Visible Mind: Movies, modernity and the unconscious

films are works of the imagination – even early documentaries, like those of the Lumière Brothers or Mitchell and Kenyon, have to be imagined before planning to shoot, so that the effect of the film (not the effect of ‘reality’) may be achieved.

Film is a surface art and in it whatever is inside is outside.

‘the image on the screen; the image that arises from the act of interpretation; and the third image that comes about as the result of an individual's largely unconscious relationship with a film’

The movies are far more efficient than the theatre: they are less restricted, they are able to produce symbols to show the collective unconscious, since their methods of presentation are so unlimited. (Jung 1984: 12)

‘Consciousness is full of holes, and we use stories to hide them from ourselves’.

I see cinematography as the final and last medium left in this society, artistically speaking, that can be enjoyed by many people. Painting, sculpture etc., have limited audiences … People should make a big effort to keep it as an art medium. I like to paint on the screen. I like to create a mood and treat it as an art form, the last art form. I ha

Film narratives, images and ideas frequently go further than the conscious intentions of those who make them.

‘The movies are far more efficient than the theatre: they are less restricted, they are able to produce amazing symbols to show the collective unconscious, since their methods of presentation are so unlimited’

One analyst told me of a client who grew up in a family where no one was allowed to watch anything except cartoons. It was as if the whole family had not grown up. When she was depressed, the client watched cartoons all day. She eventually confessed how she would be terrified to watch a romantic comedy; the idea of going to the video store and watc