The Fall of Berlin, Stalin as divine matchmaker

As told 4

“it's only through the presence of stalin that the couple gets reunited.”
1:13:14 The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012) - Slavoj Žižek2012 · 2:07:58

“This is how ideology works. Not the explicit ideology, but precisely ideology at its more fundamental level—this apparently subordinated motive of the couple.”
1:15:04 The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012)2012 · 2:10:30

“how the two lovers are united through mediation of Stalin. They look at Stalin, they look where Stalin looks, they see each other”
~0:01 The Divine Details: Enjoyment and Ideology in Cinema2008-08-20 · 1:57:12

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

contents · one story, 3 jobsuses

the big Other ×2 ideological surplus enjoyment ×1 creation of the couple ×1

Its cast and sources

populated by

Bob Fosse3 John Frankenheimer3 Lindsay Anderson2 Nikos Kazantzakis2 Miloš Forman2 Michelangelo Antonioni2 Edmund Burke3 Abimael Guzmán2

alongside works

The Fall of Berlin4 Cabaret3 Seconds2 Zabriskie Point2 M*A*S*H2 If...2 A Clockwork Orange2 Capital, Volume 12

Told together with

43% Rammstein and neo-Nazis 3 shared talks 40% Abandoned planes in the Mojave Desert 2 shared talks 40% The Last Temptation of Christ 2 shared talks 40% Full Metal Jacket, the drill sergeant and Private Pyle 2 shared talks 40% Cabaret 'Tomorrow Belongs to Me': leftist hijacking possible 2 shared talks 40% Brief Encounter, the busybody as the big Other 2 shared talks 33% Prague Spring saved by Soviet intervention 2 shared talks 33% Abu Ghraib as obscene underside of military culture 2 shared talks 33% Bosnian rape survivors and the absent big Other 2 shared talks 20% Kinder Surprise Egg 2 shared talks 18% Jaws shark as ideological condensation 2 shared talks 11% They Live / critique of ideology glasses 2 shared talks

Every retelling 4

1:13:14 The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012) - Slavoj Žižek2012 · 2:07:58

The Soviet film The Fall of Berlin follows a worker-soldier whose entire WWII narrative is actually about recreating the couple blessed by Stalin; the couple can only reunite through Stalin's presence, making him the supreme divine matchmaker, illustrating how ideology works through the surplus element of a love story., illustrating ideology as enjoyment,the big Other,the logic of the couple

1:15:04 The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012)2012 · 2:10:30

The Soviet propaganda film 'The Fall of Berlin' follows the logic of producing a couple: the entire war is fought so a model worker can reunite with his girl, with Stalin himself as the supreme divine matchmaker who scripted and cried over the final scene, while the scene itself never happened (Stalin was too paranoid to fly)., illustrating ideology as surplus element,the big Other,Stalinist iconography

~0:01 The Divine Details: Enjoyment and Ideology in Cinema2008-08-20 · 1:57:12

Chiaureli's 1949 Stalinist epic reproduces the Hollywood formula: the entire Second World War exists so that the lovers separated at its outbreak can be reunited through Stalin's gaze at the end; Stalin even advised the worker on how to court his girl., illustrating Stalinist cinema reproduces Hollywood formula,creation of the couple

1:23:27 Nomadic proletarians? No, thanks!2019-04-30 · 2:02:12

In the Stalinist film The Fall of Berlin, WWII is fought as a backdrop for a soldier getting his girl; in the final scene she asks Stalin for a kiss. Žižek uses this to identify a deep Hollywood logic, historical catastrophe as backdrop for romance, that he finds in high art too (Platonov's The Soul)., illustrating Stalinist culture as Hollywood logic,ideology