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Cinema of Obsession: Erotic Fixation and Love Gone Wrong in the Movies by Dominique Mainon and James Ursini first traces the history of obsessive love and erotic fixation in literature and myth and then breaks out into a full-length overview of the theme in modern cinema. From its roots in the myths of Ovid such as Pygmalion-Galatea, Pysche and Cupid, and Narcissus through medieval tales of tragic love triads like that of Arthur-Guenivere-Lancelot and Mark-Isolde-Tristan to the Romantic tales of the Brontes and twentieth-century works of the erotic writers like Lawrence and Anais Nin, the theme has become one of the most indestructible motifs in modern cinema.

The seminal works in obsession like Bunuel’s Un Chien Andalou, Dietrich’s The Blue Angel, Peter Ibbetson, Phantom of the Opera, Renoir’s La Bete Humaine, and Of Human Bondage, are dealt with as setting the groundwork for films to follow. The book also defines and surveys examples of the explosive nature of amour fou with film adaptations of films like Romeo and Juliet, Duel in the Sun, Wuthering Heights, Carmen, Last Tango in Paris, Bette Blue, Sid and Nancy, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and the contemporary films of Wong Kar Wai and Almodovar.

The issues of male control (no matter how tenuous) of the object of obsession are highlighted in films like Franju’s Eyes without a Face, Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Marnie, Basic Instinct, Visconti’s Death in Venice, Fellini’s The Temptation of Doctor Anthony. Male masochism, a key element in many of the films, especially film noirs like Criss Cross, The Killers, Gilda, The Postman Always Rings Twice, and more modern explorations like Lolita and Cronenberg’s M. Butterfly, earns its own chapter.

The fugitive couple, love on the run, another noir theme, is also studied centering on films like Gun Crazy, Truffaut’s Mississippi Mermaid and its recent remake with Angelina Jolie Original Sin, Moulin Rouge, and Lynch’s Wild at Heart. The book shifts gears in its finale and concentrates on the female gaze, films of female obsession: e.g., Jane Eyre, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Piano, The Story of Adele H., The Lover, Fatal Attraction, Vanilla Sky, to name but a few.

From the authors of The Modern Amazons: Warrior Women On-Screen, this book also contains hundreds of illustrations, a filmography of over one hundred films.

For more information and updates, see www.DominiqueMainon.com