It is no accident that cinema and psychoanalysis were practically born at the same time, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Up to a certain extent, there has always been an interconnection between the two disciplines. The focus on the mental structure of human beings, their social behaviour and, most importantly, the representation of reality and that which escapes from it, are the most prominent evidences of the proximity between cinema and Freud’s theories*. Furthermore, the very movie theatre atmosphere is in many ways a dream-like analogy. The dreaming experience is reenacted with all these perfect gimmicks such as darkness, abstraction or the constant exposure to a succession of images. So, let’s sit on the couch, turn off the lights and switch on our minds. And remember, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
