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Jeanne Dielman, Psycho, and the Horror of Repetition

For me, Psycho was always Hitchcock’s true masterpiece, and it is as if in Jeanne Dielman the dimension of Psycho that is missing from Vertigo returns with a vengeance. Could we then imagine a Psycho-ized version of Jeanne Dielman in which the first half is told from the standpoint of the anonymous third customer who, after a boring day at work, visits a prostitute and is then unexpectedly killed by her (a kitchen-murder instead of a shower-murder)? In the second half, she routinely erases the traces of the murder, disposes of the body, and waits for her son to arrive. To retranslate it into the terms of Psycho, in this version, Norman Bates’s real mother (living with her son) is the murderer of her lovers (as was the case in the Psycho-prequel series Bates Motel [2012–2017]). Jeanne succumbs to her murderous explosion after intense orgasmic sex. This is what ruins her plus-de-jouir, her excessive enjoyment in obsessive rituals. What happened, what went wrong (or what went all too right?) after sex on the second day, so that her routine begins to unravel? The answer is simple: sex was no longer just another task in the daily routine, she began to enjoy it, making it impossible for her to enjoy her routine. And when that enjoyment went too far, the only way out was to kill the person who gave her that joy. One should take note that it is easy to imagine how Jeanne could organize her life differently: find a job and enjoy sex with a lover (or a new husband), etc. Is the film’s form (static camera, long shots, no point/counterpoint exchange) the actualization of Jeanne’s subject-less routine, of the absence of a proper intersubjective dynamic, or is there a utopian moment in it? The static form would only fully fit her relaxed peace after the murderous outburst; until that moment, even the dullest repetition is permeated by an underground tension that finally explodes. Is it the final scene (Jeanne sitting quietly at her dining room table) that is a return to normal after her murderous explosion, or is it the first moment of her true relaxation, of getting rid of the constant pressure to take care of things? What is wrong with her murderous explosion? The fact that it is not directed at the right target. Instead of stabbing her customer, she should have killed herself. In the symbolic sense of the second death, she should have committed a symbolic suicide and shed her socio-symbolic identity that is marked by patriarchal domination and resistance to it, and which contains its own fantasies and even narcissistic investments of victimization. In short, she should have committed “the gesture of giving up what one is—the shedding of narcissistic investments, and symbolic and fantasmatic identities—that proves a necessary first step to becoming what one is not, but might become.” Let’s take another recent film in which this is exactly what happens: The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022). Ralph Fiennes gives an exquisite performance by playing Julian, a top chef and owner of an elite restaurant on a small private island. He invites a group of rich guests with a plan to kill them all—the only survivor is Margot, one of the guests who mocks Julian’s dishes and complains that she is still hungry. When Julian asks what she would like to eat, Margot requests a cheeseburger and fries, having previously seen a photo of a young, happy Julian working at a fast-food restaurant. Moved by her simple request, he prepares the meal to her specifications. Margot takes a bite and praises his food, then asks if she can get it “to go.” Julian packs the food for her and the staff allow her to leave. Margot takes the Coast Guard boat docked nearby and escapes the island while Julian sets the restaurant ablaze, killing the guests, staff, and himself. While Julian is definitely immoral (he kills a series of people who are corrupt and repulsive, but not murderers), he nonetheless gives body to a pure ethical stance. His suicidal final act is not just a personal quirk; it targets an entire way of life exemplified by the haute cuisine in which not only the customers but also the cooks and waiters who serve them participate—one can bet that all his guests were involved in charities and had deep sympathy for the plight of the poor. The proof of Julian’s ethics is that he lets Margot go: If he were just immoral, he would have killed them all. This brings us back to Jeanne: Her immoral act of killing does not imply a proper ethical stance. It remains a violent outburst, a negative reaction to a desperate predicament. A productive way of remaking the film would have been to imagine possible ways of providing ethical consistency to her violent outburst, not to replace it with cheap optimism.

练习题

According to the passage, what makes the imagined “Psycho-ized” version of Jeanne Dielman resemble Psycho most directly?

