears being castrated by his father. The fact that Freud’s Oedipal theory can be explored visually

has the potential to allow for the topic to be placed in a film text for examination and help create

a more meaningful and interesting way in which aspects of the unconscious can be examined.

The topic of life and death is also a classic Freudian concept. Freud’s theory of the Death

Instinct (Thanatos) is an innate self-destructive drive that is not supported by any biological

principle (Rycroft 104). The Death Instinct also contends all individual life moves towards a

natural death, but since living matter is made up of non-living, inorganic matter, maybe there is

an instinct beyond pleasure principle which aims to return to an inanimate state (Freud 380). The
 Zogby 15

topic of life and death is dealt with in many instances in films and it is portrayed very vividly.

Freudian theory is an excellent interpretative model because it takes film texts and

conceptualizes moments in the arc of human life that we can visualize first hand as opposed to

only discussing verbally. This leads Freudian theories to be used as a decipherer of the images,

symbols and signs within the unconscious.

In 1923 Freud proposed a new dynamic model of the mind (Appiganesi and Zarate 155).

He always felt neurosis were unresolved conflicts between conscious and repressed unconscious

desires. But he could not explain how the repression happened in the first place. This led him to

deduce that the human personality has several dynamic features with specific internal and

structural roles. These internal elements refer to the id, ego, and superego. The id represents

primary urges, but the ego development is imprinted by the instinctual structure of libido (mouth,

anus and genitals) (Appignanesi and Zarate 156). The ego is the guide in reality, and acts as an

inhibiting agency. Its function is unconscious and its primary role is to repress and mediate the

id’s urges and desires (Appignanesi and Zarate 157). The super-ego is the result of a defensive

effort which prohibits the expression of Oedipal wishes and acts as a conscience and sense of

morality (Sedat 109). Film has provided a major platform and way to not only visually present

the buried desires, traumas, and repressions of the unconscious, but also put them in context so

that we can understand them clearly and without stigma. The visual representation of repressed

desires, urges and fears will help viewers possibly understand the emotional baggage they carry

on a daily basis and where these feelings emanate from.

 Zogby 16

Chapter Three: Lacanian Theory and Films

Beginning in the 1970’s film studies experienced a shift in influence and saw the

application of theories associated with psychoanalysis take shape in academic works. These new

interpretative theories created a stir within certain fields and influenced a whole generation of

thinkers. Also, during this time authors who analyzed film’s psychological properties, made one

of the dominant modes of psychoanalytical film theory derived partly from the French

psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, and applied his theories and concepts and the experience of

watching films. These new concepts derived partly from Lacan’s variant of psychoanalysis (a

reexamination of Freudian theories), which came to be favored by the influential cinematic

studies journal Screen (Humphries 9-11). The journal Screen, along with prominent film

theorists, Laura Mulvey and Christian Metz, incorporated Lacanian psychoanalysis in the mid-

to-late 1970’s as a way of revealing how patriarchal construction and repression were

incorporated into films and how films came to represent an ideological and institutional

apparatus.

Lacanian psychoanalysis has influenced film theory in a number of eclectic ways and

incorporates the concepts of psychoanalysis in a variety of ways. Laura Mulvey utilized theories

of Lacan to argue a feminist criticism of Hollywood films of the 1950’s and 1960’s. In her

seminal essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, the viewer is seen as the subject of a

"gaze” that is largely constructed by the film itself, where what is on screen becomes the object

of that subject's desire. The viewing subject may be offered particular identifications (usually

with a leading male character) from which to watch. Mulvey argued that in a world ordered by

sexual imbalance the role of making things happen usually fell to the male protagonist, while the
 Zogby 17

female star occupied a more passive position, functioning as an erotic object for the desiring look

of the male leading character and spectator (Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,

www.wiki.brown.edu). Mulvey’s belief is that woman signified image, a figure to be looked at

and desired, while man controlled the look. She also states that, although the form and figure of

woman was displayed for the enjoyment of the male protagonist, and, by extension, the male

spectator in the cinema, the female form was also threatening because it invoked man's

unconscious anxieties about sexual difference and castration, which symbolizes a male child’s

fears of the Father and woman’s phallic power (Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,

www.wiki.brown.edu). Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema addresses Lacan’s theories

relating to the “mirror stage,” women’s phallic power and subsequent removal of the phallus as a

way to describe the patriarchal relationship between society and cinema. “Jacques Lacan has

described how the moment when a child recognizes its own image in the mirror is crucial for the

constitution of the ego” (Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, www.wiki.brown.edu).

He equates the mirror stage with an “identification . . . namely, the transformation that takes

place in the subject when he assumes an image,” although the child thinks he recognizes himself,

there is misrecognition due to the child’s image reflected and conceived body of self as a

superior version of itself and an ideal ego (Lacan, The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function

of the I as revealed in Psychoanalytic Experience, www.rlwclarke.net).

Mulvey argues “quite apart from the extraneous similarities between screen and mirror

(the framing of the human form in its surroundings, for instance), the cinema has structures of

fascination strong enough to allow temporary loss of ego while simultaneously reinforcing the

ego. The sense of forgetting the world as the ego has subsequently come to perceive it (I forgot
 Zogby 18

who I am and where I was) is nostalgically reminiscent of that pre-subjective moment of image

recognition” (Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, www.wiki.brown.edu). Thus, by

forcing female characters in Hollywood films into positions within scenes that present “the

woman as icon, displayed for the gaze and enjoyment of men,” male characters and spectators

(who experience castration anxiety), remind female characters through strong sexual gazes,

fetishes and voyeuristic impulses, that they do not possess a penis. The gazes and perverse

actions of male characters counteract the female phallus and eliminate their threat of castration to

the male subjects and spectators of films (Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,

www.wiki.brown.edu).

Laura Mulvey’s article was groundbreaking and garnered a lot of attention from

academics, feminists and film enthusiasts alike. Although it was a fresh and a new approach to

film analysis and criticism, it left no empowering role for women, and also positioned the

spectator in a passive, yet controlling gaze. Mulvey would address some of these issues in later

revisions of her essay, but her approach to analyzing films still provided no additional roles for

male or female spectators other than being in passive positions. Mulvey utilized theories of the

phallic power in the Oedipal trajectory by explaining how spectators identifying with a

protagonist who, after resolving a crisis and overcoming a 'lack', then comes to identify with the

law of the father, while successfully containing or controlling the female figure, demystifying

her threat, or achieving union with her (Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,

www.wiki.brown.edu). Lacan does not describe the phallus as a penis but the penis represents a

male phallic function and his power. The phallus is something that has the power to move and

change by itself. The phallus is the key to Lacan’s theory of feminine sexuality. Masculinity is
 Zogby 19

thought to be phallic while the sexuality of women is both phallic and non-phallic. In women the

womb and its ability to contract and expand is phallic. Power is represented by the phallic

function, while loss of power is represented by castration. The child is the phallus of the mother

and the mother uses the child as a form of enjoyment or jouissance. The Lacanian term

jouissance is a French word for coming or orgasmic, but Lacan uses it to refer to a wide variety

of compensations beyond intercourse such as eating, shopping and other obsessive symptoms,

which are the result of patching up the shortfalls of demand and desire (Hill 59).

Masculine sexuality or phallic power is easy to define but female sexuality is not so

definable because the feminine sexuality is infinite. Phallic power must rise and fall but in

regards to female jouissance there are no boundaries. Mulvey’s feminist critique of Hollywood

films in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema addresses the issue of phallic power from the

standpoint of the male spectator who dealt with the threat of the female phallus in the form of

sexual difference and castration. Women characters were dealt with either through the subject of

a sadistic gaze and subjected to a narrow focus of certain body parts such as the legs or breasts.

Mulvey’s describes this process as the spectator identifying with the main male protagonist; “he

projects his look on to that of his like, his screen surrogate, so that the power of the male

protagonist as he controls events coincides with the active power of the erotic look, both giving a

satisfying sense of omnipotence” (Braudy and Cohen 838).

Laura Mulvey’s work is one way of interpreting Lacan’s theory of the male and female

phallic power, but it does not represent the totality of Lacanian theory when applied to films. In

that moment when viewers see images of feminine sexuality it should not just be viewed as just a

symbol of men subjecting women to erotic gazes as way of removing female phallic power,
 Zogby 20

which is one of Mulvey’s arguments. Images of female sexuality represent power and can be

seen by viewers as symbolic of females possessing the phallus and jouissance. In Lacanian

psychoanalysis, men who insist upon pressing upon women that they have a penis while women

do not have one are actually attributing women to having the phallus and not a penis (Hill pg.

108). These actions are sometimes the function of perverts and exhibitionists, but this does not

represent all directors, characters and spectators of Hollywood movies from the 1950’s and

1960’s, which Mulvey argues in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. Everyone who makes

and enjoys Hollywood movies are not sadistic perverts.

Instead of this process reflecting an objectifying and sadistic experience for women on

screen, female sexuality in characters and images of body parts should be seen as an empowering

element of female jouissance because the images reinforce the idea that females have the phallus,

which children between the stages of Lacan’s “the Symbolic” and “the Real” understand the

woman (mother) has a special power but does not possess a penis. Viewers, male and female

alike, can transform provocative images of women into empowering images of women to

reinforce her possession of the phallus by not only examining images of women through the lens

of feminist critiques. This is why Lacan’s theories when applied to films can produce meaningful

and useful interpretations, which challenge the position and power of women in films.

Jacques Lacan’s rereading of Freud’s psychoanalytical theories and their application to

critical film theory are expressed in the works of Christian Metz, who utilizes fetishism and

voyeurism as a way to describe the relationship that occurs between viewers and film images.

Metz likens the experience of viewers watching film texts to that of sexual voyeurs. Metz also

supported the analogy between screen and mirror and held that the spectator was positioned by
 Zogby 21

the cinema machine in a moment that reactivated the pre-Oedipal moment of identification, the

“mirror stage,” which refers to the pre-symbolic or the imaginary, the period when the infant is

without language. Lacan goes on to say the false sense of self the infant experiences develops

through narcissism and the constitution of the ego, and comes from identification with the image

seen (Braudy and Cohen 836).

Lacan saw three important phases in the development of the human mind: “the

Imaginary” (illusion), “the Symbolic” (language), and “the Real” (what is impossible to imagine-

the unconscious) (Evans 161-162). Metz utilizes Lacan’s stage of the Imaginary as way to show

how the cinema can make present what is absent for spectators. The screen might offer images

that suggest completeness, but this is purely imaginary, just as in the case of the child who sees

his/her image for the first time. This is possible because according to Lacanian psychoanalysis

this is also a moment of misrecognition - the child is not really a fully formed subject and entry

into “the Symbolic” also involves repression of desire for the mother and the constitution of the

unconscious in response to that repression.

The “mirror phase” is a useful approach to understanding the complex relationship

between spectators and film texts because it delves into the development of important aspects of

the human mind, and relates them to experiences of transcendence during the infant stages of

human development, which provides a blueprint for how film images work to communicate and

signify deeper meaning to viewers. According to Lacan, the ego is a divided entity and

throughout the human mind’s development there is no way in which individuals can live their

lives without conflict and being deceived by the ego, whose function is to suppress unwanted

desires of the unconscious. The ego acts as a buffer between the unconscious and real world. It
 Zogby 22

can make false connections between things, which prevent our inner most desires and conflicts

from becoming conscious. In his later rewriting of Freud, Lacan took Freud's notion of the

deceptive ego as the basis of his theory of the formation of subjectivity in the mirror phase,

which exerted a profound influence on interpretative film theories in the1970s.

Lacan’s theories are useful as a way of examining relationships between spectators and

film texts, and present complex but imaginative interpretations such as in the case of Lacan’s

“mirror phase,” which portrays the transcendent power of film images and films in general. Metz

used the “mirror phase” to his own visions of how films exhibited notions of fixed gender roles

(in the case of Metz it was the notion of film as an apparatus to promote ideology.) Lacan’s

theory of infantile development provided a path for academic inquiry which viewers could

transcend the darkened theatre and visit the realms of their conscious and unconscious, without

even being aware. Lacan’s “mirror phase,” outlines the period when the child experiences its first

sense of a unified self, and what this theory provides film is the development of the idea that film

images through the arrangement of the different elements such as projector, or darkened hall

have the potential to address what is unseen and unknown, which represents Lacan’s “the

Symbolic.”

The “mirror phase” has an important footing in cinema studies because the cinema is seen

as a system of signification, and film images can offer the sense of completeness for spectators,

and allows viewers to deal with the notion of a lack of and visions of the imaginary, which is an

inescapable part of the viewing process. Lacan’s mirror phase also portrays cinema as a symbolic

system and a signifying practice which mediates between the spectator and the outside world and

offers a fragmentary unity to smooth over the fragmentation of subjectivity (Beed 10). Films can
 Zogby 23

present visual imagery of the conscious and unconscious elements of the mind, and when

Lacan’s theories are applied to films they can be a bridge between what we consciously see and

unconsciously feel. Lacan’s theories help us understand how visual images spur emotions within

viewers.

