Sunday, January 16, 2011
An observation...
After finishing the readings and checking out a few other reviews for Little Otik, I haven't seen anything written about the theme of "possession" in the film. Considering that Svankmajer himself claims that he does not assign any intentions to his films, it could very well be my own personal interpretation, but I found it interesting that Mrs. Horakova seems more infatuated with the idea of possessing a child rather than raising one; I think she wanted what she couldn't have more than she simply wanted to be a mother. I wonder if the surrealist introduction of the market people on the streets buying babies in rapid succession spoke just as much of this idea (undervaluing nature for our own selfishness) as it did simply to express Mr. Horak's thoughts or as a tribute to Bunuel's similar shot in Un Chien andalou. It is also interesting that the precocious young Alzbetka goes so far as to announcing something along the lines of "I want this because I don't have it. I'm a very possessive person," accentuated by an extreme closeup. I'm curious as to what people's thoughts are on this and how these subconscious desires of possession relate to the greater theme of consumption.
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Interesting that you should bring up "possession." Although my interpretation of the "possession" is more along Aniko's reading of the word. The episode strongly reminded me of the Japanese beliefs surrounding dolls or "ningyou." "Ningyou" literally means "human shape" in Japanese, referring to the doll's likeness to humans. In this sense of the word, Otik is a "ningyou." But the point that I am trying to make is that the Japanese believe that these "ningyou" have their own spirit, and when the spirt has been slighted (by the doll being damaged or forgotten or discarded), it will come back to haunt people. Therefore, there is a special ceremony every year in Japan where a Shinto priest collects unwanted dolls and performs a ritual burning of them which releases the spirits without the danger of them haunting humans.
ReplyDeleteNow, Otik did seem to cause the most harm when he was not under the careful eye or enjoying the attentions of his parents/owners. Ultimately, they became afraid and shoved him away in the basement. Only the little girl Abzercka who gave Otik attention was safe from the wrath of the human-shaped tree stump.
Obviously, Svankmejer is not Japanese, but I do find it interesting how parallels can be drawn between these folk cultures.
P.S. I'm Elizabeth.
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