A. It would focus on a detective solving Jeanne’s crime after her arrest.

B. It would begin from the customer’s standpoint and then shift to Jeanne erasing the traces of the murder.

C. It would replace Jeanne’s domestic routine with a romantic plot involving her son.

D. It would make Jeanne an innocent victim of Norman Bates.

In the author’s interpretation, why does Jeanne’s routine begin to unravel after sex?

A. Because she realizes her son has discovered her secret life.

B. Because sex becomes enjoyable rather than remaining merely another task in her routine.

C. Because her customer refuses to pay her, disrupting the household economy.

D. Because she decides that domestic labor is more enjoyable than sexual pleasure.

What ethical alternative does the passage propose instead of Jeanne killing her customer?

A. She should have concealed the murder more successfully.

B. She should have killed her son to escape domestic duty.

C. She should have performed a symbolic suicide by shedding her socio-symbolic identity.

D. She should have moved away and continued the same routine elsewhere.

Which statements accurately describe the passage’s comparison between Jeanne in Jeanne Dielman and Julian in The Menu?

A. Julian’s final act is presented as targeting an entire way of life, not merely individual people.

B. Julian’s sparing of Margot is treated as evidence that his violence is not merely indiscriminate immorality.

C. Jeanne’s killing is described as possessing the same ethical consistency as Julian’s act.

D. The Menu is introduced as an example of the kind of symbolic suicide the author thinks Jeanne fails to achieve.

E. Margot survives because Julian recognizes her simple cheeseburger request as meaningful.

Which options correctly characterize the passage’s account of the film form and repetition in Jeanne Dielman?

A. Static camera and long shots are linked to Jeanne’s subject-less routine.

B. The absence of point/counterpoint exchange suggests a lack of proper intersubjective dynamic.

C. Repetition is entirely peaceful and contains no tension before the murder.

D. The dullest repetition is described as permeated by underground tension before it explodes.

E. The final stillness is raised as a possible moment of relaxation after the pressure to take care of things.

The passage claims that Jeanne’s murder is ethically successful because it strikes the correct target: the man who gave her excessive enjoyment.

The passage’s analysis of Jeanne’s routine builds on the idea that prostitution in the film can appear as just another task in a regimented domestic schedule, until enjoyment disrupts that structure.

In the imagined Psycho-like version of Jeanne Dielman, the passage describes the killing as a kitchen-murder instead of a ___.

Explain how the passage connects Jeanne’s repetitive domestic life to patriarchal domination and to the idea of symbolic suicide.

How does the passage’s idea of “ethical consistency” in violence relate both to The Menu and to the earlier discussion of universal political struggle in the prior knowledge points?

How does the current section reinterpret the earlier point that Jeanne’s prostitution is shown as just another task in her endless drudgery?

A. It argues that prostitution remains purely mechanical until Jeanne begins to enjoy sex, which disrupts her enjoyment of routine.

B. It argues that prostitution is unrelated to Jeanne’s routine and belongs only to the film’s social background.

C. It argues that Jeanne’s routine collapses because her son discovers her prostitution.

D. It argues that Jeanne’s violence is caused only by economic poverty, not by enjoyment or ritual.

Which claims correctly connect the current section’s account of Jeanne’s routine with prior points about repetition and deviation in the film?

A. The film’s static form and long takes can be read as an expression of Jeanne’s subject-less routine.

B. Tiny deviations become ominous because the film has first made Jeanne’s repeated routine intensely visible.

C. Jeanne’s final murder is presented as ethically complete because it directly abolishes patriarchal domination.

D. Repetition is not neutral; it contains an underground tension that eventually explodes.

E. The routine unravels only because Jeanne deliberately decides to abandon domestic labor from the start.

The current section agrees fully with the prior claim that Jeanne’s final stillness simply signifies relaxation after she finally escapes her daily routine.

Why does the current section claim that Jeanne’s murder lacks ethical consistency, especially in light of the prior account of patriarchy and domestic labor?

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