Salvador Dali’s ‘Spellbound’, a psychological mystery thriller, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1945 nominated for a best picture Academy award. The film opens with Shakespear’s proverb – ‘The fault….. Is not in our stars, but in ourselves…..’
Hitchcock quotes, ‘I wanted the dream sequence to be shot in the sunshine so that the camera man would be forced, to what we call ‘Stop death’ and get a very hard image, this was again the avoidance of the clech’e; All dreams in movies are blurred, it isn’t true ! Dali was the best man for me to do the dream, because that’s what dreams should be.’
According to Anna.O, 'The year 1944 was a very productive one for Dalí. He designed advertising images for the
stocking manufacturer Bryans, for perfume, lipstick and other products for Elsa Schiaparelli,
and for McCurrach ties; he contributed articles and illustrations to a number of magazines, and
in June published his only novel, Hidden Faces. At the end of the summer he signed the contract
that resulted in his creating the dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock’s filmSpellbound, which
premiered in 1945.'
Hitchock described ‘Spellbound’ as “Just another manhunt story wrapped up in pdeuda-psychoanalyis.
Back in the 40’, Hollywood great faith in Freudian psychology and created several movies (such as ‘The Dark Mirror’ and ‘Posessed’) where psychology was used to explain away character motivations in painfully obvious terms.
Many reviews for Spellbound, introduce the female figure, ‘Dr. Constance Peterson as ‘She’, this singling her presence put, keeping intrigue towards symbolism and her relationship with the protagonist, ‘the patient’. ‘She’, who would seem an obvious leading metaphor for what we are learning about this man’s subconscious.
The plot of ‘spellbound’- psychiatrist Dr. Edwards, becomes catatonic when he sees vertical lined. What causes this condition? And why is he suffering from amnesia? The head of psychiatry, but doubts about his own identity soon begin to surface; he panics during a surgery he must be escorted out of the operating room. Imposter? He confides in her that he may have murdered the real Dr.
She falls for his charms and so tried to help him discover his real self. She believes that he is innocent and suffering from a guilt complex. They travel to Rochester to meet Dr. Brulov. They analyse a dream that he had and so everything unfolds.
References:
Anna.O, ‘Dalinian studies’[Online],available at:
http://www.salvador-dali.org/media/upload//pdf//TigresENG16Feb2010_noticies_en_home_119.pdf(Accessed 20th April 2012)
David.s, ‘Images Journal’, [online]available at : http://www.imagesjournal.com/2002/reviews/spellbound/ ,(Accessed 19thApril 2012)
Spellbound’ features a famous dream sequence designed by Dali that includes some astonishing images such as,
huge floating eyes, twisted landscapes, a faceless man in a tuxedo dropping a wheel, blank playing cards and wings.
From Avia.V's dream interpretations -
Eyes
‘The dream meaning of eyes deals with perception. Eyes interpret light, and so when we dream of them we’re dealing with a greater vision, illumination, enlightenment, understanding and even our concept of reality. Injured eyes may indicate we’re not seeing the facts clearly, or we’re simply unable to face certain truths at this time.
Eyes
‘The dream meaning of eyes deals with perception. Eyes interpret light, and so when we dream of them we’re dealing with a greater vision, illumination, enlightenment, understanding and even our concept of reality. Injured eyes may indicate we’re not seeing the facts clearly, or we’re simply unable to face certain truths at this time.
This relates to Hitchcock’s ‘spellbound dream sequence’ almost perfectly .One of the first scenes in the sequence is described to be in some sort of gambling house with no walls but a load of curtains with eyes painted on them. Taking into account the plot of the build up toward this very scene’ The protagonist is describing his search for his lost identity and by doing this, begins with describing a room with the many watchful eyes from his dream and then speaks of a man walking around with a large pair of scissors cutting all of them in half. This could almost most definitely be indicating towards his ‘guilty conscience’ over his uncertainty for murdering someone.
The Closed eyes may either indicate surrender to a situation (leaving it to faith) or choosing avoidance over action. Eye colour in dreams is subject to your interpretation too. Eye patches suggests perception is marred, not all the facts are known, and it might be time to explore all the details.
In Dreaming the meaning of eyes indicates an opening into a new dimension. This is symbolic of your vision clearing and focusing in on a new direction. It may also indicate your ability to see past what is common and spiritually arrive to the point where your inner vision perceives all things in their divine glory – even the simplest of things become imbued with an exquisite quality inherent in all nature.
‘The symbolic meaning of eyes also carry a message of prophesy – literally seeing “a vision of the future.” This translates well with ancient alchemists and astrologers speaking of eyes of the sky foretelling certain events as they chart the stars in certain patterns to ascertain various outcomes.’
‘Many ancient esoteric as well as earth-based philosophies consider the eye as achannel or a passageway into a new dimension. Here the eye is not a physical symbol but rather a ethereal one in which consciousness may enter into a gateway of infinite expanse. This journey is traversed through the pitch-black channel of being-ness (represented by the black of the pupil). Once the threshold is crossed, one is said to obtain higher knowledge – a glimpse of heightened epiphany – comparable to enlightenment.’
