Enemy

Enemy (2014) directed by Denis Villeneuve, watched on 7/7/15

Review by Armando

Watched with Christopher Grace and Rebecca Martin
These are my first reactions to the film. I plan on revisiting these notes after reading José Saramago’s novel “The Double.”

THE UNCANNY-THE FANTASTIC-THE MARVELOUS

I will read the film in the light of Tzvetan Todorov’s work “The Fantastic” not because Todorov’s famous book is flawless, but only because it offers some basic useful concepts that can guide my analysis. What follows is a kind of literary exercise.

According to Todorov, the ‘fantastic’ is a “certain hesitation” between the ‘uncanny’ and the ‘marvelous’ (page 46). The ‘uncanny’ (a well-known Freudian concept) is an experience perceived by the subject as unreal and frightening, although it can be explained according to some natural (psychological) laws. For example, Carl Gustav Jung relates that, while sitting on a train car, once he saw a second himself opening the door and peeking into the train car. Or in my case, several years ago one morning I saw myself reflected in a bathroom mirror as an old tired man who did not look like me at all. I was shocked and terrified. These experiences have a psychological foundation, that is, they testify to the irruption of the unconscious into the subject’s conscious life.

The ‘marvelous’ is instead an event that cannot be explained according to any natural law and thus presupposes an alternative logic unknown to the one who experiences it. Demons, fairies, etc. are examples of the marvelous.

The ‘fantastic’ occurs when the subject “hesitates” between two opposite states (something that will eventually find an explanation and something that will require a new set of ‘natural’ laws).

According to Todorov, “the fantastic refers to an ambiguous perception shared by the reader [viewer] and one of the characters.” This is a crucial statement for our movie “Enemy.”

The theme of the doppelgänger is well-known. Dostoyevsky, Poe, Kafka, among many others have written tales or novels based on this fascinating concept.

Let us start from the end credits of “Enemy.” Whereas throughout the film the narrative is dominated by an eerie and creepy soundtrack, the closing credits are accompanied by a loud music and bright letters reminiscent, as Chris Grace points out, of a 70s movie, as if “Enemy” somehow echoed an outdated form of filmmaking or were a form of parody. The topic of the double is not new per se and the cinematography itself in a grey/yellowish hue evokes a faded story, worn-out images.

In my view, we shouldn’t try to come up with an explanation about what happens “in reality” in the movie (“in reality” the two men, the college teacher and the actor, are one and only one person, for example), because the film makes it clear that we are dealing with two distinct men who happen to look exactly the same (they talk on the phone; they meet in a hotel room). “Reality” here is what we are shown and nothing more.

Speaking of the ‘fantastic,’ in “Enemy” the viewer’s gaze sometimes coincides with the college teacher’s and sometimes it does not.

In the film, the two identical men experience their ‘unreal’ reality in two distinct manners: The college teacher experiences the ‘fantastic’ (he hesitates; he doesn’t know how to explain what’s happening to him; he is disturbed), whereas the actor tries to take advantage of this ‘unreal’ situation (he tries to seduce the teacher’s girlfriend). The actor accepts his experience as a form of ‘marvelous.’

As far as the image of the spider is concerned, we see it in three key moments.
1. In the opening scene, the spider is ‘real;’ it is the real insect crawling out of a tray during a sort of secret gathering in which women perform some sexual forbidden acts involving, maybe, a spider for their enthralled male audience. In this case, the viewer and the doppelgänger share the same ‘real’ visual experience.
2. A spider is seen again as an ominous creature looming over the city skyline. In this second instance, the viewer alone, and no other character, is aware of its imminent arrival.
3. In the final scene, both the college teacher and the viewer are terrified by the sudden apparition of the woman turned into a spider.

It is worth noting that, in this third instance, both the doppelgänger/teacher and the spider look terrified (it crawls up the wall), as if the woman had metamorphosed into a spider only because her boyfriend, the actor, had turned into the teacher who turned into the actor. Before the final revelation, the teacher had replaced the actor and had found the invitation to the secret gathering where he would see the initial spider in a sexual setting. The spider looks horrified.

In this regard, the two girlfriends themselves recall imperfect doppelgängers (same hair color, same body type, etc.). As the teacher-turned actor is terrified by the pregnant girl’s final metamorphosis, so is the other girlfriend disturbed and horrified when she senses that the man she is having sex with is not her boyfriend. Her ‘fantastic’ reaction (her hesitating between two opposite reactions to the man lying in bed with her) is partially shared by the viewer (are we sure that the man in bed with her is not the teacher?).

The actor’s girlfriend’s pregnancy is obviously significant. Has she given birth to a spider?

A final question. The theme of the doppelgänger is often linked to a moral or existential statement. Is Enemy within this tradition?

Review by Christopher

Mysterious, intriguing film that kept me guessing and on the edge of my seat. There are a few puzzling elements in this film that you simply won’t be able to understand without doing a bit of research, which can be frustrating for those who don’t like watching films with homework assignments, but otherwise there is still plenty here to keep you interested.

Review by Rebecca

“Chaos is merely order waiting to be deciphered.”
-The Book of Contaries

This quote is from the book “Enemy” is based on “The Double” by Jose Saramago, and is the key to the whole interpretation of the film. This is a film about the battle of the subconscious, the demons we face which create chaos in our mind. This film takes a part the chaotic pieces, which leads to understanding the deep complexities of Adam Bell and Anthony Clair, who are the same man, not two men, but two personas in one man.

I do like how the two personas stories, Bell’s and Clair’s are like a mirror reflection of one another, kind of like a scifi story with the idea we have a double somewhere in a parallel universe. The difference here, is that this is a story playing through the subconscious, with a dream logic. Both personas are in relationships, Bell with a girlfriend, and Clair with a pregnant wife, who both happen to be blonde. Clair is slightly more successful being an actor, with a nicer apartment. Bell is a scruffy history teacher in an apartment that’s pretty barron/empty. Both of them seem close with their mothers, although we only see Bell with the mother, but Clair’s wife Helen refers to his mother.

The spider is a constant symbol through out the film. We start the film in a sex club with men with desperate/hungry glances watching sexual encounters, and then a woman who de-robes herself and is in heels, lifts up a tray on a platter that a huge disgusting spider resides on. She’s about to squash the spider with her heel, then we jump to Bell’s story.

Here’s my theory . . . Helen (Sarah Gadon), who is the pregnant wife of Clair, is the more dominant female role. Melanie Laurent known as Mary, plays Bell’s girlfriend. Right after we see the spider about to be squished, we see Helen, in a sexual way, pregnant and naked. I believe the spider and Helen are the same. The spider is the constant reminder to Adam/Anthony the responsibility he must bear, and the woman in the sex club and all other women of distraction represent Mary. The reason why we last see that horrific giant spider in Helen’s bedroom, is to show Adam/Anthony that going to the sex club will not be a place where he will escape this life, but the spider will be a constant reminder of his wife and soon to be child. So the film ends full circle from the sex club to that last scene. Brilliant.