Lacan stressed the concept of the ego-‘misknowing,’ by stating it lies to protect the

conscious from desires and impulses of the id (unconscious) (Hill 16). This occurs especially

when people make judgments about themselves and reflect on their own image. According to

Lacan the ego is constantly in conflict and to this notion he felt that the ego could not represent a

conflict free zone, which was argued by American psychiatrists. Lacan felt the role of the ego

was to continually lie in order to suppress the desires of the unconscious. This occurs especially

when people make judgments about themselves and reflect on their own image. Ego can only

survive in conflict. We cannot turn to our ego for answers of our deepest desires in the

unconscious.

An extremely important aspect of Lacanian psychoanalysis, especially in the context of

film theory, is the notion of a conflicted and divided subject. According to Lacan individuals are

separated and united based on language. Patients in Lacanian psychoanalysis have either too

much or too little repression. In both cases there is always some surplus demand, waiting and

nagging to be metamorphosed into desire. According to Lacan psychoanalysis is a science of

language inhabited by the subject, desire is expressed symbolically as a type of language and is a

property of signifiers. Since signifiers are communal and public and belong to no one individual,

desire is always connected to what others desire (Hill 73).

Lacanian psychoanalysis states the unconscious is structured like a language and that all
 Zogby 24

of our differences and identifications, whatever our gender, are produced through images and

signifiers. The idea of a subject is constituted by the ever-changing landscape of images and

signifiers. Lacan’s theories are an important aspect of film theory because they allow abstract

and complex ideas about subjectivity and objectivity to be conceptualized, and they can also

visualize linguistic properties of the unconscious such as symptoms, errors of everyday life,

jokes and dreams on screen. By interpreting these concepts in film texts and analyzing them in

the context of their relationship to spectators, Lacanian psychoanalytic film theories present

concepts which function in film images to actively discover the meaning of our symptoms and

conflict in everyday life, which would not be able to otherwise be seen since if they are the

products of “the Real,” which is unknown and unimaginable and can take the form of traumas or

repressed feelings.

Just as Lacan thought psychoanalysis could establish an idea of an essence to explain

why we live our lives the way we do, Lacan’s theories also have an important place in film

theory because through radical approaches to psychoanalysis such as “the Imaginary and the

Real,” films can create an illusion in the sense that viewers believe what they see is real but are

also aware that the images on screen do not actually exist. Lacan’s psychoanalytic theories in

relation to film images can represent a bridge between individuals and their unconscious.

Through narrative structure and certain film techniques and technology, viewers can experience

another impression of their selves, by experiencing feelings of disavowal, desire, and bearing

witness to signifiers and objects, which may have been otherwise repressed. Lacanian functions

of psychoanalysis and the rich, vibrant interpretations they provide films are able to unearth
 Zogby 25

hidden desires and help spectators of films understand the meaning of their inner most symptoms

and desires.

When examining essays and works by academics, who utilize Lacanian psychoanalytic

theories, a major flaw is the lack of commanding presence the unconscious represents in these

arguments. D.N. Rodowick critiques Lacanian theory because it argues there is no female

unconscious and it is only represented as an absence. Elizabeth Wright also acknowledges the

lack of power in the Lacanian description of the unconscious. By her account, Lacan’s

unconscious is structured like a language and he does not give language the power to correct the

order of language that created it. A problematic feature of Lacanian theory does not allow for

power to overthrow or remake elements of the symbolic order and rewrite cinematic and spoken

language to meet unvoiced desires of the unconscious (Izod 5).

This is a shortcoming of Lacanian interpretative theory and Wright’s critique of the

unconscious is correct because the unconscious is left powerless and meaningless. She goes on to

state “every word indicates the absence of what it stands for intensifies the frustration of this

child of language, the unconscious, since the absence of satisfaction has now to be accepted.

Language imposes a chain of words along which the ego must move while the unconscious

remains in search of the object it has lost” (Wright 111). Lacan dismisses the influence of the

unconscious, which in Jungian theory is where powerful emotions and desires emerge.
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Chapter Four: Semiotics and Films

The basic premise of Semiotics is the study of signs and the processes involved in

decoding and encoding them. Signs are capable of communicating in numerous ways, especially

in how languages communicate meaning in the form of symbolism, metonymy, and metaphor.

Theorist and literary critic, Roland Barthes is responsible for establishing a science of semiology

which is an expansion and different take on Saussure’s linguistic model. Although, Barthes

changed theories over the course of his career, there were certain constancies: he believed in no

fixed meanings, no essences, and no human nature.

The foundation of Barthes science of semiology is based on the idea of myths. According

to Barthes a myth is a form of discourse with the purpose to become an accepted norm and act as

a fact of nature. Barthes argues these facts of nature become depoliticized and while they are

established by bourgeois elements within society, they are interpreted by the public and can

promote bourgeois values and ideologies. Roland Barthes is important because of his Semiotic

approach to how structural systems, especially Saussure’s theory of signs functions, but his most

important contribution in the realm of film is the idea of myths, which when applied to films can

take a signified and creating a second system of meaning and order.

In the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) expressionist set-designers influence the

mood and feel of the film by recreating the viewpoint of madness through the distortion of

shapes and lines of the film’s set. This enhances the feel of mayhem, and although we are

catapulted in the world of madness through the eyes of the film’s hero, the images in the film

which reflect madness are myths. These myths reflect a second set of signs which represent a

broader cultural meaning, and comment on the madness and mayhem within German society at
 Zogby 27

the time of film’s release.

Barthes’s theories extended Marxist influences and argued that institutions used signs

with images which could be interpreted by society to signify elements of exploitation and

capitalism. Theories which emphasized top to bottom hierarchies were concurrent with some

outside influences of film theories in the 1970s, as formulated by Jean-Louis Baudry, Christian

Metz, and Laura Mulvey. These theorists emphasized the crucial importance of the cinema as an

apparatus and as a signifying practice of ideology, the viewer-screen relationship, and the way in

which the viewer was “constructed” as transcendental during the spectatorial process.

Overall, Semiotics, when applied to films is concerned with creating a scientific system

to provide exact analysis of films and determine how do we know what we see? (Monaco 468-

470). Christian Metz, who is the most well-known academic to apply film Semiotics to his

works, also expanded his works to include psychoanalysis within his analytic pantheon, and like

others during this period also integrated Lacanian psychoanalytic theory into his writing. Like

the influential British film journal Screen, Metz was not interested in the role emotions play in

films, but more concerned with the techniques of realist cinema and the establishment of the

foundations of a semiotic science for cinema. The arguments and theories associated with film

semiotics address and define important systems of representation, which are the processes by

which members of a culture use language (broadly defined as any system which deploys signs,

any signifying system) to produce meaning (Hall, ed. 61). Within society, it is human’s culture

that make things mean and signify. The semiotic approach to film theory derives from a

constructionist perspective by forging links between the “world of things:” people, events, and

experiences.
 Zogby 28

Metz proposed that the reason film is popular as an art form lies in its ability to be both

an imperfect reflection of reality and a method to delve into the unconscious. Metz and

semioticians present useful commentary on films because they draw on theories that focus on

important aspects of film’s signifying capabilities, and stress the influence of signs, codes and

symbols, which according to semioticians, transcend the limits of film. Codes have meaning

outside the narrow limits of a particular scene due to their ability to derive meaning from

multiple areas of culture (Monaco 401). By understanding the role of codes in films, it becomes

apparent that codes are the medium through which the “message” of the scene is transmitted.

Codes are rule-driven systems which suggest the choice of signifiers and their ability to transmit

the intended meanings in the most effective way. To that extent, codes represent a broad

interpretative framework used by both addressers and their addressees to encode and decode the

messages. According to Barthes, this is also the myths function in film texts. Certain signs

become signifiers and create a new system of meaning. When films like Blade Runner explore

social issues in the form of screen myths, films can breathe new life into ancient myths and

revitalize them for contemporary times. Myths convey meaning to viewers because they

represent long established cultural and ideological values. Barthes argued they reached the

masses when they became depoliticized, but Barthes also felt myths were not always complete

deceptions. When myths appear in film texts, they can represent ideological values that have

been pressed upon individuals and can illuminate both thematic and psychological meanings in

the form of norms. Myths are an important part of Semiotic theory because they involve

integration and a connection to the psychic reality, which connects emotionally charged material

with unconscious elements of the psyche, in opposition to Lacan and Freud, who believed
 Zogby 29

symbols conceal and disguise their true meaning to the mind.

When Semiotic theories are applied to films they attempt to lay down laws and systems

that explain how film images construct meaning within our linguistic system, which Saussure

refers to as la langue, which is the whole linguistic system and a social structure into which the

individual is born. If we examine film texts from the perspective of Roland Barthes’s concepts in

Mythologies, we see how images work on a broader cultural level. When images form a sign and

then that message is linked to a set of other signifiers; a broader second stage of representation is

formed and these more elaborate and ideologically framed messages create stronger meaning,

similar to the effect of film’s technical qualities that provide filmmakers the ability to create

stylistic imagery, which cause viewers’ hair on the back of their necks to stand-up, or make

viewers’ eyes water due to rich cultural material.

The field of Semiotics has provided the field of film studies a system that defines and

describes how systems of signs and codes in film images construct meaning. It has established an

interpretative theory centered on the construction of meaning in film images and a science that

maps these processes, which can successfully identify how film images influence broad cultural

and powerful messages that create multiple systems of meaning.

Understanding the descriptive process and definitions related to the signification of film

images is important research, but how film images rouse and move viewers to feel certain

emotions is just as important. Film Semiotics comprehends all the ins and outs of how film

images construct meaning, along with unlocking how film images and viewers interact on social

and broad cultural levels, which will help identify the inspirational and mythical states viewers

enter when they view film images.

 Zogby 30

On the surface Semiotics’ primary goal of examining and mapping out the laws

governing how films signify meaning is not so abstract. The Semiotic approach to understand the

complex systems, channels, and logical forms, which allow semioticians to establish constructs

that confer values on film images, is what makes Semiotics very appealing and important within

society and film studies. Film Semiotics establishes a mindset and framework on how films

signify meaning.

The theories associated with Christian Metz and selections from his text, Language and

Cinema, lay out a methodological approach to establishing equations, which explain how film

images represent and signify meaning. Film Semiotics provides useful interpretations because it

seeks to go beyond the general possibilities in meaning of film texts, and seeks to decode the

social and cultural meaning in film images. Still, the Semiotic approach to film images examines

the more elaborate and ideological meanings in film images but as in the case of technical

aspects of films, there is not an exact model of how film texts create an emotional charge within

viewers. Film Semiotics does not always take into consideration the role of spectators’ emotions,

or how specific materials of expression convey codes on film images, which signify meaning

ripe with emotion and desire for viewers to interpret.

Film Semiotics asserts that film is not identical to a spoken (parole) or written language

in the truest sense, but it does identify many shared similarities in how each film resembles a

language system (la langue) by creating a social structure that constructs meaning. According to

Metz, “the cinema is already a ‘composite’ language system on the level of the material of

expression” (Metz 35-36). Consequently, films do not exhibit the same use of syntax, sounds or

characters of a spoken or written language, but do share the same ability and acuity to construct
 Zogby 31

and transmit meaning to viewers.

Semioticians such as Metz contend that film images contain several different types of

codes and communicative means, which allow them to be endowed with socio-cultural depth.

But unlike a written and spoken language, cinema is not considered a specialized language

system, which is distinguished by its physical nature alone. Semioticians contend film images do

not belong to that group of systems of signification where there are only primary codes and the

signified represents content all on its own. According to this view, film images do not represent

the signified of a primary code, which is autonomous and has direct referential status. Examples

of primary codes are social security numbers, musical notes, or road signs.

Semiotic theories, when used to interpret film images, represent a restricted language

system due to their ability to harbor secondary codes, and like other restricted language systems,

they are open to all symbolisms, collective representations, and ideologies. The structure of film

images consist of individual shots in a sequence that work similar to a unit in a linguistic

statement. Unlike the written or spoken word, film’s basic unit (the shot) is neither symbolic nor

arbitrary but iconic; therefore, it’s laden with specific meaning. In the eyes of theorists such as

Metz, cinematic texts construct their own meaning systems rather than share a unified grammar.

Film theorists Jean Mitry and David Bordwell, who also do not view film as a true

spoken or written language, but address similar issues, conclude that film is perception, which

becomes a language system (la langue). “It’s not language we speak, but language of art and

poetry” (Andrew 209). Film images possess the ability to construct meaning and emotionally

influence viewers by creating artistic imagery, which signifies meaning creatively, freely and

beautifully, in so much as a filmmakers have the capabilities to utilize film techniques and
 Zogby 32

technologies.

Film Semiotics explains how film images obtain the socio-cultural depth and secondary

codes necessary to allow film images to construct meaning but not exactly how these broader

meanings within film texts emotionally influence viewers. They also do not detail how

filmmakers can further lift images into a meaningful and directed expressive system of

implications. Filmmakers can achieve further socio-cultural depth through technology, which

enhances images and the use of camera, sound, and editing (Andrew 209). Technology helps

film become a language of artistic and poetic images by linking meaning with the peronal

unconscious. Our spoken language communicates meaning to individuals independent of the

world around it, while film in order to communicate meaning and emotionally influence viewers

must depend on the world it exists in, which includes culturally rich material, such as myths.

Myths play an important role in communicating meaning because they represent the dominant

ideologies of our time.

