Past Lives (2023, 2hr, 23 min) written and directed by Celine Song. The film follows the line of connection/disconnection over 24 years of a Korean boy and girl who are separated when her family moves to Canada. From the opening moments, we wonder how that friendship will affect her American marriage, which we are shown over the course of the film to be cozy and companionable. The film is beautifully and clearly rendered. The sense of emotional truth in each of the three characters is one of the film’s pleasures. When the husband speaks his frustration, “You dream in a language that I don’t understand. I’m afraid there’s a place inside of you that I can’t get to…”, we understand.
Learning Objectives:
As a result of attending this session, participants should be able to:
Discuss the impact for immigrants of reveries that idealize the country of origin and require adjustments.
Discuss the psychodynamics of romantic fixation.
Summarize the internal conflicts that arise with actively mourning lives that were never lived with emphasis on the consequences for assuming responsibility for decisions made.
Discussants:
Peter Rainer is the Christian Science Monitor film critic and appears regularly on “Film Week” on LAist, the local NPR affiliate. He was a finalist in 1998 for the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism and has won numerous first-place awards for his criticism from the Los Angeles Press Club. Prior to the Monitor, Peter was a film critic for New York magazine, the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner. He is the author of “Rainer on Film,” which collected his best reviews and essays over a thirty-year span. He also edited the criticism collection “Love and Hisses.” Peter is also the writer and co-producer of A&E Biographies on Sidney Poitier and John Huston. Peter received a B.A. in 1973 from Brandeis University, majoring in English and American literature and graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to earn an M.A. in film from USC. He has lectured on film worldwide, including India and Abu Dhabi, and served on the main juries for the Venice and Montreal film festivals. Peter has lectured and taught classes in film at, among other institutions, Columbia University, NYU, the New York Film Academy in Burbank, Loyola, UCLA, AFI, and USC. He has also appeared over the years as a film commentator for such outlets as CNN, ABC World News Tonight and Nightline. His father, Dr. John Rainer, M.D., was a prominent New York psychoanalyst who was chief of the Department of Medical Genetics at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. He is recognized especially for his pioneering work on the psychiatric problems of the deaf.
Bettina Soestwohner, PhD, PsyD holds a doctoral degree in Comparative Literature from UC Irvine. She is a Graduate Research Psychoanalyst and faculty member at the New Center for Psychoanalysis and a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Newport Psychoanalytic Institute. She is a member of the California Circle of the EFQ (Freudian School of Quebec) and of the IFLF (International Forums of the Lacanian Field.) She has a private practice in Los Angeles.
