“Man must break the charm of his reflected image by
accepting the reality of its unreality. If he is to make progress toward truth,
he must pass beyond the ‘mirror without radiance which offers him a surface
where nothing is reflected.’ " (Lacan Sincerity
and Authenticity 1972)
-Malcolm Bowie “Lacan” Fontana Press 1991
Pre-Text:
The source novel: ‘Under The Skin’- Michel Faber [Canongate 2000]
is apparently in the end a critique of the food industry specifically meat
production, I have not read it.
I always thought it odd how farmers sentimentalise their
livestock until they become un-profitable. Epitomised in BBC Country File’s
Adam Henson, it seems to be a kind of sublimation or cognitive dissonance to
help them cope with the contradiction between what they observe in their
animals on a daily basis and their knowledge of the animal’s ultimate fate of
which they are responsible. 
It is an empathy not
afforded or indulged by the cannibalistic family of Texas Chainsaw Massacre
(1974) whose mechanised work in a slaughter house has contributed to their
psychotic tendencies, and desire to don others skin. Where as for Paulie in the 'Rocky' franchise, (1976 - 2006...) slaughter house work has merely coincided with alcoholism
and low self-esteem.
There is a South Park episode (“Cancelled”- Season 7) Which
reveals that planet Earth is a Big Brother style reality TV show where all the
different species of animals and races of human, are in-fact all from different
planets and placed together to produce entertaining conflicts for alien
viewers.
An idea which echoes Ludwig Wittgenstein - "If a lion
could talk, we could not understand him."
Which is to say, in this context; that an animal’s preconceptions
and preoccupations are alien to us as humans.
But Darwin and Freud built the bridge between the Human and the
Animal with drives of Survival, Nutrition, Reproduction and Death.
So the question is what is alien? And by implication what
makes us human, is it only Skin Deep? Are we a veneer over primal urges? And
how do we justify our industrialisation and control over nature for profit?
an Ape spear fishing
[O Lucky Man! (1973) -a 20th century political odyssey]
Text:
Under The Skin does not shy from the tropes of sci-fi, the
opening sequence- ‘2001 a space odyssey’ (1968), yes, but also the opening to ‘Invasion
of the Body Snatchers’ (1978) and surprisingly ‘Phase IV’ (1974), hell,
probably even ‘Predator’ (1987) all relevant, But then the image of the Eye
appears, unabashedly sharing the same opening image with Blade Runner (1982)
“If you could see what I’ve seen through your eyes”
Eyes windows to the soul… if you have one?
‘Blade Runner’ shares the same quest for the essence of humanity;
its answers come in an existential form. Definition of self through action and
interaction, what one does. ‘Body Snatchers’ as with ‘Alien’ and Cronenberg deals
with the primal Freudian icky-ness of disease and arousal, 2001 has a more
metaphysical transpersonal Kantian answer to the question, all these motifs and
issues are present in Under The Skin. But this is a film that begins in
abstraction-
“Not all practitioners of abstract art are required to
accept that their work is brought about by a quest for the transcendent. But
that is the genesis of the abstract as a mode of artistic expression. It is
lodged in the history of the struggle to envisage the invisible.” – Nigel Spivey
The film then jars from space (inner and outer) to dirty
awkward serial killer territory Dark highways, bodies and white vans (a driving
force of the book) But we know this is not ordinary and are aware of the extra-terrestrial
nature of events and we are once again
shifted back to Body snatcher territory.-
Perhaps a doppelganger certainly identity theft, taking
place in a vast white expanse. An Ant extra from Phase IV makes his appearance,
and is inspected with alien curiosity
“These things ain’t Ants...”
Ants and many insects have complex systems for living,
civilisations one might say, does the alien empathise with the Ant or perhaps
wish it was dealing with the ant rather than humans, most likely at this stage
it sees no difference between Ant and human, bar the size and thus quantity of protein
to be obtained. And yet she is not
indifferent to it, curiosity is present.