In order to better understand how film images and certain technologies in films, allow

film images to signify meaning more clearly in the form of signs, codes and myths, the emotional

connection between film images and spectators must be examined. The use of Semitotic theories

and concepts is useful to film studies because it outlines how and why specific signs and codes

are generated by myths, which serve to make dominant cultural and historical values, beliefs, and

attitudes seem normal and natural within film texts. The emotional connection between these

film texts and viewers is also important to the overall understanding of how film images rouse

emotions within viewers. Carl Jung’s psychoanalytic theories provide an interesting dimension to

exploring the emotional power of film images when they are applied to films.
 Zogby 33

Chapter Five: Jungian Theory and Films

The application of Jungian psychoanalytic theories to the field of film studies is

something that has been mentioned only by a few academics such as John Izod and Luke

Hockley. They examine psychologist Carl Jung’s insistence on the centrality of the image as a

way of understanding the conscious and unconscious mechanisms of the psyche such as

archetypes, the anima and the animus; and how each work in film texts, which represent eloquent

expressions of psychological patterns. These patterns develop in the unconscious and make

available to the conscience buried urges, fears and delights. When each pattern emerges in the

consciousness it has the ability to create an emotional charge (Izod 14).

The presence of archetypes in film images constitutes universal patterns and

representations of the collective unconscious. According to Jung, the collective unconscious

differs from the personal unconscious in that it is composed of symbolic references which are

universal to the species as opposed to the unique and individual experiences of the personal

unconscious (Izod 14).

According to Jungian psychology, both the personal and collective unconscious freely

associates with the conscious during dreams, active imaginations and free association (Jung 5).

During this process people can experience a wide range of emotions such as happiness, jubilation

and freedom. The unconscious plays a large role in how film images signify meaning because it

is what influences viewers’ emotions due to its composition, which includes intense feelings,

urges and desires. The psyche receives film images, which include archetypes. The personal

unconscious in Jungian theory is influenced by collective unconscious elements of the universe.

According to Jungian theory, archetypes offer viewers universally understood signs and patterns
 Zogby 34

of behavior, which channel viewers’ memories and experiences, helping to shape viewers’ sense

of self. Jungian psychoanalytic theories, as a method applied to analyzing films, is useful

because these theories establish a way to identify how film images create an emotional effect for

viewers. By understanding the film image/spectator relationship through universal meanings

such as archetypes, this permits more focus on techniques and technology as integral qualities

that allow filmmakers to compose and communicate meaning in subtle and overt fashion. Films

have the capacity to produce meaningful images that emotionally influence viewers due to their

interaction with the unconscious. In Jungian analytical psychology the functions of the human

psyche provide a descriptive model and clearer understanding of how film images emotionally

effect viewers, which show that the unconscious is influenced in the presence of these types of

fixed signs, which define individual’s social mask and persona.

There are four basic patterns of human activity: Static Feminine, Static Masculine,

Dynamic Feminine, Dynamic Masculine (Jung 195-196). These Jungian patterns or models

attempt to explain the relationship between viewers’ psyches and culture at large. Within films

archetypes symbolized-in images can instigate viewers’ emotions because they represent

universal representations which are fixed and experienced by everyone unconsciously. Jungian

psychoanalytic theory when applied to films can explain this two-way exchange between the

unconscious [elements of the psyche] and society. The appearance of universal archetypes is

extremely important to understanding film’s capacity to shape viewers’ emotions because they

represent an unconscious idea by which a prototype for meaning is based.

It’s quite telling that in today’s world when there are so many sources by which people

can derive information and entertainment from, billions of people still possess an affinity for
 Zogby 35

movies and the cinematic experience. The reason can be traced to the notion that films represent

a unity between the inner experiences and outer realities of viewers’ psyches. When Jungian

psychoanalytic theory is applied to films it can create a nexus between our psyches (the tenets

that govern the human thought process) and the daily struggles and experiences humans endure.

Jungian analysis of film offers a different approach of applying analytical psychology to film

theory. It can be applied to popular films such as Metropolis, The Matrix and Blade Runner to

understand how meaningful film images evoke serious emotional and empathetic reactions from

audiences.

Jungian theory also values the role images play in the overall development of the psyche,

and offers a useful approach to understanding how film images convey meaning. Luke Hockley,

who is an academic that utilizes Jungian psychology to analyze film texts explains that:

it must be understood that the term image in psycho-analytical terms does not refer to

external objects but an expression of the unconscious as well as the conscious situation of

the moment. Within the human mind, images act as a mediator between the unconscious

contents and outer reality of our daily lives. Images are structures that contain archetypes

within the unconscious. These structures have meaning and purpose and put individuals

in touch with their inner selves; they act as guides assisting in the realization that aspects

of unconscious life can affect our everyday relationships and engagement with the world

(Hockley 2).

Hockley’s concept regarding the role images play in the development of individuals presents a

useful approach to understanding how film images emotionally influence viewers, especially in

regards to archetypes, symbols and codes embedded within filmic imagery.

 Zogby 36

Archetypes represent patterns that interact with our culture, our personal experiences, and

work to shape our psyches. Jung felt archetypes make their presence known in a variety of ways:

they find their way into our dreams and they can alter our behavior . They can also suddenly

escape from the unconscious when individuals are under pressure, or threatened (Jung 56-57).

The affective power of archetypes is experienced at important moments in our lives: birth, death,

and marriage.

The tenets of Jungian psychology state that even though people may not be consciously

aware of the process occurring in their minds, images laden with archetypes have the ability to

subconsciously arouse emotions within their psyches. Archetypes “form a bridge between the

ways in which we consciously express our thoughts and a more primitive, more colorful and

pictorial form of expression. It is this, as well, that appeals directly to feeling and emotion (Jung

32-33). These images spur a process that occurs within our psyches called individuation, which

involves becoming more responsible for our social and collective relationships. "What we

experience while viewing a film is an awakening of personal and collective psychological

material, which mirrors the way in which images behave in the psyche" (Hockley 29). Utilizing

Jungian psychology in film analysis places heavy emphasis on how images shape the psyches of

viewers and how they ignite emotions within.

Jungian analytic theory outlines important ways in which images have the ability to

reconcile deep-seated emotions within the human mind, especially in the case of highly stylistic

film images. Film images are representative of pre-conceived notions of certain beliefs and

values, and have the capacity to expose individuals to archetypes and ideals. Although Freudian

theory, when applied to films, liken the cinematic experience to that of a child in the darkened
 Zogby 37

womb, in which viewers passively imbibe imagery and concepts in a semi-unconscious state,

Jungian theories, when used to analyze films, reveals film images to be received by audiences’

during a complex process in which their conscious and semi-conscious elements absorb imagery

and ideas presented in the storylines and plots of films. When this process is examined beneath

the surface it points towards something meaningful about viewers internally. When the filmic

experience is analyzed through the lens of Jungian theory, film images present the potential, to

be useful to a person's individuation process which promotes psychic growth, awareness and

individuation according to Jung's theory (Jung 169-170).

Jungian analytical psychology also illustrates how films impact elements of our culture

and audiences through collective psychological experiences. The texts written by academics

Luke Hockley and John Izod provide essential reading for psychoanalysts and therapists, as well

as students and scholars of film with an interest in understanding how films work

psychologically to engage viewers. According to Jungian film analysts, this is a vital aspect of

film theory because since the inception of film studies as a serious field there has been little

attention paid to the role emotions play during film’s signifying process.

Stylistic film images influence the psyche by inflating the ego, which is especially true in

action films where explosive and exciting scenes create a sense of euphoria in viewers. Film

images have the power to temporarily invade the ego-consciousness and buoy a sense of

euphoria within viewers (Hockley 41). Our emotional affective state is awoken by the on-screen

fictional worlds of cinema. When action packed sequences excite spectators, it seems probable

that their emotions set in train the affective process which alters the configuration of the memory

of certain images even as they are being viewed on screen. This occurs because there is a filter
 Zogby 38

through which the unconscious alters and dissolves images and narrative events in conformity

with its own predispositions.

The process of the unconscious revelations of images within the conscious is how

viewers make discoveries about actual aspects of their lives. For example, in the film The Bicycle

Thief, at the end of the film, when the father is caught stealing another man’s bicycle, he is

ashamed and upset that his son Bruno had to witness his arrest. In the final scene the camera

follows father and son. All of a sudden Bruno grabs his father’s hand to console him. Viewers

can take the message in this scene and see it as analogous to their own experience, perhaps

representing repressed anger or displeasure with their parents, which is an aspect of maturing and

growing-up.

The process of unconscious revelations can also be greatly enhanced by cinematic

techniques and technology such as shot selection, lens type, editing, lighting and special and

visual effects, which help spawn affective archetypal behavior during the presentation of film

images to viewers. Within the last decade, scholars Luke Hockley and John Izod have begun to

analyze films from a Jungian analytical approach, as opposed to other analytical approaches such

as Semiotic, Freudian and Lacanian perspectives. The difference between Jungian theory and

other interpretative film theories is Jungian theory sees symbols in a quasi-allegorical role

depicting and mediating between the conscious and the unconscious elements (Hockley 28).

Why is a Jungian model of film interpretation important to the field of film studies? The reason

is simple: it focuses on how images relate to the psyche. The psyche is essentially composed of,

and understood through images.

“A Jungian view of what is meant by the term image, has adopted a view of the cinematic
 Zogby 39

experience that locates the viewer and film as co-protagonists in the process of constructing

meaning through the act of image making” (Hockley 29-32). Where Jung differs from his

predecessors is his insistence on the centrality of the image as a way of understanding the

unconscious mechanisms of the psyche (Hockley 8). Jungian theory places heavy emphasis on

the role images play in the development of the psyche, and during the course of viewing a film, it

can be argued it's film’s stylistic techniques and technologies that change the dynamic of film

images and intensify the psychological experience of viewers, which impacts how viewers’

experience the film.

Films offer objective and subjective interpretations, and interesting conscious and

unconscious material. In many ways the process by which audiences interpret film images works

in a similar fashion to that of our psyches, which is relevant because cinema-going is a

psychosomatic experience-something that affects viewers on both bodily and psychological

planes (Hockley 27-29). Along with participation mystique, the filmic experience creates an

environment in which personal and collective identities monetarily fuse. Thus the fantasy

manifests itself in the form of an image that contains both pulls on unconscious and conscious.

The result is the formation of a bridge between inner and outer worlds. When film images

interact with audiences’ psyches, they enable individuals in a transcendent form to see and be

aware of conscious and unconscious pull. “What we experience in the cinema is an awakening of

personal and collective psychological material, which mirrors the way in which images behave in

the psyche. Film involves projection and reflection and should be understood as being conscious,

which results in an ongoing process of seeing and recognizing” (Hockley 29-31). Watching a

film is far more than entertainment, it replicates mental functioning.

 Zogby 40

Examining film through a Jungian analytical lens is pertinent to understanding film’s

signifying processes because it details relationships between viewers' psyches and the culture at

large. The psyche is informed by the interplay between psychological factors and cultural

pressures. Jungian interpretative film theory sees Jung’s influence in psychology as important to

understanding film and its role in shaping spectators’ emotions because “in an image saturated

culture, a clinical psychology which has at its very core the importance of 'the image' might have

some utility in understanding the role that images play culturally” (Hockley 9).

Film images can illicit viewers’ psyches and emotions due to the presentation of

archetypal imagery in films. The personal unconscious consists of archetypes, which are

commonly occurring ideas or images. They consist of forms with context that can be activated

and form powerful pre-dispositions within the psyche. “Archetypal imagery can undergo

ceaseless change and transformation and can be understood anew or they can be causality of

times exposed to erosions of culture and time” (Izod 37). The notion of the powerful role that

archetypes play in the instigation of emotions is an important aspect of Jungian analysis, and can

also be applied to the examination of how film images rouse the emotions of audiences.

Jung’s analysis of the mind and how it interprets images within our psyche lends itself to

also explaining how individuals’ process film images, and the larger social meaning and

implications involved during this experience. This is also true of the case with Jung’s views

regarding the role of archetypal images and their role in helping to foster internalized social

values, which also form in the psyche. Archetypes represent “a symbol of the potential

development of the collective self” (Izod 34-36). Jung was not known for writing or mentioning

film and its impact within the psychological field. But his interest seems to be with its ability to
 Zogby 41

develop a new visual and symbolic language that could breathe new life into archetypal patterns

and revitalize them for contemporary times (Hockley Intro). By applying Jungian psychology to

films and examining film’s technical and technological qualities, it becomes apparent that films

can be very entertaining, and educational with respect to how film images illicit viewers’

emotions.
 Zogby 42

Chapter Six: Metropolis

In the previous chapters, popular theories such as Freudian, Lacanian, Semiotic and

Jungian concepts, were discussed in the context of how each elicits emotional responses from

viewers. In following chapters, those same theories will be applied to three groundbreaking

films: Metropolis, Blade Runner and The Matrix, in order to explore how these theories when

applied to specific film techniques and technologies produce meaning that also rouses the

emotions of viewers.

Metropolis is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest films ever made.

