The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (2006)
Lecture ·
2006 · 2:30:11 · 13,782 words
with Film Clip
cinema-art-culturepsychoanalysisideologysexuality-gendersubjectivityconsciousness-mindphilosophy-general
This is the full transcript of Sophie Fiennes's documentary 'The Pervert's Guide to Cinema' (2006), in which Žižek delivers a sustained psychoanalytic reading of cinema across roughly 150 minutes, analysing films by Hitchcock, Lynch, Tarkovsky, Chaplin, Kubrick, Haneke, Kieslowski, and many others. He argues that cinema is not an escape from reality but the medium through which we learn to desire; it stages the Real, fantasy, and the death drive with a literalness that everyday life suppresses. The talk moves through topics including the voice as autonomous partial object, the id-machine, the Freudian topology of Psycho's house, the enigma of feminine desire, the obscene superego, and the relationship between fantasy and sexual subjectivity, concluding that cinema shows us what is 'more real than reality itself'.
every located moment in this recording, click one to read it
The ideas in it 26
in the order they first come up; click a row for what he does with the idea here
Cinema does not give you what you desire but teaches you how to desire; it structures and installs desire rather than satisfying it.
as “symbolic order / symbolic fiction”
The regulatory fictions that structure reality; removing them does not reveal naked reality but causes reality to disintegrate.
Not an ethical agency but an obscene one that bombards us with impossible demands, laughs when we fail, and is intimately linked to the id rather than opposed to it.
The reservoir of illicit drives, figured in Psycho's cellar and in Harpo Marx; combines childish innocence with primordial evil and aggression.
Every act of speech carries a minimum of the uncanny impression that a foreign power has taken possession of our voice; the voice is not an organic part of the body but comes from an interspace.
Autonomous fragments, voice, hand, shoes, that detach from the body and embody the death drive; they are undead objects that persist with a will of their own.
Not a Buddhist striving for annihilation but the dimension of the 'undead', that which persists beyond death, insists, cannot be destroyed, embodied in partial objects like the autonomous voice or the red shoes.
That which erupts into and tears apart the fabric of ordinary symbolic reality, embodied here by the birds attacking, the voice possessing, or the flush that returns excrement.
The obscure blind spot from which the observed object 'returns' the gaze; in Hitchcock, establishing shots suddenly reveal themselves as the evil point of view of the birds or the murderer.
The phenomenological 'other space' into which excrement disappears when we flush the toilet; the horror occurs when objects return from that dimension, paralleling what the cinematic screen does to our fantasmatic remainder.
as “desire is a wound of reality”
When a fantasy object from inner space enters ordinary reality, the texture of reality is twisted and distorted; this distortion is desire inscribing itself into the real.
Endless undead psychic energy, identified here with the energy the Matrix 'needs', which cannot sustain itself directly but requires a virtual or fantasmatic supplement.
as “the night of the world”
The abyss one confronts when looking into another person's eyes, the philosophical description of subjectivity as void, identified with the spiral that draws Scotty into Madeleine in Vertigo.
Scotty's brutal refashioning of Judy into the dead Madeleine in Vertigo: the process by which a male subject must kill or freeze the woman as a desiring entity in order to desire her, making fantasy liveable at the cost of the woman's subjectivity.
The phantasmatic support that sustains desire and sexual activity; without it, one does not reach reality but a nightmarish, traumatic Real.
The subject who maintains the appearance of the domina as boss and accepts an inferior role while secretly writing the very scenario of that inferiority, secretly being the master.
as “mental rape”
Bobby Peru's technique in Wild at Heart: arousing desire and then withdrawing the act, which produces psychological devastation worse than physical rape.
as “anxiety as the only non-deceptive emotion”
Following Freud, all emotions except anxiety are fake; anxiety alone does not deceive, its vocal level is silence, the silent scream.
as “reconstituted fantasy”
In Kieslowski's Blue, the heroine rebuilds her relation to the world through fantasy (figured by the circular shot and the music), but the price is a foreclosure of radical authentic anxiety.
The logic of 'I know very well, but nonetheless…': we know a film is fake but are surprised when the murder happens; we know what we believe in is a fiction but it still exercises power.
Beneath narrative meaning, Hitchcock's visual motifs (the person hanging from an abyss) echo and morph across films at a sub-semantic level of forms communicating with each other, providing the proper density of cinematic experience.
as “objet petit a / the Thing from inner space”
An oversized, distorted natural or cultural object (the giant sequoia in Vertigo, Moby Dick) that embodies projected libidinal excess and comes from within our mental space.
as “obscene father / primordial father”
The Freudian primordial father who refuses to die, incarnated in Darth Vader's deep breathing, Frank in Blue Velvet, Bobby Peru, a terrifying, immortal, non-castrated life energy beyond anxiety.
Normal paternal authority possesses the phallus as an insignia (like a crown) giving symbolic authority; the obscene Lynchian paternal figures immediately ARE the phallus, which is the most terrifying experience imaginable.
An object (paradigmatically the planet Solaris) that directly materializes the subject's innermost dreams, desires, and guilt feelings without requiring the subject to consciously formulate them.
In Tarkovsky's Stalker, and by extension in cinema itself: a delimited space onto which one projects beliefs and fears; ultimately equivalent to the white cinematic screen as a pure support for inner projection.
Stories he reaches for 7
The scene in which the protagonist beats himself is interpreted not as masochism but as a liberating act, to attack the enemy you must first beat out of yourself whatever attaches you to slavery.
“in order to attack the enemy, you first have to beat the shit out of yourself to get rid in yourself of that which attaches you to the leader, to the conditions of slavery.”
A woman singing on stage collapses from exhaustion but the song continues (revealed as playback), for those seconds of confusion we confront the nightmarish dimension of an autonomous voice persisting without its body.
“for that couple of seconds, when we are confused, we confront this nightmarish dimension of an autonomous partial object.”
The Stalker's zone is a prohibited space where nothing has changed but onto which one projects all inner fears and desires; Žižek identifies it with the blank white cinematic screen, a pure support for inner projection.
“the zone is ultimately the very whiteness of the cinematic screen.”
Ripley enters a room of previous failed cloning attempts, from tiny fetus-like forms to almost-human-but-monstrous creatures, our previous alternate embodiments haunt us, pointing to an ontology of unfinished reality.
“all the time our previous alternate embodiments, what we might have been but are not, these alternate versions of ourselves are haunting us.”
In Persona, Bibi Andersson narrates a beach orgy to the mute Liv Ullmann with no flashback, one of the most erotic scenes in cinema precisely because eroticism resides in words, not bodily depiction.
“probably one of the most erotic scenes in the entire history of cinema — precisely because bergman successfully resisted the temptation of a flashback.”
Pornography crosses one threshold (showing everything) but imposes another, you cannot be emotionally engaged. The absurd housewife/plumber narratives signal a structural censorship: explicit show requires emotional distance.
“you have either an emotionally engaging film, but then you should stop just before showing it all, or you can see it all, but you are not allowed to be emotionally seriously engaged.”
Scotty's refashioning of Judy into the dead Madeleine is a process of mortification, erasing the woman as a desiring entity; fantasy realized is nightmare; the male libidinal economy requires the woman to be dead.
“scotty has to mortify her, to change her into a dead woman… for the male libidinal economy, the only good woman is a dead woman.”
Works invoked 41
Vertigo film
The key film of the talk; the Scotty/Judy/Madeleine triangle is the primary case for mortification, fantasy realized as nightmare, the night of the world, the profile shot, and femininity as the true locus of subjectivity. Also contains the gigantic sequoia as the Hitchcockian 'Thing from inner space'.
Psycho film
The three-level house topology maps ego/superego/id; the bathroom-cleaning scene illustrates work at zero level; the second murder (Arbogast) illustrates fetishist disavowal and the shift from neutral god's-eye to murderous gaze; the toilet and drain connected to the netherworld.
Fight Club film
The self-beating scene is defended as deeply liberating, beating out of yourself what attaches you to slavery, contra moralistic readings of it as masochism or reactionary violence.
The Great Dictator film
Chaplin's double role (Jewish barber / Hinkel-Hitler) is used to explore the traumatic dimension of the voice and the coming of sound; the finale speech uses the Lohengrin overture (same as Hitler's globe scene), showing music is always potentially a threat.
The Matrix film
The blue/red pill choice is used to stage the question of symbolic fiction vs. reality; the fetal container scene is used to argue that libido needs a virtual fantasmatic supplement; Žižek wants a 'third pill'.
The Birds film
Used extensively to illustrate the maternal superego, the gaze (neutral establishing shot turning into the birds' evil gaze), desire as a wound of reality, the silent scream/anxiety in the neighbour's murder scene, and the logic of fetishist disavowal.
North by Northwest film
One of the Hitchcockian films containing the visual motif of a person hanging from an abyss, illustrating cinematic materialism operating below the level of narrative meaning.
Blue Velvet film
The opening lawn sequence illustrates the Real beneath idyllic normality; Frank/Dorothy illustrates the obscene paternal figure and the three-way oscillation of fantasy; Jeffrey's closet perspective illustrates the primal scene.
Mulholland Drive film
The singer's playback scene illustrates autonomous partial objects; treated as companion to Lost Highway in placing reality and fantasy horizontally side by side.
Stalker film
Contrasted with Solaris: the zone realizes desires only if you can formulate them (which no one can); Tarkovsky's treatment of time as dense material and the stalker's radiated face as spirituality through material disintegration; the zone ultimately identified with the cinematic screen.
Frankenstein film
The pre-film warning address cited as an early example of the 'hidden master' figure priming the audience's response, ideology embodied before the film begins.
City Lights film
Called 'one of those masterpieces that are really too sophisticated for the sophisticated'; the blind girl's misidentification of the Tramp as a millionaire illustrates the perilous structure of love based on fantasy coordinates rather than the real person.
Dune film
Baron Harkonnen cited alongside Frank (Blue Velvet) and Bobby Peru (Wild at Heart) as one of Lynch's ridiculously obscene paternal figures who ARE the phallus rather than possessing it.
Persona film
The beach orgy narration scene, withholding flashback, is called perhaps the most erotic scene in cinema history, eroticism is linguistic, residing in words not images.
Solaris (film) film
The id-machine film par excellence; the returned dead wife exposes male fantasy (woman as man's guilt materialized); the tragic position of the spectral woman who tries to erase herself out of love is described as 'touching'.
Lost Highway film
Analysed as the horizontal juxtaposition of reality and fantasy; the internalized vs. externalized obstacle; the Mystery Man as the director who has direct access to your innermost fantasies; the enigma of feminine desire as the focal point.
The Red Shoes film
The 'nicest example' of partial objects and the death drive: the dancing shoes take over and become the undead object embodying an autonomous will beyond the subject.
Wild at Heart film
Bobby Peru's 'mental rape' illustrates how arousing and withholding fantasy is more devastating than physical assault; Bobby Peru's death illustrates the sacrificed obscene paternal figure.
Eyes Wide Shut film
The film's entire structure shows the utter impotence of male fantasizing trying to catch up with feminine fantasy; the deliberately aseptic orgy is not a flaw but the very point of the film.
Fritz Lang's 1931 film cited as the first great film about the traumatic floating voice, the master who is only a voice, never seen until the end.
Dead of Night film
The ventriloquist episode (Michael Redgrave) shows that destroying the autonomous partial object results in the subject becoming the object, recovering speech only in the dummy's voice.
Nostalghia film
Briefly named alongside Sacrifice as one of Tarkovsky's late films ending in suicidal self-sacrifice, Žižek treats this as religious obscurantism, less interesting than his formal innovations.
The Piano Teacher film
The story of a woman lacking the phantasmatic coordinates of her desire who watches pornography as a pupil learning desire; when her written fantasy is literally enacted, fantasy is destroyed and only a nightmarish Real remains.
Named alongside Nostalgia as ending in suicidal self-sacrifice, subjected to the same 'religious obscurantism' criticism.
Alice in Wonderland book
The Cheshire cat's smile remaining after the cat vanishes illustrates the autonomous partial object; Stalinist show trials also compared to dialogues out of Alice in Wonderland.
The Conversation film
Gene Hackman's detective fantasizes himself as a witness to the murder (not the murder itself) through a cracked glass; the toilet-flushing scene is used as the film's most important moment for the netherworld theme.
Dogville film
The visible theatrical set shows that cinematic belief persists through exposure; irony is put in service of renewed belief, 'there is something real in illusion, more real than in the reality behind it'.
Eisenstein's coded portrait of the Stalinist era: the scene of the tsar's torture squad performing an obscene musical grasps the superego's combination of terror and laughter; immediately prohibited.
Lohengrin opera
The overture accompanies both Hitler's globe-daydream and Chaplin's humanist finale in The Great Dictator, demonstrating that music cannot be definitively redeemed; it is always potentially a threat.
Moby Dick book
Cited alongside the giant sequoia in Vertigo and the Mount Rushmore statues as examples of Hitchcockian 'big Things', oversized objects that embody projected libidinal excess from inner space.
Possessed film
The opening clip of the working-class girl watching the train is analysed as 'cinematic art at its purest', reality reproducing the magic of the screen, the viewer's fantasy space projected onto the train.
Saboteur film
The first of the Hitchcockian abyss-hanging series; cited as part of the argument for cinematic materialism operating below narrative.
DeMille's on-screen personal address exemplifies ideology embodied: the hidden master who organizes our desires and interprets the story for us before we can form our own response.
To Catch a Thief film
Part of the Hitchcockian abyss-hanging series; cited in the argument for cinematic materialism.
Alien briefly cited as archetype of an alien bursting from the chest; Alien Resurrection's failed clone room develops the gnostic ontology of an unfinished universe haunted by alternate selves.
The circular shot and music-as-fetish illustrate how reconstituted fantasy enables renewed engagement with reality; but the price is losing the radical authentic encounter with anxiety at the foundation of human condition.
The Exorcist film
Used to illustrate the voice as alien intruder; a beautiful young girl becomes a monster through possession by a voice; the two priests figure the attempt to expel the alien intruder.
Pluto's Judgment Day film
Disney's 1935 cartoon stages a Stalinist show trial against Pluto; illustrates how the law is both severe and obscenely mocking, the cats-as-accusers enacting the same logic as the Moscow trials.
Rear Window film
Cited as part of the series of Hitchcockian hanging/abyss shots and as a central instance of the peeping-tom gaze.
The intercutting of Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader with Padme's birth scene used to illustrate the Freudian primordial father, the father who does not want to die, whose deep breathing is the obscene superego sound.
The Wizard of Oz film
The wizard behind the curtain illustrates that demystification is not enough; appearance has its own effectivity and truth that persists after exposure; the scarecrow getting a diploma illustrates performative symbolic efficacy.
People invoked 20
Cecil B. DeMille negative
DeMille's personal pre-film address in The Ten Commandments is cited as an example of ideology embodied, the 'hidden master' who organizes our desires and interprets the story before we see it.
Franz Kafka positive
The Mystery Man in Lost Highway compared to the Law in Kafka, the court only comes when you ask for it; the law pursues only those who invoke it.
Ingmar Bergman positive
Persona's scene of Bibi Andersson narrating the beach orgy without flashback is called 'probably one of the most erotic scenes in the entire history of cinema', illustrating that eroticism resides in words.
Lars von Trier positive
Dogville used to show how theatrical self-exposure (visible set) is deployed not to deconstruct cinematic belief through irony but to reinforce it, irony serves belief, and there is something real in illusion more real than the reality behind it.
Charlie Chaplin positive
Analysed through The Great Dictator (the traumatic voice, the double Hitler/barber, the redemption of music) and City Lights (the structure of love as misidentification); described as the filmmaker most aware of the traumatic dimension of the voice.
Richard Wagner positive
The Lohengrin overture is used both for Hitler's globe-daydream and for Chaplin's humanist finale in The Great Dictator, illustrating that music cannot be definitively redeemed, it is always potentially a threat.
Jacques Lacan positive
Implicit throughout: the gaze, objet petit a, partial objects, the Real, the distinction between having and being the phallus, and the 'psychoanalytic formula' of maternal superego all derive from Lacanian theory.
Fritz Lang positive
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1931) named as the first great film about the traumatic floating voice, a master who is only a voice, never seen until the end.
Stanley Kubrick positive
Eyes Wide Shut read as showing the utter impotence of male fantasizing: the hero's desperate attempt to catch up with his wife's fantasy ends in failure; the aseptic orgy is the point, not a flaw.
David Lynch positive
Analysed extensively through Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Wild at Heart, and Dune; Žižek treats Lynch as the filmmaker who places fantasy and reality horizontally side by side, embodies the enigma of feminine desire, and whose obscene paternal figures are the ethical focus of his work.
Krzysztof Kieślowski positive
Blue used to illustrate how reconstituted fantasy enables renewed engagement with reality; the circular shot and music-as-fetish analysed; also listed alongside Hitchcock, Tarkovsky, and Lynch as directors with an autonomous cinematic form.
