{"id":504,"date":"2015-12-07T20:28:26","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T20:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smilingmadamebeudet.sac.lsa.umich.edu\/?page_id=504"},"modified":"2015-12-07T20:28:26","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T20:28:26","slug":"the-husband-daydream","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/theme-6\/the-husband-daydream\/","title":{"rendered":"“Obsession”"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final daydream, called \u201cObsession,\u201d brings to the surface the roiling depths of the hatred which Madeline feels for her husband\u2019s ways, and reveals what lengths she is willing go to cleanse herself of him. Dulac uses a great range of filmmaking techniques to make the character\u2019s subjectivity felt and therefore understood by the viewer. Dulac’s ability to make the play “open inward” (1.)\u00a0<\/strong>is its defining quality, the one for which it is most often praised. “Obsession,” is the point at which the character’s descent into hatred becomes a trip down the rabbit hole which leads her somewhere she will regret.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

My reading of this sequence is informed by Flitterman\u2019s article \u201cDulac in Context,\u201d in which he describes Dulac in terms of her relationship to the Impressionist mode of her time. Impressionists employed \u201ca battery of experimental techniques\u201d in order to render \u201cthe life of the mind…of the characters.” (2<\/strong>.)<\/b><\/span>\u00a0Dulac, an Impressionist, employs a number of techniques in the \u201cbattery\u201d Flitterman describes.<\/p>\n

The first manipulative device can be seen in the first shot of the daydream, where Monsieur Beudet is coming over the railing. This shot is done in dramatic slow motion, giving his movements a spiderlike quality, an effect heightened by the white lace curtains on either side of him as he climbs. The window is the only gateway to the light of day that the room offers, and the dark background associated with this subjective representation of him suggests that Madeline associates him with darkness:\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

In Musser\u2019s article, \u201cThe Senses and Subjectivity,\u201d he describes how Dulac engages all five of the senses throughout the movie, and how these engagements are keys to the \u201cvisceral impact\u201d (3.)<\/strong>\u00a0that the film achieves. One example of this is is Dulac\u2019s use of the bell, which seems to momentarily wake Madeline from her trance. Dulac times the ring with a visual cue of a bell ringing. This creates a release in tension, almost as if Dulac is hitting the reset button, as Madeline rushes to the window.<\/p>\n

But escape is not so simple. Just a moment after the window is closed, Dulac uses a superimposition of Monsier to create a \u201cghost\u201d effect, in which Monsier appears next to her, laughing uproariously at her. Because of the faded quality of the superimposition, the audience understands that his relation to Madeline is psychological and non-material.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>
The transparent quality of the superimposition puts thoughts and feelings in visual terms.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Madeline flees the aparition and cowers in a corner, and is immediately confronted by another superimposition of her husband, this time in a brief flash of furious scratching made even more frantic by the addition of a \u201csped-up\u201d effect.<\/p>\n

The two takes create a kind of symmetry in the rhythm of the dream, first through a slowed-down take of him moving the vase and then a take him vigorously demanding aid with his necktie. The symmetry created here is a pattern of going from \u201cslow\u201d-to-\u201cfast\u201d-to-\u201cslow\u201d-to-\u201cfast\u201d with Monsier\u2019s movements in each take.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Screen
I wouldn’t want to be married to this guy, either.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The climactic moment of the daydream is the close-up of Monsier. One of the techniques that Flitterman references as \u201cImpressionistic\u201d are \u201clens distortions\u201d like the one that Dulac uses in these shots. The effect that they have is to create a sense of claustrophobia. Monsieur Beudet is inescapble and all-consuming in her mind. She is in utter resignation.<\/p>\n

Epstein calls the close-up, \u201cmaximum visual acuity.\u201d (4<\/strong>.)<\/b>\u00a0Never again in the film is there a point where a close-up is so grotesquely massive in proportion. Dulac\u2019s intention is to force the audience to experience Monsier as only Madame can see him, and to place him in a context to make the resolution sensible. A difficult task, considering the conclusion calls for murder.<\/p>\n

The resolutionary scene comes about when the daydream returns to the desk, where a superimposition of Monsieur appears as she turns toward the desk mock her with his empty gun, and then fades away. It is then that Madeline comes to her terrible conclusion: that she must load the gun, so that, next time, it will really send a bullet into her husband\u2019s skull, thus ending her misery.\u00a0What makes this sequence such an incredible achievement is that a large percentage of the audience would likely agree that he deserves to die for what he’s done. And it is due to the Impressionistic style which Dulac uses in this film.<\/p>\n

1. Abel, <\/strong>“la souriante madame beudet and l’inondation”<\/p>\n

2. Flitterman, <\/strong>“Dulac in Context,” (89)<\/em><\/p>\n

3. Musser,\u00a0“<\/em><\/strong>Senses and Subjectivity” (128)<\/em><\/p>\n

4.\u00a0Musser,\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>“<\/em>Senses and Subjectivity” (128)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final daydream, called \u201cObsession,\u201d brings to the surface the roiling depths of the hatred which Madeline feels for her husband\u2019s ways, and reveals what lengths she is willing go to cleanse herself of him. Dulac uses a great range of filmmaking techniques to make the character\u2019s subjectivity felt and therefore understood by the viewer. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading ““Obsession””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-504","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/342"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/504\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/smilingmadamebeudet\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}