A cryptonymy of cinema : a new psychoanalytical approach to the reading of films

Abstract

This thesis brings a new psychoanalytical approach to cinema studies bycontributing the theory of cryptonymy, which was put forward by thepsychoanalysts Nicholas Abraham and Maria Torok. After an elucidation ofthe theory of the crypt and clarification of the relationship between cryting andcinema writ large, Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rope is presented as an illustrationof the crypt in film theory. The core of the project is composed of threeparadigms for crypting in the analysis of motion pictures: loss, a-topoi, andcipher. Respectively, Pal Sletaune’s film Naboer, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solarisand Stalker, and lastly Ken McMullen’s Ghost Dance are analyzed with thetheory of the crypt. It is also clearly pointed out that one cannot make ananalysis of the crypt without making a crypt of an analysis.