Michael Powell positive
The Red Shoes cited as 'the nicest example' of the undead partial object: the ballerina's dancing shoes that take over and literalize the death drive.
Francis Ford Coppola positive
The Conversation is analysed for the peeping-tom detective who fantasizes himself as a witness to the murder through a cracked glass, and for the toilet-flushing scene as the threshold between reality and the netherworld.
Alfred Hitchcock positive
The central filmmaker of the documentary; Žižek reads Psycho, The Birds, Vertigo, Rear Window, North by Northwest, Saboteur, and To Catch a Thief in depth, treating Hitchcock as the supreme exemplar of cinematic materialism, manipulation of the gaze, and fetishist disavowal.
Sergei Eisenstein positive
Called a 'genius' for grasping the link between superego's terror and its obscene laughter in Ivan the Terrible Part II, staging political murder as an obscene musical in a coded portrait of the Stalin era.
Michael Haneke positive
The Piano Teacher illustrates the destruction of fantasy through literal enactment and the emergence of the nightmarish Real when fantasy collapses, arguably the most depressive sexual act in cinema history.
Andrei Tarkovsky positive
Solaris treated as the id-machine film par excellence; Stalker's zone identified with the cinematic screen; Nostalgia and Sacrifice named. Žižek rejects Tarkovsky's religious/self-sacrifice 'solution' as obscurantism, finding the formal dimension (treatment of time, material texture) more genuinely interesting.
Joseph Stalin negative
Stalin's love of musicals invoked to illustrate the superego's link between terror and obscene laughter; the Moscow show trials described as theatrical performances combining horror with cartoon-like absurdity.
Karl Marx positive
Invoked to characterize music (in the Blue analysis) as 'opium for the people', a false beatitude that allows us to avoid the abyss of unbearable anxiety.
Sigmund Freud positive
Repeatedly invoked as the authority for the death drive, the three agencies (ego/superego/id), the structural role of fantasy, the claim that drives are silent, and the claim that anxiety is the only non-deceptive emotion.
What it argues
cinema as the art of desire and its formationfantasy as the support of reality and sexualitypartial objects, the voice, and the death drivethe obscene superego versus ego and idthe topology of inner space and the Real breaking throughfeminine subjectivity and the enigma of feminine desirecinematic form as a materialist mode of philosophy
Dialectical moves 15
“It is not that everything is a metaphor for sexuality; the true Freudian point is the opposite — what are we thinking about even when we are having sex?”
Reverses the vulgar-Freudian reduction (all is sex) into the deeper problem: sexuality itself requires a fantasmatic supplement and cannot be enjoyed directly.
“The question is not why the Matrix needs our energy but why our energy needs the Matrix.”
Turns the sci-fi premise inside out to show that libido requires a virtual/fantasmatic universe to sustain itself.
“Death drive is almost the opposite of a wish for annihilation — it is the dimension of the undead, of something which remains alive even after it is dead.”
Corrects the common misreading of the death drive as a desire for peace/extinction, redefining it as the immortality of insistent, indestructible partial objects.
“The only way to get rid of this autonomous partial object is to become this object.”
The ventriloquist's failed attempt to destroy his dummy ends in his recovery of speech only in the dummy's voice, the self is absorbed into the very thing it tried to annihilate.
“Super ego is not an ethical agency. Super ego is an obscene agency bombarding us with impossible orders, laughing at us when we cannot fulfil its demand.”
Inverts the common view of superego as the moral conscience, revealing its underside as obscene enjoyment in the subject's inevitable failure.
“It starts with 'dreams are for those who cannot endure reality'; it ends with 'reality is for those who are not strong enough to endure their dreams'.”
Lynch's Lost Highway/Mulholland Drive reversal: the escape into dream produces something more horrible, so one must flee back to reality, dream and reality exchange their conventional values.
“Fantasy realized is called nightmare.”
What appears to be the fulfilment of desire (fantasy perfectly matching reality) is experienced as violence and horror rather than satisfaction.
“Our fundamental delusion today is not to believe in what is only a fiction; it is, on the contrary, not to take fictions seriously enough.”
Inverts the standard critique of ideology (too credulous), the real problem is that we dismiss fictions as mere games when they enact our deepest truths.
“For the male libidinal economy, to paraphrase a well-known old saying, the only good woman is a dead woman — Scotty has to mortify her, change her into a dead woman.”
The violence of male desire is not incidental but structurally necessary: the woman must be erased as a desiring subject for the male fantasy to operate.
“The logic of demystification is not enough. There is more truth in appearance. Appearance has an effectivity, a truth of its own.”
Counters the Enlightenment gesture of unmasking the wizard behind the curtain, the symbolic fiction's power survives exposure and must be taken seriously on its own terms.
“Far from standing for some kind of perverted masochism or reactionary fantasy of violence, this scene is deeply liberating.”
Defends what appears to be a scene of violent self-abasement (Fight Club) as in fact an emancipatory act of separating oneself from the attachments binding one to domination.
“We don't want our fathers alive. We want them dead. The ultimate object of anxiety is a living father.”
Inverts common piety about paternal authority: it is not the dead father (law) that is terrifying but the obscene living father who refuses to die.
“If you are looking for what is in reality more real than reality itself, look into the cinematic fiction.”
The ultimate reversal of the talk: fiction is not less but MORE real than ordinary reality, because it stages what reality must suppress.
“Normal paternal authority possesses phallus; these obscene Lynchian paternal figures immediately ARE the phallus — and that is the most terrifying experience imaginable.”
The distinction between having and being the phallus: the obscene father collapses the gap between insignia and person, producing unbearable non-castrated life energy.
“We ourselves are the aliens controlling our bodies. Humanity means the aliens are controlling our animal bodies.”
Inverts the science-fiction horror of alien possession: the subject's own ego is already the alien intruder in the animal body.
Claims 25
reframes
The choice between the blue and red pills in The Matrix is not a choice between illusion and reality; the symbolic fictions that regulate reality ARE reality, so removing them destroys reality itself.The Matrix / illusion vs. reality
asserts
Cinema teaches us how to desire; it does not satisfy desires but installs and structures them.the function of cinema
asserts
The violent bird attacks in Hitchcock's The Birds are explosive outbursts of maternal superego — the raw incestuous energy trying to prevent the son's sexual relationship.The Birds / psychoanalytic interpretation
asserts
Superego and id are deeply connected, not opposed: the superego is not an ethical but an obscene agency that bombards us with impossible demands and laughs when we inevitably fail.the superego
asserts
The voice is not an organic part of the body but a foreign intruder; there is always a minimum ventriloquist effect when one person speaks to another.the voice as partial object
asserts
We ourselves are the aliens controlling our bodies; humanity means that our ego — a psychic agency — is an alien force distorting and controlling our animal bodies.human subjectivity
reframes
Death drive is almost the opposite of a wish for annihilation: it is the dimension of the undead, something which remains alive even after death and cannot be destroyed.Freud's death drive
reframes
Freud's lesson is not that everything is secretly about sex, but the inverse: what are we thinking about even when we are doing it? — sexuality itself requires a phantasmatic supplement.Freudian psychoanalysis and sexuality
asserts
Our libido cannot enjoy directly; it needs a virtual or fantasmatic supplement — which is why the Matrix needs us rather than vice versa.libido and fantasy
asserts
In Solaris, the hero's basic problem is not spiritual reconciliation with his guilt but simply how to get rid of the spectral clone of his wife — exposing the lowest male mythology that woman is merely man's dream realized.Tarkovsky's Solaris / male fantasy about women
asserts
Pornography is a deeply conservative genre: you may see everything but you are forbidden to be emotionally seriously engaged — it must maintain minimum phantasmatic support while pretending to show all.pornography
asserts
When fantasy is literally enacted (as in The Piano Teacher), fantasy is destroyed; one does not then reach reality but a nightmarish Real too traumatic to be experienced as ordinary reality.fantasy and its actualization
asserts
Masculinity is a fake and an escape from the most nightmarish dimension of subjectivity; it is woman who is the subject, forced to confront subjectivity as a void.gender and subjectivity
asserts
In Vertigo, Scotty's activity toward Judy is extreme violence — mortification — because for the male libidinal economy, to desire a woman he must erase her as a desiring entity.Vertigo / male desire and mortification
asserts
Fantasy realized is called nightmare: when fantasy coordinates fully coincide with reality there is always an extreme violence sustaining that coincidence.fantasy and the Real
reframes
The logic of demystification (showing the wizard behind the curtain) is not enough; appearance has an effectivity and a truth of its own that persists even after exposure.ideology critique / the Wizard of Oz
reframes
Our fundamental delusion today is not taking fictions too seriously but not taking them seriously enough: the virtual or fictional persona may be closer to our true self than our real-life behaviour.ideology and virtual identity
asserts
Stalin loved musicals because superego combines terror with obscenity and laughter — Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible Part II grasped this link by staging terror itself as a musical.Stalinism, the superego, and cinema
asserts
The only emotion that does not deceive is anxiety; all other emotions are in some sense fake.Freudian theory of emotions
rejects
Tarkovsky's solution to the deadlock of desire (self-sacrifice, religious communion) is religious obscurantism — the truly interesting dimension of Tarkovsky is formal, not metaphysical.Tarkovsky's metaphysics and religious solution
asserts
In order to understand today's world we need cinema literally; it is only in cinema that we get the crucial dimension we are not ready to confront in reality.the necessity of cinema for understanding reality
asserts
Great cinematographers enable us to think in visual terms; films and philosophy come together at the level of cinematic form itself carrying a message independent of narrative.cinema and philosophy
reframes
The self-beating scene in Fight Club is not masochism or reactionary violence but deeply liberating: to attack the enemy you must first beat out of yourself what attaches you to slavery and the leader.Fight Club / self-violence and liberation
asserts
The immortality of the obscene Lynchian father figures (Frank, Baron Harkonnen, Bobby Peru) is the most terrifying experience: we do not want our fathers alive, we want them dead.the primordial father / Freudian paternal figure in Lynch
asserts
Chaplin's City Lights shows that love always risks being love for what the person is not — love that fits fantasy coordinates rather than the real person is always mortifying love.love, fantasy, and misidentification
Quotes 22
“cinema is the ultimate pervert art. it doesn't give you what you desire. it tells you how to desire.”Slavoj Žižek · cinema as pedagogy of desire
“i want a third pill… not the reality behind the illusion, but the reality in illusion itself.”Slavoj Žižek · against the Matrix's false choice between illusion and reality
“when this our proper dwelling within a symbolic space is disturbed, reality disintegrates.”Slavoj Žižek · symbolic order as condition of reality
“super ego is not an ethical agency. super ego is an obscene agency bombarding us with impossible orders, laughing at us when we cannot ever fulfil its demand.”Slavoj Žižek · superego as obscene not moral
“death drive is almost the opposite. death drive is the dimension of the undead — something which remains alive even after it is dead and it's in a way immortal in its deadness itself.”Slavoj Žižek · death drive redefined as undead insistence
“the only way for me to get rid of this autonomous partial object is to become this object.”Slavoj Žižek · identification with the symptom as the only exit
“we ourselves are the aliens controlling our bodies. humanity means the aliens are controlling our animal bodies.”Slavoj Žižek · the ego as alien force within the body
“desire is a wound of reality.”Slavoj Žižek · desire as distortion of reality
“why does the energy need the matrix? since i think that the energy we are talking about is libido — why does our libido need the virtual universe of fantasies? why can't we simply enjoy it directly?”Slavoj Žižek · libido's need for fantasmatic supplement
“fantasy realized is called nightmare.”Slavoj Žižek · the horror of wish fulfilment
“it starts with dreams are for those who cannot endure reality. it ends with reality is for those who are not strong enough to endure their dreams.”Slavoj Žižek · dream and reality exchange places in Lynch
“when fantasy disintegrates, you don't get reality. you get some nightmarish real, too traumatic to be experienced as ordinary reality.”Slavoj Žižek · the Real as what appears when fantasy collapses
“the only emotion which doesn't deceive is anxiety. all other emotions are fake.”Slavoj Žižek · Freudian primacy of anxiety
“music is here what according to marx religion is — a kind of opium for the people, opium which should put us asleep, put us into a kind of false beatitude which allows us to avoid the abyss of unbearable anxiety.”Slavoj Žižek · music as ideological opium
“our fundamental delusion today is not to believe in what is only a fiction… it's on the contrary, not to take fictions seriously enough.”Slavoj Žižek · ideology critique reversed
“we need the excuse of a fiction to stage what we truly are.”Slavoj Žižek · fiction as the site of truth
“in order to understand today's world we need cinema, literally. it's only in cinema that we get that crucial dimension which we are not ready to confront in our reality.”Slavoj Žižek · cinema as necessary epistemology
“if you are looking for what is in reality more real than reality itself, look into the cinematic fiction.”Slavoj Žižek · cinematic fiction as hyper-real
“for the male libidinal economy, to paraphrase a well-known old saying, the only good woman is a dead woman.”Slavoj Žižek · mortification as condition of male desire
“not only they are not afraid of it. they fully enjoy being it. they are truly fearless entities beyond life and death, gladly assuming their immortality — non-castrated life energy.”Slavoj Žižek · the obscene Lynchian paternal figure who is the phallus
“this is indicated in a very nice way in the scene towards the end of wild at heart where bobby peru is killed… when his head explodes, it's as if we see the head of the penis being torn apart.”Slavoj Žižek · the sacrificed phallus / obscene father
“the zone is ultimately the very whiteness of the cinematic screen.”Slavoj Žižek · Tarkovsky's zone as cinematic screen / pure surface of projection
Transcript 325 turns
Slavoj Žižek
the problem for us is not are our desires satisfied or not. the problem is how do we know what we desire? there is nothing. spontaneous, nothing natural about human desires. our desires are artificial. we have to be taught to desire. cinema is the ultimate pervert art. it doesn't give you what you desire. tells you how to desire.
the problem for us is not are our desires satisfied or not. the problem is how do we know what we desire? there is nothing. spontaneous, nothing natural about human desires. our desires are artificial. we have to be taught to desire. cinema is the ultimate pervert art. it doesn't give you what you desire. tells you how to desire.
Film Clip
i do like you. it just isn't good enough. oh. i forgot. your mother asked me up to supper.
i do like you. it just isn't good enough. oh. i forgot. your mother asked me up to supper.
Film Clip
okay. bring some ice cream with you, will you? sure, what kind you want? chocolate or vanilla? okay.
okay. bring some ice cream with you, will you? sure, what kind you want? chocolate or vanilla? okay.
Slavoj Žižek
what we get in this wonderful clip from possessed? is commentary on the magic art of cinema within a movie. we have an ordinary working class girl living in a drab small provincial town. all of a sudden she finds herself in a situation where reality itself reproduces the magic cinematic experience. she approaches the rail. the train is passing and it is as if. what in reality is just a person standing near a slowly passing train. turns into. a viewer observing the magic of the screen.
what we get in this wonderful clip from possessed? is commentary on the magic art of cinema within a movie. we have an ordinary working class girl living in a drab small provincial town. all of a sudden she finds herself in a situation where reality itself reproduces the magic cinematic experience. she approaches the rail. the train is passing and it is as if. what in reality is just a person standing near a slowly passing train. turns into. a viewer observing the magic of the screen.
Film Clip
have a drink. oh, don't go away. looking in. wrong way, get in and look out.
have a drink. oh, don't go away. looking in. wrong way, get in and look out.
Slavoj Žižek
we get a very real ordinary scene. on the week! the heroine's inner space, as we, her fantasy space, is projected so that although all reality is simply there, the train the girl, part of reality in her perception and our viewers's perception is, as it were, elevated to the magic level, becomes the screen of her dreams. this is cinematic art at its purest.
we get a very real ordinary scene. on the week! the heroine's inner space, as we, her fantasy space, is projected so that although all reality is simply there, the train the girl, part of reality in her perception and our viewers's perception is, as it were, elevated to the magic level, becomes the screen of her dreams. this is cinematic art at its purest.
