As the lights of the cinema gently fade to black and the whisperings of the audience hush, we are ushered across a threshold into another world. Here, we are given a chance to engage with larger than life archetypal personas that often live on in our individual and collective consciousness long after the theater lights come back up and we return to the reality of our daily lives.
Contemporary cinema is a vehicle that allows us to, as Jung wrote: "dream the myth onward and give it a modern dress." The characters we meet in films offer us a chance to explore the unexplored contours of our own psyche. Movies have the potential to carry us into the landscape of the creative unconscious where the terrain is rich with symbols containing a wisdom waiting to be discovered. Films give us a snapshot of the cultural canon of an epoch while also providing a canvas for us to engage with our individual creative unconscious as we connect with or are repelled by archetypal identities projected onto the big screen.
In this Seeing Red at the Movies webinar series, we will explore classic and contemporary films through the lens of the archetypal identities of the feminine. Working with a gifted faculty of analysts, authors and artists, this series will explore themes of feminine identity, complexes, projections and individuation as they are portrayed on the cinematic screen and as they relate to each of us in contemporary culture.
Special Note:
You will need to have watched the movie before the webinar presentation. Links to where you can find each of the featured films on-line via Netflix or Amazon are posted below each webinar description for your convenience.
The African Queen
with Silvia Behrend, M.Div
In 1951, at the height of the McCarthy era in the United States, Katherine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, John Huston and others traveled to Africa to film the iconic movie about an unlikely partnership. Hepburn’s Rosie undergoes a process of feminine individuation in the land of the Dark Mother, discovering aspects of the feminine long hidden under Victorian dress. We will explore how both Katherine Hepburn and Rosie reflect the process of being seen in dangerous times and how the feminine can emerge authentically triumphant.
*The African Queen is currently streaming on Netflix
https://www.amazon.com/African-Queen-Humphrey-Bogart/dp/B003F3KKCW
Arrival
with Carol Pearson, Ph.D.
Imagine an alien threat movie crossed with a love story with a heroine who saves the day while also being consumed with thoughts of her critically ill daughter, and this is Arrival.
Louise, the heroine, is a linguist, asked to assist with an effort to communicate with extraterrestrial "heptapods" whose spaceships have landed at various points through out the world. She, along with Marines and scientists, are trying to understand who the aliens are, what they want, and what danger their presence might entail—from an immediate invasion to human contamination from what they carry with them. Meanwhile, she is thinking of the birth, life, and death of her daughter in preparation for making a very difficult decision.
Louise’s success come from her feminine approach to both situations, her awareness of the interwoven nature of the brain with language, the relative nature of time, the link between love and suffering, and the power of love to transform. The film also supports the development of international cooperation instead of competition and war.
www.arrivalmovie.com/
with Carol Pearson, Ph.D.
Imagine an alien threat movie crossed with a love story with a heroine who saves the day while also being consumed with thoughts of her critically ill daughter, and this is Arrival.
Louise, the heroine, is a linguist, asked to assist with an effort to communicate with extraterrestrial "heptapods" whose spaceships have landed at various points through out the world. She, along with Marines and scientists, are trying to understand who the aliens are, what they want, and what danger their presence might entail—from an immediate invasion to human contamination from what they carry with them. Meanwhile, she is thinking of the birth, life, and death of her daughter in preparation for making a very difficult decision.
Louise’s success come from her feminine approach to both situations, her awareness of the interwoven nature of the brain with language, the relative nature of time, the link between love and suffering, and the power of love to transform. The film also supports the development of international cooperation instead of competition and war.
www.arrivalmovie.com/
The Dressmaker
with Loralee Scott-Conforti, MFA
Dressed in 1950's haute couture and arriving by train with no one to welcome her, Kate Winslet, as protagonist Tilly Dunnage, sets her Singer sewing machine on the ground, stares at the tiny town nestled in the Australian outback and quietly states: "I'm back, you bastards." This is one of our first clues that we are about to embark on a creative rollercoaster ride of theatrical genre and archetypal identities. This creatively subversive film sets the masculine projection of the wounded feminine waiting to be rescued completely on its head and instead gives us a feminine protagonist who has been traumatized, scapegoated and exiled yet persists. She persists in returning to her hometown, the scene of the trauma, and using her own creative giftings, works to salvage and stitch together the truth from the shattered pieces of her own memory. In doing so, she transforms a town with her creativity and ultimately sets herself free from the chains of trauma, shame and oppression.
