The Body in Cinema: TALK TO HER

SPSI presents a screening of Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her (2002) with Maxine Nelson, LICSW, FIPA.

Talk to Her is a film with many themes, all of which take place within the “theater of the body” (MacDougal). Ranging in tone from soap opera to tragedy, the film explores the relationship between two men, Marco and Benigno, who form a relationship through their devotion to two women who are in comas. In the process, Marco and Benigno become trapped within obsessional ideas about what constitutes love, becoming more and more estranged from themselves as they attempt to live out their emotional lives through the objects of their obsession-the dancer Alicia for Benigno and bullfighter Lydia for Marco. In addition, the film poignantly explores the possibilities and limitations of intimacy; that is, entering the mind-or the body-of another human being. Enhancing these themes are three Pina Bausch dance sequences that punctuate the opening and closing sequences of the film.

Maxine Nelson, LICSW, FIPA, is a graduate of Northwestern Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (NPSI), where she is incoming President. Prior to becoming a psychotherapist, Maxine was a visual artist and exhibited painting, sculpture, photography and installations in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and London. She has a longstanding interest in the intersection of visual art, including film, and psychoanalysis and has written and presented widely on this topic. In addition, Maxine produced two psychoanalytic film series at the Seattle Art Museum in the 2000’s: “Luminous Psyche: Selected Films of Max Ophuls” (2003) and “Luminous Psyche 2005: Selected Films of Bernardo Bertolucci.” Maxine maintains a private practice in Bellevue, where she provides psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy to adults, as well as providing clinical consultation.

Mary Murphy, EdD is a graduate of Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute’s Adult Psychotherapy Program and is a member of SPSI’s Continuing Education Committee. AND Adult Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program Committee. She sees adults in her private practice in lower Queen Anne.

Click here to download the event brochure as a PDF.

There is a $10 early-registration discount in effect until August 15th, 2018.