New Center of Psychoanalysis
This event addresses: Suppressed Familial Truths
Join NCP’s Film and Mind series online! A once a month psychoanalytic discussion of a topical film!
On May 12, Film & Mind explores what makes a transformative movie with a doubleheader of two films of vastly different subject matter—Ted K (“The Unabomber”) and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande. We will consider how each illustrates the art of universalist filmmaking while exploring specific and psychoanalytically important themes.
Ted K, (2022, 2 hours, directed by Tony Stone) is a remarkably interesting film about the pathological idealism of domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber of the late 20th Century. Utilizing a spare voiceover (culled from Kaczynski’s voluminous “Manifesto” ) and shot in the remote mountainous area of Montana where the Unabomber was arrested, the film invites us into the autistic mind of Kaczynski and his 17 year long battle with technology and environmental devastation. With careful handling by director Stone and sensitive portrayal by Shallot Copley, we are able to identify with the Unabomber’s rationalizations and his building fury and frustration. The subjective perspective spares the audience the bloody horror of the actual bombings, and brilliantly leaves us pondering the extent to which the madman was a monster.
Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022, directed by Sophie Hyde, 97 minutes). A young sex worker with the skills of a psychotherapist + an older, widowed school teacher (Emma Thompson) who has never experienced an Orgasm = Mutual Maturation in four sessions.