Face
‘Dream meaning of faces should be interpreted according to the expression on the dream face. These are pretty explanatory. Happy faces elicit meanings of joy, harmony, peace, prosperity. Gruesome or unpleasant faces indicate turbulences, discontent, hostility, worry, inner displeasure. Illuminated faces are often portents of higher knowledge dispensed to the dreamer (maybe from a loved one, spirit guide or angel). A dream face with no features points to a heavy reliance on faith, spirituality or extrasensory perception to gain understanding over the use of physical senses.’
‘Dream meaning of faces should be interpreted according to the expression on the dream face. These are pretty explanatory. Happy faces elicit meanings of joy, harmony, peace, prosperity. Gruesome or unpleasant faces indicate turbulences, discontent, hostility, worry, inner displeasure. Illuminated faces are often portents of higher knowledge dispensed to the dreamer (maybe from a loved one, spirit guide or angel). A dream face with no features points to a heavy reliance on faith, spirituality or extrasensory perception to gain understanding over the use of physical senses.’
Faceless dreaming comes from the subconscious mind and could be something/someone you want to confront in reality. Perhaps, meaning low self confidence. The fear comes from something you don’t have control over, normally in our dreaming we dream of the faces in our scene images but when our subconscious gives us no face to interact with, that becomes fear.
In spellbound in this case, the persona of the faceless character is recognized as ‘the proprietor’. Familiarised faceless characters may indicate a guilt complex. Perhaps there is something in reality he felt he should have done but neglected to do. Faceless could also hint in this case a feeling of shame over an action he didn’t take.
Wings
Dream meaning of wings carry messages of “spread your wings and fly” to new locations (physical moves), understanding (gaining knowledge through study, school, etc) or flying to new spiritual heights. Dreaming of wings themselves may indicate it’s time to work on inner landscapes, or a prompting to fly into the realms of spirituality. It may also encourage a spring cleaning of the mind (sweep away rubbish thoughts) to gain clarity in thought about a certain troubling situation.
That’s right, altering the physical matter via nonphysical methods. These kinds of feats are accomplished by swallowing whole the reality of our physical presence and balancing that with our (mostly) nonphysical nature/essence.
If you’re dreaming of wings, it’s a clear sign of a desire to rise above a challenge. Dreaming of wings on animals may be a message to overcome base or animalistic qualities. It may also indicate the inner self’s desire to escape from undesirable (primitive) living conditions.
Charlie.R-
“Štyrský was another fascinated by dreams and recorded his own through writing, and later, drawings. For him, the dream state was a storehouse of motifs that he would join together in collage and painting until his death in 1942.
Styrsky’s imagery is a blurring between the erotic and the morbid. Using hardcore porn clipped from German and English stereo-cards and books, Styrsky disassociates sex from procreation and conceives of it from a purely pleasure giving point of view. The incongruous elements of plant details, a parachute and starry backgrounds emphasize the orgasmic while skeletons, men in gas masks, coffins and disembodied eyes draw a more sinister tone. Styrsky may have been poking fun at puritans who certainly would have been enraged by the montages by including the darker elements. As Bohuslav Brouk wrote in his afterword for Emilie; “People who hide their sexuality despise their innate capabilities without being able to rise above them. They deny their mortality…Any illusion to their animality, not only in life, but also in science, literature and art, wounds them because it disturbs their day-dreaming.”
References:
Avia.V,’whats-your-sign’,[online]Available at: http://www.whats-your-sign.com/dream-meaning-common.html, (Accessed 22nd April)
Charlie.R,’5B4 photography and books’,[online]Available at:http://5b4.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/emilie-comes-to-me-in-dream-by-jindrich.html (Accessed 23rd)
Adam.R, ’Surrealist Photography’,[Book pg.22],(Accessed 20th April)
The Joke And It’s Relation To The Unconcious – Sigman Freud
“Why do we laugh? The answer, argued Freud in this groundbreaking study of humour, is that jokes, like dreams, satisfy our unconscious desires.
The joke and it’s relation to the unconscious (1905) explains how jokes provide immense pleasure by releasing us from our inhibitions and allowing us to express sexual, aggressive, playful or clynical instincts that would otherwise remain hidden. In elaborating this theory, Freud brings together a rich collection of puns, wittisisms, one-liners and anecdotes, many of which throw a vivid light on the society of early twentieth-century Vienna. Jokes, as Freud shows, are a method of giving ourselves away.
Analysing and searching as much as possible on Alfred Hitcock’s ‘Spellbound’, Was to stumble upon a collection of hidden and ‘rare’ recording of interviews of Hitchcock and many others.
