Dangerous Relation (PART 2 OF 3)
Really?...How far did Sabina go beyond your understanding?
Sabina isn't just a mentally ill seductress but she is a woman stifled by expectation, attempting to grapple with the intense shame of repressed sexuality.
Oh... the intense shame of repressed sexuality?
Yes, with Carl Jung's help, Sabina was trying to speak some unspeakable things no one had ever asked her to articulate before. This is the talking care, and this is what the movie's title means---"A Dangerous method."
I see...sounds fascinating. But what are those unspeakable things?
Well..., Sabina is a young attractive woman, coming from a wealthy family of a respectable middle or upper class. Apparently, she has an intense shame of repressed sexuality, but she tries to speak out that she was once sexually aroused by her father beating her to the point that she masturbated. This is the thing I cannot understand.
So, Sabina is quite mazochistic, eh?
You're telling me, Kato...Sabina tried to speak out but couldn't let these things out of her mouth. This is where her facial deformity comes from.
Facial deformity?
Yes, Sabina's jaw is practically dislocated by fierce tics and her body is contorted as she convulses.
Wow...must be a quite shocking scene.
Yes, it is indeed.
You know what, Diane? ... David Cronenberg's movies are always weirdest, kinkiest, or most disturbingly vicious. I saw "The Fly", "Naked Lunch", "Crash", and "A History of Violence." His films are always like that.
Why?
Well... Cronenberg once said, "My lifelong fascination with human psychology isn't so much about understanding 'why?', but in asking 'why not?'"
Kato, what does it mean?
Otto Gross---Carl Jung's colleague---once said, "Why should we assume having sex with our patients is a bad thing? Maybe it's a good thing. Maybe under the terms of psychoanalysis, it can work under ceratin circumstances." Likewise, Cronenberg's way of thinking might have moved from "Why should we assume having with the patient is a bad ting? Maybe it's a good thing." to "Why not?"
I still don't understand what you're talking about.
You don't? Diane, look at the diagram below:
(icebergx.gif)
What is this?
I call this "Iceberg Model of Repressed Sexuality."
Repressed sexuality is only the tip of the whole iceberg. Is that what you're getting at?
You're absolutely right on, Diane. If Cronenberg really wanted to know the nitty-gritty of represed sexuality, he would've focused on the Victorian Prudery.
Victorian prudery
Clothing covered the entire body, we are told, and even the glimpse of an ankle was scandalous.
Critics contend that corsets constricted women's bodies and women's lives.
Homes are described as gloomy, dark, cluttered with massive and over-ornate furniture and proliferating bric-a-brac.
Myth has it that even piano legs were scandalous, and covered with tiny pantalettes.
(pianoleg.jpg)
Of course, much of this is untrue, or a gross exaggeration.
Corsets stressed a woman's sexuality, exaggerating hips and bust by contrast with a tiny waist.
Women's ball gowns bared the shoulders and the tops of the breasts.
The jersey dresses of the 1880s may have covered the body, but the stretchy novel fabric fitted the body "like a glove".
There is no actual evidence that piano legs were considered scandalous.
Pianos and tables were often draped with shawls or cloths—but if the shawls hid anything, it was the cheapness of the furniture.
There are references to lower-middle-class families covering up their pine tables rather than show that they couldn't afford mahogany.
The piano leg story seems to have originated in Captain Frederick Marryat's 1839 book, Diary in America, as a satirical comment on American prissiness.
Victorian manners, however, may have been as strict as imagined—on the surface.
One simply did not speak publicly about sex, childbirth, and such matters, at least in the respectable middle and upper classes.
However, as is well known, discretion covered a multitude of sins.
Prostitution flourished.
Upper-class men and women indulged in adulterous liaisons.
Victorian Women
Some people now look back on the Victorian era with wistful nostalgia.
Historians would say that this is as much a distortion of the real history as the stereotypes emphasizing Victorian repression and prudery.
Women were not allowed to swim, for it would be frowned upon as "bad etiquette".
Women also had to wear special suits to ride bikes.
Also notable is a contemporary counter-cultural trend called steampunk.
Those who dress steampunk often wear Victorian-style clothing that has been "tweaked" in edgy ways: tattered, distorted, melded with Goth fashion, Punk, and Rivethead styles.
Another example of Victorian fashion being incorporated into a contemporary style is the Gothic and Classic Lolita Fashion culture.
Victorian Women
and Prostitution
<iframe width="400" height="305" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0FeMHRTNQ78" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
SOURCE: "Victorian Prudery"
PICTURES: from the Denman Library
You see, Diane,... without the Victorian prudery, you could hardly understand the Sabina's repressed sexuality because the Victorian manners demanded that Sabina should not speak publicly about sex, childbirth, and such matters.
I see.
I suppose, Cronenberg is more interested in the tip of the iceberg----that is, Carl Jung embarked on an sado-mazochistic affair with his patient, Sabina. If Cronenberg had focused on the Victorian Prudery, you would've understood the shocking scenes with more empathy.
(To be followed)