English Film Essay

Chung

Harry Chung

Professor Jeff Heinzl

Eng Scifilm

Sept. 21 2016

In Sigmund Freud’s essay “The Uncanny”, he defined the term uncanny as the “class of the terrifying which leads us back to something long known to us, once very familiar ” (Freud). What this means is that you will find yourself returning to the exact same spot you’ve experience before, but doesn’t have an exact certainty as to when you’ve experienced it before. This unreal feeling makes you feel like you are being manipulated by outside force, in which creates the uncanny feeling mentioned by Freud. However, the connection of uncanniness being conveyed through words wasn’t as realistic as presented in pictures. Therefore, I’ve decided to watch The film Ex Machina, which perfectly depicted the uncanny effect mentioned by Freud, in which the film toys with the audiences’ capability of distinguishing reality from imagination; in other words, toys with the audiences’ capability of distinguishing automaton from human beings.

The movie, Ex Machina, portrayed an ingenious creator, who successfully invented human droid, Ava, which possessed artificial intelligence and gender (female). However, to prove the human droid to have consciousness he specifically picked one of his employees under his company, who possessed moral compass and was in a single status: Caleb Smith (male). As audiences, we were not given this information in the beginning, this information was revealed in the final scenes. Therefore, we as audiences experienced the same experiences Caleb Smith have been through. In other words, the “Turing test” was not only proctored by Caleb, but also by the audiences.

During the Turing tests, Caleb encountered another character Kyko, she was one of the factors that caused the uncanny effect. Unlike Ava, we were not provided any background information about character, Kyko, except for the fact that she served as an assistant for Nathan and can only function several domestic needs: cooking, serving, cleaning, etc… Her existence within the facility not only made us feel uncomfortable due to the fact that she had no personal right and was treated inhumanely, but also due to the fact that she wasn’t able to understand language. Throughout the film, she seemed quite familiar to us as to the fact that she had a human appearance, but up to the point where a medium close up shot was taken when she peeled of her skin: revealing the robotic components under her. This revelation provides us with a classical Freud’s example of something uncanny: when something familiar (human being) turns out to become something unfamiliar (automaton) (Frued). Although I had an expectation that Kyoko might have been an automaton, witnessing her peeling her skin off still surprised me. The flashback shots of Kyoko looking straight into the camera was the most uncanny part of her revelation. It was close-up shot of Kyoko’s face with a section of her skin, the skin around the nose and eyes, being peeled off. The background of the shot was dimly lit by the natural indoor light, in order to accentuate Kyoko’s true identity. With the additional effect of dolly shot closing up to Kyoko’s face and the non-diegetic sound, I as an audience was able to feel Caleb’s fear. It not only made me understand what it felt like to be looked straight into the eyes, but also made me understand what Freud meant by witnessing “dismembered limbs, a severe head, a hand cut off at the wrist, feet which dance by themselves” (Freud). Both of these incidents created a rather unfamiliar feeling for Caleb and the audiences because we are not used to seeing a familiar object (skin) to be separated from its original-being (Face).

The scene of Kyoko made us wonder who exactly is human. Is Caleb human? This exact question doesn’t only go through our mind, but also through Caleb’s mind as he took action to figure out his true identify. Therefore, he took action in the following shots as he approached to the bathroom. The bathroom was brightly lit by natural indoor light, and it was cut at the point he entered the bathroom. The following shots revealed him struggling to prove himself to be human. The feeling of uncanniness began to rise as he cuts his skin open, resulting with the blood pouring out his hand. With the continuous non-diegetic sound playing in the background, we definitely began to share the character’s emotion within the movie. In fact, since the shot was created to make a “pretense to realism”, the feeling of uncanniness reaches its climax as he still persisted to open the wound to see if there were any robotic components (Freud). In addition, uncanniness was also presented by his choice of clothing, the shot showed him wearing a blue and white striped pajama which kind of foreshadowed his state within the film. The pajama resembled the kind of pajama worn by the people within concentration camps. In other words, it reminded me of something familiar in a rather strange perspective.

Strange as it is, Ava presented with the most human-like responses yet “she’s” made of robotic components. Unlike the previous Androids who ended up getting dismembered, “she” hid what she wanted the most, freedom, by toying with Caleb’s human response. In other words, we’ve had our mind toyed by an artificial intelligence which possess inner subjectivity: when the personal world is separate from one’s external actions. Inner subjectivity is the ability to create an idea of double that think or acts differently from one’s external actions. What this means is that Ava has two kind of appearances: one wishing to get out of the facility (Reality), another one showing her love for Caleb (imagination). She definitely passed the test of having conscious, which should create an uncanny effect. However, Caleb’s love for her has blinded our ability to judge how uncanny it is for an artificial intelligence to have conscious. The scene of Ava: Session 2 showed Ava’s ability to question Caleb and the scene showed a shot where a visual split between Ava and her reflection. The shot was taken 20:00 into the movie as her reflection begin to show up on the surface of the glass. The repetitive cuts of the scene, showing a medium-close up shot of caleb and close-up shot of Ava, made a significant foreshadow for the audiences. It was as if there were two questioners in the shot: Ava and her reflection. It was this reflection that made us wonder what her true intention was. Although we (the audience) were blinded by Caleb’s intimacy towards Ava, the film did not allow us to dwell within the fairy tale-like world it drew us back to reality as Ava left the facility with Caleb behind. This almost unreal ending created the cruelest reality for its audience: the uncanny effect.

