In Chapter 4 of his book, Batchen finally presents us with the picture on the cover of his book and an insight into the title of the book – Burning with Desire. Batchen described how desire is said to come from humans wanting a way to preserve an impending loss. According to Freud, loss was always present in a person suffering from melancholia and after watching India Song, it was interesting to see how all of this related together.
India Song is a film whose structure itself seems to imitate that of a person afflicted with melancholia. The fact that the voices narrating the action do not always coincide with the actors present on the screen sometimes led to confusion for me as a viewer. And yet, even though the characters shown on screen tended to move about languorously, the mood wasn’t always so heavy. Well, perhaps the mood was always heavy, but the music at times would quicken its pace and seem livelier. It created an intriguing disjuncture.
Similarly, like a person grieving there is a lot of repetition in the shots. A couple dances, they drink. Repeat. The characters doing the dances may change but even the flow of the conversations, of the narrations recall the same events: the shouting throughout the night, the attempted suicide. As the party passes throughout the night, the action seems at times to come to a halt. If the action does progress, it might progress backwards so that the information revealed to us doesn’t always make sense the first time it is “spoken.” It takes multiple reiterations before statements become clearer. In general, India Song seems to be about reflection. Yes, this can be seen by the fact that a lot of the movie’s action takes place in front of mirrors, but also just by the fact that the movie seems to be reflecting on what happens when humans are faced with the prospect of losing/already losing what brings them comfort.
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