Metropolis is an important film because of its awe-inspiring use of film techniques, combined

with the social commentary conveyed through its narrative. It tells the story of a futuristic city

that is controlled by elites such as John Frederson, who owns the city’s largest factory, which

supplies the energy necessary to run the advanced city, but at the expense of the workers who toil

in horrible conditions below the city. John’s son, Freder, becomes enchanted by the de-facto

leader of the working class, Maria, and aids her in her quest to free the workers’ from their

deplorable working conditions. The film vacillates between the good and evil forces that control

the city, until both sides compromise and come to terms with each other’s desires and accept the

overall message of the film: "the mediator between the head and hands must be the heart!" The

head is symbolically represented by the capitalist mastermind John Fredersen, the hands are the

exploited worker/slaves, and Fredersen's sympathetic son is the mediator/heart. The film also

draws on Biblical references such as the Tower of Babel and examines scientific issues such as

man’s quest to create an artificial human being and in Rotwang’s creation of a robot replica of

Hel and Maria, man’s quest to create a better woman.

 Zogby 43

The following chapter will examine how techniques enhance the presence of codes,

metaphors, and signs embedded in the film texts of Metropolis, which provides for clearer

examination into the psyches, dreams and desires of viewers. For the last thirty years it has

become customary to analyze these unconscious aspects of viewers’ psyches through Freudian,

Lacanian, and Semiotic interpretative theories. These interpretative theories provide vivid

descriptions of meaning signified in film images, and an understanding of the spectator/screen

relationship. What is not always considered by academics is how codes, signs and metaphors

signify meaning through a Jungian psychoanalytic interpretation. By utilizing Jungian concepts

regarding archetypal patterns, the unconscious and dreams, there is a greater understanding how

film images create emotional effect for viewers. Also, Jungian theories also allow for emphasis

on specific film techniques such as shot selection, lighting and editing.

Shot Selection:

Throughout the twentieth century the motion picture industry has evolved gradually from

a carnival novelty to one of the most important tools of communication and entertainment for

billions of people globally. This is due in part to the substantial impact cinematic technique has

had on the filmmaking process. The importance of film techniques cannot be overlooked or

understated. When discussing cinematic techniques or a “film’s style,” a good focal point is the

camera, since it is the piece of equipment that enables filmmakers to project meaningful images

to audiences, and allows filmmakers to take still images and create the appearance of continuous

motion. The function of the camera is to project smoothly moving pictures, which consists of

thousands of slightly different still images called frames. Each frame flashing by is accompanied

by bursts of blackness. Although it is not completely obvious to audiences, the screen is

 Zogby 44

completely dark for nearly half the time they are watching (Bordwell and Thompson 2).

There are three main types of shots utilized by film directors; they are the long-shot,

close-up and normal shot. What each one of these shots accomplishes is the effect of producing

and manipulating meaning within the frame. Each shot occupies their own signature imprint on

film images. The long shot appears to be taken from a greater distance and it can make figures

moving to or from the camera seem to cover ground more rapidly. In order for the camera to

focus in on large landscapes, or present bird’s eye views of cities, filmmakers will employ a

long-shot.

Throughout Metropolis Fritz Lang utilizes the long-shot, especially when he portrays the

bustling city streets and skyline of Metropolis. In one particular sequence, Lang shows slaves

building the mythical Tower of Babel. The slaves, who are a metaphor for the oppressed working

class of Metropolis, are seen marching in unison from all different directions and converging in

the center of the screen. The image does involve special effects employed by Lang such as rear

projection and superimposition. The end result is a spectacular series of images, which are shot

in such a way they appear to resemble a never ending stream of workers forming a massive star

symbol in the center of the frame. The meaning communicated to viewers through the use of a

long-shot is to show visually the magnitude of the horrors and oppression experienced by the

city’s working class, who are sacrificed in order to create the monumental achievement

Metropolis represents throughout the film’s narrative.

In this sequence a Semiotic interpretation is useful because it will provide insight into

how meaning is communicated to viewers. Roland Barthes did not believe in essentialism and

essences or fixed meanings for objects in the world. Barthes also believed myths were constructs
 Zogby 45

of the bourgeois and they like all signs represented secondary systems of representation.

According to Barthes, myths were ideological constructs passed off as facts, but also hid

contradictions in the social system. In the case of the large star like symbol of workers in

Metropolis, it can have broader meaning because the sign produced from the signified in Barthes

linguistic system will itself become a signifier and produce in the Barthes mythical semiological

system a new secondary meaning. The meaning of the star symbol, which takes up the most of

the shot, according to Barthes’ system might go something like this: the signifier is the

continuous streams of workers, and the signified is their unity in completing their massive

undertaking. The sign of unity will now become a signifier and the signified will be oppression

and the resulting sign is a disdain for the oppression and loss of individuality of Metropolis’

proletariat.

A Jungian approach to the meaning of the massive star symbol is the how the

overwhelming image of workers interacts with the collective unconscious of viewers. Jung’s

theories are different than Barthes, in that they do address universal themes, or fixed meanings,

which are a part of archetypal patterns and the collective experience. Jung saw the archetypal

complex repeated in dreams, fantasies, stories, myths, and recollections of our common human

history. In Metropolis, the story of the Tower of Babel is a pattern that tells the age old of story

of human misery and abuse. The archetype presented in the story is evidence of the collective

conscious of the characters within the film and viewers, who by way of film texts emotionally

connect with the collective history of the human race. Jung also stressed that wisdom should be

gained from archetypal symbols, and this also an advantage of the Jungian theories because they

identify how viewers can gain from the meaning signified in film texts and dreams to better their
 Zogby 46

individual and collective lives.

Metropolis provides numerous examples of Fritz Lang utilizing different types of shots to

establish meanings. This is evidenced by Lang’s ability to modify, suppress, and reinforce the

effects of the composition of the image within the frame. This practice allows Lang to produce

images such as a larger than life god named Moloch, and in the same frame of composition,

images of workers dwarfed in the foreground walking to their fiery deaths in the mouth of the

angry god.

How a long shot alters the meaning conveyed in the framed image also has to do with the

narrative of the film. The shot and its frame limitation have a relationship to the narrative, which

can have the effect of stretching images. The more information that is available in the form of

what is presented to viewers on screen, offers viewers more information to decipher and more

information to draw meaning from. The film narrative works as a logical system where codes

and messages are interwoven in images, capable of conferring value on messages. The framing

and composition of film images allows filmmakers to decide what signifiers, codes, cues, and

messages they will present to audiences. Meaning is constructed in the context of what is

presented to viewers in the form of framed images.

Filmmakers decide between using an open form or a closed form. An open form allows

for more area outside the shot to be included in the framed image in comparison to a closed

form, which solely focuses on the image within the shot (Monaco 183). Besides the long shot,

another film technique which affects the composition within the frame is the close-up shot which

deprives audiences of a setting or landscape, and can signify a disorienting and claustrophobic

feeling. An interesting use of the close-up shot during Metropolis occurs during the scene when
 Zogby 47

the evil scientist Rotwang creates a robot to impersonate the angelic character, Maria. The

imposter paints the town red while on a rampage of debauchery, clad in revealing clothes and

gyrating on stage in an effort to seduce Metropolis’ elite men. Lang shoots many close-up shots

of individual eyes and superimposes them into one frame. The implicit and interpretative

meaning derived from the shot is less didactic, but metaphorical in the sense that the multiple

close-up shots of many eyes reveals the extreme attention being focused on Maria’s imposter by

her male onlookers.

Lang’s use of close-up camera angles also occurs during Freder’s reaction to the

explosion of the Heart Machine in the underground factory. After Freder (son of the evil factory

owner John Freder) pursues Maria to the factory in the lower catacombs of the city, he witnesses

a powerful explosion of a vast and complicated machine responsible for producing the energy

required to run the city of Metropolis. An overwhelmed and frantic Freder imagines a sputtering,

exploding machine named of Moloch, who represents the god of fire (Thomas 24). To express

the disoriented state of mind experienced by Freder, Lang employs the camera to zoom in on

Freder’s face.

This is accomplished by editing together multiple shots in which the camera mimics the

effect of a tracking shot, while not moving an inch. Its effects are strangely distancing: we seem

to move closer without getting any nearer and the camera presents a disorienting experience for

viewers in which the scene seems to alter in composition and depth. A major reason why this

scene has potential to rouse viewers’ emotions so effectively is there is no such experience in

real life for comparison, or physical attribute which allows the retina to change multiple depths

or perceptions. The traumatic experience convinces Freder that he must work on behalf of the
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workers to improve their lives.

By applying Freudian concepts to the scene, Freder’s dreams represent wish fulfillment

and proof of his unconscious. In the scene where Freder imagines Moloch, the angry god

represents a repressed fear of castration from his father. Throughout the film, Freder’s father is

presented as a powerful individual at odds with his son, and when Freder imagines the great fire

breathing god, one can read this scene as a repressed fear of his father punishing him for desiring

his mother. Freudian theory states that individuals will project repressed desires on to

unrecognizable objects, such as Freder’s desire for his mother which is manifested in his interest

for Maria. During this very powerful sequence, Moloch swallows the factory’s workers in his

flaming mouth. Applying Lacanian concepts to this sequence of events yields the interpretation

that Moloch represents a metaphor for capitalism and his attack on the workers and ever growing

power is emblematic of John Frederson. This also presents an instance where Lacan’s theory of

the phallus can be discussed. The angry god devouring workers can also symbolize removal of

the phallus, and an example of phallic power. Lacan states that phallic power is something that

has the power to move and change itself. The heart machine changes into Moloch and rises and

subsides similar to a penis.

A Semiotic interpretation would see the broader, mythical and depoliticized meaning in

the image of Moloch. Moloch on the surface might represent destruction but in Barthes system it

becomes a cultural norm and ideological construct of the same elites it represents in Metropolis.

The sign of destruction would become a signifier and the signified would represent the reaction

and punishment workers would endure if they oppose the elites such as John Frederson. Barthes

theory of myths can also produce another interpretation of this scene. The heart machine, which
 Zogby 49

on the surface is responsible for producing the energy that runs the city, also has a second system

of signs and connotations, which is represented by the fire breathing god Moloch. Moloch is a

construct of John Federson in order to enforce his grip on power and the status quo in

Metropolis.

A Jungian examination would present the image of Moloch as an archetypal pattern

known as the father, which is a part of every ones’ collective unconscious. Although there is

obvious fear in Freder when he imagines Moloch, Jungian theory can identify Moloch as a

shadow personality of Freder’s father. The shadow personality is purposely ignored by the

conscious ego and appears in dreams. Jung’s theories are important because they describe how

interaction between unconscious and conscious elements through thinking and feeling can

become a linkage to viewers and how film texts emotionally affect spectators, through the

collective and archetypal experiences.

Lighting:

Metropolis was a pioneering film in the use of lighting to convey particular moods and

meaning in scenes. “Much of the impact of an image comes from its manipulation of lighting. In

cinema, lighting is more than just illumination that permits us to see the action. Lighter and

darker areas within each frame create the overall composition of each shot and thus guide our

attention to certain objects and actions” (Bordwell and Thompson 164). The technique of

lighting is an important way for a filmmaker to incorporate style and/or cement his or her mark

on a film. The application of light has played a vital role in movies dating back to the beginning

of filmmaking. The most famous era to explicitly incorporate the use of lighting in films was the

German Expressionist film movement. The plots and stories of the German Expressionist films,
 Zogby 50

which often dealt with madness, insanity, and betrayal, were intensified by the implementation of

outrageous set-designs, costumes, shapes, architecture and lighting. German Expressionist films

such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), M (1931), Metropolis (1927), and Dr. Mabuse, The

Gambler (1922) represent excellent examples of films which utilized the technique of lighting to

influence spectators’ attitudes and emotions about certain socially conscious topics.

There are three ways to vary the amount of light that enters a camera and strikes the film:

(1) a cinematographer can interpose light-absorbing material in the path of the light rays (filters

do this and are generally attached in front of the lens); (2) the principle photographer can change

the aperture; this is the size of the hole through which the light passes (a diaphragm controls this

aspect); (3) the photographer can change exposure time (this is the function of the shutter)

(Monaco 82-83). The implementation of filters, apertures and exposure times has certain

implications on how audiences interpret film images.

Images that are crafted to appear dark and dreary will more effectively signify a

frightening and disturbing meaning. On the contrary, scenes that involve more light can signify

positive and calming undertones. This is evident in the scenes when audiences are first

introduced to the character of Maria, who is presented with a silhouette and rays of light beaming

from above her while preaching to workers. In the scenes where Maria is preaching to the

organized workers, and is depicted in religious connotations, backlighting is used to create a

silhouette, which aides in her presentation as a religious idol. Lighting is used in these scenes to

calm viewers and present a positive solution to the problems the proletariat endures; Maria

represents the light at the end of a dark tunnel for the working class of Metropolis.

During the scenes in Metropolis when we are first introduced to Maria, a Lacanian
 Zogby 51

interpretation would focus on the admiration that is bestowed upon Maria by her followers

listening to her sermon and by Freder who watches in amazement and wonderment. In this

instance Freder realizes that Maria has the phallus, which is akin to when a child realizes their

mother is different and does not have a penis and attributes his mother a special power. Lacan

argues the child is the phallus of the mother; she uses the child as a way to produce jouissance or

enjoyment. Jouissance is French for orgasm, and is a process that is sexual in nature, it becomes

a symptom in the individual which compensates for shortfalls in demand and desire. The

workers and Freder are like children to Maria and act in a similar fashion to how a mother she

receives enjoyment from her children.