Film Clip
this is your last chance. after this, there is no turning back. you take the blue pill. the story ends. you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. you take the red pill. you stay in wonderland. and i show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
this is your last chance. after this, there is no turning back. you take the blue pill. the story ends. you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. you take the red pill. you stay in wonderland. and i show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Slavoj Žižek
but the choice between... the blue and the red pill is not really a choice between illusion and reality. of course, matrix is a machine for fictions, but these are fictions which already structure our reality. if you take away from our reality the symbolic fictions that regulate it, you lose reality itself. i want a third pill. so what is the third pill? definitely not. some kind of transcendental pill which enables a fake fast-food religious experience, but a pill that would enable me to perceive not the reality behind the illusion, but the. reality in illusion itself. if something gets too traumatic too violent, even too to filled in with enjoyment. shatters the coordinates of our reality, we have to fictionalize it. the first key to horror feelings is to say, let's imagine the same story but without the horror element. this gives us, i think, the background. we're in the middle of bodega bay. where the action of hitchcock's birds takes place. birds is a film about a young rich social. socialite girl from san francisco who falls in love with a guy. goes after him to bodega bay where she discovers that he lives with his mother.
but the choice between... the blue and the red pill is not really a choice between illusion and reality. of course, matrix is a machine for fictions, but these are fictions which already structure our reality. if you take away from our reality the symbolic fictions that regulate it, you lose reality itself. i want a third pill. so what is the third pill? definitely not. some kind of transcendental pill which enables a fake fast-food religious experience, but a pill that would enable me to perceive not the reality behind the illusion, but the. reality in illusion itself. if something gets too traumatic too violent, even too to filled in with enjoyment. shatters the coordinates of our reality, we have to fictionalize it. the first key to horror feelings is to say, let's imagine the same story but without the horror element. this gives us, i think, the background. we're in the middle of bodega bay. where the action of hitchcock's birds takes place. birds is a film about a young rich social. socialite girl from san francisco who falls in love with a guy. goes after him to bodega bay where she discovers that he lives with his mother.
Film Clip
of course, it's not my business, but when you bring a girl like that,
of course, it's not my business, but when you bring a girl like that,
Film Clip
darling.
darling.
Film Clip
yes.
yes.
Film Clip
i think i can handle melanie daniels by myself.
i think i can handle melanie daniels by myself.
Film Clip
well? as long as you know what you want, mitch.
well? as long as you know what you want, mitch.
Slavoj Žižek
i know exactly what i want. then there is the standard edible imbroglio of incestuous tension between mother and son, the son's split between his possessive mother and the intrusive girl.
i know exactly what i want. then there is the standard edible imbroglio of incestuous tension between mother and son, the son's split between his possessive mother and the intrusive girl.
Film Clip
what's the matter with them? what's the matter with all the birds? would'd you want this coffee?
what's the matter with them? what's the matter with all the birds? would'd you want this coffee?
Film Clip
in on the table, honey.
in on the table, honey.
Film Clip
hurry up with yours, mate. i'm sure ms. daniels wants to be on her way.
hurry up with yours, mate. i'm sure ms. daniels wants to be on her way.
Film Clip
i think you ought to stay the night, melanie. we have an extra room upstairs and everything.
i think you ought to stay the night, melanie. we have an extra room upstairs and everything.
Slavoj Žižek
the big question about the birds of course is the stupid obvious one. why do the birds attack?
the big question about the birds of course is the stupid obvious one. why do the birds attack?
Film Clip
m.
m.
Slavoj Žižek
it is not enough to say that the birds are part of the natural setup of reality. it is rather as if a foreign dimension intr that literally tears apart reality. we humans are not naturally born into reality. in order for us to act as normal people who interact with other people who live in a space of social reality, many things should happen, like we should be properly installed within the symbolic order and so on. when this... our proper dwelling within a symbolic space is disturbed, reality disintegrates. so to propose the psychanalytic formula. the violent attacks of the birds are obviously explosive outbursts of maternal superego, of the maternal figure preventing, trying to prevent sexual relationship. so the birds are raw incestuous energy. what am i doing? i'm sorry, i'm sorry, now i got it. my god, i'm thinking like melanie. you know what i'm thinking now? i want to fuck mitch. that's what she was thinking. no oh sorry, sorry, sorry. i my god, i got this spontaneous confusion of directions.
it is not enough to say that the birds are part of the natural setup of reality. it is rather as if a foreign dimension intr that literally tears apart reality. we humans are not naturally born into reality. in order for us to act as normal people who interact with other people who live in a space of social reality, many things should happen, like we should be properly installed within the symbolic order and so on. when this... our proper dwelling within a symbolic space is disturbed, reality disintegrates. so to propose the psychanalytic formula. the violent attacks of the birds are obviously explosive outbursts of maternal superego, of the maternal figure preventing, trying to prevent sexual relationship. so the birds are raw incestuous energy. what am i doing? i'm sorry, i'm sorry, now i got it. my god, i'm thinking like melanie. you know what i'm thinking now? i want to fuck mitch. that's what she was thinking. no oh sorry, sorry, sorry. i my god, i got this spontaneous confusion of directions.
Film Clip
mrs. bates.
mrs. bates.
Slavoj Žižek
we are in the cellar of the mother's house from psycho. what's so interesting is that the very disposition of mother's house events took place. in it at three levels. first floor. ground floor. basement. it is as if they reproduce the three levels of human subjectivity. ground floor is ego. norman behaves there as a normal son. whatever remains of his normal ego taking over. up there, it's the superego. maternal superego because the dead mother is basically a figure of superego.
we are in the cellar of the mother's house from psycho. what's so interesting is that the very disposition of mother's house events took place. in it at three levels. first floor. ground floor. basement. it is as if they reproduce the three levels of human subjectivity. ground floor is ego. norman behaves there as a normal son. whatever remains of his normal ego taking over. up there, it's the superego. maternal superego because the dead mother is basically a figure of superego.
Film Clip
no mother. i'm gonna to bring something up here.
no mother. i'm gonna to bring something up here.
Film Clip
i am sorry, boy, but you do manage to look ludicrous when you give me orders.
i am sorry, boy, but you do manage to look ludicrous when you give me orders.
Film Clip
please, mother.
please, mother.
Film Clip
no! i will not hide in the fruit. voil. ha you think i'm fruity, huh?
no! i will not hide in the fruit. voil. ha you think i'm fruity, huh?
Slavoj Žižek
end. down. in the cellar, it's the id. the reservoir of this illicit. drives. and we can then interpret. the event in the middle of the film. when norman. carries the mother, or as we learn at the end, mother's mummy. corpse, skeleton from the first floor to the cellar.
end. down. in the cellar, it's the id. the reservoir of this illicit. drives. and we can then interpret. the event in the middle of the film. when norman. carries the mother, or as we learn at the end, mother's mummy. corpse, skeleton from the first floor to the cellar.
Film Clip
don't do it again, not ever again. now get out! i told you to get out, moy.
don't do it again, not ever again. now get out! i told you to get out, moy.
Slavoj Žižek
i'll carry you mother. it's as if he is transposing her in his own mind as a psychic agency from. super ego. to id.
i'll carry you mother. it's as if he is transposing her in his own mind as a psychic agency from. super ego. to id.
Film Clip
put me down. put me down. i walk.
put me down. put me down. i walk.
Slavoj Žižek
of course, the lesson of it is the old lesson elaborated already by freud that superego and id are deeply connected. the mother complains first as a figure of authority, how can you be doing this to me? aren't you ashamed? this is a fruit seller. and then... mother immediately turns into obscenity do you think i'm fruity super ego is not an ethical agency. super ego is an obscene agency bombarding us with impossible orders, laughing at us when of course we cannot ever. fulfill its demand. the more we obey it, the more it makes us guilty. there is always some. aspect of an obscene madman in the agency of the superego. we often find references to psychoanalysis embodied in the very relations between persons. for example, the three marx brothers groucho trico. harpo. it's clear. gracho, the most popular one with his nervous hyperactivity is superego.
of course, the lesson of it is the old lesson elaborated already by freud that superego and id are deeply connected. the mother complains first as a figure of authority, how can you be doing this to me? aren't you ashamed? this is a fruit seller. and then... mother immediately turns into obscenity do you think i'm fruity super ego is not an ethical agency. super ego is an obscene agency bombarding us with impossible orders, laughing at us when of course we cannot ever. fulfill its demand. the more we obey it, the more it makes us guilty. there is always some. aspect of an obscene madman in the agency of the superego. we often find references to psychoanalysis embodied in the very relations between persons. for example, the three marx brothers groucho trico. harpo. it's clear. gracho, the most popular one with his nervous hyperactivity is superego.
Film Clip
well, that covers a lot of ground. say you cover a lot of ground yourself. you better beat it. i hear they're going to tear you down and put up an office building where you're standing. you can leave in a taxi. if you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a hut. if that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a half. you know you haven't stopped talking since i came here..
well, that covers a lot of ground. say you cover a lot of ground yourself. you better beat it. i hear they're going to tear you down and put up an office building where you're standing. you can leave in a taxi. if you can't get a taxi, you can leave in a hut. if that's too soon, you can leave in a minute and a half. you know you haven't stopped talking since i came here..
Slavoj Žižek
the rational guy, egotistic, calculating all the time, is ego.
the rational guy, egotistic, calculating all the time, is ego.
Film Clip
youini, you're charged with high treason, and if found guilty, you'll be shot. i object. oh, you object? on what grounds? i couldn't think of anything else to say.
youini, you're charged with high treason, and if found guilty, you'll be shot. i object. oh, you object? on what grounds? i couldn't think of anything else to say.
Slavoj Žižek
objection sustained. and the weirdest of them all, harpo, the mute guy, he doesn't talk. freud said that drives are silent. he doesn't talk. he, of course, is id. who are you guys?
objection sustained. and the weirdest of them all, harpo, the mute guy, he doesn't talk. freud said that drives are silent. he doesn't talk. he, of course, is id. who are you guys?
Film Clip
what are you doing in my room? he's my partner, but he not speak. he's dumb and a deaf.
what are you doing in my room? he's my partner, but he not speak. he's dumb and a deaf.
Slavoj Žižek
the it in all its radical ambiguity. namely, what is so weird about the khpo character is that he is childishly innocent, just striving for pleasure, likes children, plays with children and so on. at the same time possessed by some kind of primordial evil. aggressive all the time. and this unique combination of utter corruption and innocence is what the eat is about.
the it in all its radical ambiguity. namely, what is so weird about the khpo character is that he is childishly innocent, just striving for pleasure, likes children, plays with children and so on. at the same time possessed by some kind of primordial evil. aggressive all the time. and this unique combination of utter corruption and innocence is what the eat is about.
Film Clip
what do? i. in. i break.
what do? i. in. i break.
Film Clip
yeah. i don know. dr. klein.
yeah. i don know. dr. klein.
Film Clip
yes,'m dr. klein dr..
yes,'m dr. klein dr..
Film Clip
things have gotten worse since i phoned you. i think you better go upstairs.
things have gotten worse since i phoned you. i think you better go upstairs.
Film Clip
is she having spasms again?
is she having spasms again?
Film Clip
yeah, but they've gotten violent.
yeah, but they've gotten violent.
Film Clip
the medication.
the medication.
Slavoj Žižek
voice is not an organic part of a human body. it's coming from somewhere in between your body.
voice is not an organic part of a human body. it's coming from somewhere in between your body.
Film Clip
i! do.
i! do.
Slavoj Žižek
whenever we talk to another person, there is always this minimum of ventriloquist effect, as if some foreign power took possession.
whenever we talk to another person, there is always this minimum of ventriloquist effect, as if some foreign power took possession.
Film Clip
the power over of powers to harm. your mother sucks cocks and hell cares us, you faithless slime.
the power over of powers to harm. your mother sucks cocks and hell cares us, you faithless slime.
Slavoj Žižek
remember that at the beginning of the film, this was... a beautiful young girl. how did she become a monster that we see? by being possessed? but who possessed her? a voice, a voice in its obscene dimensions. number.
remember that at the beginning of the film, this was... a beautiful young girl. how did she become a monster that we see? by being possessed? but who possessed her? a voice, a voice in its obscene dimensions. number.
Film Clip
. see the cross of the lord. become your hostile power.
. see the cross of the lord. become your hostile power.
Slavoj Žižek
the first big film about this traumatic dimension of the voice, the voice which freely floats around and it's a traumatic presence feared, the ultimate object of anxiety which distorts reality, was in 1931, in germany. fritz lang's the testament of dr. mabuse.
the first big film about this traumatic dimension of the voice, the voice which freely floats around and it's a traumatic presence feared, the ultimate object of anxiety which distorts reality, was in 1931, in germany. fritz lang's the testament of dr. mabuse.
Film Clip
sie und diese frau. wirden diesen raum. leben. nicht mehr verlassen. i!
sie und diese frau. wirden diesen raum. leben. nicht mehr verlassen. i!
Slavoj Žižek
we do not see mabuse till the end of the film. she is just a voice.
we do not see mabuse till the end of the film. she is just a voice.
Film Clip
sie werden diesen raum lebend, nicht mehr verlassen. yes.
sie werden diesen raum lebend, nicht mehr verlassen. yes.
Film Clip
the. god forever after. amen.
the. god forever after. amen.
Slavoj Žižek
lord. so the problem is, which is why we have the two priests at her side, how to get rid of this intruder, of this alien intruder. it is as if we are expecting the famous scene from ridley scott's alien to repeat itself.
lord. so the problem is, which is why we have the two priests at her side, how to get rid of this intruder, of this alien intruder. it is as if we are expecting the famous scene from ridley scott's alien to repeat itself.
Film Clip
i! i'm i'm...
i! i'm i'm...
Slavoj Žižek
as if we just wait for some terrifying alien evil looking small animal to jump out. there is a fundamental imbalance, gap. between. our psychic energy called by. freud, libido, this endless undead energy which persists beyond life and death and... the poor. finite, mortal reality of our bodies. this is not just the pathology of... being possessed by ghosts. the lesson that we should learn in that. the movies try to avoid is that we ourselves are the aliens controlling our bodies. humanity means the aliens are controlling our animal bodies. our! ego, our psychic agency, is an alien force distorting, controlling our body. nobody was as fully aware of the properly traumatic dimension of the human voice. the human voice not as the sublime ethereal medium for expressing the depth of human subjectivity, but the human voice as a foreign intruder. nobody was more aware of this. than charlie chaplin.
as if we just wait for some terrifying alien evil looking small animal to jump out. there is a fundamental imbalance, gap. between. our psychic energy called by. freud, libido, this endless undead energy which persists beyond life and death and... the poor. finite, mortal reality of our bodies. this is not just the pathology of... being possessed by ghosts. the lesson that we should learn in that. the movies try to avoid is that we ourselves are the aliens controlling our bodies. humanity means the aliens are controlling our animal bodies. our! ego, our psychic agency, is an alien force distorting, controlling our body. nobody was as fully aware of the properly traumatic dimension of the human voice. the human voice not as the sublime ethereal medium for expressing the depth of human subjectivity, but the human voice as a foreign intruder. nobody was more aware of this. than charlie chaplin.
Film Clip
hey, das strft mich hilfenensekt! der wiener schnitzeln mit der lage erden und das schauut! hey fl der! in! und! hey! play! mit!
hey, das strft mich hilfenensekt! der wiener schnitzeln mit der lage erden und das schauut! hey fl der! in! und! hey! play! mit!
Film Clip
yeah.
yeah.
Slavoj Žižek
chaplin himself plays in the film two persons. the good small jewish barber. and his evil double.
chaplin himself plays in the film two persons. the good small jewish barber. and his evil double.
Film Clip
she!
she!
Film Clip
h!
h!
Slavoj Žižek
hinkel. dictator. hitler, of course.
hinkel. dictator. hitler, of course.
Film Clip
come on! know why you? oh! sc. look! oh, they've my finger!
come on! know why you? oh! sc. look! oh, they've my finger!
Slavoj Žižek
the jewish barber, the tramp figure, is, of course, the figure of silent cinema. silent figures are basically like figures in the cartoon. they don't know death. they don't know sexuality even. they don't know suffering. they just go on in their oral egotistic striving like cats and mouse in a cartoon. you cut them into pieces, they're reconstituted. there is no finitude, no mortality here. there is evil. but a kind of a naive good- evil. you are just egotistic, you want to eat, you want to hit the other, but there is no guilt proper. what we get with sound. is. interiority depth guilt. cpability. in other words, the complex ed universe.
the jewish barber, the tramp figure, is, of course, the figure of silent cinema. silent figures are basically like figures in the cartoon. they don't know death. they don't know sexuality even. they don't know suffering. they just go on in their oral egotistic striving like cats and mouse in a cartoon. you cut them into pieces, they're reconstituted. there is no finitude, no mortality here. there is evil. but a kind of a naive good- evil. you are just egotistic, you want to eat, you want to hit the other, but there is no guilt proper. what we get with sound. is. interiority depth guilt. cpability. in other words, the complex ed universe.
Film Clip
here you are, get a hinkle button, get a hinkle button, a fine photo with a foo on each and every button. do.
here you are, get a hinkle button, get a hinkle button, a fine photo with a foo on each and every button. do.
Slavoj Žižek
.
.
Film Clip
yeah. you.
yeah. you.
Slavoj Žižek
the problem of the film. it's not only the political problem how to get rid of totalitarianism of its terrible seductive power, but it's also this more formal problem, how to get rid of this terrifying dimension of the voice.
the problem of the film. it's not only the political problem how to get rid of totalitarianism of its terrible seductive power, but it's also this more formal problem, how to get rid of this terrifying dimension of the voice.
