|
veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
|
Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? 1
#28443507 - 08/23/23 07:01 AM (8 months, 22 days ago) |
|
|
Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? August 23, 2023 - The Face
Federico Fellini, one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century, attributes much of his success to a single dose of LSD he took in the summer of 1964 “during a time of creative crisis”. According to a recent study looking into how this experience influenced his work, the dose was administered by Dr Emilio Servadio, one of the most prominent Italian psychoanalysts of the time. It induced a trip so intense that the filmmaker later needed sedative medication to put it to an end.
Fellini took part in the psychotherapy session directly after he had finished working on his masterpiece 8 ½, and before he started writing his next film Giulietta degli Spiriti. The talking therapy that occurred after the LSD dose was recorded with a magnetophone. The tapes have never been found by researchers, but in an interview with the BBC a year later, Fellini explained how the experience stimulated his creativity by altering his perception of colour and allowing him to perceive colours in an entirely different light.
“The doctor gave me an explanation and I agree with him,” he told a reporter in 1965. “He said that an artist lives always in the imagination so the barrier between sensorial reality and his imagination is very vague… I saw colours not like they normally are – we see colours in the objects, you know; we see objects that are coloured. I saw colours detached from the objects. I had for the first time the feeling of the presence of the colours in a detached way.” Fellini’s work after the acid trip was later praised for having “supernaturally brilliant colours”.
Fellini’s perception of time was also altered during his trip, which was was reflected in his work post-LSD trip – the authors of the study said his films started to incorporate plots involving “puzzling and disorienting flashbacks”. The filmmaker was also said to have had epiphanies during the trip involving space and perception of self, both of which were apparent in his subsequent work. “The world depicted in his post-LSD movies includes major changes in the perception of space, time and others,” the study concluded.
Fellini’s psychedelic therapy session took place before LSD was banned in the ’70s. In the ’50s and the first half of the ’60s, the drug was mainly used by academics, artists and scientists who were fascinated by its potential therapeutic benefits. This all changed years after Fellini’s trip because LSD started to appear on the hippie scene in the late-1960s. Timothy Leary, who was at the time a psychology professor at Harvard, famously quit his job to extol the virtues of what he described as “psychedelic sacraments” and help people “turn on, tune in and drop out”.
Before long, Leary spawned a flock of dedicated followers who started growing their hair, dropping out of conventional society and protesting against the Vietnam War. This was simply too threatening for the authorities who responded by prohibiting LSD, largely putting an end to academic research on the therapeutic applications of psychedelics until the “psychedelic renaissance” started to revive it two decades ago.
So what happened psychologically when Fellini embarked on his psychedelic-assisted therapy? “It seems that when you are on psychedelics it somehow shuts down your default networks,” Antonio Metastasio, the lead author of the study, told THE FACE. “The networks that are constantly working away in the background are shut down and the brain can make new connections.”
He added: “It makes sense in a way, because somehow you see a problem or you see an object from a different perspective, from a different view. Then you might make a connection or have ideas that you would not have if you had continued to see that object or problem in the same way as you always did.”
A 24-year-old clinical psychologist, who uses they/them pronouns, told THE FACE about how they used LSD to boost their creativity when they worked in the advertising industry. “I found it useful when I was coming up with new concepts or brainstorming ideas,” they said. “I tried using it when I was doing more tedious tasks like admin work or organisational stuff but that didn’t work. It [LSD] was helpful when I was coming up with concepts, vision boards and mood boards,” they explained,” because it helped me explore ideas that wouldn’t normally have occurred to me.”
* Study: A phenomenological analysis of Fellini's films to understand the effect of LSD therapy on his creativity - sagepub.com
|
Ps.NoName
Psilocybe Anonymous


Registered: 08/03/18
Posts: 945
Last seen: 2 hours, 4 minutes
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: veggie] 2
#28443554 - 08/23/23 07:52 AM (8 months, 22 days ago) |
|
|
Cool read.
When i came out of my first breakthrough DMT trip one of the first thoughts I had was to gush about the colours. I got a journal out and tried to start writing. "the purples, the greens, the metals". Never seen anything so vibrant, they don't exist.
looking back, that was an extremely important day. A lot started to change for the better without my realizing it at the time
-------------------- Set me off, see what I'm worth. Turn me on, I go berserk.
|
WhoManBeing
PsychedelicYogi