A Jungian analysis of this introduction to the character of Maria would focus on the

archetypal figure Maria represents, the mother. In this scene she is the definitive mythological

image of a Jungian motif. For Jung, motifs are pieces of life itself, images that are integrally

connected to the individual by the bridge of the emotions (Jung 87). The image of the great

mother is an instinctual conscious representation. Maria also exhibits the animus, while

preaching to the workers. She is being a leader and hero and thus the scenes communicate her

masculine side of her personality.

The Lacanian interpretation is useful because it identifies how viewers interact with the

film texts on screen and the resulting impression certain images can have on viewers due to

repressed memories involving childhood and motherers. The Jungian interpretation should

garner as much attention and prestige as Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic analyses because

Jung’s theories reflect how viewers become emotionally involved with characters and storylines

due to collective experiences and patterns of human behavior. These elements of Jungian
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psychoanalytic theories detail the emotional experience viewers engage in when they see

archetypes, which can act as guiding forces and establish interaction between conscious and

unconscious elements of the psyche, and interfere in the daily lives of people.

The direction of lighting in a shot refers to the path of light from its source or sources to

the object lit (Bordwell and Thompson 165). Lighting is important to the overall filmmaking

process because it provides cues and establishes expectations for viewers. It can “articulate the

textures of a face; it can also reveal (a spotlight can zero our attention toward a person or object)

and it can conceal (a shadow may shield a figure or object)” (Bordwell and Thompson 82). The

examples provided in this section exhibit how lighting influences a film’s properties such as

constancies of shape and size and reduction in depth, in addition to assisting in guiding the

narrative. Psychology of arts scholar Rudolph Arnheim aptly illustrates lighting’s importance

when he states “film pictures resemble reality insofar as lighting plays a very important role”

(Arnheim 15). While Arnheim’s assertion of lighting’s importance and its relationship to a film’s

realistic portrayal of imagery does hold true in certain instances, films can also resemble fantasy

insofar as lighting plays an important role, and this is clearly evident in Metropolis.

Editing:

In the film Metropolis the technique of editing plays a key role in moving the narrative

along and producing some memorable scenes. The art of editing has its roots in the silent

Russian filmmaking movement at the turn of the twentieth century. Ever since Russian

filmmakers introduced the technique of specialized film editing, it has become a highly

influential art form in the world of filmmaking. The technique of continuity in film images is

referred to as the art of editing. The shot is the basic unit of film construction; it is defined
 Zogby 53

physically as a single piece of film without breaks in the continuity of the action. The craft of

editing consists of choosing between two or more takes of the same shot, deciding how long each

shot should last and how it should be punctuated, and matching the soundtrack carefully with the

edited images (Monaco 129).

Sergei Eisenstein believed the collision of shots, “where the second shot repeats part or

all of the action from the previous shot,” could be used to manipulate the emotions of the

audience and create film metaphors (Bordwell and Thompson 142). Film editing’s power also

comes from its ability to engage and interact with spectators. This is exhibited in editing’s ability

to utilize a “method which controls the ‘psychological guidance’ of the spectator” (Monaco 401).

Editing represents the nexus that connects and organizes all of a movie’s shots and sequences.

In respect to editing, Eisenstein argues the technique creates an emotional response from

spectators through its ability to present “every aggressive moment…every element…that brings

to light in the spectator those senses or that psychology that influence his experience—every

element that can be verified and mathematically calculated to produce certain emotional shocks

in a proper order within the totality” (Eisenstein 231). One of the most effective ways a

filmmaker can construct meaning is through montage editing, which is a dialectical process that

creates a third meaning out of the original two meanings of two adjacent shots. (Monaco 21) In

addition to the meaning that is created from the collision of two shots, editing also has the

capability of taking a number of different shots and weaving them together to communicate a

great deal of information in a short time span. Editing plays a prominent role in Metropolis,

especially during the scene in which the robot replica of Maria dances promiscuously in the

presence of Metropolis’ elite men.

 Zogby 54

During this sequence, the camera cuts between robot Maria’s exotic dance sequence, and

Freder’s emotional outburst during a nightmare in which he reaches a state of delirium. During

Freder’s regressive outburst, he awakens from his nightmare extremely horrified. Lang employs

close-ups of Freder’s face leaning ever so close into the camera to create the feeling of hysteria

for viewers. Filmmakers utilize editing techniques to establish the appearance of continuous

movement between scenes, so that viewers keep their attention focused on the ideas and issues

presented on the screen. Editing techniques allow filmmakers to alternate between any time and

space, which can be crucial in trying to convey specific ideals.

The scene involving Maria and the many eyes juxtaposed in the same shot could be

analyzed through Lacanian theories of metaphor and metonymy. For Lacan, metaphor is the

replacing of one idea or image with another or the collapsing of two such images or ideas

together. His definition of metonymy expanded on Saussure’s concept, which was the idea that

in any linguistic system there is association by contiguity. The Saussurean notion of metonymy

centers on the notion that the whole stands for the part or the part stands for the whole (Lacan

69). Lacan saw metonymy as the basic unity between language and the unconscious. In the

scene where images of Maria are juxtaposed with the multiple eyes, if one were to read the scene

in terms of Lacan’s concept of metonymy, the eyes could represent all of society’s eyes being

thrust on Maria or they represent the gaze of the male characters and spectators, which Laura

Mulvey’s argues is an aspect of the Hollywood filmmaking process.

The Lacanian concept of metaphor is also a way exploring the scene with Maria and the

juxtaposed eyes. The eyes metaphorical representation translates into the attention being focused

on the robot who is performing and drawing the attention of many men. During this scene there
 Zogby 55

is also an instance of Lacan’s idea feminine sexuality, which is a phallic and non-phallic power

of women. In Lacanian psychoanalysis, men do believe women possess phallic power. The

metonymical representation of this scene centers on the image of the eyes and how they establish

continuity for following scenes, which utilize editing to cut back and forth between the robots

actions and Freder’s emotional response. The eyes do not directly signify Freder’s dream, but for

purposes of contiguity, they signify the Freder’s nightmare for viewers.

The Jungian interpretation of this scene focuses on the archetype of Satan, which has

possessed her likeness. During this scene Maria has been inhabited by an evil archetypal force,

although viewers understand she’s being impersonated by Rotwang’s robot. The evil exhibited in

the robot version of Maria is a prototype, which according to Jung provides meaningful

interpretation and can interfere in a given situation. Maria’s wild escapade in the city is edited

into a montage of scenes that cut back and forth with Freder dreaming. While Freder is dreaming

he is shown to be agonizing over the pain and horror that he thinks Maria is causing him. Jung

highly valued what dreams could do for the psyche. He felt dreams could provide perspective

into one’s conscious life. Freder’s deepest fears about Maria are portrayed in this sequence. The

scene which shows clusters of eyes being shot with Maria, in Jungian psychoanalytic theory

would mean this is fact, which is the case because Feder does not dream this situation.

Summoning Jungian theories will show that in this sequence Freder is fearful of Maria’s

masculinity or animus, since during Freder’s nightmare, the likeness of Maria commands a

hypnotic spell over the elite men of Metropolis.

Metropolis provides excellent examples of how editing aids in signifying meaning to

viewers, especially during the scenes that introduce the character Maria. During these scenes
 Zogby 56

there is “a visual parable that translates a sermon by the movie’s moral center, Maria, the

prophetess.” The parable is the story of the Tower of Babel, which culminates in the message of

cinema as a new language for mankind (Gunning 72). Lang’s use of The Story of Babel in

Metropolis represents a parable about class and divisions. The story is one of the oldest stories in

the history of allegory. The city represents the form of the human body, the workers are the

hands and the planners are the brains. Since the advent of movies as a form of popular

entertainment, movies have utilized common themes and ideas from popular literature as old as

the Bible. Lang employs editing to cut back and forth between scenes of the classic parable and

the main storyline of the factory, workers and city.

The shifting between time and space allows Lang to create a bridge between the ideals

expressed in Metropolis and the viewers who receive them. By editing together two different yet

similar stories, Lang utilizes editing to express Jungian archetypal themes, and in the case of the

Tower of Babel, is able to create images that direct highly emotional ideas to viewers such as

feelings of oppression in the scenes involving the slaves who suffered to erect the tower, which

is a metaphor for the factory workers who are also enslaved, and toiled to create all the

magnificence and splendor that represent the city of Metropolis.

In order to communicate meaning to viewers, filmmakers must utilize certain techniques

in order to create images inherent with meaning. Specific techniques employed by filmmakers

create an environment in which film images interact with the unconscious elements of viewers’

psyches. The application of film techniques such as shot selection, editing and lighting enhances

certain psychological qualities within the texts films. In establishing highly stylistic imagery,

viewers will recognize signs, codes, archetypes, and metaphors more clearly, which plays a
 Zogby 57

crucial role in film’s ability to emotionally influence viewers. The ability of film techniques to

enhance the meaning within film texts is also an important aspect of applying psychoanalytic

readings and interpretations of films. The movie Metropolis presents interesting subject matter

and many examples of special film techniques that make for interesting readings when

interpreted through Freudian, Lacanian, Semiotic and Jungian theories.

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Chapter Seven: Blade Runner

The purpose of this chapter is to provide evidence of how Jungian analysis presents

useful and vibrant interpretative models for films, just as Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic

interpretations do, because Jungian psychoanalytic theories highlight the emotional effect that

film images have on the psyche, which is an important aspect of the viewer/film text

relationship. The science fiction film Blade Runner will provide specific illustrations of

Freudian, Lacanian, Semiotic and Jungian film interpretations, due to its groundbreaking

presentation of imagery and the subject matter explored in the film’s narrative.

Since its debut in 1982, Blade Runner is one of the most literate science fiction films,

especially thematically and linguistically—enfolding the philosophy of religion and moral

implications of the increasing human mastery of genetic engineering (Jenkins par: 9). Despite its

initial appearance as an action film, Blade Runner operates on an unusually rich number of

dramatic levels. It owes a large debt to film noir, containing and exploring such conventions as

the femme fatale, the questionable moral outlook of the hero, as well as dark and shadowy

cinematography (Brooker 43-47). Powerful emotions are expressed in the film’s narrative, but

none are more obvious than the domination over individuality, which is represented by the

genetic programming of replicants, who are robots programmed to be subservient and human

like. The replicants are juxtaposed with human characters that are un-empathetic, and while the

replicants show passion and concern for one another, the mass of humanity on the streets is cold

and impersonal (Barlow 45). Blade Runner examines the nature of humanity and who we are as

individuals, which is also a function of Freudian, Lacanian, Semiotic and Jungian theories.

Blade Runner addresses aspects of Freudian psychology in the scenes that involve a
 Zogby 59

vision of a unicorn. Not originally intended for the theatrical release, but included in the

director’s cut, there is a scene when Deckard is playing at his piano, we assume Deckard is

dreaming and he sees a unicorn running through the fields. The white unicorn represents a sexual

desire of Deckard’s. The horn of the unicorn is a phallic symbol and his sexual desire for

Rachael is repressed and only surfaces in the unconscious during Deckard’s dreams. In terms of

mythology, the unicorn is white and symbolic of virginity and purity, and according to legend

can only be captured by a virgin. According to Freud latent repressed wishes from the

unconscious attach themselves to content. To evade censorship and prevent the sleeper from

waking, the unconscious modifies content, and the latent wishes modify or disguise their content.

In the case of Deckard, the conscious meaning of the unicorn symbolizes a beast that has been

slayed and is extinct, which in Blade Runner is also exploited in the case of the escaped

replicants who are on the run and being hunted down by Deckard.

Another element of Freudian psychology expressed in Blade Runner consists of the brutal

and stark reality represented in Deckard’s double, or as Freud says doppelganger, which is

represented by the character Roy Batty. Freud defines the doppelganger as a class of phenomena

that is "in reality nothing new or alien, but something which is familiar and old-established in the

mind and which has become alienated from it only through the process of repression...[it is] a

secretly familiar thing which has undergone repression and then returned from it" (Francavilla

5). Associated with uncanniness and intuition, the doppelganger represents "the return of the

repressed part of the personality torn apart by its irreconcilable elements" (Francavilla, 6).

Batty’s emergence into the blade runner’s life revives Deckard’s human qualities and his

repressed capacity for compassion, empathy, and love.

 Zogby 60

The Freudian concept of self-deception and the role it plays in the development of the

unconscious is also evident in Blade Runner, which is exhibited in the nexus 6 replicants who

escape and flea to Earth as criminals on the run. The nexus 6 replicants are built to have superior

military skills, the ability to express emotions and short life spans. In order to pass as humans

they must adapt to human life on Earth and be able to express their emotions so they can pass the

Voight Kampff test, which is administered to determine if someone is human or a replicant,

judging by their empathy. Some of the replicants, who are on the run as fugitives, are forced to

establish forced memories so they can pass the test.

This is the case of the character Leon, who in the opening scenes is being administered an

empathy test and subsequently kills the administer of the test. Leon resorts to carrying around

pictures in order to establish a story and meaning about his life. It is also an attempt to reinforce

his desire to live a life that he is not entitled too. Leon must engage in self-deception in which his

ego, as a defense mechanism, must repress into his unconscious the fact he will not survive or

that he is not an actual human. The Freudian concept of self-deception allows him to survive and

carry on a tormented and unsure existence, not knowing when he will die due to his specific

model design established by the Tyrell Corp., or unaware of who is trying to hunt him down,

such as the case with Deckard, whose job is to kill rogue replicants.