Film Clip
ichucken. str! i! oh!
ichucken. str! i! oh!
Slavoj Žižek
or since we cannot simply get rid of it, how to domesticate it, how to transform this voice nonetheless into the means of expressing humanity, love and so on. german police grabs the poor tramp thinking this is hitler and he has to address a large gathering.
or since we cannot simply get rid of it, how to domesticate it, how to transform this voice nonetheless into the means of expressing humanity, love and so on. german police grabs the poor tramp thinking this is hitler and he has to address a large gathering.
Film Clip
i'm sorry. i don't want to be an emperor. that's not my business. i don't want to rule or conquer anyone. i should like to help everyone if possible. jew, gentile. black man, white. we all want to help one another. human beings are like that.
i'm sorry. i don't want to be an emperor. that's not my business. i don't want to rule or conquer anyone. i should like to help everyone if possible. jew, gentile. black man, white. we all want to help one another. human beings are like that.
Slavoj Žižek
there, of course, he delivers his big speech about the need of love, understanding between people, but there is a catch. even a double catch.
there, of course, he delivers his big speech about the need of love, understanding between people, but there is a catch. even a double catch.
Film Clip
soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Slavoj Žižek
people applaud exactly in the same way as they were applauding hitler. the music. that accompanies this great humanist finale. the overture to wagner's opera, lohengrin, is the same music as the one we hear when hitler is daydreaming about conquering the entire world and where he has a balloon in the shape of the globe. the music is the same. this can be read as the ultimate redemption of music. that the same music which served evil purposes can be redeemed to serve the good, or it can be read, and i think it should be read, in a much more ambiguous way, that with music we cannot ever be sure. insofar as it externalizes. our inner. passion, music is potentially always a threat.
people applaud exactly in the same way as they were applauding hitler. the music. that accompanies this great humanist finale. the overture to wagner's opera, lohengrin, is the same music as the one we hear when hitler is daydreaming about conquering the entire world and where he has a balloon in the shape of the globe. the music is the same. this can be read as the ultimate redemption of music. that the same music which served evil purposes can be redeemed to serve the good, or it can be read, and i think it should be read, in a much more ambiguous way, that with music we cannot ever be sure. insofar as it externalizes. our inner. passion, music is potentially always a threat.
Film Clip
de amor! tu amor todo mi corazón.
de amor! tu amor todo mi corazón.
Slavoj Žižek
there is a short scene in. david lynch's mulholland drive, which takes place in the theater where we are now, where behind the microphone a woman is singing, then out of exhaustion or whatever, she drops down. surprisingly, the singing goes on. immediately afterwards, it is explained. it was a playback. but for that... a aple of seconds, when we are confused, we confront this nightmarish dimension of an autonomous partial object. like in the well-known adventure of cheshire cat from alice in wonderland, where the cat disappears, the smile remains.
there is a short scene in. david lynch's mulholland drive, which takes place in the theater where we are now, where behind the microphone a woman is singing, then out of exhaustion or whatever, she drops down. surprisingly, the singing goes on. immediately afterwards, it is explained. it was a playback. but for that... a aple of seconds, when we are confused, we confront this nightmarish dimension of an autonomous partial object. like in the well-known adventure of cheshire cat from alice in wonderland, where the cat disappears, the smile remains.
Film Clip
oh. you may have noticed. that i'm not. all there. myself.
oh. you may have noticed. that i'm not. all there. myself.
Film Clip
and the m out.
and the m out.
Slavoj Žižek
uh. the fascinating thing about partial objects, in the sense of organs without bodies, is that date. embody what freud called death drive. here we have to be very careful. death drive is not it's kind of a buddhist striving for annihilation. i want to find eternal peace. i want no, death drive is almost the opposite. death drive is the dimension of what in the stephen king-like horror fiction is called the dimension of the undead, of living dead, of something which remains alive even after it is dead and it's in a way immortal in its deadness itself, goes on insists, you cannot destroy it. the more you cut it, the more it insists it goes on. this dimension of kind of diabolical undeadness is what partial objects are about.
uh. the fascinating thing about partial objects, in the sense of organs without bodies, is that date. embody what freud called death drive. here we have to be very careful. death drive is not it's kind of a buddhist striving for annihilation. i want to find eternal peace. i want no, death drive is almost the opposite. death drive is the dimension of what in the stephen king-like horror fiction is called the dimension of the undead, of living dead, of something which remains alive even after it is dead and it's in a way immortal in its deadness itself, goes on insists, you cannot destroy it. the more you cut it, the more it insists it goes on. this dimension of kind of diabolical undeadness is what partial objects are about.
Film Clip
thank.
thank.
Slavoj Žižek
the nicest example here for me i think is michael powell's red shoes about a ballerina.
the nicest example here for me i think is michael powell's red shoes about a ballerina.
Film Clip
i.
i.
Slavoj Žižek
her passion for dancing is materialized in her shoes taking over. the shoes are literally the undead object.
her passion for dancing is materialized in her shoes taking over. the shoes are literally the undead object.
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i. qu-ce que tu ? oh. . you to. i! woo!
i. qu-ce que tu ? oh. . you to. i! woo!
Slavoj Žižek
perhaps the ultimate bodily part which fits this role of the autonomous partial object is the fist or rather the hand
perhaps the ultimate bodily part which fits this role of the autonomous partial object is the fist or rather the hand
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al!
al!
Slavoj Žižek
this hand raising up. that's the whole point of the film. it's not simply something foreign to him. it's the very core of his personality out there. security?
this hand raising up. that's the whole point of the film. it's not simply something foreign to him. it's the very core of his personality out there. security?
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i am jack's smirking revenge. what the hell are you doing?
i am jack's smirking revenge. what the hell are you doing?
Slavoj Žižek
that hurt. far from standing for some kind of perverted masochism or reactionary fantasy of violence, this seen is... deeply liberating. i'm here, as it were, on the side of the fist. i think this is what liberation means. in order to attack the enemy, you first have to... beat the shit out of yourself to get rid in yourself to death. which in yourself attaches you to the leader, to the conditions of slavery and so on and so on.
that hurt. far from standing for some kind of perverted masochism or reactionary fantasy of violence, this seen is... deeply liberating. i'm here, as it were, on the side of the fist. i think this is what liberation means. in order to attack the enemy, you first have to... beat the shit out of yourself to get rid in yourself to death. which in yourself attaches you to the leader, to the conditions of slavery and so on and so on.
Film Clip
no, please stop! ! t!
no, please stop! ! t!
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what are you doing? oh god, no, please. no! for some reason i thought of my first fight. with tyler.
what are you doing? oh god, no, please. no! for some reason i thought of my first fight. with tyler.
Slavoj Žižek
there is always this conflict between me and my double.
there is always this conflict between me and my double.
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motherther! fuck! me in the ear? well, jesus, i'm sorry. ow why! by the ear, man. fucked it up. oh, that was perfect.
motherther! fuck! me in the ear? well, jesus, i'm sorry. ow why! by the ear, man. fucked it up. oh, that was perfect.
Slavoj Žižek
it is as if the double embodies myself. but without the castrated dimension of myself. there is an episode in the wonderful british horror classic dead of night. anyway, we wouldn't leave.
it is as if the double embodies myself. but without the castrated dimension of myself. there is an episode in the wonderful british horror classic dead of night. anyway, we wouldn't leave.
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me'll go.
me'll go.
Slavoj Žižek
i knew you'd come back. in which michael redgrave plays a ventriloquist who gets jealous of his puppet.
i knew you'd come back. in which michael redgrave plays a ventriloquist who gets jealous of his puppet.
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i don't get. i was only joking. you't know me. bye! wow. hi! i!
i don't get. i was only joking. you't know me. bye! wow. hi! i!
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yeah! ah you! officer, quickly! open stop! i. quick.
yeah! ah you! officer, quickly! open stop! i. quick.
Slavoj Žižek
and in an outburst of violence destroys. the puppet breaks down then in the very last scene of the film, we see him in the hospital slowly regaining consciousness, coming back to himself. first, he's... voice is stuck in the throat then with great difficulty finally he is able to talk. but he talks. with the distorted voice of the dummy.
and in an outburst of violence destroys. the puppet breaks down then in the very last scene of the film, we see him in the hospital slowly regaining consciousness, coming back to himself. first, he's... voice is stuck in the throat then with great difficulty finally he is able to talk. but he talks. with the distorted voice of the dummy.
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i hello. say old basket. i've been waiting for you.
i hello. say old basket. i've been waiting for you.
Slavoj Žižek
and the lesson is clear. the only way for me to get rid of this autonomous partial object is to become this object.
and the lesson is clear. the only way for me to get rid of this autonomous partial object is to become this object.
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anytime you are
anytime you are
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dict.
dict.
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okay, i'm ready. yeah.
okay, i'm ready. yeah.
Slavoj Žižek
so that i don't confuse them. where is becky? mikey is here, he is here. okay. any
so that i don't confuse them. where is becky? mikey is here, he is here. okay. any
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you shout.
you shout.
Slavoj Žižek
i'm standing on the very balcony where the, the traumatic murder scene occurs in conversation, the murder of the husband observed through the stained glass in front of me by the private detective, gene hackman. the detective is in the nearby room. significantly, just before he sees the murder, he observes the balcony through a crack in the glass wall. whenever we have this famous proverbial piping tom scene of somebody observing traumatic event through a crack, it's never as if we are dealing with two parts on both sides of the wall of the same reality. before seeing anything or... imagining to see something. he tries to listen, he behaves as an eavesdropper. with all his private detective gadgets. what does this make him? potentially, at least. it makes him into a fantasized, imagined entity.
i'm standing on the very balcony where the, the traumatic murder scene occurs in conversation, the murder of the husband observed through the stained glass in front of me by the private detective, gene hackman. the detective is in the nearby room. significantly, just before he sees the murder, he observes the balcony through a crack in the glass wall. whenever we have this famous proverbial piping tom scene of somebody observing traumatic event through a crack, it's never as if we are dealing with two parts on both sides of the wall of the same reality. before seeing anything or... imagining to see something. he tries to listen, he behaves as an eavesdropper. with all his private detective gadgets. what does this make him? potentially, at least. it makes him into a fantasized, imagined entity.
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so. i can't stand it. he't stand it anymore. i make no, don't.
so. i can't stand it. he't stand it anymore. i make no, don't.
Slavoj Žižek
he doesn't fantasize the scene of the murder, he fantasizes himself as a witness to the murder.
he doesn't fantasize the scene of the murder, he fantasizes himself as a witness to the murder.
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i love you.
i love you.
Slavoj Žižek
what he sees on that blurt? window glass which effectively functions as a kind of elementary screen. cinematic screen even that should be perceived as a desperate attempt to visualize hallucinate even the bodily material support of what he hears.
what he sees on that blurt? window glass which effectively functions as a kind of elementary screen. cinematic screen even that should be perceived as a desperate attempt to visualize hallucinate even the bodily material support of what he hears.
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hello, baby. shut up! it's daddy, you shthead. where's my bourbon?
hello, baby. shut up! it's daddy, you shthead. where's my bourbon?
Slavoj Žižek
dorothy's apartment is one of those hellish places which abound in david lynch's films, places where all moral or social inhibitions seem to be suspended, where everything is possible. the lowest masochistic sex, obscenities, the deepest level of our desires that we are not even ready to admit to ourselves, we are confronted with them in such places.
dorothy's apartment is one of those hellish places which abound in david lynch's films, places where all moral or social inhibitions seem to be suspended, where everything is possible. the lowest masochistic sex, obscenities, the deepest level of our desires that we are not even ready to admit to ourselves, we are confronted with them in such places.
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spread your legs. winder. i should.
spread your legs. winder. i should.
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and you fucking look at me.
and you fucking look at me.
Slavoj Žižek
from what perspective? should we observe this scene? imagine the scene as that of a small child. hidden in a closet or behind a door.
from what perspective? should we observe this scene? imagine the scene as that of a small child. hidden in a closet or behind a door.
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ramy.
ramy.
Slavoj Žižek
witnessing the parental intercourse. he doesn't yet know what sexuality is, how we do it, all he knows it what he hears, this strange deep breathing sound, and then he tries to imagine what goes on. at the very beginning of blue velvet, we see jeffrey's father having a heart attack, falling down. we have the eclipse of the normal paternal authority.
witnessing the parental intercourse. he doesn't yet know what sexuality is, how we do it, all he knows it what he hears, this strange deep breathing sound, and then he tries to imagine what goes on. at the very beginning of blue velvet, we see jeffrey's father having a heart attack, falling down. we have the eclipse of the normal paternal authority.
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hey that.
hey that.
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oh, mommy, mommy, mommy.
oh, mommy, mommy, mommy.
Slavoj Žižek
mommy loves you. yeah.
mommy loves you. yeah.
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baby wants to fuck.
baby wants to fuck.
Slavoj Žižek
it is as if jeffrey fantasizes this wild parental couple of dorothy and frank as kind of a phantasmatic supplement to the lack of the real paternal authority.
it is as if jeffrey fantasizes this wild parental couple of dorothy and frank as kind of a phantasmatic supplement to the lack of the real paternal authority.
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order! you ready fuck you fuckers, fucker! you fucker! don't you fucking look at me!
order! you ready fuck you fuckers, fucker! you fucker! don't you fucking look at me!
Slavoj Žižek
frank not only obviously acts, but even... overacts it is as if he's ridiculously excessive gesticulating shouting and so on. are here. to cover up something. the point is, of course, the elementary one, to convince the invisible observer that father is potent, to cover up father's impotence. so the second way to read the scene would have been as a spectacle, a ridiculously violent spectacle set up by the father to convince the son of his power, of his overpotency.
frank not only obviously acts, but even... overacts it is as if he's ridiculously excessive gesticulating shouting and so on. are here. to cover up something. the point is, of course, the elementary one, to convince the invisible observer that father is potent, to cover up father's impotence. so the second way to read the scene would have been as a spectacle, a ridiculously violent spectacle set up by the father to convince the son of his power, of his overpotency.
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oh! oh! ugh.
oh! oh! ugh.
Slavoj Žižek
the third way. would have been to focus on dorothy herself. many feminists, of course, emphasized the brutality against women in this scene, the abuse, how the dorothy character is abused. there is obviously this dimension in it. but i think one should risk a more shocking and obverse interpretation what if? the central, as it were, problem of this entire scene is... dorothy's passivity.
the third way. would have been to focus on dorothy herself. many feminists, of course, emphasized the brutality against women in this scene, the abuse, how the dorothy character is abused. there is obviously this dimension in it. but i think one should risk a more shocking and obverse interpretation what if? the central, as it were, problem of this entire scene is... dorothy's passivity.
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don't you fucking look at me!
don't you fucking look at me!
Slavoj Žižek
so what if what frank is doing is a kind of a desperate, ridiculous, but nonetheless effective attempt of trying to help dorothy to awaken her out of her lethargy, to bring her into life.
so what if what frank is doing is a kind of a desperate, ridiculous, but nonetheless effective attempt of trying to help dorothy to awaken her out of her lethargy, to bring her into life.
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. ah! whoo!
. ah! whoo!
Slavoj Žižek
ph! h! wh. so if... frank is anybody's. fantasy, maybe she is dorothy's fantasy. there is kind of a strange mutual interlocking of fantasies. you stay alive, baby. yeah. it. not only ambiguity, but oscillation between three focal points. this, i think, is what accounts for the strange reverberations of this scene. this brings us to our third and maybe crucial example. what is for me the most beautiful shot in the entire vertigo. the shot in which we see scotty in a of a peeping tom observing through a crack it is as if madeleine is really there in common reality while scotty is peeping at her from some mysterious interspace. from some obscure netherworld. this is the location of the imagined, fantasized gaze. gaze is that obscure point. the blind spot. from which the object looked upon returns the gaze. after suspecting that a murder is taking place in a nearby hotel room, gene hackman, playing the private detective, enters this room. and inspect the toilet. the moment here approaches the toilet in the bathroom, it is clear that we are in hitchcock territory. it is clear that some kind of intense, implicit dialogue with psycho is going on. in a very violent gesture, as if adopting the role of norman bates' mother, the murdering psycho, he opens up the curtain, inspects it in detail, looking for traces of blood there. even inspecting the gap, the hole at the bottom of the sink. which is precisely another of these focal objects because in psycho the whole through fade out, the hole is morphed into the eye, returning the gaze. we say the eye is the window of the soul. but what if there is no soul behind the eye? what if the eye is a crack through which we can perceive just the abyss of a netherworld. when we look through these cracks. we see the dark other side. where... hidden forces. run the show. it is as if... gene hackman establishes no, we are nonetheless not in psycho let's return to my first object of fascination, toilet bowl, he flashes it and then the terrible thing happens.
ph! h! wh. so if... frank is anybody's. fantasy, maybe she is dorothy's fantasy. there is kind of a strange mutual interlocking of fantasies. you stay alive, baby. yeah. it. not only ambiguity, but oscillation between three focal points. this, i think, is what accounts for the strange reverberations of this scene. this brings us to our third and maybe crucial example. what is for me the most beautiful shot in the entire vertigo. the shot in which we see scotty in a of a peeping tom observing through a crack it is as if madeleine is really there in common reality while scotty is peeping at her from some mysterious interspace. from some obscure netherworld. this is the location of the imagined, fantasized gaze. gaze is that obscure point. the blind spot. from which the object looked upon returns the gaze. after suspecting that a murder is taking place in a nearby hotel room, gene hackman, playing the private detective, enters this room. and inspect the toilet. the moment here approaches the toilet in the bathroom, it is clear that we are in hitchcock territory. it is clear that some kind of intense, implicit dialogue with psycho is going on. in a very violent gesture, as if adopting the role of norman bates' mother, the murdering psycho, he opens up the curtain, inspects it in detail, looking for traces of blood there. even inspecting the gap, the hole at the bottom of the sink. which is precisely another of these focal objects because in psycho the whole through fade out, the hole is morphed into the eye, returning the gaze. we say the eye is the window of the soul. but what if there is no soul behind the eye? what if the eye is a crack through which we can perceive just the abyss of a netherworld. when we look through these cracks. we see the dark other side. where... hidden forces. run the show. it is as if... gene hackman establishes no, we are nonetheless not in psycho let's return to my first object of fascination, toilet bowl, he flashes it and then the terrible thing happens.
