Documentary: Married to the Eiffel Tower

A documentary which we watched as research into psychoanalysis was something called "Married to the Eiffel Tower" this documentary was made after a woman was controversially "married" to the Eiffel Tower and the documentary explores some aspects of this woman's life as well as others like her, known as "Objectum-sexual" which means that they are attracted by and have intimate relationships with inanimate objects and reject relationships with other people. The documentary directed by Agnieszka Piotrowska explores the life of Erika La Tour Eiffel who in 2007 married the Eiffel Tower, as well as 2 other women who also have intimate relations with objects. The documentary has psychological undertones however as it is suggested that all of the women shown were either abused in their past or suffer with Aspergers syndrome and that the attraction towards objects is merely a defence against their past.

The documentary explores the lives of these women and discovers that they completely reject relationships with other humans in favour of objects, the first woman interviewed, Erika La Tour Eiffel is an ex soldier living in San Francisco who in 2007 pledged her love to and married the Eiffel Tower in Paris, with her previous relationships being "Lance" a bow which she used to become a world class archer, a samurai katana sword from when she was in the army, a piece of a wooden fence which she has intimate relations with that she keeps in her bedroom and she is also very fond of the Berlin Wall in Germany. Throughout the documentary she explains that she was abandoned by her parents and was transferred from foster home to foster home during her childhood and was also molested by her step-brother, as well as suffering some abuse from when she was in the army. She blames her condition on this troubled upbringing as she states "who could bring a child into the world, an object, and not love it" and she also claims that on of the main reasons she rejects human relationships is because objects can't hurt her, and that they would always accept her, she then states that she wouldn't change the way she is now even in spite of her upbringing. Over the course of the documentary it follows Erika all over the world as she meets up with 2 other women known to have the same "condition" that she does, she visits a Swedish woman who is in love with the Berlin Wall and also a large suspension bridge, the woman has many small models of the Berlin wall and also a few small fragments of it herself, the woman is also the one who coined the term "Objectum-sexual" as name for what to call herself. The documentary then takes us back to America where Erika meets another woman who has three major loves, a fairground ride, a church banister and the Empire State building, she is also a sufferer of Aspergers syndrome which makes it difficult for her to maintain social relationships which could partially or wholly be the reason behind her attraction to objects, in addition to this her mother has a large collection of dolls which she collected after her husband left which could be partial reason for her loving objects instead of humans, this leads to the question of what factors cause this condition and how it affects people psychologically.

This documentary proved to be very difficult to watch as it concerned something I had no previous knowledge of and it was quite shocking during some moments, especially during scenes where the women were supposedly having intimate relations with the objects/structures. This was rather disturbing and unsettling for me because it is something I didn't understand, according to the documentary only 40 people in the world call themselves obectum-sexuals and all of them seem to be women, so the "condition" is quite rare so it was the first time I was seeing something such as this. It was difficult to quite grasp why these women are attracted to objects although the relationship between the "condition" and previous psychological stress or symptoms seems plausible, as in the documentary Erika states she was abandoned by her parents, moved from foster home to foster home, and was psychical abused, this would of had major negative psychological effects that could of led her to her distrust in human relationships and turned to objects. In comparison the other 2 women interviewed were sufferers of Aspergers syndrome which makes human interaction difficult as they have anti-social tendencies which would make it likely that they take solace in objects as it would be easier than forming human relations. This documentary was somewhat disturbing but it did reveal how past psychological stress or existing conditions can lead to something as extraordinary as this, It certainly offered a few possibilities for further things we could research and to possibly make our own documentaries concerning psychological aspects such as this, or to perhaps include something like this as a theme in our film production.