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The Freudian Text. Four films shown in the “New American Filmmakers Series” at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Dec. 9 through Dec. 14, 1980: (1) On the Marriage Broker Joke as Cited by Sigmund Freud in “Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious,” or Can the Avant-Garde Artist Be Wholed? , by George Landow (20 mins.); (2) Sigmund Freud's Dora , by Anthony McCall, Claire Pajaczkowska, Andrew Tyndall, and Jane Weinstock (40 min.); Raw Nerves: A Lacanian Thriller , by Manuel De Landa (28 min.); and The Story of Anna O. , by Terrel Seltzer (18 min.).
I: FOUR “FREUDIAN FILMS” AT THE WHITNEY
In viewing four “Freudian Films” at the Whitney, a version of a notorious quote from Joseph Goebbels slipped into my mind: “When I hear the word avant-garde I unlock my revolver.”
Let's examine the reaction. Being “avant-garde” is being ahead of the many, reconnoitering, exploring the land, but also preparing the main group's forward movement. In the arts, something newly seen, or something seen newly, may enforce or inspire the de-struction and re-structuring of traditional forms. However, it seems that the latter have to be mastered before they can be abandoned creatively. Mere rebellion, intention, or the wish to surprise or shock are bound to lead off rather than on. And which of the two we are dealing with, only the critic-historian can later decide with authority.
Avant-Garde—Leading On or Off?
Yet often the self-styled “avant-gardist” soon gives himself away by some defensive “symptoms”: a profusion of technical effects tries to cover up or decorate the underlying void or confusion. Tricks replace originality; provocation apes power. The avant-gardist who has no genuine message, no creative core to speak for or integrate with, has to rub himself in, too personally, too needily, and too greedily.
Some such features are exhibited in three of the four pictures which