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thank.
thank.
Slavoj Žižek
in hour most elementary experience. when we flush the toilet. excrements simply disappear out of our reality into another space which we phenomenologically perceive as a kind of a netherworld, another reality, chaotic, primordial reality, and the ultimate horror of course is if the flashing doesn't work if... objects return if remainders, exal remainders return from that dimension. the bathroom. hitchcock is all the time playing with this threshold.
in hour most elementary experience. when we flush the toilet. excrements simply disappear out of our reality into another space which we phenomenologically perceive as a kind of a netherworld, another reality, chaotic, primordial reality, and the ultimate horror of course is if the flashing doesn't work if... objects return if remainders, exal remainders return from that dimension. the bathroom. hitchcock is all the time playing with this threshold.
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well they. cleaned all this up now. big difference. you should have seen the blood. the whole place was well, it's too horrible to describe. great.
well they. cleaned all this up now. big difference. you should have seen the blood. the whole place was well, it's too horrible to describe. great.
Slavoj Žižek
the most effective for me and even the most touching scene of entire psycho is after the shower murder when norman b tries to clean the bathroom. i remember clearly when in my adolescence i first saw the film, how deeply i was impressed by it. not only by. the length of the scene it goes on almost for 10 minutes details of cleansing and so on and so on but also by the care by the care, meticulousness how it is done and also by our spectators identification with it. i think that this tells us a lot about the satisfaction of work, of a job well done, which is not so much to construct something new, but maybe human work at its most elementary, work, as it were, at a zero level. the work of... cleaning the traces of a stain.
the most effective for me and even the most touching scene of entire psycho is after the shower murder when norman b tries to clean the bathroom. i remember clearly when in my adolescence i first saw the film, how deeply i was impressed by it. not only by. the length of the scene it goes on almost for 10 minutes details of cleansing and so on and so on but also by the care by the care, meticulousness how it is done and also by our spectators identification with it. i think that this tells us a lot about the satisfaction of work, of a job well done, which is not so much to construct something new, but maybe human work at its most elementary, work, as it were, at a zero level. the work of... cleaning the traces of a stain.
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.
.
Slavoj Žižek
the work of erasing the stains. keeping at bay this chaotic netherworld. which threatens to explode anytime time. and engulf us. i think this is... the fine sentiment that hitchcock's films evoke. it's not simply that something horrible happens in reality. something worse can happen which undermines the very fabric of what we experience as reality. i think it's very important how the first attack of the birds occurs in the film. when a fantasy object, something imagined, an object from inner space, enters our ordinary reality, the texture of reality is twisted, distorted. this is how desire inscribes itself into reality, by distorting it. desire is a wound of reality. the art of cinema consists in arousing desire two. play with desire. but at the same time, keeping it... at the safe distance. domesticating it. rendering it palpable. when we spectators are sitting in a movie theater looking at the screen, you remember at the very beginning before the picture is on, it's a black dark screen and then light thrown on, are we basically not staring into a toilet bowl and waiting for things to reappear out of the toilet? and art. is the entire magic. off. spectacle showed on the screen not a kind of a deceptive lure trying to. conceal the fact that we are basically watching shit, as it were.
the work of erasing the stains. keeping at bay this chaotic netherworld. which threatens to explode anytime time. and engulf us. i think this is... the fine sentiment that hitchcock's films evoke. it's not simply that something horrible happens in reality. something worse can happen which undermines the very fabric of what we experience as reality. i think it's very important how the first attack of the birds occurs in the film. when a fantasy object, something imagined, an object from inner space, enters our ordinary reality, the texture of reality is twisted, distorted. this is how desire inscribes itself into reality, by distorting it. desire is a wound of reality. the art of cinema consists in arousing desire two. play with desire. but at the same time, keeping it... at the safe distance. domesticating it. rendering it palpable. when we spectators are sitting in a movie theater looking at the screen, you remember at the very beginning before the picture is on, it's a black dark screen and then light thrown on, are we basically not staring into a toilet bowl and waiting for things to reappear out of the toilet? and art. is the entire magic. off. spectacle showed on the screen not a kind of a deceptive lure trying to. conceal the fact that we are basically watching shit, as it were.
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there was a young lady of onga. who had an affair with a conger. they said, how does it feel to sleep with an eel? well, she said, just like a man. only longer.
there was a young lady of onga. who had an affair with a conger. they said, how does it feel to sleep with an eel? well, she said, just like a man. only longer.
Slavoj Žižek
usually people writ. the lesson of freudian psychoanalysis as if the secret meaning of everything is sexuality. but this is not what freud wants to say. i think freud wants to say the exact opposite. it's not that everything is a metaphor for sexuality, that whatever we are doing, we are always thinking about that. the third question is, but what are we thinking when we are doing that? in sexuality, it's never only me and my partner or more partners, whatever you are doing. it's always, there has to be always some phantasmatic element. there has to be some third imagined element which... makes... me. makes it possible for me, which enables me to engage in sexuality. if i may be a little bit impertinent and relate to an unfortunate experience probably known to most of us, how, it happens that while one is engaged in sexual activity, all of a sudden one feels stupid, one loses contact with it, as if, my god, what am i doing here? doing these stupid repetitive movements and so on and so on. nothing changes in reality. in this strange moment where i, as it were, disconnect, it's just that i lose the phantasmatic support. there is an irresistible... power of fascination, at least for me. in this terrifying scene when neo. awakens from his sleep within the matrix and becomes aware what he really is in that fetal container floating in liquid connected to virtual reality where you are reduced to a totally passive object with your energy being sucked. out of you. so why does the matrix need our energy. i think the proper way to ask this question it to turn it around. not why does the matrix need the energy, but why does the energy need the matrix? that is to say, since i think that the energy we are talking about is libido, is our pleasure. why does our libido need? the virtual universe of fantasies. why can't we simply enjoy it directly? a sexual partner and so on. that's the fundamental question. why do we need this virtual supplement? our libido needs an illusion in order to sustain itself.
usually people writ. the lesson of freudian psychoanalysis as if the secret meaning of everything is sexuality. but this is not what freud wants to say. i think freud wants to say the exact opposite. it's not that everything is a metaphor for sexuality, that whatever we are doing, we are always thinking about that. the third question is, but what are we thinking when we are doing that? in sexuality, it's never only me and my partner or more partners, whatever you are doing. it's always, there has to be always some phantasmatic element. there has to be some third imagined element which... makes... me. makes it possible for me, which enables me to engage in sexuality. if i may be a little bit impertinent and relate to an unfortunate experience probably known to most of us, how, it happens that while one is engaged in sexual activity, all of a sudden one feels stupid, one loses contact with it, as if, my god, what am i doing here? doing these stupid repetitive movements and so on and so on. nothing changes in reality. in this strange moment where i, as it were, disconnect, it's just that i lose the phantasmatic support. there is an irresistible... power of fascination, at least for me. in this terrifying scene when neo. awakens from his sleep within the matrix and becomes aware what he really is in that fetal container floating in liquid connected to virtual reality where you are reduced to a totally passive object with your energy being sucked. out of you. so why does the matrix need our energy. i think the proper way to ask this question it to turn it around. not why does the matrix need the energy, but why does the energy need the matrix? that is to say, since i think that the energy we are talking about is libido, is our pleasure. why does our libido need? the virtual universe of fantasies. why can't we simply enjoy it directly? a sexual partner and so on. that's the fundamental question. why do we need this virtual supplement? our libido needs an illusion in order to sustain itself.
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that. entonces.
that. entonces.
Slavoj Žižek
one of the most interesting motives in science fiction is that of the id machine, an object which has the magic capacity of directly materializing, realizing in front of us our innermost dreams, desires, even guilt feelings. there is a long tradition of this in science fiction films, but of course, the film about id machine is andrei tarkovsky's solaris. solaris is the story of kelvin, a psychologist who is sent by a rocket to a spaceship circulating around solaris, a newly discovered planet. strange things are reported from the spaceship, all the scientists there are going crazy, and then kelvin discovers what is going on there. this planet has the magic ability to directly realize your deepest traumas, dreams, fears, desires. the innermost of your inner space. the hero of the film find one morning. his deceased wife who made suicide years ago. so he realizes not so much his desire as his guilt feeling. when the hero is confronted with the spectral clone, as it were, of his deceased wife, although he appears to be deeply sympathetic, spiritual, reflecting and so on, his basic problem is how to get rid of her.
one of the most interesting motives in science fiction is that of the id machine, an object which has the magic capacity of directly materializing, realizing in front of us our innermost dreams, desires, even guilt feelings. there is a long tradition of this in science fiction films, but of course, the film about id machine is andrei tarkovsky's solaris. solaris is the story of kelvin, a psychologist who is sent by a rocket to a spaceship circulating around solaris, a newly discovered planet. strange things are reported from the spaceship, all the scientists there are going crazy, and then kelvin discovers what is going on there. this planet has the magic ability to directly realize your deepest traumas, dreams, fears, desires. the innermost of your inner space. the hero of the film find one morning. his deceased wife who made suicide years ago. so he realizes not so much his desire as his guilt feeling. when the hero is confronted with the spectral clone, as it were, of his deceased wife, although he appears to be deeply sympathetic, spiritual, reflecting and so on, his basic problem is how to get rid of her.
Film Clip
gr!
gr!
Slavoj Žižek
what makes solaris so touching is that, at least. potentially, it confronts us with this tragic subjective position of the woman. his wife who is aware that. she has no. consistency no full being of her own
what makes solaris so touching is that, at least. potentially, it confronts us with this tragic subjective position of the woman. his wife who is aware that. she has no. consistency no full being of her own
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eu se ben is. l. he a cruel gluge. y.
eu se ben is. l. he a cruel gluge. y.
Slavoj Žižek
for example, she has gaps in her memory because she knows only what she knows that she knows.
for example, she has gaps in her memory because she knows only what she knows that she knows.
Film Clip
at least was nash.
at least was nash.
Slavoj Žižek
¿ card chile.
¿ card chile.
Film Clip
aha-huh.
aha-huh.
Slavoj Žižek
she is just his dream realized. end. her true love for him is. expressed in her desperate attempts to erase herself, to swallow poison or whatever just to clear the space because she guesses that he wants this.
she is just his dream realized. end. her true love for him is. expressed in her desperate attempts to erase herself, to swallow poison or whatever just to clear the space because she guesses that he wants this.
Film Clip
tr really.
tr really.
Slavoj Žižek
k. i'm. desc cresc. it's relatively easy to get rid of a real. person you can abandon him or her, kill him or her, whatever. but a ghost, a spectral presence is much more difficult to get rid of. it sticks to you as a kind of a shadowy presence.
k. i'm. desc cresc. it's relatively easy to get rid of a real. person you can abandon him or her, kill him or her, whatever. but a ghost, a spectral presence is much more difficult to get rid of. it sticks to you as a kind of a shadowy presence.
Film Clip
t break !
t break !
Slavoj Žižek
no, j. y.
no, j. y.
Film Clip
¡.!
¡.!
Slavoj Žižek
what we get here is the lowest male mythology, this idea that woman doesn't exist on her own, that a woman is merely a man's dream realized, or even, as radical anti-feminists claim, the man's guilt. realized women exist because male desire got impure. if man cleanses his desire. gets rid of dirty material. fantasies. woman ceases to exist. at the end of the film we get a kind of a holy communion, a reconciliation of him not with his wife, but with his father. did you see hitchcock's vertigo?
what we get here is the lowest male mythology, this idea that woman doesn't exist on her own, that a woman is merely a man's dream realized, or even, as radical anti-feminists claim, the man's guilt. realized women exist because male desire got impure. if man cleanses his desire. gets rid of dirty material. fantasies. woman ceases to exist. at the end of the film we get a kind of a holy communion, a reconciliation of him not with his wife, but with his father. did you see hitchcock's vertigo?
Film Clip
sorry, i don't understand.
sorry, i don't understand.
Slavoj Žižek
sorry, hitchcock's vertigo, the film, alfred hitchcock. i think it happened here, you know. i don't know the scene. okay often things begin as a fake, inauthentic, artificial, but you get caught into your own game. and that is the true tragedy of vertigo. it's a story about two people who, each in his or her own way get caught into their own game of appearances. for both of them, for madeleine and for scotty, appearances win over reality. what is the story of vertigo? it's a story about a retired policeman who has a pathological fear of heights because of an incident in his career and then an old friend hires him to follow his beautiful wife played by kim novak, the wife mysteriously possessed by the ghost of a past deceased spanish beauty carlota valdes. the two fall in love. the wife kills. herself. the first part of vertigo with madeleine's suicide is not as shattering as it. could have been, because it's really a terrifying loss, but in this very loss, the ideal survives. the idea of the faithful woman possesses you totally. what? ultimately. d. image, fascinating image of the fatal woman stands for his death. the fascination of beauty is always the veil which covers up a nightmare, like the idea of a fascinating creature. but if you come too close to her you see, shit. decay, you see worms crawling everywhere. the ultimate abyss is not a physical abyss, but the abyss of the death of another person. it's what philosophers describe as the night of the world. like when you see another person into his or her eyes, you see the abyss. that's the true spiral which is drawing us into. scotty alone, broken down. cannot forget her, wanders around the city looking for a woman, a similar woman, something like the deceased woman, discovers an ordinary, rather vulgar, common girl. the denouement of the story, of course, is along the lines of the marx brothers joke. this man looks like an idiot, acts like an idiot. this shouldn't deceive you, this man is an idiot. the newly found woman looks like madeleine, acts like madeleine, the fatal beauty. we discover she is but late. what we learn. is's that. scotty's friend. who hired scotty. also hired this woman, judy, to impersonate madeleine in a devilish plot. to kill the real madeleine, his wife, and get her fortune.
sorry, hitchcock's vertigo, the film, alfred hitchcock. i think it happened here, you know. i don't know the scene. okay often things begin as a fake, inauthentic, artificial, but you get caught into your own game. and that is the true tragedy of vertigo. it's a story about two people who, each in his or her own way get caught into their own game of appearances. for both of them, for madeleine and for scotty, appearances win over reality. what is the story of vertigo? it's a story about a retired policeman who has a pathological fear of heights because of an incident in his career and then an old friend hires him to follow his beautiful wife played by kim novak, the wife mysteriously possessed by the ghost of a past deceased spanish beauty carlota valdes. the two fall in love. the wife kills. herself. the first part of vertigo with madeleine's suicide is not as shattering as it. could have been, because it's really a terrifying loss, but in this very loss, the ideal survives. the idea of the faithful woman possesses you totally. what? ultimately. d. image, fascinating image of the fatal woman stands for his death. the fascination of beauty is always the veil which covers up a nightmare, like the idea of a fascinating creature. but if you come too close to her you see, shit. decay, you see worms crawling everywhere. the ultimate abyss is not a physical abyss, but the abyss of the death of another person. it's what philosophers describe as the night of the world. like when you see another person into his or her eyes, you see the abyss. that's the true spiral which is drawing us into. scotty alone, broken down. cannot forget her, wanders around the city looking for a woman, a similar woman, something like the deceased woman, discovers an ordinary, rather vulgar, common girl. the denouement of the story, of course, is along the lines of the marx brothers joke. this man looks like an idiot, acts like an idiot. this shouldn't deceive you, this man is an idiot. the newly found woman looks like madeleine, acts like madeleine, the fatal beauty. we discover she is but late. what we learn. is's that. scotty's friend. who hired scotty. also hired this woman, judy, to impersonate madeleine in a devilish plot. to kill the real madeleine, his wife, and get her fortune.