After a conversation with an interviewer “I read somewhere once that you made a remark that romantic man and romantic lady leading role, people that play those are very much in love with each other.. ”
Hitchcock replies “Well, thats because you know, one hears of so many multiple marriages in Hollywood, woman have had four husband and visa versa and i thing its really because they meet in a love scene in a picture and they bring it to life and truth after 6’oclock in the dressing room preferably.
“have you ever caught them doing this?”
“um ..no not myself because I like to be home by 6’oclock.
‘I wouldn’t particularise it, i’m generalising. And hes not an army man either.”
“who??”
“General Ising.”
The interviewer then laughs and says, “oh.. you like all kinds of horror don’t you, bad puns…
Hitchcock cuts him short with – not bad puns, puns, puns are the highest form of literature’.
Although wouldn’t say that Hitchcock shared the exact same misogynistic views as Freud, you can certainly tell that he took a lot of interest and inspiration from him.
Throughout ‘Spellbound’, from a perspective of someone that hasn’t yet analysed the true meaning throughout the performance and metaphor use of the film, it would appear that the protagonist intended to present us with a certain amount of negative feeling towards the female character.
Of course anyone that knows Dali’s work would expect to see a range of surreal melting clocks and over props of this description; It is said that Dali’s use of drooping objects portray his own impotence. He also uses a lot of scenes for ants, borrowing their way through a hand for example, strong laborious creatures, perhaps portraying sperm in their own right.
Walter Benjamin- ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’,Illuminations
‘Evidently a different nature opens itself to the camera, than opens to the naked eye- if only because an unconsciously penetrated space is substituted for a space consciously explored by man’.— the cinematic MALE gaze.
Comparing expressions of woman in Ingres’ painting ‘La Grande Odalisque’ and a woman in a ‘girlie magazine’.
When the tradition of painting became more secular, other themes also offered the opportunity of painting nudes. But in the all there remains the implication that the subject (a woman) is aware of being seen by a spectator.
‘She is not naked as she is. She is naked as the spectator sees her.’
John Berger- Ways of Seeing
‘Men act and women appear. Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at. This determines not only most relations between men and women but also the relation of women to themselves. The surveyor of woman in herself in male: the surveyed female. Thus she turns herself into an object- and most particularly an object of vision: a sight’
In the art-form of the European nude the painters and spectator-owners were usually men and the persons treated as objects, usually woman. This unequal relationship is so deeply embedded in our culture that is still structures the consciousness of many woman. They do to themselves what men do to them. They survey, like men, their own femininity.
Comparing Manet’s Olympia with Titian’s original
Titian’s Olympia would be seen to be portrayed in a ‘traditional’ role, holding herself in a fair classically elegant fashion. A naked body has to be seen as an object to become a nude. To be naked is to be without disguise. In this she is wearing her hair as a disguise – hair is associated with power.
Being brave enough to have someone else in control of it ie. A hair dresser, is to hand over to a complete stranger a certain amount of this power.
Hair is associated with sexual power, with passion.
Manet’s Olympia is to have her sexual passion minimized having the watcher seize control of such passion. Positioning herself directly frontward, she feeds an appetite, not to have any of her own.
Titian’s is accompanied by a fellow gazing in the same room outwardly away from her. This is a painting of sexual provocation. A providing of a male seen to be lover, rarely has the females attention directed towards them, she will look away from him or outward the spectator. The protagonist is never to be painted, but the spectator in front of the picture who is presumed to be a man.
This is an experiment of selecting images of a traditional female nude, transforming the posing subject from a woman into a man. First sifting through the book with the mind’s eye, selected a couple, and sketching on the reproduction. Notice the violence in which the transformation ha to the assumptions of a likely viewer. Women are viewed quite differently to men, the ideal spectator is always assumed to be male.
In our modern day and age we have woman opposing the idea of woman being objectified by man and that what we see is always influenced on a whole host of assumptions concerning the nature of beauty, truth, civilisation, form, taste class and gender. But a lot of women go about it the complete wrong way; after all, relationships between the different genders should be based equality not superiority.
M.I.A is a prime example for someone that has taken a ‘female in power’ the complete wrong way. Let’s take her video ‘Bad Girls’ for example. In the video, she surrounds herself by men sprawling herself across the bonet of a sports car, dancing provocatively chanting an incredibly repetitive ‘tune’. What she is trying to pull off here, is a lady living in a ‘man’s world, and doin’ it well’. Jumping on the band wagon for the ‘boys and their toys’ so to speak, some of us will argue that her intentions have managed to backfire, for no woman really dreams of sitting on a car parading themselves around for the men to ‘idolise’. The only difference between her and that of the woman in the paintings from these earlier centuries, is that she happens to be wearing clothes but in place of them flaunts ‘what she’s packin’, as some modern day stereo types might say, on top of a car. She might as well put herself in Khia’s ‘Clean Version of ‘my neck, my back’ video.
References:
John.B,’Ways Of Seeing’[Book pg.43,49,57],(Accessed 18th April)
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