There's no shortage of films on the big screen that feature women struggling with mental illness, and directors pay homage to these mad women by respecting their delusions.

In "Black Swan" (2010), we witnessed the heroine played by Natalie Portman develop from mild depression and insecurity to extreme mental disorder, and then the film ended abruptly

Isabelle Adjani in "The Story of Adele" (1975), where she plays the protagonist Adele Hugo, a young woman living in the mid-19th century – an era before psychiatry existed

Catherine Deneuve in "In Cold Blood" (1965).The madness of this fearful girl is the focus of this movie

A major contribution of "A Dangerous Method" is that it breaks the stereotype of psychiatrists in movies: in addition to trying to cure mental patients, doctors like Freud and Jung also conducted ambiguous experiments on these patients.

The heroines of "Pulse," "Mulholland Drive," and "Black Swan" are all pitiable, partly because their trauma was caused by someone else (usually a man), but mostly because of their sense of reality. Distorted perspectives, difficult to cure.

Generally speaking, movies prefer to show women's appearance rather than dissect their psychology – unless the woman in question (or at least appears to have one) is unusual.

David. The subject matter of Cronenberg's new film "A Dangerous Method" seems inappropriate for a movie. This film about the origins of psychoanalysis follows Sigmund. Freud (Viggo Mortensen) and Carl. Jung (played by Michael Fassbender) searches for the best technical method that can reveal the patient's subconscious mind. This is a dry and obscure subject, however, due to the young Russian woman Sabina who received psychoanalytic treatment. Spear Ryan by the lovely Keira. Knightley plays the character, so her mental issues become interesting as well.

The same thing happened to Ginger. Rogers ("Chang'e Dream", Lady in the Dark), Olivia. de Havilland (The Snake Pit), Joanna. Woodward (The Three Faces of Eve), Tibby. Headley ("The Thief"), Catherine. Deneuve ("In Cold Blood",), Gina. Rowlands ("A Woman Under the Power", Isabel). Adjani ("The Story of Adele H."), Liv. Uman ("Face to Face", Jessica). Lange ("Francis",), Naomi. Watts ("Mulholland Drive," Drive) and Natalie. Portman (Black Swan). Some of the insane women in these films were properly treated, and some were not. Yet even if psychoanalysis fails, their beauty remains indisputable.

Except Woody. Allen's films, as well as films such as Barbarella. With the exception of a few exceptions, such as Streisand's "The of Tides," mentally disturbed male characters rarely attract the attention of serious filmmakers. There are not many works that show the innermost feelings of men, and there are even fewer discussions about them. On screen, crazy men are usually sociopathic and unworthy of pity. But people generally feel that women have real emotions and are willing to show them.

Anatole. Levi's "Snake's Den" (1948) was one of the first Hollywood films to dramatize mental illness. Miss de Havilland's character, who has just recovered from insanity, advises another woman suffering from the same problem: "Don't be afraid to talk about it. If you talk about it, you will be fine." Friendly, friendly A pipe-smoking psychologist – like Leo in "Snake's Den". Jean's character became a fixture in films about mentally ill women in the 1940s and 1950s. A major contribution of "A Dangerous Method" is that it breaks the fixed image of psychiatrists in movies: in addition to trying to cure mental patients, doctors like Freud and Jung also used these patients to conduct ambiguous experiments.

The film begins by showing Spielrean's neurosis. Her face droops, her body rocks back and forth, she makes strange faces, and touches herself in strange ways, while Jung patiently tries to find coherence in her illogical words. This, you might say, is the "therapeutic paradigm" for films about female insanity: the patient is a case study, the disease is a mystery to be solved. It's a satisfying form, but also a pretty powerful male fantasy: a psychiatrist guiding a beautiful, crazy woman to a breakthrough that allows her to move on with her life, without the help of witchcraft. . He helped her regain her femininity.

Perhaps the most representative example of this "therapeutic paradigm" in psychological films is Alfred. Hitchcock's 1964 thriller "The Thief." Marni, the protagonist of the film, is a fascinating thief. She was cured of her insanity not by professional help but by the inspiration of her new husband, who had read several books on psychology. During the newlyweds' nightmarish honeymoon, Marni whispered to her husband, "I guess you are trying to free associate me." , is also a diagnostic technique and treatment method used by psychoanalysts. The method is to ask the subject to speak the words or facts that come to his mind as quickly as possible after the experimenter presents a stimulus – Editor's note).

Another, more interesting and dramatic paradigm is that the mental illness that afflicts these women is not revealed at the beginning of the film and then slowly resolved; rather, it is revealed slowly but not necessarily cured. In this kind of movie, the madness usually builds up and reaches a climax at the end.

Darren, who won an Oscar for Miss Portman. Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010) is an example: we witness the progression from mild depression and insecurity to extreme psychosis, and then the film comes to an abrupt end. David. Lynch's 2001 film "Mulholland Drive" also used this basic structure expertly without directly showing the insanity plot in the story. At first we think we're just watching a bizarre Lynchian film, but it's not until the end that we realize we're witnessing a woman's delusions.

The classic example of this genre is Roman. Polanski's "In Cold Blood" (1965). In that film, a quiet, shy French girl living with her sister in London fails to cope with her loneliness. She was afraid of everything, especially men. These men paid the price for her fears – two trusted gentlemen who entered her apartment and did not make it out alive. Aside from the murders and a few brief, imaginary dreams and hallucinations – such as a loud noise as plaster falls off the walls and ceiling, and the feeling of being enveloped by the shadow of a man's hand as she walks down the aisle – the film is Quite bland. The madness of this terrified girl is the focus of this movie.

Using a scenario of severe insanity would give the director the opportunity to experiment, but it would also disturb the audience. Although this is a controversial act, it is undeniable that films such as "In Cold Blood", "Mulholland Drive" and "Black Swan" are better than those responsible films such as "Snake's Den" and "The Three Faces of Eve" (1957). ) or John. Cassavetes's "Women in Power" (1974) has a higher artistic quality. Directors are not doctors after all, and they never take an oath not to harm others (although some of them probably should). Mr. Aronofsky, Mr. Lynch and Mr. Polanski shook up the world as we knew it and gave us the opportunity to re-understand it. What they do is not exactly therapy, but their methods are not entirely contrary to those of Freud and Jung: much of the work in the process is still left to the audience to complete – just like the subjects of psychoanalysis Same.

Oddly enough, their film pays homage to these mad women by respecting their delusions. The heroines of Hardboiled, Mulholland Drive, and Black Swan are all pitiable, partly because their trauma was inflicted by someone else (usually a man), but mostly because they There is an inviolable inner coherence to this distorted view of reality. Their madness was not cured until the end.

François. The protagonist Adele in Truffaut's heartbreaking and great film "The Story of Adele". Hugo was a young woman living in the mid-19th century—a time before psychiatry had even existed. She is obsessed with a man who has lost interest in her. She follows him from Europe to Canada, and her madness eventually takes over into some abstract self: when she meets the man she once had a crush on on the street, she no longer recognizes him. This is truly inexplicable. Sometimes, that’s what women are.

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