Scrooby's Musings

[Scrooby]

(5:21) The one doing nothing is the one everyone is paying attention to. Why do you think that is? Is Freddy simply a funny target for the idle soldiers to have a laugh at, to pass the time? What else might be happening here? An initial remark before an answer : Freddy, in more than one early scene, is, in this scene, too, the focal point for the other characters, the other men.

[Scrooby]

The movie meant to be watched many times is aimed, at all times in the narrative, toward different absorption processes in the Spectator than a movie meant to be watched once. In the "ordinary mode" of film narrative, call it the 1930s mode (call it the mode of "the film meant to be watched once"), a 1930s mode such as Irrational Man, the audience knows at all times what is going on and doesn't need to think for a moment. The look of a film like Irrational Man (meant to be watched once) will use various geometrical conceits (strong diagonals to evoke unsettlement, for a common example) as well as lighting effects and whatnot to evoke excitement and so on in the viewer. Hopefully, the story itself will have encoded in it a momentum that rises the blood in the Spectator.

The movie meant to be watched many times works differently to this. While the "ordinary mode", the 1930s mode of, say, Irrational Man, will transfer energy from film to Spectator (any work of art is first and foremost energy that affects the Spectator before being understood as "about something"), still and all, the experience of watching a movie in the 1930s mode (a movie to be seen once) is to See the Story. But in the movie meant to be watched many times, in some sequences at least, the transfer of energy has a priority over the story. The story, however, will not be compromised, not for a moment if the narrative is created by a first-rate storyteller. Even so, a percentage of the energy-transfer between Artwork and Spectator—in other words a percentage of the rejuvenatory aspect of art—will be connected more to the transfer of energy, and less to the story. This is intentional. The energy-transfer acts in the manner of a pharmaceutical drug.

And the Spectator feels all the better for the energy-transfer.

The Master is a movie meant to be watched many times. It is full of secrets, full of depth that communicates with the intuition and the unconscious, and it actively engages with the process of energy-transfer, rather than passively allowing it to happen "naturally" as it does in the 1930s mode of storytelling. Yes, all movies communicate with the Spectator's intuition and unconscious; all art does. Yet only first-rate artists use this fact in their favor; that is to say, are intelligent enough to do so.

The Master is a movie meant to be watched many times.

Think of Freddy on the motorcycle. What is the motorcycle? Let it be the engine of the narrative. Like a missile moving on unvarying at speed. That can be you.

[Scrooby]

[Scrooby]

Dodd : "Man is not an animal."


Does Freddy contradict that remark simply by being himself, a procreative homo sapiens? (34:20)

[Scrooby]

"You are not ruled by your emotions."



"Pig fxck!" Freddy in Dodd? (1:00:20)

[Scrooby]

Informal Processing : Two Incredible Transitions

DODD : Would you care for some informal processing? (36:24)

Dodd asks Freddy a series of questions. The experience triggers in Freddy a vision. We, the audience, being gods, see the vision inside Freddy's head. Freddy is brought out of the vision-space by Dodd, and the two subsequently share a genial drink together. (36:24–52:27)

Theory : This sequence is historic in the work of PTA for its sustained genius of storytelling. The magnitude of PTA's achievement in this sequence requires even initial thoughts on the subject to be broken down piecemeal into a series of posts.

In this post I remark on two transitions in the sequence, "Informal Processing".

TRANSITION 1

(44:39)
DODD : What do you hear?
FREDDY (eyes closed; inside the vision) : Voices inside.

Freddy says "Voices inside" to explain the house he has arrived at. Standing at the front door, he hears voices inside the house. Indeed, the house is not empty of people.

"Voices inside" has a more general signification in the context of this scene : the voices inside Freddy's head. Heard this way, Freddy's pronouncement, "Voices inside", might be a judgment from Lancaster Dodd himself. (In this signification, Freddy's remark has a scientific vibe, as of psychology or psychoanalysis.)

TRANSITION 2

(50:00)
FREDDY: I'll be back.

Freddy says this to Doris in the dream, but it overlaps with his transition back to Dodd in the present day of the Situation.

DODD : Release and return to me. Open your eyes. Say your name.
FREDDY : Freddie Quell.

"I'll be back."—who is speaking to what?

Two fascinating transitions from a first-rate storyteller.

[Scrooby]

The Master class (11): the Dual Gesture

(36:24)
DODD : Would you care for some informal processing?
FREDDY : Sure. What do I have to do?
DODD : Just answer my questions, we talk.
FREDDY : OK.
DODD : Very good. Have a seat. How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.
DODD : You rested?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Excited?
FREDDY : Yeah.
DODD : Have you made some friends?
FREDDY : Everyone is very nice here.
DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.
DODD : I gather myself. You'll be my guinea pig and protégé. Informal processing. Are you ready?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Say your name.

It's very possible that Dodd is being entirely a buddy to Freddy, and that's that. Perhaps it's also possible that Dodd may have some degree of "bedside manner" (so to speak, like a surgeon preparing his patient for the operation by putting him at ease). Being kind and polite serves two purposes for Dodd here : he is both genuine in his friendship, yet also calculating in his work. (Dodd serves his Master : his Work.)

The takeaway here is the concept of the dual gesture.

[Scrooby]

The Master class (12) : Informal Processing as Metaphor


DODD : How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.
DODD : You rested?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Excited?
FREDDY : Yeah.
DODD : Have you made some friends?
FREDDY : Everyone is very nice here.
DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.

