March 28, 2011

UCLA Conference On Pedro Almodovoar

UCLA's New Center for Psychoanalysis is hosting a conference devoted to the films of Pedro Almodovor, Mirrors of the Heart: The Films of Pedro Almodovar. It takes place April 16. Says coordinator Dr. Thomas Brod, "These films are like dreams...There's anxiety in small measures, and you're always in identification with the characters, no matter what they're doing. It's open to all sorts of possibilities. The visual qualities are so exciting, and there's plenty to chew on psychoanalytically. So we like to have psychoanalysts from many different kinds of theoretical perspectives discussing it."

While the experts at this conference don't seem to have the intersection of psychoanalysis and law directly in their sights, I would think that that intersection would be interesting to examine, particularly considering Mr. Almodovor's subjects. Notes another speaker, Dr. Sandra E. Fenster, at the upcoming conference, "Voyeurism, blackmail, unconscious fantasy, early relationships that persist in an adult's mind -- his films really capture that." She will be discussing the film Broken Embraces (2009) "to illustrate obsessive love triangles and jealous revenge."


Last year's conference centered on Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind).






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