A brief shopping trip completes the disguise and lays out
intent, highlighting the (alienating) commodification of sexuality/libido questioning
the identity to be found in sexual identity if it can be so easily assimilated.’
Stepford Wives’ (1975)!
Then down to business, part candid camera show, part social
realist documentary, the jarring quality of the Hollywood star in Glasgow*
mirrors the alien element, but there is also routine, Johansson’s character (character
within character, Russian dolls) sticking to a Telesales like script, the
individuals she ensnares appear diverse and rich in character to us, but not to
her. She goes to work much the same as any other white van man. She is merely the glowing beacon attracting prey
on the head of an angler fish. It captures
brilliantly the monotony that serial killers are trapped in; far from
transgressive they are victims of their own feed- back loop of habit &
cognition.
Yet there is a hint of something other than pure mechanised
slaughter house, why is coercion so important? We are given the first scene of
sci-fi "digestion", the infinite blackness of death in contrast to the whiteness
of the “Birth” scene. The feeding on of; not just pure protein, but also of
lust, and a certain psychic state. (sci-fi tropes from 'Prometheus' to 'Krull') So
far in its dealings with desire, sex and hunger this alien consciousness seems
not that alien at all just a little further up the food chain,
and yet another follower of the principles of "Public Relations” set out by Edward Bernays; pure Hollywood, feeding on lust, desire and titillation. Oh for some of it to rub off, to be immersed in it! - careful what you wish for.
and yet another follower of the principles of "Public Relations” set out by Edward Bernays; pure Hollywood, feeding on lust, desire and titillation. Oh for some of it to rub off, to be immersed in it! - careful what you wish for.
Some brutal happenings on a beach and disregard for a
distressed child I found very unsettling, it expands the happenings of the
film out into the wider contexts of nature, what difference the sea and this
superficially alien, black, goo, each merciless, indifferent, awesome. Nature
red in tooth and claw.
What is worthy of note here is that our human biological
reaction toward a child crying, or saving a partner from drowning does not operate
on any a different level to a predator seizing upon its prey. Like Lambs to the
slaughter. Yet the altruistic human action in relation to a dog perhaps starts
the gradual bleed into the skin of something...
More Urban alienation, and then a nightclub scene but this is not 'Species' (1995) Johansson apparently can’t stand it, in there, with all the
meat, (she is not a Mediterranean tuna fisherman Tuna Fishing ) despite the beach incident it’s all about mind games not getting yur hands
dirty. Yet again something about this horrid Disco seems to seep in, and
trouble the supposed automaton somewhat.
Overall the film most clearly resembles ‘The Man Who Fell To
Earth’ (1976) although told somewhat in the opposite direction. 'The man Who Fell To Earth' is essentially a metaphor for the collapse of the authenticity of the rock and roll artist into drug induced
excess and loss of identity, ‘Under The Skin’ concerns the (re-) acquisition of identity away from pure (Neo-Darwinian) biology.
After the revelation
of what happens in the black stuff I think at this point Johansson is required
to have a little check by the motorbike man he looks into her eyes, searching
for something…
“Is this to be an empathy test?”
“Is this to be an empathy test?”
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I love the motorbike man/ men excellently economically alien
resembling Storm Troopers or a Transformer, all quick jerky mechanical
movement, in opposition to Johansson’s feminine ways.
Then there is another brief but key scene Johansson falls
down in the street, and is helped up by 2 strangers. There seems a stilted bewilderment
at these interactions with humans. Unsettled at being unsettled.
Back to the day/night job in the white van Johansson picks
up a young lad with severe facial disfigurement caused by Neurofibromatosis- tumours
in the skin. His physical difference has affected his preoccupations, there is
a complex relationship between the inner and outer! Whilst previous 'lads' that
she has coaxed into her trap have been delighted with themselves and the
circumstances, keen to see what they can eke out of this unexpected scenario,
this latest victim “Just wants to go to Tesco’s”. But Johansson wears him down
appealing to the, as yet untapped, black depths of his libido.
Another day at the coal-face/ slaughter- house.
