Collecting a Dossier (Review of Book: Podorogi V. Cinema. A dream. Psychoanalysis. Moscow : Des Esseintes Press, 2025. 336 p.)

Abstract

The review is dedicated to the book by the famous Russian philosopher Valery Podoroga. The lectures delivered at the Moscow School of New Cinema in 2014–2015 cover the topics of art, cinema and literature through the prism of psychoanalysis. A course of eighteen lectures connects cinema with dreams, which is the main object of psychoanalysis. Podoroga sees cinema as a way of working with the unconscious. He also introduces the concept of a screen and a frame as elements that organize perception. The screen is considered as information that cannot be controlled, and the frame is perceived as a manipulative tool. The author shows that these elements can form different configurations, influencing the genre and the author's interpretation of the film. In the final lectures, Podoroga analyzes dreams and the screen of consciousness, which translates "dream energy" into understandable forms. Psychoanalysis collects dream images, connecting them in the human mind. This approach demonstrates a change in the psychoanalytic method and its addition to the cultural and historical context.