Double interpretation of desire

Juliet 2022-02-19 08:01:59

While watching the movie, accompanied by the roar of thunderstorms outside the window, I stared nervously at Professor Wenli, who was driving on a rainy night on the screen: When passing the toll gate, I was annoyed by his sudden mistake, for fear that the toll collector would see the corpse in the back seat; At the crossroads, I met "green to red" again, and when I turned my head, I saw the policeman again, showing with a smile of "caught you"... left traces, barbed railings hanging to the murder scene... Too many flaws left! Suddenly, I realized that I had completely taken the role of the "criminal", and I couldn't help smiling. I became a conspirator again. This time it was not Hitchcock, but Fritz Lang.

To tell you the truth, some of my expectations were completely empty. I always think that the pen that is featured several times in the film will play a key role later, just like the key in "Beauty". However, this murderous dream ended at the moment when the professor "dead".

Then there is a series of problem-solving processes. It turns out that the various roles in the dream are no more than the incarnation of the person encountered by the professor in reality. At the end, he rejected the shadow that appeared in the green window again, and ran away. This preaching design clearly gave us room for interpretation: dreams as the presentation of repressed desires.

The wife takes her children out, which seems to naturally create an opportunity to "indulge" desires. In the dream, the beauty in the painting actually favors herself, but it is not exactly the satisfaction of this desire. We can even pry into the satisfaction of this desire in a smaller detail: when the prosecutor friend talked about this case, he guessed that the woman must be the perpetrator that he liked more, otherwise he would spare no effort to bring him to justice. Law. In the movie, the professor looked noncommittal when he heard this. In fact, it seems that regardless of whether it is flirting or killing, the professor has always maintained a calm, calm and rational image and handling methods, and the effect of frequent mistakes, presents a weird taste. Until later, he said frustratingly, "We are no better than others in doing this", and while heading for self-destruction, this kind of psychological quality is nothing like two people. Perhaps, it is unavoidable to question whether there is an implicit irony of intellectuals here.

At this point, we can say that the professor’s dream has first realized for him what he can’t and dare not in reality (Let’s think about the two friends first

The departure is due to the prerequisite that the beautiful woman has an appointment).

Then there is the killing part. In fact, there are different interpretations of this. The famous brain-opening master Zizek said that the professor woke up because he encountered the terrible real world in his dream. He could not face his desire to kill, so he escaped to reality. Zhuang Zhou Mengdie: "We can’t say that what we see is essentially a kind, cordial, and decent middle-class professor who just turned into a murderer in a dream; on the contrary, what we see is essentially He is a murderer, but he dreams of becoming a kind, cordial, and decent middle-class professor in his daily life." ("Squint" p27)

Zizek’s reversal is undoubtedly wonderful, and we can even make up for it: He even escaped the judicial trial in his dream. However, it is more like a complement beyond the meaning of the movie. The empirical composition of dreams has become an abstract conceptual interpretation. It is concluded that the statement "Professor is a murderer" has no real meaning. For example, at the end, when he meets a beautiful girl again/"really" When borrowing fire from him, is his excited reaction related to the conclusion that "he is essentially a murderer"?

But the second half of Zizek’s words are indeed correct. “He dreams of becoming a “gentle, cordial, and decent middle-class professor” in his daily life. At the end, the professor’s escape is established in a dreamland after he accepts the invitation from a woman. On top of the series of troubles that come. Let us return to the “dream state is the presentation of repressed desires.” In the absence of women, such a “dream lover” appears to fill this gap. And killing, throwing dead bodies, and being blackmailed are the obstacles and even punishments in the process of satisfying this desire. He teaches the subconscious self-vigilance and discipline. (Haven’t we had some dreams and was satisfying some It is this redesign that makes the professor of the "aftermath" face the temptation to immediately make the alarm and escape all the possibilities of terror.

In this sense, this film by Fritz Lang does present the process of stitching, and it comically exposes the naked desires of a gentle and decent psychology professor (interesting setting), and then in I returned to the symbolic world on alert. We can indeed use the same set of belongings for different interpretations. Zizek confuses purpose and means; confuses murder and affair, which is the desire that the film really presents and tries to suppress. He paid attention to the end of the dream, but not the end of the film, because he only cared about what he wanted, not what the film wanted.

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Extended Reading
  • Genesis 2022-03-21 09:03:00

    I watched it for Edward Robinson, but what impressed me more after watching it was Joan Bennett, the heroine who was dressed up and changed a lot of fancy clothes. The content shows the clumsiness and confusion of men and women after making mistakes, ironic exclamations without too much nervousness of step-by-step.

  • Kirsten 2022-03-25 09:01:19

    Le miroir, le double ou triple chambranle nous insinuent que ce qui s'est passé est plutôt virtuel. La séquence de transport du cadavre sous la pluie est exceptionnellement belle et noire. meurtre ne sont qu'un rêve me fait une belle surprise car c'est toujours mon thème préféré. Et l'incarnation des gens réels dans le rêve, c'est génial!

The Woman in the Window quotes

  • [first lines]

    Richard Wanley: [lecturing] The Biblical injunction "Thou shalt not kill" is one that requires qualification in view of our broader knowledge of impulses behind homicide. The various legal categories such as first and second degree murder, the various degrees of homicide, manslaughter, are civilized recognitions of impulses of various degrees of culpability. The man who kills in self defense, for instance, must not be judged by the same standards applied to the man who kills for gain.

  • Dr. Michael Barkstane: We've decided she's our dream girl just from that picture.