Lecture by our partner Mireille Berton :
“Between (mad) science and science fiction. Imaginations of the brain in cinema.”
This public lecture was given as part of the elective course ‘Maladies aux cinéma’, on Thursday 13 March 2025 in the Humanities Room of the Library of the Faculty of Medicine in Geneva. It was organised in conjunction with our ArchiMed research project and as part of Brain Week (10-14 March 2025).
This talk will trace the history of the brain through the medium of film, from scientific films promoting the EEG to contemporary science fiction films. It will focus in particular on the “brainmovies” of the 1950s-1990s, which reflect a fascination with the brain as the seat of consciousness and a territory to be explored.
"The brain from Planet Arous"
The Brain from Planet Arous (Nathan Juran, 1957), The Brain That Wouldn't Die (Joseph Green, 1962) or The Brain (Manipulations, Edward Hunt, 1988) in particular exploit the imaginary of a disembodied, autonomous and threatening brain, often associated with themes of mind control, manipulation by the media and rogue science.
"The brain that wouldn't die"
More recent films such as Transcendence (2014) reinterpret these tropes through the prisms of artificial intelligence, virtual reality and neurobiological mythologies, while articulating the brain, body and environment in a more holistic way. Through this evolution, cinema reveals a constant: the tension between the brain as a source of power and vulnerability, and as a reflection of our fantasies about science and identity.
You can watch the lecture here.
Illustration picture: "Re-animator", a brainmovie, by Stuart Gordon (1985).
