Psychoanalysis: The 11th Muse (A Conversation)

Working through Sarah Polley'sStories We Tell(and the issue of creative expression)

“…The issue of s pectatorship looms large in Polley's work. It is my impression that the great film director Bernardo Bertolucci captures the essence of spectatorship when he says: “In the past when somebody was too bad with a lady in Naples, somebody stood up and shot five bullets at the bad characters on the screen” (Bertolucci and Sabbadini, , p. 384). In Polley's first film, Away From Her , one becomes emotionally involved with the characters and, knowing Polley's history, one can see how it has been creatively disguised and worked though in this film.…”

“…He goes on to say:

I remember seeing Novecento in a summer in Rome, in the ruins under the moon, in the estate romana, in the open air, and the people talking to the screen: “Olmo!” like in the origin of cinema when there was a kind of real dialogue. (Bertolucci and Sabbadini, , p. 384)

…”

“…Later in that same interview he explains:

I always felt very free in my, let's say, writing a film (writing not in the screenplay, writing during the shooting, writing with the camera) that I should have gone farther and farther in what is the displacement, in what is the technique of creating a disorienting feeling for the audience. (Bertolucci and Sabbadini, , p. 384)

…”

“…From one point of view one could say that the reaction one has to Stories We Tell is an enactment with the audience, where the audience is led to feel Polley's undigested experience of finding out about her mother's affair, and her true parentage. Bertolucci would say the audience's reaction in this film is an example of the director's genius, and that directors of films where that does not happen do not “really ride the freedom that cinema gives you” (Bertolucci and Sabbadini, , p. 385). Polley's other films come closer to Kris's definition of regression in the service of the ego.…”

“…However, there are other ways of thinking about these films that make the question of successful creativity more complicated. The eminent filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci in an interview with Sabbadini (Bertolucci and Sabbadini, ) offers us a differing view of creativity. Bertolucci credits his analysis with freeing his creativity.…”