While watching the film The Man from Acapulco (or Le Magnifique) directed by Philippe de Broca my first impression was that it was very comical. I found Bob Saint-Clar’s character hilarious with a very goofy childish personality. I was confused while watching the film when it transitioned from Bob Saint-Clair’s character to the real François Merlin. It actually took me a minute to realize that the storyline introduced throughout the film is being told through François Merlin’s imagination as he writes his latest novel. As soon I was able to piece this together I found the film even more interesting because it gives a perfect example of the unconscious versus the conscious mind which we briefly discussed in class.
In class, we discussed how Latin America is represented as the unconscious and what the U.S. desires. In Freudian psychology the unconscious is a displacement of the conscious mind, that affects the unconscious mind which helps to reveal actual thoughts and desires. This is what I believe that this film is trying to communicate to the audience. We are able to see examples of this in the film through the character of Christine (also Tatianna). I think that Christine’s role in the film is to have the voice of reason. She becomes somewhat obsessed with Merlin’s work and in doing so she is able to help Merlin recognize his unconscious mind. Two quotes that made me come to this conclusion are, “This dream was created by you…because you are a magician” along with, “I just had to go down one floor and found myself in Mexico”, both of these are said by Christine to Merlin. These quotes to me show how Christine was already living in the conscious mind but yet, she still had desires of her unconscious mind which maybe unintentionally or intentionally helped François discover the same for himself.
My assumption is that the title of the film The Man from Acapulco (or Le Magnifique) is the title of the novel that we are watching Merlin write, both titles describe the character of Bob Saint-Clar revealing the unconscious mind. However, at the same time, the titles both also portray the conscious mind (represented as François) as we continue to watch the film and see the changes within Merlin as his character develops. As I discussed previously, we are able to see Merlin’s character develop throughout the film in his relationship with Christine (Tatiana). The biggest change we see in Merlin’s character is at the end of the movie when he throws the pages of his typed up drafted novel off of his porch. To me, this act of liberation shows the process of creating the real because throughout the film his reality has been his life lived through his novels. It is as if he is in a constant battle with being his true self versus being his fictitious character of Bob Saint-Clar.
Hi there. I think it’s an interesting point that Christine is here pointed as the voice of reason (though she perhaps surrenders that position towards the end). Meanwhile, the film also problematizes the way in which we think about the unconscious, as to some extent Bob does know exactly what he’s doing when he acts out his various fantasies through the book/script that he is writing.
I enjoyed your perspective on the end of the film. It does appear that Merlin’s action of throwing his script out the window may function as a break away from his fictional universe. I wonder if the intention of the filmmaker was to demonstrate Merlin deciding to live his own life rather than simply live in fantasy.