The issue of Deckard’s rival manifests itself in ways that conjure comparisons to

different functions of the psyche and which can also be analyzed from Lacanian perspectives. In

terms of Lacan, his theory referring to “the other,” which is another word for object, is any item

that creates or supports subjectivity. This can also mean, the little object (obset petit a), which is

described by Lacan as the unattainable object of desire, something we want but will never have.
 Zogby 61

The little object can also represent a sort of consolation prize, a leftover remnant. In Blade

Runner, Deckard’s objective is to kill or capture the renegade replicants. Roy Batty, who

represents Deckard’s nemesis is also representative of Deckard’s little object or unattainable

object of desire. According to Lacan’s view of desire, which is communal and public, not

belonging to any one individual, desire is also connected to what other people desire. In Blade

Runner society desires the capture of replicants and so does Deckard. Deckard’s desire to capture

or kill Roy Batty is due to a “lack thereof” and he represents the Lacanian notion of “the other”

or object of desire.

Blade Runner also touches upon Lacanian theory in the form of the slave/master

discourse, which is exhibited in the relationship between the characters Roy Batty and Deckard.

Deckard, a retired police officer, who specializes in the capture of rogue replicants, is forced out

of semi-retirement to capture a specialized model of replicants called the nexus 6, who have

escaped and made their way to Earth. Deckard, who plays the the role of the master, does not

have a life without replicants, similar to how Lacan’s description of a master must demand

recognition of his desire from his slave. Deckard needs replicants to recognize him in order to

experience jouissance (Hill 87-89). Roy Batty plays the part of the slave in that he completes

Deckard by recognizing his existence, denying his jouissance in the form of not killing Deckard

and saving his life at the end of the film. Also, during one of the final scenes, when Deckard is

hanging off a ledge of a building and Roy Batty comes to his assistance, he tells Deckard, “quite

an experience to live in fear. That’s what it is to be a slave.” Batty is a slave because he is not

recognized by his master and thus has no real value and dies realizing this fact about himself.

The slave/master discourse is also evident in the relationship between Mr. Tyrell and Roy Batty.
 Zogby 62

Mr. Tyrell sees Batty as a mere commodity or as extension of his brilliance, since it is Mr. Tyrell

and the Tyrell Corp who created Roy. What’s intriguing about the dynamic between Mr. Tyrell

and Roy Batty in the context of Lacan’s slave/master discourse is the notion that people slave to

be masters. Lacan’s theory is universal amongst everyone in that slaves and masters are always

entangled with each other. Both feel the other only experiences the jouissance (89-90). This is

evident in the scenes when Batty goes to see Mr. Tyrell and asks him to extend his life beyond

the life that Mr. Tyrell has allotted him. Batty is a slave and sees his master as having all the

jouissance because he can live longer, while Mr. Tyrell tells Batty that he has done extraordinary

things and that he should revel in them, almost saying to Batty that he has lived many lives in a

short period of time and be happy you have experienced some life.

Barthes’s theory of myths is a prevalent Semiotic issue discussed in the text. The idea of

myths is evident in the how the film explores feelings about the definition of memories humans

and replicants share. In the film replicants have manufactured memories, which is the case in the

scene when in the manner of a play within a play, the film presents picture of pictures: Leon’s

photo of Zhora and photos of Rachael’s non-existent childhood. The idea that replicants are less

human because their memories are manufactured is a myth exploited by a human society as a

way to justify the oppression of replicants (Kerman 28).

Barthes’s idea of a myth is defined as discourse that society tries pass off as a cultural

norm and matter of fact. In the case of Blade Runner, society uses the myth that replicants are

less human because they have programmed memories, even though humans also manufacture

memories through selective memory or repressing the our inner most desires, fears and urges.

The movie in this instance also reflects an element of Barthes’ theories: myths are constructs of
 Zogby 63

bourgeois society and in Blade Runner the myth of replicants being less human is mythologized

to repress them. In addition to theories associated with the film Blade Runner, the film is also

known for its stark presentation of the future.

The subject of Semiotics is also examined in Blade Runner in the form of Barthes’

assertion that it is language that speaks and not the author. Barthes argues “a text is... a

multidimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash.

The text is a tissue of quotations... The writer can only imitate a gesture that is always anterior,

never original” (Barthes 143). Barthes sentiments hold true regarding the major themes

represented in Blade Runner, which also draw on other genres such as Greek Drama and the

poetry of William Blake and the Bible (Mary Jenkins, The Dystopian World of Blade Runner:

An Ecofeminist Perspective, http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca, Blade Runner).

Roland Barthes contends that myths are the creation of the bourgeois, which try to pass

off cultural myths as societal norms. In the case of Blade Runner, the bourgeois society within

the film’s storyline has determined which aspects of human culture retain rights and liberties,

and those elements of society who do not: the replicants. The replicants represent the futuristic

lower classes of society with no inalienable rights. Their situation as second class citizens and

virtual scum of the universe is a myth within the movie created by the powerful elements of

society, mainly the police state that controls the US and the Tyrell Corp., which churns these

machines out for military use and slave labor. Society in Blade Runner has bought into the myth

of replicants being less than human and the need for professional Blade Runners, whose function

are to hunt down replicants because they are dangerous and banned from Earth. These instances

are direct responses to myth that replicants are not worthy of living equal and fulfilling lives like
 Zogby 64

human beings.

The application of lighting in films is an important function. It can establish the feel and

mood of a film, which also contributes to its ability to communicate ideas and meaning. Lighting

in particular assisted Ridley Scott in communicating specific codes, myths and archetypes, which

are used to help represent the dark and dirty urban sprawl Deckard (Harrison Ford) explores

while searching for fugitive replicants. “A code is nothing other than the logical relationship

which allows a message to be understood” (Andrew 224). In Blade Runner, lighting functions as

a nexus between the filmmaker and spectator by conveying particular codes. Lighting acts as a

material of expression and a mode of transportation for signs, which deliver messages to

audiences in the form of film images. The application of lighting is useful in highlighting aspects

of Barthes ideal of myths, which is an “eloquent expression of psychological patterns that have

healing potential, and make available to the conscience buried urges, fears and delights”

(Hockley 14). In order to convey the myth of a decaying future, excessive corporate power and

the sad state of mass humanity, director Ridley Scott, utilizes line and color characteristics,

which he accomplishes through the application of special lighting techniques. The goal of a

director when applying lighting techniques is to establish a minimal barrier between the observer

and the subject in order to create a very high light level and fill (Monaco 188). In Blade Runner,

Ridley Scott utilizes lighting techniques such as full frontal lighting (washes out subject),

overhead lighting (dominates subject within frame), and lighting from below (makes subjects in

the frame lugubrious) in order to direct viewers’ attention to the many socially conscious themes

prevalent in the film’s narrative (Monaco 203). When he presents shots of the replicants Pris

(Daryl Hannah) and Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), he uses highlighting; this creates cues that call
 Zogby 65

attention to such details as the replicants’ hair styles and eye make-up. The focus of the camera

on eyes can also be explained in semiotic terms in the context of Barthes mythological

semiological system, in which the extensive focus of eyes also establishes another system of

signification whoch calls into question reality and our ability to perceive it. This provides an

atmosphere of uncertainty for Blade Runner's central theme of examining humanity.

The movie focuses on many universal themes such as the impression of technology on

society, futuristic landscapes and the effects of corporate power on humanity. These universal

themes are along the lines Jungian archetypal patterns. Jungian theories explore the inner and

outer layers of the conscious and unconscious elements of the mind, which help people realize

who they are as individuals. The themes presented in Blade Runner analyzed through the tenets

of Jungian psychology, provide excellent examples of film’s ability to emotionally influence

viewers due to magnificent presentation of brilliant and powerful images. One of the many

archetypes presented in Blade Runner is the femme fatale. The femme fatale is a classic film noir

theme. In the case of Blade Runner, the character Thora, who is an exotic dancer and also

murderer, is presented as a sultry seductress, dancing naked with a snake in a strip club. The

presentation of a commonly occurring idea such as a sexy but dangerous woman is an example

of how film images utilize aspects of culture to express ideas and communicate meaning.

Archetypes such as femme fatales when presented in films can elicit elements of the unconscious

within viewers, according to Jungian psychology, which in turn affects how audiences view

women. For example, Thora’s character, if one were examine her based on the Jungian concept

of archetype in the form of the femme fatale, could feel antipathy toward her because of

promiscuous activity as an erotic dancer and her penchant for danger.

 Zogby 66

The femme fatale is offset with the image and archetype of the virgin, which is

represented by the character Rachael, who is unaware she is a replicant until Deckard tells her.

Ultimately their mutual fondness for each other results in a physical relationship and Rachael

saving Deckard’s life. When we are first introduced to Rachael, her character comes off as

unfriendly and severe, she is dressed in black in clothes that fully shielded her body and diminish

her sensual appeal; her hair is pulled back tightly, and her expression shows no warmth. Only

after she is told she is a replicant does she express emotions by crying and later becomes in touch

with her femininity by having a physical relationship with Deckard, which he initiates.

Control over the environment is seen on a large scale in Blade Runner, especially in the

way animals and replicants are created as mere commodities. This oppressive backdrop clarifies

why many people in the film are going to off-world colonies, which could parallel the migration

to the Americas during the great age of European exploration and the notion of Manifest Destiny

during the migration to the Western Frontier in the United States during the early to mid-

nineteenth century. Blade Runner’s narrative also expresses the popular 1980s prediction of the

United States being economically surpassed by Japan through images of the domination of

Japanese culture and corporations in the advertising of LA circa 2019.

The bleak and forlorn future of the United States establishes a cold and oppressive

environment in which replicants become the new repressed class. Replicants are essentially

slaves and deemed less than human. In order to identify the replicants, a test is used with a

number of questions focused on empathy; making it the essential indicator of someone's

"humanity." The replicants are juxtaposed with human characters that are un-empathetic, and

while the replicants show concern for one another, the mass of humanity on the streets is cold
 Zogby 67

and impersonal (Barlow 45).

This cold and impersonal environment is the byproduct of a corporatized future, which

has put human ideals such as compassion, empathy and sympathy on the back burner. This de-

humanized world establishes a mindset that is prevalent in many war torn cultures or instances of

history which have experienced genocide: people labeled non-human are treated in a

reprehensible fashion.

In order to convey the mood of a decaying future, excessive corporate power and the sad

state of mass humanity, the director, Ridley Scott, explores the psyche, which can be interpreted

from a Jungian perspective by examining the portrait of the world within Blade Runner which

has become so impersonal and unkind. The concept of the anima applies to the future society

represented in Blade Runner, which is cold and unkind due to the imposition of technology and a

police state on its citizens. The anima is the Jungian concept of the feminine aspect of the human

personality all of individuals exhibit. In women it represents a majority and in men it represents a

minority of the personality. The state of the world in which Deckard and other blade runners are

killing people because they are not worthy or deemed not-human has a killer’s instinct and is

merciless.

From a Jungian standpoint, the lack of feminine compassion and kindness that has been

removed from society due to the corporatized nature and dehumanizing way of life create a lack

of the anima normally instilled in the psyches of individuals. When Deckard and Rachael begin

to feel affection for one another, the empathy exhibited between the two completes their spirits

by uniting their animus with the anima in each other. By consummating the relationship, both
 Zogby 68

Deckard and Rachael can experience the sexual opposites that Jung argues are the basis of all

personalities.

In Blade Runner, director Ridley Scott presents the negative aspects of globalization,

which is the idea of an integrated world economically, culturally and politically. The streets of

Los Angles are crammed with people who are emotionally separated by language barriers. The

landscape of Blade Runner is strewn with Gestapo like policeman and an overwhelming

corporate presence. In order to communicate an America where big business runs the show, Scott

frames scenes in order to accentuate a giant blimp that parades its advertising screens above the

city inhabitants, spouting corporate jargon. It offers false promises about life in the off-world

colonies, with slogans promising “the chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and

adventure.” The blimp can also represent the “Big Brother” eye of George Orwell’s 1984, staring

down upon the city inhabitant’s every move and listening to every word (Cavagna, Blade

Runner, Aboutfilm.com, Blade Runner).

Despite its initial appearance as an action film, Blade Runner operates on an unusually

rich number of dramatic levels. It owes a large debt to film noir, containing and exploring such

conventions as the femme fatale, the questionable moral outlook of the hero, as well as dark and

shadowy cinematography (Brooker 43-47). Powerful emotions are expressed in the film’s

narrative, but none are more obvious than the “domination over individuality,” which is

represented by the genetic programming of replicants, who are robots programmed to be

subservient and human like.

In Blade Runner globalization has created a society that is an America dominated at

every level by corporate capitalists who wield power through mass marketing, high technology,
 Zogby 69

and police state tactics. In order to establish a dominating corporate presence, Ridley Scott relies

heavily on optical and mechanical effects by employing drawings, paintings, and models to

create images such as visual landscapes through which important social issues are expressed.

Before the use of computer and virtual technologies, filmmakers photographed life size props

and mechanisms in such a way that they passed for realistic environments. This is symptomatic

of many older films in which different types of special effects will be combined in order to

produce the best possible result.

