The tale’s psychanalytic elements were perceived by some critics as a MacGuffin or metaphor.
However, for Hitchcock, they were the film’s least successful elements, not even a good MacGuffin.
Even so, Spellbound reflected a new trend of American culture at the time.
Intertextuality
Spellbound and Vertigo
Spellbound and Marnie
Both films are based on the notion and power of the subconscious and unconscious.
Both films acknowledge “the triumph of the therapeutic,” the primacy of historically unchanging, historically transcendent, unconscious.
But the films are also different:
In Spellbound, it’s therapeutic complacency.
In Vertigo, it’s therapeutic agitation.
Source: Jonathan Freeman
Share this:
