Mimetic Desire in Film -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 11:08:01 01/25/08 Fri
Author: Katelyn R.
Subject: Mimetic Desire in Film

The other day I was watching Svadba (The Wedding), which is a Russian film about the wedding of Mishka and Tanya. Tanya was a model and left Moscow to go back to her hometown. Borodin is her ex-boyfriend who is a lot wealthier than Mishka. He tries to convince Tanya to come back to him by buying her fancy earrings, etc. Mishka sees this and in turn wants to buy her earrings. Both men desire Tanya, and Mishka tries to imitate Borodin � the man Tanya does not want. So Borodin becomes the model for Mishka to get the girl he actually already has. I thought this was interesting and pretty typical of movies with a romantic theme. Most romantic comedies have a friend/ex-boyfriend character that ends up trying to steal the love interest. In most cases this is only because the distance between them and their object of desire is expanding. Also, often the two who are vying for the interest are quite similar. One clear example of this that I can think of off the top of my head is the movie My Best Friend�s Wedding. Julia Roberts and Dermot Mulroney say that if they are not married by a certain age they will marry each other. When that time comes he says he�s found someone thus increasing her desire of wanting to marry him. She pretends to befriend his fianc� only to try and steal him away. I�m not sure how well this example fits into Girard�s theory but it is something that is copied in a lot of movies (foreign or domestic) that seems to reflect aspects of the mimetic desire theory. Another movie that shows this is Pretty in Pink with Duckie. At one point he lip syncs a song (�Try a Little Tenderness�) to Andie (Molly Ringwald) and seems to try and be a good friend and potential boyfriend. He tries to help her deal with her interest in Blane but at the same time tries to be what she wants from a boyfriend.

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Replies:

Re: Mimetic Desire in Film -- Janelle, 13:44:18 01/31/08 Thu