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we could just... see a lot of each other.
we could just... see a lot of each other.
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why? so i remind you of. not very complimentary.
why? so i remind you of. not very complimentary.
Slavoj Žižek
the profile shot in vertigo is perhaps the key shot of the entire film. we have there madeleine's, or rather judy's identity in all its tragic tension. it provides the dark background for the fascinating other profile of madeleine in ernie's restaurant. scott, ich. too ashamed, afraid to look at her directly. it is as if what he sees is the stuff of his dreams, more real in a way for him than the reality of the woman behind his. back.
the profile shot in vertigo is perhaps the key shot of the entire film. we have there madeleine's, or rather judy's identity in all its tragic tension. it provides the dark background for the fascinating other profile of madeleine in ernie's restaurant. scott, ich. too ashamed, afraid to look at her directly. it is as if what he sees is the stuff of his dreams, more real in a way for him than the reality of the woman behind his. back.
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not complimentary either.
not complimentary either.
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i just want to be with you as much as i can, judy.
i just want to be with you as much as i can, judy.
Slavoj Žižek
when we see a face, it's basically always. the half of it. a subject is a partial something. face, something we see. behind it, there is a void. a nothingness. and of course, we spontaneously tend to fill in that nothingness with our fantasies about the wealth of human personality and so on and so on. to see what is... lacking in reality to see it as that. there you see subjectivity. to confront subjectivity means to confront femininity. woman is the subject. masculinity is a fake. masculinity is an escape from the most radical nightmareish dimension of subjectivity.
when we see a face, it's basically always. the half of it. a subject is a partial something. face, something we see. behind it, there is a void. a nothingness. and of course, we spontaneously tend to fill in that nothingness with our fantasies about the wealth of human personality and so on and so on. to see what is... lacking in reality to see it as that. there you see subjectivity. to confront subjectivity means to confront femininity. woman is the subject. masculinity is a fake. masculinity is an escape from the most radical nightmareish dimension of subjectivity.
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scotty, what are you doing? try to
scotty, what are you doing? try to
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buy your should.
buy your should.
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i love the second one she wore. and this one, it's beautiful.
i love the second one she wore. and this one, it's beautiful.
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no, no,'re none of them right.
no, no,'re none of them right.
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oh, i think i know the suit you mean. we had it some time ago. let me go and see. we may still have that model.
oh, i think i know the suit you mean. we had it some time ago. let me go and see. we may still have that model.
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thank you.
thank you.
Film Clip
you're looking for the suit that she wore for me. you want me to be dressed like her.
you're looking for the suit that she wore for me. you want me to be dressed like her.
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judy, i just want you to look nice. i know the kind of a suit that look well on you.
judy, i just want you to look nice. i know the kind of a suit that look well on you.
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no, i won't do it.
no, i won't do it.
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judy, it can't make that much difference to you. i just want to see what
judy, it can't make that much difference to you. i just want to see what
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no, i want any clothes. i don't want anything. i want to get out of here.
no, i want any clothes. i don't want anything. i want to get out of here.
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judy, do this for me.
judy, do this for me.
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here we are.
here we are.
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yes, that's it.
yes, that's it.
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i thought so.
i thought so.
Slavoj Žižek
when judy, refashioned as madeleine, steps out of the door, it's like fantasy realized. and of course, we have a name, a perfect name for fantasy realized. it's called... nightmare. fantasy realized. what does this mean? of course, it is always sustained by an extreme violence. the violence in this case of scotty's refashioning, brutal refashioning of judy, real common girl into madeleine. it's truly a process of mortification, which also is the mortification of woman's desire. as if in order to have her, to desire her, to have sexual intercourse with her, with the woman, scotty has to mortify her, to change her into a dead woman. it's as if, again. for, the male. libidinal economy. to paraphrase a well-known old saying, the only good woman is a dead woman. scotty is not really fascinated by her, but by the entire scene, the staging. he's looking around, checking up are the phantasmatic coordinates really here. at that point, when the reality fully fits fantasy, scotty is finally able to realize the long postponeded sexual intercourse. so. the result of this violence is a perfect. coordination. between fantasy and reality, a kind of direct short circuit. in lynch's films, darkness is really dark. light is really unbearable, blinding light. fire really hurts. it's so hot. at those moments of sensual over-intensity. it is as if events on screen itself threatens to overflow the screen and to grab us into it, to reach towards us. it's again as if the fantasy space. the fictional narrative space gets too intense and reaches out towards us, spectators, so that we lose our safe distance. this is the proper tension of the lynchian universe. the beauty of lynch, if you look closely, it's never clear. is it really the brutal real out there which disturbs us or is it our fantasy?
when judy, refashioned as madeleine, steps out of the door, it's like fantasy realized. and of course, we have a name, a perfect name for fantasy realized. it's called... nightmare. fantasy realized. what does this mean? of course, it is always sustained by an extreme violence. the violence in this case of scotty's refashioning, brutal refashioning of judy, real common girl into madeleine. it's truly a process of mortification, which also is the mortification of woman's desire. as if in order to have her, to desire her, to have sexual intercourse with her, with the woman, scotty has to mortify her, to change her into a dead woman. it's as if, again. for, the male. libidinal economy. to paraphrase a well-known old saying, the only good woman is a dead woman. scotty is not really fascinated by her, but by the entire scene, the staging. he's looking around, checking up are the phantasmatic coordinates really here. at that point, when the reality fully fits fantasy, scotty is finally able to realize the long postponeded sexual intercourse. so. the result of this violence is a perfect. coordination. between fantasy and reality, a kind of direct short circuit. in lynch's films, darkness is really dark. light is really unbearable, blinding light. fire really hurts. it's so hot. at those moments of sensual over-intensity. it is as if events on screen itself threatens to overflow the screen and to grab us into it, to reach towards us. it's again as if the fantasy space. the fictional narrative space gets too intense and reaches out towards us, spectators, so that we lose our safe distance. this is the proper tension of the lynchian universe. the beauty of lynch, if you look closely, it's never clear. is it really the brutal real out there which disturbs us or is it our fantasy?
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she wore blue velvet.
she wore blue velvet.
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wow.
wow.
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bluer than velvet was the night. softer than satin was the light. from the start.
bluer than velvet was the night. softer than satin was the light. from the start.
Slavoj Žižek
she the very beginning of david lrich's blue velvet, we see an idyllic american small town.
she the very beginning of david lrich's blue velvet, we see an idyllic american small town.
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i. warmer than may her tender sighs, love was on.
i. warmer than may her tender sighs, love was on.
Slavoj Žižek
can can be more normal than father of the family in front of a white clean house watering the lawn?
can can be more normal than father of the family in front of a white clean house watering the lawn?
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i the rapture.
i the rapture.
Slavoj Žižek
but all of a sudden. father has a heart seizure. falls down to the grass. and then, instead of showing the family confused, calling for ambulance, whatever, lynch does something typically lynchian. the camera moves extremely close to the grass, even penetrates the grass, and we see what is the real of this idyllic green lawn. we should not forget this. how? this happens precisely when father has a seizure, that is to say when, symbolically, the paternal authority breaks down.
but all of a sudden. father has a heart seizure. falls down to the grass. and then, instead of showing the family confused, calling for ambulance, whatever, lynch does something typically lynchian. the camera moves extremely close to the grass, even penetrates the grass, and we see what is the real of this idyllic green lawn. we should not forget this. how? this happens precisely when father has a seizure, that is to say when, symbolically, the paternal authority breaks down.
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i'll send you straight to hell, fucker!
i'll send you straight to hell, fucker!
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with you.
with you.
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in dreams. i talk. to you. in dreams, your mind. .
in dreams. i talk. to you. in dreams, your mind. .
Slavoj Žižek
the logic here is strictly freudian. that is to say, we escape into dream. to avoid a deadlock. in our real life. but then what we encounter in the dream is even more horrible so that at the end we literally escape from the dream back into reality. it starts with dreams are for those who cannot endure, who are not strong enough for reality. it ends with reality is for those who are not strong enough to endure, to confront their dreams. lost highway and mulholland drive are two versions of the same film. what makes both films, especially lost highway, so interesting is how they positive the two dimensions, reality and fantasy side by side. horizontally as it were.
the logic here is strictly freudian. that is to say, we escape into dream. to avoid a deadlock. in our real life. but then what we encounter in the dream is even more horrible so that at the end we literally escape from the dream back into reality. it starts with dreams are for those who cannot endure, who are not strong enough for reality. it ends with reality is for those who are not strong enough to endure, to confront their dreams. lost highway and mulholland drive are two versions of the same film. what makes both films, especially lost highway, so interesting is how they positive the two dimensions, reality and fantasy side by side. horizontally as it were.
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must be from a real estate agent.
must be from a real estate agent.
Slavoj Žižek
what we get in lost highway is the drab, grey, upper middle class suburban reality. hier. married too. patricia arquette. obviously terrorized by the enigma of his wife who doesn't respond properly to his advances. when they have sexual intercourse, he miserably fails. what he gets from her is a kind of a patronizing pat on the shoulder. total humiliation. after killing her, in an act of frustration, the hero enters his fantasy space. where? he, as it were, reinvents not only himself, but his entire social environs.
what we get in lost highway is the drab, grey, upper middle class suburban reality. hier. married too. patricia arquette. obviously terrorized by the enigma of his wife who doesn't respond properly to his advances. when they have sexual intercourse, he miserably fails. what he gets from her is a kind of a patronizing pat on the shoulder. total humiliation. after killing her, in an act of frustration, the hero enters his fantasy space. where? he, as it were, reinvents not only himself, but his entire social environs.
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captain this is some spooky shit we got here.
captain this is some spooky shit we got here.
Slavoj Žižek
in what? in a kind of a... universe which we usually found in film noir.
in what? in a kind of a... universe which we usually found in film noir.
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this magic moment. so div. friend and so new. was like any other.
this magic moment. so div. friend and so new. was like any other.
Slavoj Žižek
the hero's wife, who is a brunette, becomes a blonde. in reality, she is restrained. here she praises the hero within the fantasy space all the time, his sexual capacities and so on and so on.
the hero's wife, who is a brunette, becomes a blonde. in reality, she is restrained. here she praises the hero within the fantasy space all the time, his sexual capacities and so on and so on.
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the your hours.
the your hours.
Slavoj Žižek
so it seems as if... the dream is the realization of what he was looking for. in reality, the obstacle was inherent. their sexual liaison simply didn't function. within the fantasy space, the obstacle is externalized. yeah.
so it seems as if... the dream is the realization of what he was looking for. in reality, the obstacle was inherent. their sexual liaison simply didn't function. within the fantasy space, the obstacle is externalized. yeah.
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beautiful day.
beautiful day.
Slavoj Žižek
mr. eddy is the master of. patricia arquette. within the fantasy space, he is the obstacle to sexual intercourse.
mr. eddy is the master of. patricia arquette. within the fantasy space, he is the obstacle to sexual intercourse.
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i ever found out. somebody was making out with her. i'd take this and i'd shove it so far up his ass it would come out of his mouth.
i ever found out. somebody was making out with her. i'd take this and i'd shove it so far up his ass it would come out of his mouth.
Slavoj Žižek
the properly uncanny moments are those when the second shift occurs, when the fantasy space, the dreamscape, as it were, is already disintegrating. but we are not yet back into reality. this intermediate space neither fantasy space nor reality. this space of a kind of a primordial violence, dispersion, ontological confusion. this is the most subversive moment, the true horror of these films. towards the end of this fantasy episode. when we get the sexual act, there. the woman also. aoids. the hero.
the properly uncanny moments are those when the second shift occurs, when the fantasy space, the dreamscape, as it were, is already disintegrating. but we are not yet back into reality. this intermediate space neither fantasy space nor reality. this space of a kind of a primordial violence, dispersion, ontological confusion. this is the most subversive moment, the true horror of these films. towards the end of this fantasy episode. when we get the sexual act, there. the woman also. aoids. the hero.
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yo. never.
yo. never.
Film Clip
yeah. me.
yeah. me.
Slavoj Žižek
whispering, you will never have me? and at that dramatic point, we are thrown back to reality when the hero encounters exactly the same deadlock. what the film truly is about, its focal point, it's not the hero, it's of course the enigma of feminine desire.
whispering, you will never have me? and at that dramatic point, we are thrown back to reality when the hero encounters exactly the same deadlock. what the film truly is about, its focal point, it's not the hero, it's of course the enigma of feminine desire.
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i'm involved in a mystery. i'm in the middle. of a mystery. and it's all.
i'm involved in a mystery. i'm in the middle. of a mystery. and it's all.
Film Clip
you like mysteries that much?
you like mysteries that much?
Film Clip
yeah. you're a mystery.
yeah. you're a mystery.
Slavoj Žižek
thank you. the enigma of feminine subjectivity in david ltry's films. it's a gap between cause and effect. you do something to a woman but you never know what the reaction will be. my relationship towards j. inherently lim i think they are disgusting just imagine aren't this some kind of how do you call. vagina dentata, dental vaginainas threatening to swallow you. i think that the flowers are something inherently disgusting. i mean, are people aware what a horrible thing these flowers are? i mean? basically it's an open invitation to all the insects and fish come and screw me, you know i mean it i think that flowers should be forbidden to children.
thank you. the enigma of feminine subjectivity in david ltry's films. it's a gap between cause and effect. you do something to a woman but you never know what the reaction will be. my relationship towards j. inherently lim i think they are disgusting just imagine aren't this some kind of how do you call. vagina dentata, dental vaginainas threatening to swallow you. i think that the flowers are something inherently disgusting. i mean, are people aware what a horrible thing these flowers are? i mean? basically it's an open invitation to all the insects and fish come and screw me, you know i mean it i think that flowers should be forbidden to children.
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so hope i'm for us. .
so hope i'm for us. .
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tout.
tout.
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hina. al. w some pourique. was an ord answer. i will spring up the my cap i. but morgan, we at any rate. alles alles long,.
hina. al. w some pourique. was an ord answer. i will spring up the my cap i. but morgan, we at any rate. alles alles long,.
Slavoj Žižek
we men. at least in our standard phagocentric mood of sexuality. even when we are doing it with the real woman, we are effectively doing it with our fantasy. woman is reduced to a masturbatory prop. woman arouses us insofar as she enters our fantasy frame. with women, it's different. the true is is not in doing it but in telling about it afterwards. of course women do enjoy sex immediately but i hope i'm permitted as a man to propose a daring hypothesis that maybe while they are doing it, they already enact or incorporate this minimal narrative distance so that they are already observing themselves and narrativizing it. there is in ingmar bergman's persona a wonderful scene where bibi andersson tells to mute liv ullmann a story about small orgy on a beach which took place years ago. this scene is so erotic precisely because bergman successfully resisted the temptation of a flashback. no flashback just words. probably one of the most erotic scenes in the entire history of cinema.
we men. at least in our standard phagocentric mood of sexuality. even when we are doing it with the real woman, we are effectively doing it with our fantasy. woman is reduced to a masturbatory prop. woman arouses us insofar as she enters our fantasy frame. with women, it's different. the true is is not in doing it but in telling about it afterwards. of course women do enjoy sex immediately but i hope i'm permitted as a man to propose a daring hypothesis that maybe while they are doing it, they already enact or incorporate this minimal narrative distance so that they are already observing themselves and narrativizing it. there is in ingmar bergman's persona a wonderful scene where bibi andersson tells to mute liv ullmann a story about small orgy on a beach which took place years ago. this scene is so erotic precisely because bergman successfully resisted the temptation of a flashback. no flashback just words. probably one of the most erotic scenes in the entire history of cinema.
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k. s. i'm and airbes san oregonan. i, me beg your hand,. and pizza so pizza, aber mehr. optika freund zum vorragungen. who bad, have fulfilled this. andund from from start. o that som drens, man. was logo. we all you have to to someone's like forinner. can du verst store there?
k. s. i'm and airbes san oregonan. i, me beg your hand,. and pizza so pizza, aber mehr. optika freund zum vorragungen. who bad, have fulfilled this. andund from from start. o that som drens, man. was logo. we all you have to to someone's like forinner. can du verst store there?
Slavoj Žižek
although sexuality seems to be about bodies, it's not really about bodies. it is how bodily activity is reported in works. the ultimate sexual seduction resides in words.
although sexuality seems to be about bodies, it's not really about bodies. it is how bodily activity is reported in works. the ultimate sexual seduction resides in words.
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i can be whatever you want me to be. now you want me to romance you take you to a classy restaurant, no problem. you want me to... be a best friend and fuck you. treat you good. like a pussy. no problem. ain't much i haven't done. the only thing i want to do is beat you up.
i can be whatever you want me to be. now you want me to romance you take you to a classy restaurant, no problem. you want me to... be a best friend and fuck you. treat you good. like a pussy. no problem. ain't much i haven't done. the only thing i want to do is beat you up.
