Cherchez la femme : absence and hysteria in 'Cet obscur objet du désir' (Buñuel, 1977), 'La piel que habito' (Almodóvar, 2011), and 'Caótica Ana' (Medem, 2007)

• Main Author: Bright, O. H.
• Other Authors: Evans, J. ; Matthews, T.
• Published: University College London (University of London) 2017
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.746623

This thesis provides close analysis of three films by Spain’s most notable auteur directors, all of which represent idealised femininity as an impossible desire, governed simultaneously by lack and excess. It explores the relationship between idealised femininity and male hysteria represented by narrative trajectories that are one way or another launched by a masculinity in crisis (on- or off-screen). Building on theoretical analysis in the field by Rob Stone, Julián Gutierrez-Albilla, Paul Julian Smith, Linda Williams, and others, and using a psychoanalytical framework informed by thinkers including Lacan, Kristeva, Irigaray and Deleuze and Guattari, it expands on prior interpretations of these films by exploring them alongside the work of artist Louise Bourgeois (referenced directly in Almodóvar’s mise-en- scène), whose oeuvre, like that of these three directors, explores the limits of desire and identity.