Registered: 09/01/13
Posts: 3,844
Loc: Oregon
Last seen: 10 days, 21 hours
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: Ps.NoName]
#28443621 - 08/23/23 09:14 AM (8 months, 22 days ago) |
|
|
A Love Story has always made the greatest of films
-------------------- Hip, hip... WhoRAy!!! Eye was thinking the other day... ahh, thinking never done me no good.
|
viraldrome



Registered: 09/21/18
Posts: 4,227
Loc: Parts Unknown
Last seen: 1 hour, 52 minutes
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: WhoManBeing] 1
#28443712 - 08/23/23 11:00 AM (8 months, 21 days ago) |
|
|
Fellini Satyricon is great on LSD
-------------------- Lysergamides I have tried so far: 1P-LSD, 1cP-LSD, ALD-52, AL-LAD, LSZ, ETH-LAD, MIPLA, EIPLA, 1cP-AL-LAD
|
veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: viraldrome] 1
#28444433 - 08/23/23 08:33 PM (8 months, 21 days ago) |
|
|
Although well known as one of the greatest filmmakers, I don't think I've ever seen any of Fellini's movies. But this article has certainly piqued my interest.
I'm very curious to see the difference in styles before and after lsd. I'll start with the pre-lsd 8½, considered to be one of his best, then watch either the post-lsd film Giulietta degli Spiriti also mentioned in the article or Satyricon that you enjoyed (I hope it is just as good not on lsd).
@WhoManBeing I'm not seeing A Love Story as one of his films. Did it go by a different name?
|
viraldrome



Registered: 09/21/18
Posts: 4,227
Loc: Parts Unknown
Last seen: 1 hour, 52 minutes
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: veggie] 1
#28444617 - 08/24/23 01:01 AM (8 months, 21 days ago) |
|
|
Gorgeous use of color in that period also in 1970 I Clowns 1972 Roma 1973 Amarcord
Fellini's Casanova and City of Women are also good. I love his color films
-------------------- Lysergamides I have tried so far: 1P-LSD, 1cP-LSD, ALD-52, AL-LAD, LSZ, ETH-LAD, MIPLA, EIPLA, 1cP-AL-LAD
|
Dave Bowman
Albert Hoffmans Apprentice




Registered: 08/30/07
Posts: 2,126
Loc: Your Imagination
Last seen: 1 month, 12 days
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: viraldrome]
#28445290 - 08/24/23 03:34 PM (8 months, 20 days ago) |
|
|
Gonna check these out, thanks
|
nektar61



Registered: 07/04/20
Posts: 3,299
Loc: Cube Satellite
Last seen: 3 hours, 30 seconds
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: veggie] 1
#28446078 - 08/25/23 06:04 AM (8 months, 20 days ago) |
|
|
Fellini's films seem more like ergot inspired than LSD inspired.
If you haven't seen his movies, but you've seen the Sopranos, Tony's dreams are very inspired by Fellini films. (Because Italy, I guess.)
Edited by nektar61 (08/25/23 09:44 AM)
|
durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant



Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 18,037
Loc: Raccoon City
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: nektar61]
#28446441 - 08/25/23 01:29 PM (8 months, 19 days ago) |
|
|
first few minutes of 8 1/2:
first few minutes of Falling Down:
|
durian_2008
Cornucopian Eating an Elephant



Registered: 04/02/08
Posts: 18,037
Loc: Raccoon City
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: durian_2008]
#28446450 - 08/25/23 01:37 PM (8 months, 19 days ago) |
|
|
What seems to trigger hyper-manic, hyper-realist, psychotic breaks is strict, social conditions under total lockdown.
In my initial research, Fellini intended to satirize Italy's fascist era.
It reminded me of some genres of anime, though the culture which created it would be stereotypically, very reserved.
Yes, you can blame the outcome on LSD. Those were some of the very first, modern people to take psychedelics, under strict conservatism, which was itself a break from reality.
|
veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
|
Re: Did a dose of LSD spawn some of cinema’s greatest films? [Re: durian_2008] 1
#28446636 - 08/25/23 04:38 PM (8 months, 19 days ago) |
|
|
Quote:
durian_2008 said:
first few minutes of 8 1/2: first few minutes of Falling Down:
An almost identical scene, an obvious homage to Fellini. Very interesting.
|
|