Slavoj Žižek
the strength. tension and at the same time interconnection between reality and fantasy. we can get it at its purest in the strange case of pornography. pornography is and it is a deeply conservative genre. it's not a genre where everything is permitted. it's a genre based on a fundamental prohibition. we cross one threshold. you can see everything, close-ups and so on, but the price you pay for it is that. the narrative. which justifies sexual activity should not be taken seriously. the screenwriters for pornography cannot be so stupid. you know, these vulgar narratives of a housewife alone at home, a plumber comes, fixes the hole, then the housewife turns to him, sorry, but i have another hole to be fixed, can you do it or whatever. obviously, there is some kind of a censorship here. you have either an emotionally engaging film, but then you should stop. just before showing it all, sexual act, or you can see it all, but you are not allowed to... than to be emotionally seriously engaged. so that's the tragedy of pornography. it tries to be as realistic as possible, but it has to maintain the minimum of phantasmatic support.
the strength. tension and at the same time interconnection between reality and fantasy. we can get it at its purest in the strange case of pornography. pornography is and it is a deeply conservative genre. it's not a genre where everything is permitted. it's a genre based on a fundamental prohibition. we cross one threshold. you can see everything, close-ups and so on, but the price you pay for it is that. the narrative. which justifies sexual activity should not be taken seriously. the screenwriters for pornography cannot be so stupid. you know, these vulgar narratives of a housewife alone at home, a plumber comes, fixes the hole, then the housewife turns to him, sorry, but i have another hole to be fixed, can you do it or whatever. obviously, there is some kind of a censorship here. you have either an emotionally engaging film, but then you should stop. just before showing it all, sexual act, or you can see it all, but you are not allowed to... than to be emotionally seriously engaged. so that's the tragedy of pornography. it tries to be as realistic as possible, but it has to maintain the minimum of phantasmatic support.
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i first saw him that morning in the lobby. he was checking into the hotel and he was following the bellboy with his luggage. to the end. he. he glanced at me as he walked past, just a glance. nothing more. but i could hardly.
i first saw him that morning in the lobby. he was checking into the hotel and he was following the bellboy with his luggage. to the end. he. he glanced at me as he walked past, just a glance. nothing more. but i could hardly.
Slavoj Žižek
mm. eyes wide shut is a film which has an incredibly precise lesson about fantasy. she tells him not about herself effectively cheating him, but about fantasizing about cheating him with some naval officer they met in a hotel and so on and so on. the entire film is his desperate attempt to catch up with her fantasy, which ends in a failure. many people don't like in that mysterious rich people's castle where they meet for their orgies, the big orgy. they complain this orgy is aseptic, totally non. attractive without erotic tension, but i think that's the point. this. utter impotence of male fantasizing.
mm. eyes wide shut is a film which has an incredibly precise lesson about fantasy. she tells him not about herself effectively cheating him, but about fantasizing about cheating him with some naval officer they met in a hotel and so on and so on. the entire film is his desperate attempt to catch up with her fantasy, which ends in a failure. many people don't like in that mysterious rich people's castle where they meet for their orgies, the big orgy. they complain this orgy is aseptic, totally non. attractive without erotic tension, but i think that's the point. this. utter impotence of male fantasizing.
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no. i.
no. i.
Slavoj Žižek
the film is the story of how. the male fantasy cannot catch up with the feminine fantasy of how there is too much of desire in feminine fantasy and how this is the threat to male identity. where do we find this aspect of invertigo? isn't it that invertigo, on the contrary, all the activity is on the side of scotti. but i think that precisely because of this, his activity is extremely brutal, mortifying. he has totally to erase. the woman as a desiring entity. that's for him the condition to desire. let's annihilate the woman. let's... mortify her so that my fantasy alone rules the other solution is, of course, the masochist solution, which is... let me maintain the appearance of the woman, domina s, the boss, i accept my inferior role, but secretly i'm the master because i write the very scenario of my inferiority.
the film is the story of how. the male fantasy cannot catch up with the feminine fantasy of how there is too much of desire in feminine fantasy and how this is the threat to male identity. where do we find this aspect of invertigo? isn't it that invertigo, on the contrary, all the activity is on the side of scotti. but i think that precisely because of this, his activity is extremely brutal, mortifying. he has totally to erase. the woman as a desiring entity. that's for him the condition to desire. let's annihilate the woman. let's... mortify her so that my fantasy alone rules the other solution is, of course, the masochist solution, which is... let me maintain the appearance of the woman, domina s, the boss, i accept my inferior role, but secretly i'm the master because i write the very scenario of my inferiority.
Film Clip
i do. love you. and you know. there is something very important. that we need to do as soon as possible.
i do. love you. and you know. there is something very important. that we need to do as soon as possible.
Film Clip
what.
what.
Film Clip
ah.
ah.
Slavoj Žižek
's if our inner psychic space is too wild and sometimes we have to make love not to get the real thing, but to escape from the real, from the excessive real that we encounter in our fantasizing. but you know what? also we have, don't forget, from wild at heart, bobby peru the rage. she fuck.
's if our inner psychic space is too wild and sometimes we have to make love not to get the real thing, but to escape from the real, from the excessive real that we encounter in our fantasizing. but you know what? also we have, don't forget, from wild at heart, bobby peru the rage. she fuck.
Film Clip
no, i get!
no, i get!
Film Clip
i! she. say fuck me. and then i'll leave. they. see. che. s.
i! she. say fuck me. and then i'll leave. they. see. che. s.
Slavoj Žižek
bobby peru enters the room where the young girl played by laura dern is resting and slowly he terrorizes her.
bobby peru enters the room where the young girl played by laura dern is resting and slowly he terrorizes her.
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someday, honey, i will. but i gotta get going.
someday, honey, i will. but i gotta get going.
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same. don't cry.
same. don't cry.
Slavoj Žižek
bobby peru, as it were, changes the register. all of a sudden, he adopts a nice, polite, smiling face and says, oh, thanks for the offer, but i've got to go now, maybe another day. just arousing the fantasy and then rejecting the act. results in utter psychological devastation. it is a case of a mental rape which can be worse than physical rape.
bobby peru, as it were, changes the register. all of a sudden, he adopts a nice, polite, smiling face and says, oh, thanks for the offer, but i've got to go now, maybe another day. just arousing the fantasy and then rejecting the act. results in utter psychological devastation. it is a case of a mental rape which can be worse than physical rape.
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thank you.
thank you.
Slavoj Žižek
the point is... the fragile balance between reality and fantasy dimension in our sexual activity. michael haneke's piano teacher. is the story of an impossible love affair between a middle-aged, deeply traumatized woman and her young student. she is in a way a person who is not yet sexually subjectized. she lacks the phantasmatic coordinates of her desire. this accounts for a couple of very strange scenes in the film, like when she goes to a pornographic store and then watches in a closed small room a scene from a hardcore film. the way she watches it, it's not to get aroused, but she watches it as a pupil in a school. she simply watches it to get the coordinates of desiring, to learn how to do it, how to get excited.
the point is... the fragile balance between reality and fantasy dimension in our sexual activity. michael haneke's piano teacher. is the story of an impossible love affair between a middle-aged, deeply traumatized woman and her young student. she is in a way a person who is not yet sexually subjectized. she lacks the phantasmatic coordinates of her desire. this accounts for a couple of very strange scenes in the film, like when she goes to a pornographic store and then watches in a closed small room a scene from a hardcore film. the way she watches it, it's not to get aroused, but she watches it as a pupil in a school. she simply watches it to get the coordinates of desiring, to learn how to do it, how to get excited.
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ensuite, enlève le bâillon, s'il te plaît. et assis-toi sur ma figure. et donne-moi des coups de poing dans l'estomac. pour m'obliger à t'enfoncer ma langue dans le derrière.
ensuite, enlève le bâillon, s'il te plaît. et assis-toi sur ma figure. et donne-moi des coups de poing dans l'estomac. pour m'obliger à t'enfoncer ma langue dans le derrière.
Slavoj Žižek
the of fantasy in psychoanalysis is very ambiguous. on the one hand, we have the pacifying aspect of fantasy. piano teacher plays with the opposite aspect of fantasy. ah. fantasy is the explosion of wild, unbearable desires. what we found in the middle of the film is probably, arguably the most depressive sexual act in the entire history of cinema. as if to punish her for disclosing the fantasy in her letter to him, he literally in. her fantasy in the way he makes love to her, which of course means that fantasy is lost for her. when fantasy disintegrates, you don't get reality. you get some nightmarish real, too traumatic to be experienced as ordinary reality. that would be another definition of nightmare. hell is here. paradise, at least this perverse paradise, is hell.
the of fantasy in psychoanalysis is very ambiguous. on the one hand, we have the pacifying aspect of fantasy. piano teacher plays with the opposite aspect of fantasy. ah. fantasy is the explosion of wild, unbearable desires. what we found in the middle of the film is probably, arguably the most depressive sexual act in the entire history of cinema. as if to punish her for disclosing the fantasy in her letter to him, he literally in. her fantasy in the way he makes love to her, which of course means that fantasy is lost for her. when fantasy disintegrates, you don't get reality. you get some nightmarish real, too traumatic to be experienced as ordinary reality. that would be another definition of nightmare. hell is here. paradise, at least this perverse paradise, is hell.
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i.
i.
Slavoj Žižek
one cannot hear. just throw out the dirty water, all these excessive perverse fantasies and so on, and just keep the healthy, clean baby, normal, straight or even homosexual, whatever, but some kind of normal, politically correct sex. you cannot do that. what if we throw out the baby and keep just the dirty water and put it as a problem how to deal with dirty water and put some order in the dirty water of fantasies? this is, i think, precisely what happens, for example, in kieslowski's blue.
one cannot hear. just throw out the dirty water, all these excessive perverse fantasies and so on, and just keep the healthy, clean baby, normal, straight or even homosexual, whatever, but some kind of normal, politically correct sex. you cannot do that. what if we throw out the baby and keep just the dirty water and put it as a problem how to deal with dirty water and put some order in the dirty water of fantasies? this is, i think, precisely what happens, for example, in kieslowski's blue.
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pendant le... est-ce que vous étiez consciente ? j'ai la pénible tâche. vousé. votre mari. a perdu la vie dans l'accident. non, vous n'étiez pas conscient tout le temps. oui, votre fille aussi.
pendant le... est-ce que vous étiez consciente ? j'ai la pénible tâche. vousé. votre mari. a perdu la vie dans l'accident. non, vous n'étiez pas conscient tout le temps. oui, votre fille aussi.
Slavoj Žižek
you can organize, people do it, your life in mourning the lost object. julie in blue discovers that her husband wasn't what she thought he was, that he was treating her, that he had a mistress who is pregnant. this is the most terrifying loss where all the coordinates of your reality disintegrate. the problem is how to... reconstitute. yourself. in a wonderful short scene, the heroine of blue, after returning home, finds there on the floor a group of newly born mice crawling around their mother. this scene terrifies her. she is too excessively exposed to life in its brutal meaninglessness. what she is able to do at the end is to acquire a proper distance towards reality. this is what happens in the famous circular shot where we pass from julie's face while she is making love. this magical suspension of temporal and spatial limitations, this free floating in a fantasy space, far from distancing us from reality. enables us to approach. reality. she is putting together the coordinates which enable her to experience her reality as meaningful again. as if the lesson is not only for men but also for women that you can sustain sexual intercourse, sexual relationship only through the support of fantasy.
you can organize, people do it, your life in mourning the lost object. julie in blue discovers that her husband wasn't what she thought he was, that he was treating her, that he had a mistress who is pregnant. this is the most terrifying loss where all the coordinates of your reality disintegrate. the problem is how to... reconstitute. yourself. in a wonderful short scene, the heroine of blue, after returning home, finds there on the floor a group of newly born mice crawling around their mother. this scene terrifies her. she is too excessively exposed to life in its brutal meaninglessness. what she is able to do at the end is to acquire a proper distance towards reality. this is what happens in the famous circular shot where we pass from julie's face while she is making love. this magical suspension of temporal and spatial limitations, this free floating in a fantasy space, far from distancing us from reality. enables us to approach. reality. she is putting together the coordinates which enable her to experience her reality as meaningful again. as if the lesson is not only for men but also for women that you can sustain sexual intercourse, sexual relationship only through the support of fantasy.
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i! i'm!
i! i'm!
Slavoj Žižek
.
.
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is! i.
is! i.
Slavoj Žižek
i! the problem, of course, is this, fantasy reconstituted. is this the ultimate horizon of our experience? the function of music here is precisely that of a fetish, of some fascinating presence whose function it is to conceal the abyss of... anxiety. music is here what according to marx religion is a kind of opium for the people opium which should as it were put us asleep. put us into a kind of a false beatitude which allows us to avoid the abyss of unbearable anxiety. we see julie crying, but through a glass. this glass stands for, i think, fantasy reconstituted. these are, i'm tempted to say, the tears of happiness. i can mourn now because it no longer immediately affects me. blue proposes... this mystical communion, reconstituted fantasy is sustaining our relation to the world, but the price we pay is death. some radically authentic moment of accepting the anxiety at the very foundation of human condition is lost there. if anything, anxiety at the vocal level is... silence. silence, it's a silent scream. in hitchcock's the birds, when the mother, of course, who but the mother, finds the neighbor dead, his eyes picked out by the birds. she shouts, but the shout literally remains stuck. inter. throat. and. to return from cinema to so-called real life, the ultimate lesson of psychoanalysis is that exactly the same goes for our real life experience. the emotions as such are deceiving. there are no specifically fake emotions because, as freud puts it, literally, the only emotion which doesn't deceive is anxiety. all other emotions are fake. so, of course, the problem here is are we? able to. encounter in cinema d emotion of anxiety or is cinema as such a fake. cinema is the art of appearances. tells us something about reality itself. it tells us something about how reality constitutes itself.
i! the problem, of course, is this, fantasy reconstituted. is this the ultimate horizon of our experience? the function of music here is precisely that of a fetish, of some fascinating presence whose function it is to conceal the abyss of... anxiety. music is here what according to marx religion is a kind of opium for the people opium which should as it were put us asleep. put us into a kind of a false beatitude which allows us to avoid the abyss of unbearable anxiety. we see julie crying, but through a glass. this glass stands for, i think, fantasy reconstituted. these are, i'm tempted to say, the tears of happiness. i can mourn now because it no longer immediately affects me. blue proposes... this mystical communion, reconstituted fantasy is sustaining our relation to the world, but the price we pay is death. some radically authentic moment of accepting the anxiety at the very foundation of human condition is lost there. if anything, anxiety at the vocal level is... silence. silence, it's a silent scream. in hitchcock's the birds, when the mother, of course, who but the mother, finds the neighbor dead, his eyes picked out by the birds. she shouts, but the shout literally remains stuck. inter. throat. and. to return from cinema to so-called real life, the ultimate lesson of psychoanalysis is that exactly the same goes for our real life experience. the emotions as such are deceiving. there are no specifically fake emotions because, as freud puts it, literally, the only emotion which doesn't deceive is anxiety. all other emotions are fake. so, of course, the problem here is are we? able to. encounter in cinema d emotion of anxiety or is cinema as such a fake. cinema is the art of appearances. tells us something about reality itself. it tells us something about how reality constitutes itself.
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not that way!
not that way!
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ripplepleley. ripleley, come on. we we've got no time for sightseeing here. ripplepleley, don't.
ripplepleley. ripleley, come on. we we've got no time for sightseeing here. ripplepleley, don't.
Slavoj Žižek
there is an old gnostic theory that our world was not perfectly created, that the god who created our world was an idiot who bungled the job so that our world is a half-finished creation. there are voids, openings, gaps. it's not fully real, fully constituted. in the wonderful scene in the last installment of the alien saga, alien resurrection, when ripley, the cloned ripley, enters a mysterious room she encounters the previous failed version of herself. of cloning herself. just a horrified creature, a small fetus-like entity, then more developed forms. finally, a creature which almost looks like her, but her limbs are like that of the monster. this means that all the time our previous alternate embodiments. what we might have been but are not. that these alternate versions of ourselves are haunting us. that's the. ontological. view of reality that we get here. as if it's an unfinished universe. this is, i think, a very modern feeling. it is true, such ontology of unfinished reality that cinema became a truly modern art. all modern films are ultimately films about the possibility or impossibility to make a film.
there is an old gnostic theory that our world was not perfectly created, that the god who created our world was an idiot who bungled the job so that our world is a half-finished creation. there are voids, openings, gaps. it's not fully real, fully constituted. in the wonderful scene in the last installment of the alien saga, alien resurrection, when ripley, the cloned ripley, enters a mysterious room she encounters the previous failed version of herself. of cloning herself. just a horrified creature, a small fetus-like entity, then more developed forms. finally, a creature which almost looks like her, but her limbs are like that of the monster. this means that all the time our previous alternate embodiments. what we might have been but are not. that these alternate versions of ourselves are haunting us. that's the. ontological. view of reality that we get here. as if it's an unfinished universe. this is, i think, a very modern feeling. it is true, such ontology of unfinished reality that cinema became a truly modern art. all modern films are ultimately films about the possibility or impossibility to make a film.
