Creativity and Collaboration in Three American Movies

In commercial filmmaking the terms creativity and collaboration have become nearly interchangeable. Of the present sampling, Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore most nearly implements that position; Hustle bears the scar tissue of an interesting but unfortunate collaboration; and Little Big Man will be called upon to demonstrate one basis for a most fruitful creative alliance.

In a series of studies on film,4a, 4c I have been impressed by one psychoanalytic modality among many possibilities of bringing light to bear on film as creative form; but so far I have not dealt with the often bewildering and anti-creative process affecting this both popular and serious form, and it remains to be tested whether further applications are possible. This conceptual modality is the Primal Scene, and it refers to the child's witnessing of, or his fantasies and theories about, parental intercourse.6,7 The consequences of this universal mental event are numerous, with cultural and developmental factors exerting their influence. In a general way, it can be assumed that middle-class children are separated from the parental bedroom either at the outset or early on, and consequently do more fantasying than witnessing. It is probably not coincidental that most artists come out of the middle-classes as do most audiences and readers. Thus the connections charted between creativity or the mythopoeic faculty and the Primal Scene are very promising.3, 5-The Primal Scene can also affect development in less normal and socially beneficial ways. This is due largely to the disparity between the child's relatively poor mental apparatus and the adult sexual act which involves the two individuals with whom his own fortunes are most intimately bound. The Primal Scene is so exciting to the child that a dual response often ensues: he is both alienated from his primary love-objects (Winnicott allows for masturbatory participaton here), and he responds to the anxiety of the