Wednesday, 4 May 2016

Research: Spellbound (1945)


Salvador Dali’s creation of the dream sequence in Hitchock’s film Spellbound is particularly fascinating for me, as it marks the visual style of surrealism that resides closely with Freudian notions and psychoanalysis. The sequence contains many different mystical and absurd symbols, including curtains with eyes painted on them, a game of black jack, a girl going round kissing everyone and someone running down a pyramid. This imagery artistically portrays the main characters mental distress. 

MY APPLICATION: 

This dream sequence enhanced my understanding of the Freudian notion ‘the uncanny’ effect, of the strangely familiar being present in dreams.

Akin to Spellbound, my screenplay will feature a protagonist, who is mentally troubled, which I wish to illustrate through dream sequences. I am certainly intrigued by this overt use of fantastical imagery, which signifies the main character Gregory's guilt, as he thinks that he has murdered a man. 
Additionally, I seek to commence my film with a dramatic nightmare scene to enable the audience to gain an insight into my main character's distress; Freud states that "Dreams are often most profound when they seem the most crazy."

In my opening scene, I will be transforming ordinary symbols into bizarre symbols. I have a vision of a nude woman on stage in a circus, exposed to a crowd of monstrous creatures, who laugh ferociously. This supposedly represents the main characters' unconscious fear of interacting with others, hence the reason why the crowd have monstrous and frightening qualities. 

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