Cinema of Obsession

Cinema of Obsession: Erotic Fixation and Love Gone Wrong in the Movies by Dominique Mainon and James Ursini is a non-fiction book documenting the history of obsessive love, amour fou and erotic fixation in cinema.

It begins with an overview of "mad love" in literature and myth, then moves quickly into an in-depth overview of the theme in modern cinema. From its origins in the myths of Ovid such as Pygmalion-Galatea, Psyche and Cupid, and Narcissus to medieval tales of tragic love triangles like that of Arthur-Guenivere-Lancelot and Mark-Isolde-Tristan and on to the Romantic tales of the Brontes and twentieth-century works of writers of erotica like Lawrence and Anaïs Nin, this theme has become emblematic in cinema today.

The book features seminal works in obsession themes like Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou, Dietrich's The Blue Angel, Peter Ibbetson, The Phantom of the Opera, Renoir's La Bête Humaine, and Of Human Bondage, which set the groundwork for films to follow. It also defines and examples of the explosive nature of obsessive love with adaptations of legendary films such as 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 more recent films of Wong Kar Wai and Almodovar.