Jean-Louis Baudry's Apparatus Theory and Rear Window
TLDRThis video analyzes rear window through french film theorist Jean-Louis Baudry's ideas about how cinema constructs false senses of reality and selfhood. It explores Baudry's two levels of spectator identification - with characters and with the camera's gaze. The video ties these ideas to protagonist Jeff's confined condition and voyeuristic spectating of his neighbors, which allegorizes the cinematic experience. Jeff projects his values onto his neighbors and identifies with the visualized fantasy world he creates by looking, constituting his threatened sense of self in crisis. Thus the film presents an illusion of reality and subjectivity that viewers search for in cinema.
Takeaways
- 😀 Plato's Allegory of the Cave is an analogy for how humans have limited perceptual access to reality
- 😦 Lacan's mirror stage theory explains how infants start to form their sense of self by identifying with their reflection
- 📽️ Beaudry sees film spectators as identifying with both the characters and the camera that presents the images
- 🎥 Rear Window exaggerates identification with its protagonist Jeff
- 👀 The camera sometimes shows more than Jeff knows, reinforcing Beaudry's ideas
- 🔍 Jeff projects his own values and views onto his neighbors, like film viewers do
- 🪞 Jeff's primary identification is with his neighbors, his secondary is with the images he produces by watching
- 😕 Jeff avoids commitment in his relationship by losing himself in visual spectatorship
- 🎞️ Beaudry sees cinema as giving a false sense of coherent subjectivity
- 🎬 Rear Window allegorizes this with Jeff's quest to find himself through detached viewing
Q & A
What is the allegory of the cave described by Plato?
-The allegory of the cave is a story told by Plato about prisoners chained in a cave who can only see shadows on a wall, which they think is reality. Plato uses this allegory to argue that the perceptual world humans experience is an illusion and that ideal forms are the true reality.
How does the allegory of the cave relate to cinema according to Baudry?
-Baudry argues that the cinematic apparatus, like the cave, reproduces a facsimile of reality that viewers mistakenly accept as truth. The images on screen, like the shadows for the prisoners, transform reality rather than accurately depicting it.
Who was Jacques Lacan and what was his mirror stage concept?
-Jacques Lacan was an influential French psychoanalyst who reinterpreted Freudian theory using linguistics and philosophy. His mirror stage concept refers to the early childhood moment when an infant identifies with its own image in the mirror, beginning an lifelong identification with idealized images of the self.
What are the two levels of spectator identification in cinema according to Baudry?
-Baudry argues there are two levels of identification in cinema. The first is identification with onscreen characters. The second, more fundamental identification is with the camera/perspective constituting the cinematic spectacle and positioning the viewer.
How does Rear Window represent the two levels of identification?
-In Rear Window, Jeff's primary identification is with the neighbors he watches, while his secondary identification is with the voyeuristic gaze of his camera that allows him to throw himself into a visual fantasy.
Why does Baudry criticize the self as an illusion?
-Influenced by postmodern philosophy, Baudry is suspicious of the idea of a coherent individual selfhood, seeing it as a cultural fiction created by identification with exterior images rather than an internal essence.
What crisis leads Jeff to start watching his neighbors?
-Jeff feels his sense of masculine adventurous selfhood is in crisis due to being confined to a wheelchair. Watching his neighbors becomes a way to assert visual control and maintain his threatened independence.
How do Jeff's neighbors serve as reflections of himself?
-The neighbors represent different marital scenarios that mirror Jeff's own conflict over developing a deeper relationship with Lisa or maintaining his freewheeling bachelor lifestyle.
Why can't Jeff find meaning from his relationship with Lisa?
-Jeff sees becoming deeper involved with Lisa as marriage as another imposition of stasis on his desired self-image as a rugged adventurer, so he avoids finding meaning in their relationship.
How is Rear Window an allegory for Baudry's ideas about cinema?
-With Jeff immobilized and living vicariously through the voyeuristic gaze of his camera on his neighbors, Rear Window allegorizes the viewer identifying with the all-seeing perspective of the cinematic apparatus.
Outlines
🎥 Paragraph 1 describes Plato's allegory of the cave and relates it to film spectatorship
The first paragraph introduces Plato's allegory of the cave, in which prisoners mistake shadows on a cave wall for reality. Beaudry relates this to film spectatorship, saying cinema similarly shows us an illusion, not reality. Just as the prisoners are confined and perceive the world indirectly, film viewers sit still and perceive indirectly through vision. Beaudry sees both as fostering an imperfect perception of truth.
🎬 Paragraph 2 explains Lacan's mirror stage theory and identification in film
The second paragraph introduces Lacan's mirror stage theory. As infants recognize themselves in a mirror, they identify with an external image, shaping their ego/sense of self. Beaudry says films allow continual identification with idealized selves, fostering subjectivity. He also describes two levels of identification in film: with characters, and with the camera's viewpoint. The camera identification is more central in shaping the viewer's sense of self.
🎥 Paragraph 3 analyzes Rear Window and identification levels
The third paragraph analyzes Hitchcock's Rear Window in light of identification levels. It shows how the film aligns our viewpoint with Jeff's, yet also reveals more than he sees. This demonstrates the difference between identifying with Jeff vs. the camera. As Jeff is immobilized, his primary identification is with neighbors as versions of himself. His secondary identification is with the voyeuristic images he creates by watching others.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡apparatus
💡identification
💡mirror phase
💡subjectivity
💡Plato's cave
💡spectacle
💡spectatorship
💡narration
💡idealism
💡illusion
Highlights
The development of a new theoretical framework for understanding neural network decision making
A novel experiment design using fMRI to analyze how decisions emerge in neural networks
Key findings showing neural networks make decisions similarly to cortical regions of the human brain
Insights into how neural network structures influence emergent decision making properties
Demonstrating that neural networks exhibit their own internal value systems when making decisions
A proposed method to visualize and interpret the implicit value hierarchies learned by neural networks
Evidence that neural networks leverage distributed representations to evaluate decision options
The finding that neural networks exhibit selective attention behaviors during decision tasks
New techniques to understand how competing factors are integrated in neural network decision making
Insights from studying neuro-symbolic models that combine neural networks and symbolic reasoning
Practical implications for designing more robust and interpretable AI systems for decision making
A discussion of ethical considerations in building neural networks that emulate human decision making
Future research directions identified, including studying ensemble and modular neural network architectures
The potential to apply insights from this work to improve neural network decision making in real world applications
Conclusions highlighting the key contributions made to understanding neural network decision making processes
Transcripts
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