Illusion – SKR Web

Little Bottle of our Demons

February 1, 2022February 1, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

While I was watching Alfred Hitchcock’s version of ‘Rebecca‘, this Saturday night, I recalled the novel by Daphne du Maurier that I read when I was 12. That was heavy writing for my 12-year-old mind and to this day I can’t seem to synthesize the number of emotions that I went through while reading it and long after it was over. It made my then novice state of thoughts twist and tumble in my sweet creative vision that had just started to imagine everything will get a happy ending. It made a young reader like me believe that romanticism is the justification for every wrong occurrence in life. Moving toward the movie, realised that my young mind was so deeply impressed with the thoughts implanted at the age that while watching the movie at 40 even could not start with my romantic inclination of the thriller. Even today I was justifying to myself that the wrong that happened in the movie (i.e. murder of ‘Rebecca by the hero Maxim) is superseded by the human and romantic side of the characters. My idea of a happy ending has not loosened in strength even today as I was snuggled under my blanket in the wintery night. Despite knowing the story, I was somehow praying myself hard to let the hero free and be with the young heroine in their happy ending. However, my rational 40-year-old was constantly opposing the idea. She was trying to tell that the protagonist has done something wrong and needs to be punished. The end is not somehow justified in that he goes free and leads a happy life with his new wife while having the murder of his first wife (however negative she may be) on his hands.

Let me rewind! Let us turn back the wheels and maybe you can all peek with me into what ‘Rebecca’ was all about. So, this 1938 novel was written with a young woman whose name is not known, in mind. The story starts with her being married to a rich widower (classically powerful, charming, and intimidating). The young woman however realises that he and his household, both are haunted by ‘Rebecca’, his first wife who died. The whole novel revolves around the young woman’s journey to compete with a ghost and the truth behind her death.

Besides the intrigue in the movie, my thoughts shift towards the concept of justification of our demons. While watching the movie I realised what if we as individuals are faced with situations where our integrity is compromised, however, the cause for which we take drastic measures is noble. Does it justify our actions? Do we consider the consequence to be justified and put in the bracket of good deeds? Does our action justify our means? It is a concept that must answer to human illusions. The movie like any other of Hitchcock’s captivating geniuses was a masterpiece. It created a haunting scenario throughout with its captivating suspense and gothic thrills but in no way is it a horror movie. The suspense and successful creation of a strange eerie atmosphere are commendable.

This eeriness continues to creep within me when I look back at the time when it was more of a romantic novel for my young self, and I am astonished to recall how could I not absorb the mystery of human actions and emotions. Perhaps my young mind could only fathom so much and for me, it was more of romance that was created and exaggerated by the chaotic feelings it left with me after I was done reading. When the hero of the film, ‘Maxim de Winter’ explained to young Mrs De Winter why he hated Rebecca so much by saying, “I was carried away by her, enchanted by her, as everyone was. And when I was married, I was told that I was the luckiest man in the world. She was so lovely, so accomplished, so amusing.” His quote resonated so well with my thoughts at 12 where I was carried away by the novel, enchanted by it! I was sure everyone who read it thought the same since everything about it was so “accomplished”! Lying on my thinking couch the idea seemed to be so trivial but back at the age of 12, to a girl with her heart in her eyes and her mind in chaos because of the weird notions of romantic justice, his actions more than justified his thoughts. Even today while watching the film after such a gap I feel restless that my rationality overpowers my emotions. My heart still wants to justify the end, but my practicality says otherwise.

https://www.pexels.com/photo/depressed-young-man-with-blurred-head-in-dark-room-3833370/ — *Photo Credit: pexels.com*

My question here is do our emotions have enough power to cloud our judgements? Does the idea of perfection manage to lure us out of our rationality? Should there be a divide between our sense of judgement and taking of particular action out of our emotional turmoil? Is it right to bottle our demons up or is there a great need to talk and discuss this bottle of demons that stay rolling in our minds? We talk about the forbidden but at the same time we shun the discussions regarding ‘who or what shall not be named’. It is revealing to see how the concept or the actions can be a part of the discussion and not the doer of those actions. We tend to attach so many emotions and relations with the perpetrator that many times the wrong that is done end up becoming a mere figment of imagination. It takes the shape of a fantasy that is only discussed as a fabled myth of the romantic illusion of human psychology. When you and me or more like us, feel only the superficial emotiveness running through our veins, we forget that there is a harsh reality behind the façade. The so-called physical beauty and soft emotions like love and romanticism take over the harsh rationality of our minds. We then bottle these demons and leave them dangling around our neck as a magical locket that when gets broken lets that demon out with full gusto but by that time it is too late for us to pick up the pieces and bring them that bottle back into the original shape.