Available for rent on DVD.com
https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/The-Dressmaker/80113847
https://www.amazon.com/Dressmaker-Kate-Winslet/dp/B01L9Q577Y
with Loralee Scott-Conforti, MFA
Dressed in 1950's haute couture and arriving by train with no one to welcome her, Kate Winslet, as protagonist Tilly Dunnage, sets her Singer sewing machine on the ground, stares at the tiny town nestled in the Australian outback and quietly states: "I'm back, you bastards." This is one of our first clues that we are about to embark on a creative rollercoaster ride of theatrical genre and archetypal identities. This creatively subversive film sets the masculine projection of the wounded feminine waiting to be rescued completely on its head and instead gives us a feminine protagonist who has been traumatized, scapegoated and exiled yet persists. She persists in returning to her hometown, the scene of the trauma, and using her own creative giftings, works to salvage and stitch together the truth from the shattered pieces of her own memory. In doing so, she transforms a town with her creativity and ultimately sets herself free from the chains of trauma, shame and oppression.
Available for rent on DVD.com
https://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/The-Dressmaker/80113847
https://www.amazon.com/Dressmaker-Kate-Winslet/dp/B01L9Q577Y
The French Lieutenant's Woman
with Sandy Salzillo, M.A., CAGs, LMHC
The French Lieutenant's Woman: An Archetypal Exploration of the Feminine Creative Unconscious in the Victorian Age.
Who is the woman standing at the edge of the deserted rock hued wall
facing the threshold where the turbulent sea and barren wall collide, and why is this image so compelling as the camera slowly turns to reveal the haunted tragic fate see in the eyes of the films protagonist Sarah Woofdruff.
An outcast of society known to some as Tragedy and to most as the notorious and pitiable French lieutenant’s woman.
In the exploration of this film we will examine the paradox of how one is seen though the lens of societal restrictions and masculine projections and its insidious ways to undermine the creative unconscious.
Heroine or lost soul, seductress or self-preservationist, we will examine the archetypal themes apparent in this time period and the creative unconscious’s ability to drive one to their true nature whatever the sacrifice may be, ultimately to decide whether this film offers a redemptive and transformational resolution to Sarah Woodruff’s bondage of being known as the French lieutenant’s woman.
Possible Netflix DVD rental but not available for streaming
https://www.amazon.com/French-Lieutenants-Woman-Meryl-Streep/dp/B004ETGA5C
https://www.amazon.com/French-Lieutenants-Woman-Meryl-Streep/dp/B00005LOKU
Fried Green Tomatoes
with Druscilla French, Ph.D.
When the powers of destruction are raining down upon you and the ones you love are being ripped apart by the furies…what do you do? Do you dial 911? Call the cavalry? Look for a White Knight? Or do you reach deep down and call upon the fiercest, strongest, most formidable aspect of your psyche? If you know that part of yourself, you have met the women of “Fried Green Tomatoes.”
This archetype has been called Artemis, Kali, Amazon, Idgie, and Towanda. When you are Seeing Red over all that threatens to destroy everything you cherish, this film will furnish the images you need to find your own inner warrior. The cavalry is not coming. It is up to you.
In this lecture, Druscilla French, Ph.D., a writer, cultural mythologist, and an advocate for women, will illuminate the archetypal themes of femininity and feminine empowerment and authority. Druscilla founded the Foundation for Mythological Studies in Santa Barbara, California. Her first novel, Shadows on Samhain was published in 2008. She is one of the founders of the Women’s Leadership Council at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Possible Netflix DVD rental but not available for streaming
https://www.amazon.com/Fried-Green-Tomatoes-Kathy-Bates/dp/B000I9WW6I
https://www.amazon.com/Fried-Green-Tomatoes-Widescreen-Collectors/dp/6305212112
Gaslight
with Katrina Messenger, M.S.
The 1944 classic is best known today for its creation of a key verb, gaslighting. But Ingrid Bergman, Charles Boyer and Joseph Cotton depicted far more than just how to make a woman question her own sanity. The Oscar winning film also illustrates a classic abduction motif; the Kore/Persephone descent.
In this lecture, Katrina Messenger will use a descent matrix to analyze the plot, a tool she introduced in her book, Descent: A Journey For Women.
On-line access to this film:
*Not currently available through Netflix
https://www.amazon.com/Gaslight-Charles-Boyer/dp/B00546AQOU
https://www.amazon.com/Gaslight-Charles-Boyer/dp/B00011D1PE
Tea with Mussolini
with Nina Kelly, Ph.D.
This film is based supposedly on the life of Franco Zeffirelli, who was the films director. The time period is 1936, during the dictatorship of Mussolini.
The mythical figures and archetypal Great Mother, as demonstrated through the four uniquely different female characters, provide Hestia's hearth and home for an orphan boy. The strength and character of the four women, or is it one, guide the young orphan toward his heroic journey of wisdom and freedom. Thus the gift of the feminine to the masculine.
https://www.amazon.com/Tea-Mussolini-Maggie-Smith/dp/630560097X
Thelma & Louise
with Susan Rowland, Ph.D.
Susan Rowland will discuss this iconic and in its time, controversial, movie in terms of its treatment of violence against women, the desire for retaliation by women, sexuality, the myths of Persephone, Ecopsychology and its thematic echoing of C.G. Jung’s The Red Book.
