Third European Psychoanalytic Film Festival (epff3) 2005

Report on the 3rd European Psychoanalytic Film Festival (epff3) 

Andrea Sabbadini

„Organised and hosted by our Society, the 3rd European Psychoanalytic Film
Festival took place in London from 3 to 6 November 2005. Some 260
delegates coming from over 20 different countries (as remote as
Brazil, Canada, the USA, Russia, South Korea and Australia) took
part in the ongoing creative interdisciplinary dialogue between
cinema and psychoanalysis.

In the course of the opening reception at Regent’s College, psychoanalysts,
therapists, filmmakers, scholars and students were welcomed by Roger
Kennedy as President Elect of our Society and by myself as Chairman
of epff3. Film historian Ian Christie and Helen Taylor
Robinson then introduced the screening of two powerful Czeck
animation shorts by Jan Svenkmajer, a world master of this medium.

Proceedings started the following morning in the prestigious theatres of BAFTA
(the British Academy of Film and Television Arts) in Piccadilly.
Throughout two days, delegates were offered an intense programme of
screenings of movies - some of them never seen before in this
country - from different European cinematic traditions, which they
then had the opportunity of discussing with panels of
psychoanalysts, film directors, screenwriters and academics. Some of
the themes covered by such films included the unlikely friendship
between two very different men (Elling), the doomed attempts
of an adolescent girl to rescue her mother from a life of
prostitution (Or), the plight of 70,000 Finnish children
evacuated to Sweden during WW2 (Mother of Mine), the
psychological conflict of a man involved in a hit-and-run car
accident (Wolfsburg), the sado-masochistic relationship
between a girl and a man who would only love anorexic women (First
Love), the reconstruction through family movies, diaries and
still photographs of the life and suicide of two filmmakers’ own
parents (Un’ora sola ti vorrei and Boogie-Woogie Daddy).

Lectures and panels, generously illustrated with clips from the works being
presented, looked closely at such works as Un Chien Andalou
(Andrew Webber), Mother Dao (Laura Mulvey and Daniel Pick)
and Talk to Her (Andrea Sabbadini); investigated the
representation of ageing in such films as The Swimming Pool
(Diana Diamond), Belleville Rendez-Vous (Alexander Stein),
The Flight of the Eagle (Lissa Weinstein) and Comment J’ai
Tué Mon Père (Jeff Kline); considered a series of films where time is represented
as moving backwards (Ian Christie), Buñuel’s
development of the idea of amour fou (Peter Evans),
contrasting forms of representations of the Holocaust in Central and
Western European cinema (Cathy Portugues and Bruce Sklarew).

Other highlights at epff3 were Glen Gabbard’s tour-de-force
on different methodologies in psychoanalytic film criticism, and the
discussion with actor Imelda Staunton, following the screening of
Mike Leigh’s Vera Drake, of her role as a backstreet
abortionist. The programme of events culminated with the
presentation to Bernardo Bertolucci, Honorary President of
epff since it started in 2001, of the first Honorary
Fellowship awarded by the British Psychoanalytical Society. This
brief and moving ceremony was followed by the viewing of a 35 minute
long compilation, specially prepared for this occasion by Bertolucci
himself, of poignant sequences from some of his best-loved movies.

The dinner-and-dance party on Guy Fawkes night aboard the Dixie Queen
sailing up and down the Thames lit by fireworks will be remembered
as a very special one indeed by the over 200 people who joined us to
celebrate epff3.

The final event, on the Sunday morning, chaired by Laura Mulvey, Glen Gabbard
and myself, was a stimulating plenary discussion. The organisers had
a chance to share with the delegates many useful comments and
constructive suggestions, and were left with the gratifying
impression that most delegates wished to come back in 2007 for
epff4.“

Organised by the British Psychoanalytical Society at BAFTA

British Academy of Film
&Television Arts
195 Piccadilly, London W1

Honorary President
Bernardo Bertolucci

Organising Committee
Andrea Sabbadini (Chairman)
Marina Perris-Myttas (Hon Sec)
Don Campbell
Eric Karas
Eileen McGinley
Tharu Naidoo
Kannan Navaratnem
Ann Glynn (Administration)

Quelle: http://www.psychoanalysis.org.uk/epff3/

Redaktion CD, 16.6.2013