Le cauchemar qui ne cesse pas. (Deuil – et mélancolie ? – dans Manchester by the Sea)
The Nightmare that Never Stops. (Mourning – and melancholy? – in Manchester by the Sea)

Summary/Abstract: The nightmare does not only appear at night, but it can also be present during the day. And then it’s even harder to endure because it does not cease tomanifest itself. The daytime nightmare never ends. From the point of view of theauthor of this text, it is what happens to the hero of Manchester by the Sea (2016),directed by Kenneth Lonergan. Crushed by pain and guilt, by loss and grief, LeeChandler cannot escape the scene of his own life, having to face the nightmare inevery conscious moment. The suicide solution, experienced in the midst of thetrauma, fails and he only repeats it under disguised forms that do not lead to theunconsciously desired result. If we refer to Freud’s Mourning and Melancholia, itis difficult for us to determine whether it is melancholy or a pathological mourning.The trauma, however, for our hero, seems to be insurmountable and it is the stakeof the entire movie. An atypical movie for the American cinema.

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