Film and the dream screen

Tematem prace je srovnani dvou typů uměleckých narativů ? literaturniho a filmoveho ? na přikladu romanu Dama v jezeře (autor Raymond Chandler) a jeho filmoveho zpracovani (režie Robert Montgomery). Snimek Lady in the Lake představuje v historii kinematografie zajimavý ukaz. Jako jediný realizovaný film je po větsinu casu sniman subjektivni kamerou z pozice hlavniho hrdiny ? detektiva Phillipa Marlowa. Na zakladě exkurzu napřic zaklady narativnich strategii a jejich nasledne aplikace na předlohu a adaptaci se snaži prace zodpovědět otazku, proc zůstal snimek ve svem pokusu o variaci literarni ich-formy osamocený

https://theses.cz/id/k5znmo/98444-711458253.pdf

Lady in the Lake: Narativní strategie v literatuře a filmu

Examination of dreams in film suggests that limiting the point of view to a completely subjective camera in dreams or in any filniic narrative is undesirable Most "dream sequences" we can think of employ a mixture of subjective point of view shots and objective shots of the dreamer precisely because a dream as captured in film is a filmic dream- a psychic mirror of memory and desire I shall try to explain my position by discussing Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957) and Buster Keaton's Sherlock, Jr (1925) I want to begin, though by considering a film which is not a "dream," one which tried to effect a subjective point of view and, in the opinion of most, failed as a film, even if it managed to achieve partially its aim : Robert Montgomery's The Lady in the Lake (1946) Those familiar with the film will recall that after an introduction in which we see Montgomery explain what will ensue (we're to watch the events exactly as the hero, Philip Marlowe, experienced them), we then enter a world presented to us through the limited point of view of the subjective camera, seeing as if from the eyes of the hero As he moves, we move-thanks to the camera actually strapped to Montgomery; as he smokes, the smoke appears to come from the center of vision; a hand that belongs to this center of vision holds a phone to the screen; when the hero is socked in the face, and in an auto accident, the camera reels and shakes, the image going out of focus to indicate his loss of consciousness We see Montgomery -Marlowe as an objective image only in mirrors, at least until the end of the film But we should note that within the subjective sequence, at one point we see him in a mirror reflection which he cannot be said to witness, thus breaking the consistency of the subjective camera Several comments by critics on the film bear noting First, Christian Metz observes that, in effect, the project was a hopeless one to begin with: "What happens ordinarily in films, and is sometimes called 'identification,' is in reality a temporary association, an act of projection whereby the spectator momentarily mentally accompanies the character (on condition that he has at other moments seen him from outside) Thus in his desire to achieve a total identification ![Montgomery] in fact inhibited that partial association which other films enjoy"1 Metz cites Albert Laffay's comment: "By pursuing an impossible perceptual assimilation, the film in fact inhibits symbolic identification"2 Jean Mitry raises an equally suggestive objection He notes that when he reads a first person narrative, he does not experience the events described as "immediate sensations" Rather: "I incarnate the T into a being which is myself I integrate recollections of ideas which are suggested by the words I compose therefore an imaginary in which I am the actor, but it is born of me, constituted of me" On the other hand, "subjective impressions in the cinema are given to me"; subjective cinema "communicates impressions which do not originate from me"3 I have begun with reference to The Lady in the Lake and to these critics because, as far as I have been able to determine, no one directly acknowledges that in the point of view section with the subjective camera, we have possibly the most sustained equivalent in film of a genuine dream I ask the reader to reflect a moment on the manner in which he or she dreams My experience, as well as those of a large number of people I have queried on this matter, is that in a real dream one is a spectator-participant: one for whom the events occur as experienced in real life; that is, the dream goes through my mind in a way such that I know my own body as part of me, rather than as disembodied or as a being distinct from me as on a stage or screen My investigations into Sigmund Freud's writings on dreams have yielded nothing; as far as I know, he is silent on the issue of point of view in dreams* What Montgomery did, in trying to present the equivalent of a literary first person point of view was- I believe unwittingly-to duplicate the conditions of a dream …

Robert T Eberwein

Papers

The Filmic Dream and Point of View