Destabilize:

Technically I know that Kyoko is a robot because in the scene where they were dancing, Nathan was able to perform exactly what Kyoko was dancing. It is also because of Nathan’s coding background that made me wonder the existence of Kyoko being programmed by Nathan. Due to this doubt that I have, the revelation seemed rather explainable and normal. On the other hand, if I still consist of the infantile wish for all humans to be clones/robots than it’d wouldn’t catch me off guard to see Kyoko’s identity transferring from a human to a robot. This means that “the source of the feeling of an uncanny thing would not, therefore, be an infantile fear in this case, but rather an infantile wish or even only an infantile belief”(Freud). This then destabilize my theory that Kyoko was one of the factors that create the almost uncanny feeling for us.

On the other hand, if we positioned ourselves to not have any attachment with the movie than we would not have the emotions Caleb possess. In other words, we won’t have the uncanny feeling when caleb sliced his wrist open because we know it is unreal: a fake opened wound. For the people who stands their ground and will not easily let their belief getting carried away by the special effect of the film, will not be able to feel how uncanny (weird) it is to slice one’s arm open and inspect it. Everything that seemed uncanny to a normal audience, will reflect as something that should happen. In other words, if you have watched a lot of movies, you’d not be surprised to see a turn of an event such as Ava revealing her true intention. Thus, we can say that the uncanny effect doesn’t reflect to everyone.

In addition, I find it rather uncanny for Freud to restrict our ability to define the feeling of uncanny. Isn’t it rather odd that we have to follow Freud’s definition of uncanny, in order to feel uncanny. It was as if I have to specifically experience what Freud experienced, in order to classify what I experienced as uncanny. From my point of view, I believe the uncanny effect is a feeling that cannot be phrased into words, for instance, in the end of the film as Ava walked out of the facility I felt the feeling of strange relief. I think this is caused by the buildup of what I wish Ava to become; therefore, in the end when she went off onto a different route I felt uncanniness. I’m not saying Freud is wrong, but we should not surrender our feelings to Freud’s words.

Works cited

Freud, Sigmund. "The Uncanny." 1919. Trans. Alix Strachey. MIT Web. MIT, 24 Oct. 2004. Web. 20 Aug. 2012.

Garland, Alex, dir. Ex Machina. 2015. Lionsgate, 2015. DVD. (DVD-9414)

1. Make sure that the destabilizing points in your conclusion are clear and connected to the essay you’ve written.

In future essays focus on one key point of destabilization instead of several. Then, make sure this point in explained clearly and thoroughly. I find your point about Kyoko very confusing. What does she have to do with infantile wishes? Also, what’s the difference between an infantile wish/belief and an infantile fear? And does a coordinated dance automatically mean that one or both characters involved are robots? Then, your point about certain viewers distancing themselves from the film or knowing it’s not real doesn’t match up with Freud’s essay about the uncanny, where he specifically engages with fictional—that is to say, unreal—texts. He argues that our knowledge that fictional texts are not real does not get in the way of their uncanny effect. Be aware of these sorts of implications in all secondary materials you cite.

2. Contextualize any quotes you include in an essay.

I’ve already pointed out the problem with the Freud quote in your conclusion (because of the confusion it causes), but the “pretense to realism” and “dismembered limb” passages are equally problematic, because you don’t explain where they appear in Freud’s essay or how you’re interpreting them in the context of his essay. Explain each quote you include, tying each quote back to the overarching ideas present in Freud’s essay.

· Conclusion that destabilizes the rest of the essay

· 28 of 40 points

· Clear thesis

· 7 of 10 points

· Examples that clearly relate back to thesis

· 10 of 10 points

· Proper incorporation of description of at least two scenes from Ex Machina, incorporating language from the “Cinematic Techniques” worksheet and explaining how these cinematic techniques relate to your argument

· 10 of 10 points

· Proper incorporation of at least two direct quotes from “The Uncanny” (quotes fully contextualized and explained)

· 6 of 10 points

· Whole essay at least 1500 words in length

· 5 of 5 points

· Works Cited

· 5 of 5 points

· Proper In-Text Citations

· 3 of 5 points (no page numbers)

· Conclusion at least 400 words in length

· 5 of 5 points

Grade: 79