The Madame Psychosis "Death" cycle: casting the veiled Joelle across the late filmography

pivotal · YTMP–YTSDB (2003–2004)

• When: YTMP (2003) through YTSDB (2004); several entries carry archival "(?)" on the year, as printed
• What: The oeuvre's late obsession: JOI repeatedly cast Joelle van Dyne, veiled/blurred and stage-named "Madame Psychosis," as Death. Low-Temperature Civics (Death, whose "ecstatic encounter" leaves a CEO catatonic — her first appearance in a JOI project), (The) Desire to Desire (a beautiful cadaver), Safe Boating Is No Accident (a mangled fiancée), The Night Wears a Sombrero (a veiled nun who blinds gunslingers), and the Marat/Sade adaptation where "the extra-dramatic figure of Death ('Psychosis') descends deus ex machina." The recurring figure of a lethally beautiful woman as Death (also Möbius Strips, Cage III) is the aesthetic bridge to what the final cartridge would be. See Joelle's timeline (event 19), event 31 (the credits and content).