It is often observed that the institutions of psychoanalysis and cinema are roughly the same age. This course investigates the ways in which film theory and criticism have been influenced by psychoanalysis and explores the ways in which psychoanalytic theories have informed cinema, either through film form or through plotting and characterization. The course will provide a working understanding of fundamental psychoanalytic concepts and will offer exercise in psychoanalytical film analysis. Each lecture will begin by the screening of a film, proceed by discussing a psychoanalytic concept and conclude by a focus on the intersection points of the readings and the films. By the end of the course, the students will be able to develop their own ideas about film in relation to these theories and apply them to further examples.
