From the start, the craft of filmmaking has been intertwined with psychoanalysis. Both were developed around the turn of the 20th century, and both involve, in practice, a fair amount of art as well as science. Perhaps most importantly, film and psychoanalysis share preoccupations with creativity, viewing and listening, primal desires, and primal fears. In this course, we will use some core concepts from psychoanalytic theory to enrich our understanding of four contemporary films. We will also try to consider the experience of viewing these films using the interpretive framework of psychoanalysis and the model of the mind that it offers. The films we will explore are symbolically
rich, entertaining, and, like a good analysis, successful at getting under the skin, as one of the titles suggests.