Filmmaker Paige Smith joins us to talk about the animated psychological horror film Perfect Blue and the copious use of self-reflexivity — when a work openly acknowledges itself, forcing the viewer to recognize the trappings and mechanics of the movie they’re watching.
With only four features to his credit, animator Satoshi Kon cemented himself as one of Japan’s pre-eminent voices in animation, exploring the medium’s outer limits with graphically striking and psychologically complex works.
In this episode, we discuss:
The definition of self-reflexivity, with examples and analogies to explain.
How Perfect Blue uses the technique to draw a parallel between its celebrity hero’s stalkers and harassers and the audience.
Why the medium of animation was necessary to explore the ethics of staging traumatic scenes with vulnerable actresses.
Psychoanalytic ideas of “deferred meaning” and the “chain of signification” per Jacques Derrida and Jacques Lacan, and why self-reflexivity is uniquely suited to exploring those ideas on film.
Ways that Perfect Blue frustrates expectations for a “puzzle film” by presenting an unsolvable structure.
Paige Smith is an experimental filmmaker and media artist based out of Vancouver, Canada. She received her BFA in Film from Simon Fraser University (18), and was selected for the Vancouver International Film Festival Mentorship Program (18). Her artwork often uses reflective techniques to investigate viewer perceptions and the possibilities of her mediums. She approaches her work with a queer perspective and methodology. Her work often explores themes of sexism, internalized homophobia, voyeurism, hierarchies of art-making, and viewer interactions.
Smith is currently researching / creating work related to the themes of indigenization, environmentalism, and futurism. She continues to explore the materiality and limits of filmmaking and media art installation.
Her artwork has recently been shown at the Richmond World Festival with Cinevolution’s Digital Carnival (19) and with the Victoria Shorts Film Festival (19). Smith has previously screened at the Moonrise Film Festival where she won the Audience Choice Award for Best Experimental Film (16), the Montreal World Film Festival (15), and at Reel Youth Film Festival with the Vancouver International Film Festival where she won the Audience Choice Award (12). She also has worked in video journalism, and earned the Finalist Nomination for Best Video at the Associated Collegiate Press national student newspaper conference (16).