Primal Scene, Intergenerational Conflict and Recovering Traumatic Memories in Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces”
By Categories: Movies

There is a natural wedding between film making and the primal scene. The primal scene, as first described by Freud (1918) in his “Wolfman” case, is a witnessing of parental intercourse. In such a scenario, the child is a helpless witness to the exciting lovemaking. Arlow (1980) has stressed the evocation of envy and a desire for revenge from the primal scene experience. His patients attempted to exact revenge by reversing the scenario, so that a parental figure was forced in some way to witness the patient’s love making, real or metaphorical. They also exacted revenge by interrupting the primal scene.

Film is a natural vehicle for evoking reactions to the primal scene. The moviegoer sits passively (cell phone off) in a dark room, watching a larger than life bright exciting image. The filmmaker is also caught in the act of watching, although she has the advantage of being able to manipulate the images. I have found that it is relatively common for filmmakers to use the evoked envy and frustration of the primal scene to capture the emotions of the viewer. This is presented more intensely in some films, including Blowup, which Arlow wrote about in the same paper on envy in the primal scene, The Conformist, L.A. Confidential, The Crying Game, The Lives of Others and Rashomon. A more recent example is Pedro Almodovar’s 2009 film, Broken Embraces. Continue reading Primal Scene, Intergenerational Conflict and Recovering Traumatic Memories in Almodovar’s “Broken Embraces”