The Primal scene

Duration: 7

Year Published: 1981

Creator: N. Brinckmann

Format: 16mm

Color: B&W

Sound: sound

Description: The main instance of voyeurism in Freudian theory is the primal scene, in which the child watches parental coitus. There is an automatic connection between the viewing situation in a movie theater and the early childhood experience discovered by Freud. The film tries to focus on and exploit this connection. Taking into account that most primal scene experience is imaginary rather than real, it plays on the role of the imagination and the function of the suggestive in all cinematic experience. Apart from being a film on voyeurism as a cinematic experience, The Primal scene is also a brief compendium of contemporary German bedroom styles.--N.B.