But then, A Bee, trapped in the ambient space of a hallway,
driven to seek out the light coming through the window of the door in, apparently, winter time. (Like a scene from ‘Le Quattro Volte’ (2010)). Another insect
harking back to that innate inquisitiveness shown toward the ant, perhaps the
bee trapped in its own repetitive cycle of behaviour, the same drives
propelling it as the cycle of nutrition acquisition.
This sight of the Bee seems to prompt an unprecedented act
of empathy which results in the immediate fate of the young lad being unpredictable if
not happy, and there is at least a sense in his fate that sometimes it is at
least worth risking something other than simply being resigned to revisit Tesco’s.
Johansson travels out of the city and seems to think it wise
to avoid the motorbike man from this point on. The landscape seems at once
indifferent to any shifts in morality and at the same time inextricably linked
to constant change and balance. There is another key ambient scene where Johansson
is enveloped in the white mists of the highlands, to some degree echoing the
fate of her victims, but this is a white vapour as apposed to the black liquid of
earlier scenes and has the opposite affect; rather than dissolving something out
of the Self and leaving a husk, something seems to be injected in. That is the sublime.
There follows an experiment in sensation and pleasure, then
she encounters a new man, and her pattern of behaviour has changed, her old
ways abandoned along with her work van. (From here on in there is an essence of
the second half of Clockwork Orange (1971) as Alex shakes of the affect of his Ludovico
Technique conditioning.) Like the men
that helped her up from her fall, there is another act of empathy, an offer of
help on a bus, which she accepts. This opens the door to her experiencing small
town Scottish life in all its dreary, sublime, beauty. One ordinary domestic evening
tinged with loneliness and isolation serves as a step by step instruction of
humanity. Humour; a Tommy Cooper routine
involving the animation of the inanimate, and music by Deacon Blue, a song
which seems to be about relinquishing the totems of sentimentality in order to
recapture authenticity but equally not really about anything at all, and
containing the lyric-
“Now I've stood on your shadow”- Deacon Blue 'Real Gone Kid'
All act as insight on what it means to be human. The routine of the single man’s life perhaps
again echoing her own routine, the warmth rest and comfort she is provided with
gives opportunity for release from routine and those primal drives of nutrition
acquisition. And the tapping of her finger along with the transistor radio is
as epic an indication of internal transformation in its own microcosmic way as Roy Batty’s saving of Deckard.
Physical and mental growth and exploration continue not
unlike many an adolescent off-beat coming of age movie such as 'The Cement Garden'
(1993). There are awkward wooing moments and a descent into a dark medieval castle
ruin, which causes fear in Johansson
“Quite a thing to live in fear”
Perhaps this descending into darkness is the final straw of
empathy with her past victims.
"I've done questionable things."
"I've done questionable things."
But the facts of her Alien physiology remain insurmountable
as does her position. She knows she can no longer continue in this cycle of
resource acquisition but she is powerless to transform the system, (a confrontation with the motorcyclist seems impending.) trapped
between libidos and empathy, it doesn’t end well. But in the cycle of
Birth, Growth, Death she has proved anything but alien, perhaps that is what
she has learnt. Differences are cosmetic, they are only skin deep.
In the end all is an expression of Chi, all is Brahman, all is
impermanent this revelation if anything is the Transpersonal. The release from
attachment.
“Too bad she won’t live, then again who does?”
Post Text:
After seeing the film I went to the Tate Modern and looked at the Mondrian’s.
And then I bought a copy of 'The Silence of Animals' by John Gray
*Glasgow; the Birth-Place of Psychiatrist R.D. Laing who-“ran
counter to the psychiatric orthodoxy of the day by taking the expressed feelings
of the individual patient or client as valid descriptions of lived experience
rather than simply as symptoms of some separate or underlying disorder.” i.e.
he thought an individual’s views and experiences were valid and not symptoms of
an illness; being mental or somehow alien. He later became an exponent of
Transpersonal therapy.
Adam Curtis on Richard Nixon
