Between physical desire and emotional involvement: Reflections on Frédéric Fonteyne’s film Une Liaison Pornographique

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1. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the European Psychoanalytical Federation, Brussels, 3 April 2009.

Notes

1. An earlier version of this article was presented at the 22nd Annual Conference of the European Psychoanalytical Federation, Brussels, 3 April 2009.

2. The Greek words [Porneia] and [graphikos] mean, respectively, ‘prostitution or lewd acts’ and ‘graphic’. ‘Pornographic’ is therefore the representation of something obscene, not the obscene thing itself. The adjective ‘pornographic’ could therefore be applied only to such things as images and texts (say, in a play, a song, a novel, a film), but not to an ‘affair’.

3. A powerful cinematic representation of this experience can be found in Hugh Brody’s film Nineteen Nineteen (1984) where Freud’s voice can be heard off‐screen as the camera focuses on his patients lying on the couch. The actor playing Freud’s part (Frank Finlay) remains throughout out of sight (see Brody and Brearley, 2003).

4. To mention just a few: Michelle Delville’s La Lectrice (1988), Patrice Leconte’s The Hairdresser’s Husband (1990) and Claude Sautet’s Un Coeur en Hiver (1991).