Thelma & Louise from a feminine perspective shows the psyche that has not been allowed to live fully in “his-story” coming alive. Also in a fascinating ambivalence of agency, Thelma and Louise have both been driven out of the conventional world by their victim status as ‘Persephone,’ yet have also chosen to drive to the place of freedom (and death) in the desert. They are victimized but not victims in their choices – very much, I suggest as Persephone herself can be viewed. For Persephone may have been ‘seized’ by the underworld masculine, yet she chooses to eat the seeds and thereby negotiate a permanent, limited and powerful relation to Hades as place and personality.
On-line access to this film:
https://www.amazon.com/Thelma-Louise-Harvey-Michael-Sarandon/dp/B00I2VEGN6
https://www.amazon.com/Thelma-Louise-Susan-Sarandon/dp/B00007BKVC
Thelma & Louise
with Susan Rowland, Ph.D.
Susan Rowland will discuss this iconic and in its time, controversial, movie in terms of its treatment of violence against women, the desire for retaliation by women, sexuality, the myths of Persephone, Ecopsychology and its thematic echoing of C.G. Jung’s The Red Book.
Thelma & Louise from a feminine perspective shows the psyche that has not been allowed to live fully in “his-story” coming alive. Also in a fascinating ambivalence of agency, Thelma and Louise have both been driven out of the conventional world by their victim status as ‘Persephone,’ yet have also chosen to drive to the place of freedom (and death) in the desert. They are victimized but not victims in their choices – very much, I suggest as Persephone herself can be viewed. For Persephone may have been ‘seized’ by the underworld masculine, yet she chooses to eat the seeds and thereby negotiate a permanent, limited and powerful relation to Hades as place and personality.
On-line access to this film:
https://www.amazon.com/Thelma-Louise-Harvey-Michael-Sarandon/dp/B00I2VEGN6
https://www.amazon.com/Thelma-Louise-Susan-Sarandon/dp/B00007BKVC
Whale Rider
with Muriel McMahon, M.Ed.
“In the old days, the land felt a great emptiness. The land was waiting. Waiting to be filled up. Waiting for someone to love it. Waiting for a leader.”
Whale Rider is a movie ripe with meaning for these times. It challenges the dogma of the old kings who must yield and tills the soil for an emergence, a new relationship between the ego and the Self, between the masculine and the feminine, between the past and the future, between the individual and the community. If we translate this beautiful movie as if it were a dream, we can understand Koro as the patriarch, the old dying King. Pai is the new order of the feminine, the redeemed identity of woman. Culturally and psychologically, this myth of the emergent feminine is essential to restore harmony with the vital forces of the life. Join Jungian analyst, Muriel McMahon for an archetypal exploration of our indigenously, our legacy, our right relationship with the ground of our being.
"My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the whale rider. I'm not a prophet, but I know that our people will keep going forward, all together, with all of our strength.”
On-line access to this film:
http://putlocker.dog/whale-rider/
https://www.amazon.com/Whale-Rider-Special-Keisha-Castle-Hughes/dp/B0000CABBW
with Muriel McMahon, M.Ed.
“In the old days, the land felt a great emptiness. The land was waiting. Waiting to be filled up. Waiting for someone to love it. Waiting for a leader.”
Whale Rider is a movie ripe with meaning for these times. It challenges the dogma of the old kings who must yield and tills the soil for an emergence, a new relationship between the ego and the Self, between the masculine and the feminine, between the past and the future, between the individual and the community. If we translate this beautiful movie as if it were a dream, we can understand Koro as the patriarch, the old dying King. Pai is the new order of the feminine, the redeemed identity of woman. Culturally and psychologically, this myth of the emergent feminine is essential to restore harmony with the vital forces of the life. Join Jungian analyst, Muriel McMahon for an archetypal exploration of our indigenously, our legacy, our right relationship with the ground of our being.
"My name is Paikea Apirana, and I come from a long line of chiefs stretching all the way back to the whale rider. I'm not a prophet, but I know that our people will keep going forward, all together, with all of our strength.”
On-line access to this film:
http://putlocker.dog/whale-rider/
https://www.amazon.com/Whale-Rider-Special-Keisha-Castle-Hughes/dp/B0000CABBW
You can register for individual webinar presentations for $25 each
OR
You can purchase the entire series at a discounted price of just $135, a savings of $90!
Each of the webinars will be recorded, so you can watch them at your convenience.
Register easily by E-mail: assisi@together.net
or
Call us at: (860) 415-5004
OR
You can purchase the entire series at a discounted price of just $135, a savings of $90!
Each of the webinars will be recorded, so you can watch them at your convenience.
Register easily by E-mail: assisi@together.net
or
Call us at: (860) 415-5004