A great example of this process occurs in Blade Runner during a particular scene, which

includes a large set with actors, front projection of the pyramids appearing outside the window,

matted details of the foreground columns, a matte painting of the sky behind, and an animated

sun. In this instance, Ridley Scott animates miniatures and models through stop-action

photography, conveys their movements by a traveling matte, and adds animated ray bursts by

way of superimposition, all the while a matte painting supplies a stunning and realistic

background (Bordwell and Thompson 206-207).

In terms of Jungian theories, the dynamic between the repressed parts Deckard’s

personality are closely related with Jung’s idea of the shadow, which is the unconscious part of

the personality the conscious ego wants to reject or ignore. These rejects of the personality

denied expression in real life coalesce into a fairly autonomous splinter of the personality.

Deckard’s dark and gloomy existence versus his compassionate and feminine side, the anima,

remain repressed, which make up his shadow. These aspects of his shadow are exhibited in his

dreams, as is the case with the symbolism of the image of a unicorn, which appears in Deckard’s

dream, and as an origami figure that Gaff, who is Deckard’s boss, uses to taunt Deckard. The
 Zogby 70

symbol of the unicorn and origami figure, in terms of Jungian theory, represent Deckard hiding

behind his social mask and the unicorn and Rachael makes him realize the worst of the world’s

ill are present in his soul, which when he feels passion for Rachael, he is able to express

suppressed elements of his unconscious.

Blade Runner’s legacy is one of a very aesthetically pleasing film, but like other films

before and after it, Blade Runner also exemplifies how films utilize many different elements

such as subject matter, abstract ideas, psychological qualities and stylistic elements, which work

collectively within the total system of the artwork to create meaning in the form of meaningful

filmic imagery.
 Zogby 71

Chapter Eight: The Matrix

Since the early twentieth century, movies have undergone monumental changes in how

they are presented to audiences. The advent of computer-generated and “virtual” technologies

have altered the medium’s communicative prowess, and made significant contributions to

popular culture.

Psychologically, when images are presented in vivid colors, and virtual characters are

created with realistic appearances, right down to spot-on facial expressions, film images will

exhibit a truer approximation of our natural perception. Computers, software, and cameras

designed by visionary filmmakers have allowed technology to alter the landscape of the film

industry for many years to come. In order to understand technology’s impact, it is also important

to understand the different types of visual and optical effects employed by filmmakers, and how

they draw the attention of fixated viewers.

The following chapter will analyze specific visual and optical effects employed by

filmmakers in the film The Matrix. These filmmakers were instrumental in presenting

spectacular images that allow film images to signify meaning through signs, metaphors, and

symbols. I will examine important advances in visual and optical technologies, which establish

meaning inherent in film images, through the lens of Freudian, Lacanian, Semiotic and Jungian

perspectives. Although interpretative film theories have utilized Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic

theories over the last forty years, Carl Jung’s concepts and theories, due to their influence and

importance in the field of psychoanalysis, should also be considered when interpreting films

because they too provide evidence of how film images have the potential to emotionally effect

viewers through psychological processes involving Jungian theories such as archetypes, dreams,
 Zogby 72

the unconscious and collective unconscious.

The premise of The Matrix entails that earth is a virtual reality computer program, and

humans are really living in the 22nd century instead of the perceived 20th century. Intelligent

machines have taken over the planet. As a result of the war between humans and machines, the

Earth is a sunless place in the throes of a post-apocalyptic landscape. The film’s ability to signify

thought provoking ideas is accomplished through the use of visual and optical effects, which

create new psychological factors and messages for viewers to interpret.

The Matrix provides numerous examples of technology employed by filmmakers, which

intensifies the emotional experience for viewers. The proceeding section of this chapter will

focus on the specific technologies, which fall into two specific categories: optical and visual

effects. Both types of effects are utilized throughout The Matrix in order to provide illustrations

of how technology helps establish a nexus between the construction of meaning in film images

and the unconscious elements of viewers’ psyches, resulting in recognizable and typical patterns

of behavior among viewers in the eyes of Freudian, Lacanian, Semiotic and Jungian ideals.

The Matrix sheds light on social issues by drawing on the conscious and unconscious

elements within the human mind. The film accomplishes this feat through utilization of visual

effects, which create emotionally rich material for viewers. The emotional issues explored in

scenes are laden with archetypes and metaphors. Emotional issues that viewers can relate to are

presented in the form of Neo’s alienation with his environment, deception and corporate

animosity. These scenes ripe with vivid visual aspects provide analysis, which shows the

difference between Jungian principles in comparison with Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic

principles. While each school of thought produces vibrant interpretations, the field of film
 Zogby 73

studies should place more emphasis on Jungian theories because they explain a deeper

relationship between film texts and viewers, which are able to reach viewers on a highly

emotional level due to shared experiences, memories and archetypes in the collective

unconscious world.

Themes in The Matrix examine the nature of human consciousness and unconsciousness.

Directors Andy and Larry Wachowski posit the existence of a personal unconscious--our psychic

inheritance and our memories as a species--within the narrative of the film. In order to

communicate these theories and other provocative themes, the directors and technicians of The

Matrix utilize special equipment to modify, suppress, and reinforce the effects of the shot by

manipulating the composition of the image within the frame. The equipment utilized by the film

crew help create the special effect imagery. Special effects have been traditionally divided into

two categories: optical effects and mechanical effects. But with the emergence of digital film-

making tools, there has been greater distinction between special effects and visual effects, with

visual effects referring to digital post-production such as computer generated imagery (CGI) and

special effects referring to on-set mechanical effects and in-camera optical effects (Bordwell and

Thompson 26-27).

Visual Effects:

A recent and profound innovation in visual effects has been the development of computer

generated imagery, or CGI, which has changed nearly every aspect of motion pictures. Digital

compositing allows far more control and creative freedom than optical compositing, and does not

degrade the image like analogue (optical) processes. Digital imagery has enabled technicians to

create detailed models, matte "paintings," and even fully realized characters with the malleability
 Zogby 74

of computer software (Economist 16). CGI and digital technologies are an important aspect of

The Matrix and lend themselves to further construction of meaning throughout the narrative of

the film.

Visual effects such as CGI and digital technologies are outstanding in establishing new

and exciting visual worlds. In The Matrix this is evident in the scenes in which Lawrence

Fishbourne’s and Keeanu Reeves’ characters appear to be in a complete three-dimensional white

space, signifying to viewers the appearance of distorted time and perception. The use of green

screen technology and the implementation of a special device referred to by filmmakers as “the

wind cube” (employed to create visual backgrounds) all help in communicating to viewers the

underlying messages such as illusion versus reality which are expressed in The Matrix. Prevalent

issues in the film’s narrative such as nature versus reality, alienation, alternate worlds, the future

of mankind, and society’s dependency on machines all become more clear and evident to

viewers due to technology such as visual and optical effects employed by the directors and film

technicians.

If Freudian theories are utilized to analyze this scene, the three-dimensional white space

that Morpheus and Neo engage in can be interpreted as symbolic of Freud’s view of the

unconscious. Freud’s psychoanalytic theories of the unconscious delve into the question of

whether there are mental processes of which the subject is unaware. Here, in the white space,

Neo must confront his fears and prepare for war against the AI. The three-dimensional white

space can also be representative of the mental process which individuals apply to filter all of

their conscious and unconscious thoughts, or symbolic of Neo’s repression of his illusion of

reality-the Matrix-a computer program controlled by alien machines, to which humans are
 Zogby 75

connected to through their brain, so that they perceive a programmed sense of reality.

Interestingly, this scene is also representative of Freud’s prevailing beliefs surrounding

how people interact with their unconscious, since Morpheus and Neo can only enter the illusion

of reality by way of hooking themselves up to a machine and entering into a dream state. Freud’s

theories relating to dreams and the unconscious center on the idea that dreams provide an

environment when we are confronted with the our most repressed mental processes, some of

which are recalled in fantasies, desires, and painful memories, but only after certain resistances

have been removed. The white space explored by Morpheus and Neo establishes a nexus to the

mind’s inner most channels, the unconscious, but in order for the film’s characters to accept their

true reality they must choose between the blue pill (illusion) or the red pill (reality).

The Freudian concept of self-deception is a psychoanalytic theme that is also discussed in

The Matrix. The Freudian theme of self-deception centers on the premise that the ego

consciousness lies in its struggle between reality and the repressed elements of the unconscious.

Self-deception is an underlying theme addressed in the plot of The Matrix. An example of this is

the idea that people live in the twenty third century as opposed to the twentieth century and

everything they encounter in life as reality is an illusion created by a computer program. In a

way, people who think they live in this reality are deceived by their unconscious, which as a

filter will suppress urges, desires and painful memories.

During another scene in the film, Neo must also deceive his own self. While he wanes as

to whether or not he is fit to be the leader of the human rebels, let alone ready to accept his life is

an illusion and enter a complete alien world, he is forced to deceive himself in order to enter on a

journey to discover the truth to the meaning of his life. Within the post-apocalyptic world of The
 Zogby 76

Matrix, the inhabitants of Earth must also engage in self-deception due to the fact that they are

living in a world of fictions; they must adhere to the idea of what Slavoj Zizek states as the

“reality within illusion” (Zizek, A Perverts Guide to Cinema). The reason the humans within the

storyline of The Matrix are engaging in the Freudian idea of self-deception, lies in their helpless

situations as sources of energy for the AI, who use humans as a way to re-charge due to the death

of the sun.

The Matrix explores the question that many of us struggle with constantly: are our

surroundings real. Within the world of The Matrix what the film’s characters see and feel is not

real and they are actually used for energy, as a power source, or batteries to their oppressors.

Neo’s repression within the Matrix is a function of his unconscious and a function of the reality

within illusion. After Morpheus asks Neo to enter the white space, he brings Neo to an area

where they fight each other. Suddenly they are thrust into a dojo and are ready for combat. In this

instance Neo is asked by Morpheus to enter one of Lacan’s “four formations of the

unconscious,” which are dreams. The actual “Matrix” in the film acts as an environment similar

to a dream for its inhabitants, with either humans hooked-up to pods by AI or Neo, Morpheus

and the others plugged into their mechanism which allows them to enter the computer and an

alternative reality. Both examples serve as semi-dream states in which people are sleeping.

According to Lacan, dreams and the other formations such as errors of everyday life, jokes and

symptoms are linguistic functions of the unconscious and act as plays of language.

Freud argues that the unconscious has two functions. The first is to censor disturbing

material which makes it way to the conscious and the other is to repress resistances to this

process, which can come in the form of fantasies, wishes, and painful memories. The issue of the
 Zogby 77

unconscious as a mechanism that represses undesirable thoughts plays a major role in one of the

main themes in The Matrix.

Optical Effects:

Optical effects can serve a multitude of functions for filmmakers. They operate as a

function of laboratory technicians involving in-camera effects such as dissolves and fades or they

can function as mechanical aids which anchor large painting, mattes and camera equipment.

Optical effects also allow filmmakers to produce images that are larger than life and out of this

world. Such is the case with the scene where Carrie-Anne Moss (Trinity) jumps into the air and

kicks a police officer. This specific scene can be examined from a Lacanian viewpoint in the

sense that men are positioned as men insofar as they are seen to have the phallus. Women, not

having the phallus, are seen to "be" the phallus. The symbolic phallus is the concept of being the

ultimate man, so either the police officer is after Trinity’s phallus or if she defeats him, she

regains her phallic power.

Also, the scene’s gravity defying stunts are made more possible due to the technology

applied by filmmakers. During this highly technical scene, the action slows down to a near-stop

while the movie camera seems to swoop rapidly around Moss, as she hangs in the air nearly

motionless, before the action speeds up again. There is no way to create a shot like this using one

movie camera and standard slow-motion. It would be impossible for a camera to move that

quickly around Moss during the fraction of a second (of real time) that she is in the air.

In order to address this issue, the film’s technicians set-up 120 normal cameras in a circle

around Moss, along with two additional motion picture cameras hanging above her. By taking a

still photograph from each of the cameras and making each a frame of the film, technicians can
 Zogby 78

manufacture through editing the illusion that a single motion picture camera circles around Moss

in the instant before she kicks the policeman. The optical effects created by the 120 normal

cameras helps to convey the action within the scene and put together amazing imagery necessary

to create a plot which involves the character Trinity and her fierce physical abilities.

Within The Matrix there is a very interesting relationship between the central characters,

Neo and Morpheus. Their relationship manifests itself in another aspect of Lacanian psychology,

which is the idea of the slave/master discourse, which according to Lacan centers on the

supposition that all of us are in one form or another invested in a relationship as a slave or a

master. The Lacanian notion of the slave/master discourse is exemplified in the relationship

shared between Neo and Morpheus because the dynamic between the two is very similar to that

of a master/protégée or father/son model. The slave/master discourse is also exemplified in the

patient/analyst relationship.

The most important variables of Lacan’s slave/master discourse theory are recognition,

desire and jouissance. According to Lacan it’s imperative that the master recognize the slave, but

the master has stolen the object of desire from the slave by becoming the object of the slave’s

desire. Both the master and slave derive jouissance by denying one’s own true desire. In The

Matrix Neo can be recognized as the slave and Morpheus as the master because Neo must learn

and take orders from the wiser and older Morpheus. But in order for the rebels to prevail over the

AI, Morpheus must recognize Neo as the “One” and this makes him a slave to idea of Neo as the

savior of the human race. Another aspect of Lacan’s slave/master discourse in The Matrix is the

fact that in order for Neo to determine whether or not he is the chosen one, Morpheus must deny

himself jouissance of being the leader of the rebels. There is a satisfaction derived in being the
 Zogby 79

leader of the rebels but in order to free Zion, he like a master must deny his own true desire.