Real in the World of Reel

October 21, 2021October 21, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

I still remember the sense of loss and emptiness at 12 years of age when I watched “Schindler‘s List”. I kept on watching with one closed eye till the end hoping that things would be fine and there will be a happy end to all of it. It never ended that way. At that time I didn’t know about the gravity of situation during the World Wars, or how during the Word Wr II, In German-occupied Poland, the industrialist Oskar Schindler slowly developed the worry for Jewish community, where he witnessed their persecution by Nazis. All I knew was that I hated fights and wars. I hated the concept of powerful hurting the weak and all the gory detailes attached to it! The idea stayed with me till this day. I somewhat try to understand the logic or lack of it behind the persecution of weak by those in power! I still cannot come to terms with my fear of watching the movies that show harsh realities for my trust in humanity was deep my bruised at that tender age. Everything was so real for me in the film. It was as if my young eyes was watching it alll happen in real. I unconsciously believed in the reality of it. It very well resonated with the insensitivity projected today and made my affirmations further strong as I watched them come true at that time in all my then innocence.

Am I the only one or there are others like me who feel nerves jiggling in their bones while watching a film? Is there a regular tension that seem to build as the scenes go by? Even though we know the story somewhat prior to watching the film most of the times or even if we don’t, we do manage to squeeze out the crux about the selected film; there seem to be a uniqueness about the interest that build our perception. This makes the whole experience of watching a film aesthetically special. The realists focussing on films as subject of study feels that there is a deep connection with real world. For instance, the characters, places, things, props are all part of reality revolving around us. Some point out that what we see and feel while watching films resemble what is happening around us in some ways. However more rigid believers in the concept argues that realism that we see in films revolve around the capacity to speak and impart ideas by showing the real. Whatever the difference in their perception may be, both seem to be focussing on the kind of perception these films show. This point further to the supports available within the film like music, sound and visual available for the audience to see and perceive.

Do we ever think, that while we watch a film, why do our reactions to scenes, characters or even the plot occur in a particular manner? Also is there a specific reason as to why a particular film have deeper effect on us a s audience compared to many others? If we delve deep into the psychology, we may be able to pinpoint to the reason that perhaps our personal experiences with a particular person, occurrence, or sound etc. push our subconscious to resonate with scenes like our real experiences. We may be able to identify and cuddle closer with them or anything else recreated on screen for our entertainment. These may be the answers that help to justify with the audience’s different response to different films with altogether unique emotions. The adrenaline is very similar to perhaps us watching our number called in draw of lots! The suddenness in seeing us in the position of occurrence is what makes the reality merge with the reel world.

To explain the emergence of Reality in films, we may push in the Illusion theory and pretend theory to explain the concept. Both are present to explain that our feelings and emotions are the result of what we believe in. Where illusion theory says that when we come across a piece of fiction be it visual or textual, we fall under the temporary illusion that the things we are seeing are part of reality and thus responding to it with different emotions. Similarly, when we watch a film, we sometimes even after the movie is over, we unconsciously pretend that either our emotions or personality or maybe situations are like what we saw in that film. This is where pretend theory falls in. Then there is thought theory of Noel Carroll, according to which our emotions have power to get erupted just by the thought of the things that have happened. For instance, there may be a particular scene or shot or prop that stays with us long after we have watched the film and whenever we happen to think about those, our emotions get heightened with the thought and we react to those in a specific manner.

There are various arguments and counter arguments available for these and many other related theories, but the fact of the matter remains that realism has consciously, unconsciously as-well-as subconsciously quite deep roots in the reel world. This paves way to greater physical, emotional, and psychological connection of the audience with the cinema in general and movies. Being an integral part of interactive media, films have a strong connection with the audience and have a great capacity to leave mark on the viewers of varied kind of movies available because ethe props, actors, emotions, sound, and shots that they use ultimately make real and real world a big happy family!

Tag: <span>Illusion</span>

Little Bottle of our Demons

Real in the World of Reel