Thursday, October 31, 2024 - 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Seminar Room, 108 Frick Fine Arts
Deirdre Smith
On Thursday, October 31 (Halloween), members of the History of Art and Architecture Department are invited to watch and discuss Cat People (1942), directed by Jacques Tourneur. The plot centers on the ill-fated romance between Irena Dubrovna, a Serbian immigrant, and Oliver Reed, an American man and marine engineer who meets Irena at the Central Park Zoo. Irena, based on the myths of her home village, fears that if she were to become intimate with her husband, she would turn into a feline and prey upon him. Is Irena a “frigid woman” in need of psychoanalysis? Truly a more-than-human being and actual threat? Or is the film simply an expression of sexist and Balkan exoticism? Attend the screening and discussion to find out!
Convened by Deirdre Smith as part of this academic year’s Constellations happenings, the conversation will engage the film through “Identity and Identification,” attending to questions such as: What can visual culture tell us about our desires to identify with or distance ourselves from others across time and space? How have humans used objects to reinforce or resist past and present societal power imbalances? Why are images of the human (and nonhuman) body so often used to stabilize or destabilize notions of identity in moments of transition and upheaval? While the film offers much to these questions with regards to matters of gender, nationality, ethnicity, and species, we can also use it as an opportunity turn more broadly to the topic of identity and identification in film and the horror/suspense genre, in particular.
*Treats provided.
**Cat costumes encouraged.
***The film runs about 70 minutes, with a brief introduction and discussion to follow.