Within The Matrix there are many symbolic storylines, in which there is direct correlation

between characters, storylines and the Bible. These examples are rooted in biblical myths, which

represent an aspect of Roland Barthes’ theories surrounding how ideas become accepted norms

within society. The effectiveness of the meaning that is signified through these symbols, idols

and parables also has to do with the application of technologies, which help to communicate

clear and effective meaning to viewers in the form of meaningful film images. The religious

parallels expressed in the storylines of The Matrix are evident in the scenes when Neo dies

momentarily, yet returns. “His name (which is an anagram of ‘One’) means revitalization or

rebirth. Neo’s character represents a classic archetype; the messianic figure. The movie portrays

him as “nothing less than the savior of the human race” (Cavagna, The Matrix, Aboutfilm.com,

The Matrix). In the annals of Christianity, there is one true Messiah, but there is also a trinity: the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So, too, there is a trinity, son and father in The Matrix.

During a scene when the character Tank is about to "plug the plug" on Morpheus, he comments

that Morpheus is "more than a leader to us," he is "like a father" (Cavagna, The Matrix,

Aboutfilm.com, The Matrix). Morpheus, who gave birth to the new Neo by separating him from

the “Matrix” and becoming his mentor, is the Father, and Neo represents the Son. Carrie-Anne

Moss's character, aptly named Trinity, obviously completes the holy trinity expressed in The

Bible and throughout Christianity (Cavagna, The Matrix, Aboutfilm.com, The Matrix). Other

religious denotations written into the screenplay are the free humans live in a city referred to as

Zion, named after the mythic Biblical city described in the Psalms: "Beautiful for situation, the

joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion" (The Holy Bible, King James Version, Psalms 48:2). In
 Zogby 80

the bible, God dwells in Zion, which is both a locality of past greatness and a future hope for the

redemption of this world. Many aspects of biblical thought are centered on the idea of fixed and

collective meanings. One of the fundamental aspects of Jung’s psychoanalytic theories centers

on the idea of fixed meanings in the world, which are the remnants of a collective unconscious.

The resulting psychic phenomena are what Jung refers to as archetypes, which occur in

individuals in the form of dreams, images and projections. Jung went on to explain that the

mystical and spiritual function of archetypes assisted individuals in explaining the meaning of

things and interfered in the lives’ of individuals when needed. Two very important examples of

Jung’s archetypal theories are the anima and animus. Jung believed in each individual there were

a certain set of images, dreams and projections which could directly refer to as either masculine

or feminine.

The Jungian term of persona refers to a social mask individual present to the world in

order to convey and identity, while at the same concealing one (Jung 190). In terms of persona,

elements are defined by society as either masculine (animus) or feminine (anima). The feminine

qualities men experience is known as anima and occurs in their unconscious which represents a

lost part their lost personas. The opposite can be said of women in the case of the scene

involving Trinity and her fight with the police officer, this is evident of her animus, or biological

basis for male genes in her personality. Her show of power and strength is a prime example of

the dynamic masculine positive, which is exhibited in masculine archetypes such as the hero, the

master and conqueror. These and other technologically enhanced scenes provide stronger

emotional appeal for viewers due to their stark and realistic portrayal. They present more easily
 Zogby 81

accessible opportunities to emotionally resonate with spectators because underlying messages

such as female strength (in the case of Trinity’s character), are able to connect with the shared

experiences and memories of viewers elements of the collective unconscious. By utilizing

Jungian theory, the emotional and technological aspect of films can be greatly appreciated and

highly entertaining.

The world within The Matrix is scary and unpredictable. It is controlled by AI (artificial

intelligence) who display robotic features and long scary tentacles and are referred to as

“sentinels” by the movie’s characters. The film’s imagery creates the vision of a future that is

dark and forlorn. Earth is nothing more than endless fields of human beings comatose in pods.

The sentinels nurture humans so that they can consume their energy due to the fact there is no

more sun. In order to create this apocalyptic future and outer reality appear real to audiences, the

filmmakers of The Matrix utilize computer-generated imagery and digital technologies to create

the sense of a post-apocalyptic future. Within the storyline of film, the apocalyptic environment

is totally repressed by the unconscious of people living in The Matrix, which itself represents a

metaphor for the conscious aspects of the mind, which everyday people believe is their daily

existence, which censors the brutal reality of the horrors they endure.

Jung’s theories can help to elaborate further on the subject of the unconscious within the

“Matrix” because Jung, like Freud, believed the unconscious represents that aspect of reality that

is not available to subjects. This argument regarding the structure of the unconscious is

representative of the awful predicament earth is in. The horrors of what has happened to the

human race and Earth at the hands of artificial intelligence is too much to bear, hence this awful

reality is repressed through the computer program the “Matrix,” which is a metaphor for
 Zogby 82

consciousness. Applying a Jungian interpretation to the idea of the computer program the

“Matrix,” the outside reality of earth, which has become death and destruction, is repressed and

the reality within the “Matrix” is turned into the eternal image of normal everyday life available

to humans, analogous to the conscious awareness of the human mind.

The only way the façade the characters are being lead to believe is reality can end and

fight back against the machines rests in Neo’s hands, who is the messianic figure of the movie.

Jung’s idea of the ego was that a strong ego can relate objectively to the activated contents of the

unconscious. This notion relates to Neo’s situation because he is symbolic of the ego that can

relieve the earth of these horrors repressed by the unconscious. Also, Neo might also be an

example of what Jung refers to as an observing ego, which gives the subject the ability to

observe oneself in the very process of both knowing and being. Neo is more than just observing

his being, he represents the larger aspect of the individual psyche or soul, which in Jungian terms

is the history of the human spirit every individual shares, the collective unconscious.

Jung’s theories are important and vibrant like Freudian, Lacanian, and Semiotic ones

when it comes to analyzing film texts because of their ability to provide explicit and readily

available depictions of film images interacting emotionally with conscious and unconscious

elements of the psyche. Jungian theories’ emphasis on the collective experiences of individuals

provides evidence of how film texts emotionally interact with viewers, but these universal

patterns, which provide meaningful information, also allow for an appreciation of the how

filmmakers employ specific technologies to create spectacular images. Film technology

represents more than just photographic trickery; technological innovations in films have afforded

filmmakers the ability to recreate images in a visual format that audiences view as plausible
 Zogby 83

recreations of reality and fantasy. This enables filmmakers to communicate messages more

forcibly. Film technologies such as computer generated imagery and digital technologies aid in

film images’ abilities to emotionally influence viewers because they lend themselves to bringing

to life certain themes presented in The Matrix. CGI and digital technologies enhance scenes

embedded with Jungian archetypes, which are presented to viewers in the form of characters,

story lines and visuals.

The ability of digital technologies to establish spectacular visual characters and

landscapes in post-production allows for filmmakers to be more creative, and visualize

complicated camera movements and virtual sets beforehand. Advanced digital technologies also

impact the framing of images by adjusting the depth, composition and synchronization of the

elements within the frame, which works to establish rich meaning in film images. CGI and

virtual technology are the next phase in filmmakers’ quest to express ideals and visions in the

form of film images. The continued advancement of CGI and new technologies such as

performance capture technologies, which was a staple of the film Avatar, will propagate more

beautiful imagery and concepts, while lending human elements to other abstract imagery like

fire, water, planets and aliens. Just as sound and color replaced over-dramatic acting during the

silent film era, technologies such as CGI and performance capture technology are fostering a

changing of the guard for older mechanisms such as expensive sets and props utilized in films

such as Metropolis and Blade Runner.

In an effort to enhance storylines, plots, and themes in The Matrix, the directors and film

technicians employ optical and visual effects to bring to life important aspects of the film’s

narrative. The computer generated imagery, virtual graphics and special cameras emphasized in
 Zogby 84

The Matrix are indispensable to creating a realistic virtual world in which specific social issues

and Jungian archetypes are explored.

Jung’s theories regarding religion are interesting because unlike other psychoanalytic

theorists, he incorporates religion into his psychiatry. An example of this is Jung’s theory of the

numinous which can provide for interesting readings of symbolic film texts in The Matrix.

Numinous refers to that divine like spirit that presides over certain natural objects and places.

The numinous can also lead the soul toward wholeness by acting as a religious pilgrimage or

undertaking, which will bring the individual closer to individuation (Murray Stein, On the

Importance of the Numinous Experience in the Alchemy of Individuation, Murraystein.com). In

The Matrix, Morpheus can be considered the archetypal figure of the father, who according to

Jung exerts a constricting (controlling) force, which is the case with his protege Neo, who is like

a son to Morpheus. Neo experiences images of the divine in his dreams and Morpheus believes

in these dreams. The Oracle's prophecy that Neo is the “One” to lead them to Zion is in a sense

the spiritual aspect of the numinous that will lead him to a holistic understanding of himself. In

archetypal psychology, “Gods are imagined, formulated ambiguously as metaphors for modes of

experience and as numinous borderline persons” (Hillman 1975:169) In the case of Neo’s, he is

also an example of Jung’s the “Imago Dei”-a dominant and autonomous psychic context-who

has power to radically affect his and others’ moods and actions.

Another instance where Jung’s theories are important in the context of the film, are his

views regarding immortality and fate. Jung was a firm believer in the idea that people should

embrace their fate. In The Matrix there is an element in which the characters must accept their

fate, such as Morpheus who believes in Neo so blindly that he will sacrifice his life to save him.
 Zogby 85

The fate Morpheus and the other’s accept is that Neo is "the One," a man prophesied to end the

war through his limitless control over the “Matrix.” This idea of fate can also be related to Jung’s

notion that the psyche is pre-existent to consciousness, which is represented in Neo’s role as the

hero archetype because he represents the fate of the crew and humanity but also signifies the

mythical systems, ideals, and values that make-up the human experience, which exist to give

meaning to creation and life, to destruction and death.

Film technologies assist filmmakers in establishing films images as more than just mere

entertainment or one-dimensional storylines; they bring to life universal themes, such as the

archetypes and elements of the collective unconscious presented in The Matrix, and allow for

multiple issues to be examined and presented for viewers’ consumption. Technologies also

function in films as a way of conveying signs and codes, which reinforce expressive values and

particular worldviews. In The Matrix, digital technologies and computer generated technologies

work to create new worlds and landscapes, while also engage in mythological and ideological

signification, especially in the case of religious symbolism expressed in the film’s multiple

storylines. Still, one fact remains, all of these examples of signs of communication in The

Matrix, are just as meaningful and lively interpreted in the context of Jungian theories as

Freudian, Lacanian and Semiotic because emotions drive the psyche and individual internalize

and understand meaning.

 Zogby 86

Conclusion:

Scholars and researchers have worked to improve upon the ideas of their predecessors,

whether by providing new ideas and concepts, or by trying to expand upon ideas already

established in their respective fields. This notion is indicative of the present landscape of Film

Studies, which today has concentrated more on developing flexible and sophisticated values by

which to judge and understand films. Theories such as Jungian psychoanalysis have provided

new approaches to understanding the emotional relationship between viewers and film images,

and have provided the field of film studies new and exciting interpretations to follow already

established theories such as those rooted in Semiotic, Freudian and Lacanian influences. The job

of film theory now is truly dialectical. As a fully matured art, film is no longer an enterprise but

an integrated pattern in the warp and woof of our culture (Monaco 395-396).

The future of Film Studies lies in continuing to synthesize theories which pay credence to

technology, techniques and Jungian psychoanalysis, which provide the means to examine the

emotional aspects of how images impact the development of conscious and unconscious

elements of the psyche. A continued focus on Jungian theories will allow the field to also place

focus on the technical and technological advances in filmmaking because they provide highly

stylistic images in which the psychological, ethical, and political effects are expressed in the

form of film images to viewers. The technology and techniques employed by filmmakers allow

for images to communicate codes to viewers through four possible types: referential (referents

are real or imaginary), explicit (film speaks directly or intentionally to viewers), implicit (film

speaks indirectly to viewers or produces abstract meaning) and symptomatic (individual

expression or artist’s obsession) (Bordwell 8-9). Through these modes of communication,

 Zogby 87

cinema forges links between people, events, and experiences.

Films such as Metropolis, Blade Runner, and The Matrix resonate with viewers on many

different levels because each film presents scathing social commentaries about man and his

relationship with his environment, identity, corporate power and self, along with utilizing

stylistic techniques and narrative elements, which enable psychological functions to present

meaning to viewers in a highly stylized and entertaining ways.

Researchers, scholars, and students of film should continue to find new ways in which

audiences derive referential, symptomatic, implicit and explicit meaning from film images. A

continued focus on understanding how elements of Jungian analytic psychology such as

archetypes, the anima and the animus and the relationship between the conscious and

unconscious function within film images will not only help to improve the theories that have

already been established but also create new areas of focus for scholars to formulate new ideas

and hypotheses. Even though new forms of mass media will develop overtime, film will remain

relevant to the viewing public because it represents more than a language or tool by which

people can communicate. It is a guide by which people can learn to understand and live amongst

each other.
 Zogby 88

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