There are many different types of obsession in film. There is obsession with a person, an instrument, an art form, work, money and even a mindset. Hollywood does a stellar job at capturing our need to be ambitious in our pursuits. This blog is going to look at different aspects of obsession and beyond that, why we are so obsessed with watching them.
If we take obsession to mean something that has your attention that you lose control of your feelings, your wellbeing and even the wellbeing of others to reach it, then we can narrow down the type of films that we are talking about. There are so many sub-genres of obsession and not enough time in this entry to discuss them all, but I will discuss some of the most popular ones.
Part of this is inspired from the video by Mouthfilm, as it really helps to categorise the obsessions.
- Obsession with a person
This is the most popular section of obsession as it’s the simple story of love and/or envy. As themes normally do, things started off light, with the early 20th century having movies about obsessive love. As time progressed, the obsession moved to the thriller genre, with directors like Hitchcock writing films like ‘Vertigo’ about a man’s obsession with a woman leading to a downward spiral. Then we get the stalker dramas, with spouses cheating on each other and the person that they cheat with becomes obsessed with them – maybe if we are lucky the film ends with an imaginative death scene like in the aptly named ‘Obsessed’.
- Obsession with fantasy
This is a later addition to the obsession trend but still a key one, because some films have twists and turns to reveal that it was all a fantasy, showing that the protagonist is so obsessed with their mindsets that reality is neglected. It can become a coping mechanism to escape the woes of life – for example, in ‘Sunset Blvd’ (1950), we see a woman who has descended into a deep fantasy to regain her previous glory as an actress. Over the decades, this has been explored in many ways because the fantasy is whatever the storytellers make it.
SPOILER ALERT FOR ‘FIGHT CLUB’. SKIP TO POINT 3 TO AVOID IT.
In ‘Fight Club’, the Narrator is so obsessed with wanting a better life and escaping the present that he develops a split personality! (I know the first rule of Fight Club but allow me please). This trope happens with many other films but I can’t spoil them I’ve already done enough!
- Obsession with craft and perfection
The need to be flawless in what they do can cripple protagonists. In ‘Soul’, Joe has to die before he realised that his obsession with music stopped him from enjoying his life. We can also think of movies like ‘Black Swan’, ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ or ‘Whiplash’ that address having an obsession that leads to the alienation of family and friends. We can go further with this and see movies like ‘Nightcrawler’ and ‘I, Tonya’ that go further and can not only alienate others, but put them in grave danger also. I enjoy these films the most because it can push me to build on my talents and reminds me that my passions are great and form a part of who I am, but can’t be my everything – I am whole without them. The protagonists of these movies just didn’t get the message – they should have spoken to me beforehand.
- Obsession with power and ambition
This section of obsession is usually characterised by greedy men in films like ‘American Psycho’ and ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ who show how an obsession with the business world, power, fame and money can lead to a protagonists corruption and crazed downfall. 20th century movies like ‘The King of Comedy’, took power and ambition obsessions from Hollywood or politics, but contrastingly, there was a turn to the underworld, with ‘The Godfather’ starting a flurry of crime and mobster films who were obsessed with power over their territory and maintaining their legacy. Now, the genre has expanded further, with movies depicting extreme hubris for the character to achieve their ambition no matter what.
A frame from ‘Whiplash’, credit to Soundsphere
So, what is our obsession with obsession?
Why do we like to see people suffer for what they want?
Why does society enjoy people getting to the brink of death for sadistic pleasure, unrequited love, money lust, or for the applause of people?
I watched another YouTube video that is extremely insightful on this topic but in summary, it can be seen as a reflection of society.
Let’s think of the phrase:
“Do it for the plot”
I have used this myself, but if we think deeper, what plot is this? Our lives? Maybe we are obsessed with a life of chasing plot lines instead of a life that lives and enjoys the present moment. In a capitalist Western world, we crave some rush in our lives. It’s good to want fun, definitely, but maybe don’t appreciate the day-to-day. Could it be possible that we have dissociated ourselves from reality so much so that we see ourselves as characters wanting to make life interesting for the viewers enjoyment instead of enjoying the mundane for ourselves?
The video analyses the film ‘Perfect Days’ – a film that follows a cleaner living a modest life contently as he enjoys life’s daily beauty – to ‘The Bear’ – a show about a restaurant always trying to stay on top of the food scene whilst dealing with personal issues.
‘The Bear’ is fuelled by people living a fast paced life to obsessively achieve their ambitions. Let me say firstly, ‘The Bear’ is a GOOD show, yum yum I love it. But when it comes to the obsession genre as a whole, it reveals an insatiable society that always wants to be on the go and is dissatisfied with the now. ‘Perfect Days’ is the opposite of this and forces us to see the daily routine of a man living his life. I know the film may not be everybody’s cup of tea but there is a lesson in there of being satisfied in the slowness instead of always trying to be on the pursuit. Ambitions, craft, imagination and people are fantastic, but let this be an encouragement that just being is enough. You don’t have to be vigorously obsessed because you’re not on a movie set and you’re not working for people’s entertainment. The obsession genre is there to grip you for a while, not to encourage you to live life without appreciating the joys of the present.
Run away from the vilification of boredom and rest for a second.
The obsession movies are entertaining, but let it not be your life. I say this with love, obviously xxx
This is a great set of obsessions in the darker focus, where would you put obsession with the pursuit of the “American Dream”, not in the Wolf of Wall Street Way but in the Pursuit of Happyness way? Because the narrative follows the ambition obsession, but as part of an obsession to create a “better life”, so is that better?