LACANIAN THEORY

THE LACK

Initially Lacan proposed that the mirror phase was part of an infants development from the age of 6 to 18 months. In the early 1950's Lacan's concept of the mirror stage had evolved, he no longer considered the mirror stage as a moment in the life of the infant, but as representing a permanent structure of subjectivity, or as the paradigm of "imaginary order". Lacan created the idea of "lack" and that it causes desires to arise.

"desire is a relation to being to lack. The lack is the lack of being properly speaking. It is not the lack of this or that, but the "lack" of being whereby the being exists"

This is similar to the Freudian approach of ID acting on the hedonistic lifestyle whereas the superego acts on moral principles and what "lack" related to is the ego which is in between. from a Freudian approach, the "lack" of hedonistic features strive us to act on moral principles and vice versa. A lack is something you can never fulfil. The lack drives the desire. Forever out of reach.

GRIZZLY MAN Analysis

He feels he has to die to achieve what he wants. Geade describes it as his paradox. He thinks he needs to mutate to become one with the bears.
Constantly trying to talk to them expecting a response. Or expecting them to understand.
He's deluded himself into thinking he knows the animals, he sees a fox and names it 'Spirit'. In a video a few days later, he sees another fox, and says "Oh hey it's Spirit". It's not the same fox. By making these videos he has an outlet by which to delude himself. If he were there alone, he'd probably still be talking to himself(the camera) just as much, however with the camera there, he's actively convincing himself of everything he's saying.

He doesn’t stop til he's dead. This attitude is a part of his personality, he mentions how his obsession before the bears was alcohol, and he says it would have killed him. In this sense, by turning to the bears, he found a way to channel his obsessive personality to another high-risk, potentially lethal pastime.

He had one aspiration to be an actor and when that lack wasn't fulfilled he changed it.



It's hard to connect the technical aspects of this film to the laconian theory as it's found footage, however, the way that Treadwell lingers in the shot well after he's spoken, and the silence during this, shows there's this huge space he's constantly trying to fill.



MIRROR STAGE

Another thing that Lacan created was the 'Mirror Stage'. It's a theory that suggests that infants development revolves around their own image, and their discovery of this. It developed from this into a; representation of a permanent structure of subjectivity, or as the paradigm of 'imaginary order. This suggests that the more a person explores their own image, the more lost they become in their own identity. A great example of this projected onto film is the mirror scene in the matrix.

Visually, you see Neo become more interested in his own reflection, the diegetic music features sustained high pitch violins, which encourages suspense and intrigue. Then he touches the mirror, and it literally attaches to him, suggesting that he's become ensnared into coming to terms with his own image, and the way he sees himself. This is especially fitting since this scene marks the point in the film where Neo is officially reborn into the real world, he's having to start seeing things differently.

After Neo pulls his hand away, and he's officially 'tainted' with the mirror substance on his hands, the camera cuts to the very first shot of the room, through the reflection of the mirror which has become warped, this shows that  - as Lacan suggests - Neo has been forced to reevaluate his image, and now the camera is illustrating how everything from now on is different.