Customer Reviews

The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Cinema

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Metz's work is generally considered to be essential reading for the study of film theory. When I first read this particular text, I found myself disagreeing with the psychoanalytic interpretation of the relationship that exists between film (the immaginary signifier) and the spectator. My frustration came from the apparent reduction of the cinema down to psychoanalytic terms and ideas that appear to limit our understanding of this complex artistic medium. If the reader agrees with the Lacanian model of the development of the subject, then these problems will not develop, however it seems that this particular interpretation leaves alot of questions unanswered. Putting these disputes aside, I think that this work is monumental because of Metz's penetrating (no pun)insight into the nature of the signifier. Even if the reader does not agree with his particular method of interpretation, his ideas that come from his deep critical examination make the text a very worthwhile one to read.

Metz attempts to compare the structures of the motion picture with the structure of language. In practice it doesn't always succeed, but this is considered a critical work in the field of film theory.