Under the Volcano

By Frank Cherry

April 21, 2001

When the opportunity to talk about a movie on our theme today of attachment and its disruption was first mentioned, Under the Volcano immediately came to my mind.  At that time I wasn’t sure why.  Even after discussion with my wife and friends and repeated viewings, I’m still not sure why.  But, I do have some ideas about the movie and one burning question.

What I have to say focuses on the main character, Geoffrey Firman.  It seems to me that he is caught in an impossible bind: to stay alive he needs his wife to come back and be with him, but to feel alive he needs to destroy his connection with her.   So, for me then the burning question is why would a man so desperate for love need to run from it?   

In the movie, soon after we meet the ex-counsel, he goes into the church with his friend to pray for the return of his wife.  At first, he is unable to pray but, after some prompting, he manages  “I’m dying without you, come back to me Yvonne”.  The next day, when Yvonne seems to miraculously arrive in town, Geoffrey responds at first as if she is an alcohol-induced hallucination.  The irony implicit in this initial encounter unfolds in the movie as we become increasingly aware that Yvonne now exists for Geoffrey not so much as the answer to his prayer, not as the wife who has come back to him, but more as a figure in the weave of an inner world of desperation, betrayal and despair. 

When she first arrives at home, Yvonne is pleased that their cat Oedipus still shows affection for her.  She is relieved to find out what she had heard about cats was untrue...that they were more attached to places than to people.  A couple of scenes later, Geoffrey enters their bedroom with a familiar game that goes like this: 

Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
Cat.  
Cat who?  
Catastrophe. 
Catastrophe who?
Catastrophysicist.

This sequence prepares us for the scene we’re going to see in the first clip.  Geoffrey, like the cat, howls after Yvonne but is he still attached to her?...a catastrophe has taken place... a collapse is immanent. 

By the way, at this point in the movie we suspect that Yvonne and Hugh have had an affair.  Geoffrey has referred to himself as ‘the counsel of cuckold’s haven’.  Just as the clip begins, Geoffrey dares to relax back into Yvonne’s arms.  Then, as they playfully recite the Mayan months, he turns to face her.  

					Clip One (Bedroom Scene)  

In this scene, the critical shift occurs when the pleasure and warmth Yvonne is feeling toward Geoffrey is undeniable.  It is precisely at this moment that Geoffrey must deny what is there.  Something dark happens within him which he tries in vain to disguise as mere sexual impotence. “I’m sorry, it isn’t any good, I’m afraid”.  We see a sense of fear or horror infuse him.  The possibility for love that Yvonne offers is transformed into an enticing trick, a form of hell masquerading as heaven.  He must run away.  The scene ends with him lurching into and then collapsing in the street.   

A bit later, Geoffrey is rescued by a Samaritan in sports car bearing Irish Whiskey and he tries to revive himself by chugging down more alcohol.   This scene makes it clear that there is no successful retreat from failed intimacy to any form of alcoholic bliss.  Instead of working as a balm, alcohol acts like a poison.  In fact, we recall that the cure devised by Hugh to sober up Geoffrey is a mixture containing strychnine.   

At this point, I’d also like to say a few things about the substitutes for intimate attachments shown in the movie.

In this story, we see that when intimate and potent contact fails, substitutes will be tried on.  The most obvious of these substitutes involve alcohol.  Often, alcohol is used by Geoffrey to restore a grand sense of his manliness.  For example, while borracho he re-scripts his First World War exploits and he publicly exposes the evil of the Nazi presence in Mexico.  Then, after an outrageous amount of drink, he is also unable to discern any difference between the intimacy offered by Yvonne and the grotesque trappings of human contact available in the brothel.  He becomes oblivious to danger and it is alcoholic bravado that seals his doom when he decides to grab a saber to take on a pistol carrying thug. 

Geoffrey’s use of Yvonne’s letters is different kind but more poignant substitutive attachment.  The letters are used much like Winnicott’s transitional objects.  It is their symbolic meaning that is so important.  Geoffrey carries these letters around unopened in his pocket.  Their presence provides security and his distress at losing them is real.  It is the loss of these letters as well as his flight from Yvonne and Hugh that precipitates his return to the brothel.  Tragically, he doesn’t try to see what is actually in the letters until it is too late.

Of course, the most important substititive attachment in this story is the attachment to place.  When Yvonne asks Geoffrey why he has stayed on after quitting his post he replies “Magic.  He on whose heart the dust of Mexico has lain will find no peace in any other land”.  But it is this particular town in Mexico, situated under the volcano, Popocatepetl and its twin peak Amecameca that compels Geoffrey to stay.  When they all leave the house to join in the Day of the Dead festivities, Geoffrey refers to these mountains as “my ever present guardian angels”.     

The next clip, the scene in the garden, begins with Yvonne trying to get Geoffrey’s attention and talk to him about leaving this place and starting again in a new place.  I would like you to observe the moment- by-moment transformations within Geoffrey as Yvonne begins talking to him. 

					Clip 2 (Garden Scene)

Because of time constraints I’ve had to cut this clip a bit short.  I would’ve preferred to follow the monologue further into the hate-filled imagery about sex and Geoffrey’s comments about choosing hell as his natural habitat.  However, those moments in the movie are quite indelible and I’d like us to focus more on the subtle transformations that betray Geoffrey’s longing for connection as well as his need to destroy that connection.  

In this clip, first, we see Geoffrey refusing to consider leaving but then, his interest get stirred by Yvonne’s enthusiasm and hopefulness.  He’s then able to take in that she still loves him and to express a similar feeling for her.  He melts into her expressing his sorrow about having ‘fallen down so much’ and gains her immediate forgiveness. Then, they join in talking excitedly about building a new place by the sea.  It is not until Hugh returns with drinks that Geoffrey begins to sever his connection with Yvonne.  With Hugh’s mocking comments and sideway glances at Yvonne, the enthusiastic imaginings of a new beginning first get converted into a wild fantasy about living among the natives like William Blackstone and then, as the camera moves in on Geoffrey, into a dissociated monologue meant to injure and express disgust. 

Of course, we could say that the troubles faced by Geoffrey are brought on by his own weaknesses.  After all, he drinks far too much and he doesn’t pursue the possibility of forgiving Yvonne.  But that still leaves us with the question posed by Hugh in the last clip  “Jeff, what possesses you?”  We do know the response ‘Too much moderation’ doesn’t quite capture it.  

I’m interested in hearing your general impressions of this movie and don’t want to restrict what you may have to say to some response to my burning question.

Nevertheless, I am curious about what you make of Geoffrey’s desperate longing, his greedy drinking, his dissociated drunkenness, his fear or abhorrence with sex, and his need to destroy any sustained intimacy with his wife.