Notice the repetition here. Repetition is a fundamental structural element of the questioning procedure of Informal Processing. But this repetition comes before the Informal Processing has begun. We might explain this as a further example of the Dual Gesture. Instead, just now, let's say that all human interaction is as Informal Processing. The successful degree of manipulation in each interaction depends on the powers of persuasory hypnotism of the principals involved.

That's this post's point : The process of Informal Processing is a metaphor for all human interaction.

[Scrooby]

The ladder, en route to the Master, 22:12

[Scrooby]

The Master class (14) : Colossal Fundamental

(38:42)
DODD : Are you often consumed by envy?
FREDDY : No, about what?
DODD : Are you often consumed by envy?
FREDDY : I don't unders. . . You mean like jealousy?
DODD : Like jealousy.
FREDDY : Oh, well, yeah. I don't like someone else's hands on my girls. I don't like to think about it. It makes me sick.

This is a colossally important moment, which the first-rate storyteller makes light of at the end—a deft technique of the best.

A colossally important moment, because it reveals an Essential about Freddy.

DODD : Are you often consumed by envy?
FREDDY : No, about what?

That "envy" is alien to Freddy's way of thinking reveals in the strongest way possible how independent he is—Freddy is a true Individual, someone set apart, an outsider.

And this gets complicated now that he has met the Master, but more on that later. 

A first-rate storyteller often uses the technique of "making light" of a fundamental, or just after the revelation of a fundamental, and here, too, it is :

FREDDY : I don't unders. . . You mean like jealousy?
DODD : Like jealousy.
FREDDY : Oh, well, yeah. I don't like someone else's hands on my girls. I don't like to think about it. It makes me sick.

A joke. The enormity of the revelation of a character fundamental—Freddy's indomitable individualism (why not put it, "God's lonely man"?) —is reduced to a joke.

And it won't be the only spot of humor in the Informal Processing, but more on that later.

[Scrooby]

The Master class (15) : How are you feeling?

(36:38)
DODD : How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.
DODD : You rested?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Excited?
FREDDY : Yeah.
DODD : Have you made some friends?
FREDDY : Everyone is very nice here.
DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.

First of all :

(26:59)
- Big day indeed, sir.
- How are you feeling?

(31:58)
- How are you feeling?
- Back beyond.

Moving on :

Is Dodd making happen the affirmative responses in Freddy?

DODD : How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.
DODD : You rested?
FREDDY : Yes.
DODD : Excited?
FREDDY : Yeah.
DODD : Have you made some friends?
FREDDY : Everyone is very nice here.
DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.

We can imagine how in another context Freddy might respond in an resistant manner to every question. Dodd has soothed him. Dodd's speculations—"You rested?", "Excited?"—are correct. Their correctness contributes to Freddy's calm. Freddy is sober, yet calm; because he is in the domain of the Master. He is meant to be here, if in fact the two complete a whole : the one mind of PTA, for example. Doesn't Dodd spend the film wondering how and when he and Freddy first met? Since their relationship has a "meant to be" quality about it—both characters sense it—it thereby makes sense that Dodd, too, would automatically understand Freddy, regardless of Dodd's genius at reading people and his psychoanalytic eye, though those elements are suggested here. Dodd knows how Freddy is feeling because Freddy is a part of Dodd. Each feels an essential element in the other (though preponderances of secrets remain).

DODD : Good. Good. How are you feeling?
FREDDY : Yeah, good.

Note how Freddy parrots the "good". But Dodd is doing this, too :

DODD : How are you feeling, Freddie?
FREDDY : Good.

Each is looking into a mirror and seeing the other.

[Scrooby]

The Master class (15) : Where is the Vision?

Dodd puts Freddy in a state of self-hypnosis. Freddy becomes suspended in a Vision which reduces him to a stasis of closed-eyed inwardness for a duration of time.

Because these Visions may not simply be defined as "memories" (more on this nowhere), what else is going on here? (One always says, "what else?", because in the Dream-Logic, nothing ever means only one thing.)

Freddy arrives at a well-ordered homestead. A Mother-figure embraces him. An innocent sixteen-year-old girl kisses him on the cheek.

(45:40) Nature (think of mushrooms). Freddy's personality has stamped this image (so to speak) : nature contending with concrete.



(47.50) A churchly vibe is sustained by the pure marble and Doris's purity; yet the painting behind them looks like a secular eighteenth-century situation, arguably unsuitable for a church; and then there's the chandelier to consider. Note the framing : the icy streams are visual depictions of his Vision streaming from his head. This is a dream-place in the manner of the end-room of 2001: A Space Odyssey. This particular space is a dream-amalgamation of different places and imagery : marble from a church, the chandelier from someplace else, the painting from a museum, or seen in a book, the finely-carven swags behind them, at first glance reminiscent of deep-sea creatures, could be imagery dredged up from his own personal Faculty of Creation. The provenance of all these items is immaterial : the theory here is that this shot is a Dream-Vision, an amalgamation of elements joined together to make a location in the mind, rather than a memory of a specific location.

[Scrooby]

The Master class (16) : "who you are"

(37:38)
"just to make sure you know who you are."

The Dual Gesture. Is this simply a joke, to continue to put Freddy at ease, as he slips into a Vision state? Is this also, from where Dodd is sitting, somewhat of a quiet jibe, considering, from Dodd's POV, Freddy has zero idea of himself? A quiet aggression. At any rate, a component of a successful manipulation. Slot this post into the Ambiguity of Dodd.

[Scrooby]

The Ladder of the Mind



Gustave Courbet

[Scrooby]

The Master : "New York City, through the canal." (22:42)

Citizen Kane : Do you think if it hadn't been for that war of Mr. Kane's we'd have the Panama Canal?" (48:49)