Traversing the Fantasy The Dialectic of DesireFantasy proposes a new and comprehensive model of spectatorship at the heart of which it draws an analogy between the ethics of Lacanian psychoanalysis and the ethics of narrative film. It demonstrates how spectators engage with narrative film undergoing unconscious processes that generate a shift in the adherence to fantasies that impede assuming responsibility for ones fate and well being. The authors discuss the affinities that the ontology and aesthetics of narrative film share with subjective unconscious processes offering new insights into the popular appeal of narrative film through three film corpora analyzed at length bodycharacterbreach films dreamingcharacter films and gendercrossing films.