Figures of Desire: A Theory and Analysis of Surrealist Film

by Linda Williams

Linda Williams examines the theoretical and poetic writings of the Surrealists during the period from 1910 to 1930 and traces the emergence of a poetics of the cinematic image based upon the fluid associations of dreams and the unconscious. Incorporating both Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and Metz's methodology on film and dream rhetoric, she analyzes the structure of unconscious desire in four key Surrealist films by Luis Buñ Un chien andalou and l'Âge d'or (both co-scripted by Salvador Dali) and Phantom of Liberty and That Obscure Object of Desire .

Genres: Film

245 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

About the author

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Linda Williams was an American professor of film studies in the departments of Film Studies and Rhetoric at University of California, Berkeley.

Reviews

[Johan Garçon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well and thoroughly researched. And a greatly argued thesis.