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this is the sad tale of the township of dogville. dogville was in the rocky mountains in the us of a. up here, where the road came to its definitive end near the entrance to the old abandoned silver mine. the residents of dogville were good, honest folks, and they liked their township.
this is the sad tale of the township of dogville. dogville was in the rocky mountains in the us of a. up here, where the road came to its definitive end near the entrance to the old abandoned silver mine. the residents of dogville were good, honest folks, and they liked their township.
Slavoj Žižek
with von trier, it's not only the problem of belief in the sense of do peoples generally still believe today, the place of religion today and so on. it's also reflectively or allegorically the question of believing in cinema itself. how to make today people still believe in the magic of cinema? in dogville, all of it is staged on a set, okay, this is often the case in cinema, but here the set is seen as the set. the action takes place in dogville, a small town, but there are no houses, there are just lines on the floor signaling that this is the house, this is the street. the mysterious thing is that this does not prevent our identification. if anything, it makes us even more thrown into the tensions of the inner life.
with von trier, it's not only the problem of belief in the sense of do peoples generally still believe today, the place of religion today and so on. it's also reflectively or allegorically the question of believing in cinema itself. how to make today people still believe in the magic of cinema? in dogville, all of it is staged on a set, okay, this is often the case in cinema, but here the set is seen as the set. the action takes place in dogville, a small town, but there are no houses, there are just lines on the floor signaling that this is the house, this is the street. the mysterious thing is that this does not prevent our identification. if anything, it makes us even more thrown into the tensions of the inner life.
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have you seen grace? this is my place. is she busy? not anymore. go right in.
have you seen grace? this is my place. is she busy? not anymore. go right in.
Slavoj Žižek
it's not that naive belief is undermined, deconstructed through irony. fontrir wants to be serious with the magic. irony is put into service to make us believe.
it's not that naive belief is undermined, deconstructed through irony. fontrir wants to be serious with the magic. irony is put into service to make us believe.
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yet again, grace had made a miraculous escape from her pursuers with the aid of the people of dogville. everyone had covered up for her, including chuck. who had to admit that it was probably tom's hat he'd mistakenly considered so suspicious.
yet again, grace had made a miraculous escape from her pursuers with the aid of the people of dogville. everyone had covered up for her, including chuck. who had to admit that it was probably tom's hat he'd mistakenly considered so suspicious.
Slavoj Žižek
the mystery is that even if we know that it's only stage, that it's a fiction, it still fascinates us. that's the fundamental magic of it. you are... witness a certain seductive scene, then you are shown that it's just a fake stage machinery behind, but you are still fascinated by it. illusion persists. there is something real in illusion, more real than in the reality behind it.
the mystery is that even if we know that it's only stage, that it's a fiction, it still fascinates us. that's the fundamental magic of it. you are... witness a certain seductive scene, then you are shown that it's just a fake stage machinery behind, but you are still fascinated by it. illusion persists. there is something real in illusion, more real than in the reality behind it.
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the of the great and powerful oz. i said come back tomorrow! if you were really great and powerful, you'd keep your promises. do you presume to criticize the great oz? you ungrateful creatures, think yourselves lucky that i'm giving you audience tomorrow instead of 20 years from now. oh! thank. the great oz has spoken. oh. pay to that man behind the curtain. the spoken who are you? oh.
the of the great and powerful oz. i said come back tomorrow! if you were really great and powerful, you'd keep your promises. do you presume to criticize the great oz? you ungrateful creatures, think yourselves lucky that i'm giving you audience tomorrow instead of 20 years from now. oh! thank. the great oz has spoken. oh. pay to that man behind the curtain. the spoken who are you? oh.
Slavoj Žižek
i. who of we can learn from a film like wizard of oz is how it is not enough, the logic of demystification is not enough. it's not enough to say, okay, it's just a big show spectacle to impress the people. what is behind is just a modest old guy and so on and so on. it is that rather in a way, there is more truth in this appearance. appearance has an effectivity, a truth of its own.
i. who of we can learn from a film like wizard of oz is how it is not enough, the logic of demystification is not enough. it's not enough to say, okay, it's just a big show spectacle to impress the people. what is behind is just a modest old guy and so on and so on. it is that rather in a way, there is more truth in this appearance. appearance has an effectivity, a truth of its own.
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what about the heart that you promised tinman and the courage that you promised cowardly lion? i'm scarecrow. why anybody can have a brain? that's a very mediocre commodity. every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. back where i come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. and when they come out, they think deep thoughts, and with no more brains than you have. but they have one thing you haven't got, a diploma. therefore. by virtue of the authority vested in me by the univers comatum e pluribus unum, i hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of thd. thd? that's doctor of thinkology. sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.
what about the heart that you promised tinman and the courage that you promised cowardly lion? i'm scarecrow. why anybody can have a brain? that's a very mediocre commodity. every pusillanimous creature that crawls on the earth or slinks through slimy seas has a brain. back where i come from, we have universities, seats of great learning, where men go to become great thinkers. and when they come out, they think deep thoughts, and with no more brains than you have. but they have one thing you haven't got, a diploma. therefore. by virtue of the authority vested in me by the univers comatum e pluribus unum, i hereby confer upon you the honorary degree of thd. thd? that's doctor of thinkology. sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side.
Slavoj Žižek
oh, ge!
oh, ge!
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rapture.
rapture.
Slavoj Žižek
i got a brain. and that's the paradox of cinema the paradox of belief we don't simply believe or do not believe we always believe in a kind of a conditional mode i know very well it's a fake but nonetheless i let myself be emotionally affected.
i got a brain. and that's the paradox of cinema the paradox of belief we don't simply believe or do not believe we always believe in a kind of a conditional mode i know very well it's a fake but nonetheless i let myself be emotionally affected.
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how do you do?
how do you do?
Slavoj Žižek
mr. carl lindley feels it would be a little
mr. carl lindley feels it would be a little
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kind present this picture without just a word of friendly
kind present this picture without just a word of friendly
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we are about to unfold the story of frankenstein. a man of science. who sought to create a man after his own image. without reckoning. upon god.
we are about to unfold the story of frankenstein. a man of science. who sought to create a man after his own image. without reckoning. upon god.
Slavoj Žižek
somebody tells us. you have to experience horror. we do it.
somebody tells us. you have to experience horror. we do it.
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so if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now is your chance to... waitais? we've warned you.
so if any of you feel that you do not care to subject your nerves to such a strain, now is your chance to... waitais? we've warned you.
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ladies and gentlemen. young and old. this may seem an unusual procedurecedures. speaking to you before the picture begins. but we have an unusual subject.
ladies and gentlemen. young and old. this may seem an unusual procedurecedures. speaking to you before the picture begins. but we have an unusual subject.
Slavoj Žižek
behind, not red, this is hollywood, but black curtain, cecil deille himself appears, giving us a lesson of how the story of ten commandments and moses has great relevance today where we are fighting communist totalitarian danger and so on and so on, giving us all the clues.
behind, not red, this is hollywood, but black curtain, cecil deille himself appears, giving us a lesson of how the story of ten commandments and moses has great relevance today where we are fighting communist totalitarian danger and so on and so on, giving us all the clues.
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amen, the property of the state. or are they free souls under god? this same battle. continues throughout the world. today.
amen, the property of the state. or are they free souls under god? this same battle. continues throughout the world. today.
Slavoj Žižek
this hidden master. who controls the event can also be defined as ideology embodied in the sense of the space which organizes our desires. and your name.
this hidden master. who controls the event can also be defined as ideology embodied in the sense of the space which organizes our desires. and your name.
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what the fuck is your name?
what the fuck is your name?
Slavoj Žižek
in david lynch's lost highway, we have the mystery man, who stands for the very cinematographer, even director. imagine somebody who has a direct access to your inner life. to your innermost fantasies, to what even you don't want to know about yourself.
in david lynch's lost highway, we have the mystery man, who stands for the very cinematographer, even director. imagine somebody who has a direct access to your inner life. to your innermost fantasies, to what even you don't want to know about yourself.
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we've met before, haven't we? i don't think so. where was it you think we met?
we've met before, haven't we? i don't think so. where was it you think we met?
Slavoj Žižek
at your house, don't you remember? the best way to imagine what mr man is, is to imagine somebody who doesn't want anything from us.
at your house, don't you remember? the best way to imagine what mr man is, is to imagine somebody who doesn't want anything from us.
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what do you mean you're where? right now. at your house. that's fucking crazy, man.
what do you mean you're where? right now. at your house. that's fucking crazy, man.
Slavoj Žižek
callney. that's the true horror of this mystery man, not any evil demoniac intentions and so on and so on. just the fact that when he is in front of you, he, as it were, sees through you.
callney. that's the true horror of this mystery man, not any evil demoniac intentions and so on and so on. just the fact that when he is in front of you, he, as it were, sees through you.
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i told you i was here. and you do that? ask me. inside my house. you invited me. it is
i told you i was here. and you do that? ask me. inside my house. you invited me. it is
Slavoj Žižek
it's my custom to go where i'm not wanted. it's like the court in kafka's novels where the court or the law only comes when you ask for it.
it's my custom to go where i'm not wanted. it's like the court in kafka's novels where the court or the law only comes when you ask for it.
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oh! now why would
oh! now why would
Slavoj Žižek
that. most peculiar. hitchcock was obsessed with this topic of manipulating emotions. his dream was even that once in the future we would no longer have to shoot narratives. our brains will be directly connected to some machine and the director would only have to press different buttons there and the appropriate emotions will be awakened in our mind.
that. most peculiar. hitchcock was obsessed with this topic of manipulating emotions. his dream was even that once in the future we would no longer have to shoot narratives. our brains will be directly connected to some machine and the director would only have to press different buttons there and the appropriate emotions will be awakened in our mind.
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they're coming! you're coming!
they're coming! you're coming!
Slavoj Žižek
what have directors like hitchcock, tarkovsky, kieslowski, lynch have in common? a certain autonomy of cinematic form. forum is not here simply to express articulate content, it has a message of its own. in hitchcock, we have the motive of a person hanging from an abyss by the hand of another person. the first example, saboteur. rear window. then we're having to catch a thief.. 10 in north by northwest. then, of course, in vertigo. so we see here the same visual motif repeating itself. i think it's wrong to look for a common deeper meaning some french theorists. claimed that what we are dealing here with is the motive of fall and redemption. i think this is already saying too much. i think that what we are dealing with is with a kind of a cinematic materialism that beneath the level of meaning, spiritual meaning, but also simple narrative meaning. we get a more elementary level of forms themselves communicating with each other, interacting, reverberating, echoing, morphing, transforming one into the other. and it is this background, this, as it were, background of proto-reality, a real which is more dense, more fundamental than the narrative reality. the story that we observe. it is this that provides the proper density of the cinematic experience. is the gigantic tree where in vertigo, madeleine and scotty get together, almost embrace, where their erotic tension becomes unbearable. what is this tree? i think it's another in the series of hitchcockian big things like the mount rushmore statues or take another example like moby dick. this tree is not simply a natural object, it is, within our mental space, what in psychoanalysis is called the thing. it's. effectively as if this tree in its very extra large distortion. embodies something that comes out of our inner space. libido, the excessive energy of our mind. so here i think... we can see how... films and philosophy. are coming together, how great cinematographers really enable us to think in visual terms. after the birds attack the city, there is a fire which breaks out at the gasoline station where a guy throws a match onto the gasoline.
what have directors like hitchcock, tarkovsky, kieslowski, lynch have in common? a certain autonomy of cinematic form. forum is not here simply to express articulate content, it has a message of its own. in hitchcock, we have the motive of a person hanging from an abyss by the hand of another person. the first example, saboteur. rear window. then we're having to catch a thief.. 10 in north by northwest. then, of course, in vertigo. so we see here the same visual motif repeating itself. i think it's wrong to look for a common deeper meaning some french theorists. claimed that what we are dealing here with is the motive of fall and redemption. i think this is already saying too much. i think that what we are dealing with is with a kind of a cinematic materialism that beneath the level of meaning, spiritual meaning, but also simple narrative meaning. we get a more elementary level of forms themselves communicating with each other, interacting, reverberating, echoing, morphing, transforming one into the other. and it is this background, this, as it were, background of proto-reality, a real which is more dense, more fundamental than the narrative reality. the story that we observe. it is this that provides the proper density of the cinematic experience. is the gigantic tree where in vertigo, madeleine and scotty get together, almost embrace, where their erotic tension becomes unbearable. what is this tree? i think it's another in the series of hitchcockian big things like the mount rushmore statues or take another example like moby dick. this tree is not simply a natural object, it is, within our mental space, what in psychoanalysis is called the thing. it's. effectively as if this tree in its very extra large distortion. embodies something that comes out of our inner space. libido, the excessive energy of our mind. so here i think... we can see how... films and philosophy. are coming together, how great cinematographers really enable us to think in visual terms. after the birds attack the city, there is a fire which breaks out at the gasoline station where a guy throws a match onto the gasoline.
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hey! out!
hey! out!
Slavoj Žižek
the first part of this short scene is the standard one. we get the standard exchange of shots of the fire and shots of the person, melanie in this case, who looks at it. then something strange happens. we cut to way above the city. we see the entire town. we automatically take this shot as kind of standard establishing shot. like after details which perplex you, which prevent you from getting a clear orientation, you need a shot which like enables you some kind of a cognitive mapping that you know what's going on. but then precisely following that logic of the thing from inner space which emerges from within you, first we hear these ominous sounds, which are sounds of the birds. then one bird enters, another bird enters. the shot which was taken is a neutral. god's view shot all of a sudden changes into an evil gaze. the gaze of the very birds attacking. and we are thrown into that position. and again, we can use here the birds as the final installment and read. backwards other classical hitchcock scenes in the same way. isn't exactly the same thing happening in what i consider the ultimate scene in psycho, the second murder, the murder of the detective arbogast. hitchcock manipulates here in a very refined way the logic of so-called fetish is disavowal, the logic of i know very well that. we know very well some things but we don't really believe in them. so although we know they will happen, we are no less surprised when they happen. in this case, everything points towards the murder and nonetheless, when it happens, the surprise is if anything stronger. it begins in a standard hitchcockian way. he looks up the stairs. this exchange creates the hitchcockian tension between the subjects, luke, and the stairs themselves or rather the void on the top of the stairs returning the gaze, emanating some kind of a weird unfathomable threat. the camera then provides kind of a geometrically clear guts point of view shot image of the entire shin. it is as if here we pass from god as neutral creator to god in his unbearable divine rage. this murderer is us, for us an unfathomable monster. we don't know. who he is, but because we are forced to assume the murderer's position in a way we don't know who we are. as if we discover a terrifying dimension in ourselves. as if we are forced to act as the doll, as the tool of another evil. divinity's will. it's not as classical metaphysics thinks. we are too terrified to accept the fact that we are mortal beings. we would like to be immortal. no. the truly horrible thing is to be immortal. immortality is the true nightmare. not to death. we. can you hear me? we should... remember the exact moment when the normal everyday person, okay not quite everyday, but ordinary person of anakin skywalker changes into darth vader. this scene when the emperor's doctors are reconstituting him after heavy wounds into darth vader, that these scenes are intercut with the scenes of princess padme, anakin's wife, giving birth.
the first part of this short scene is the standard one. we get the standard exchange of shots of the fire and shots of the person, melanie in this case, who looks at it. then something strange happens. we cut to way above the city. we see the entire town. we automatically take this shot as kind of standard establishing shot. like after details which perplex you, which prevent you from getting a clear orientation, you need a shot which like enables you some kind of a cognitive mapping that you know what's going on. but then precisely following that logic of the thing from inner space which emerges from within you, first we hear these ominous sounds, which are sounds of the birds. then one bird enters, another bird enters. the shot which was taken is a neutral. god's view shot all of a sudden changes into an evil gaze. the gaze of the very birds attacking. and we are thrown into that position. and again, we can use here the birds as the final installment and read. backwards other classical hitchcock scenes in the same way. isn't exactly the same thing happening in what i consider the ultimate scene in psycho, the second murder, the murder of the detective arbogast. hitchcock manipulates here in a very refined way the logic of so-called fetish is disavowal, the logic of i know very well that. we know very well some things but we don't really believe in them. so although we know they will happen, we are no less surprised when they happen. in this case, everything points towards the murder and nonetheless, when it happens, the surprise is if anything stronger. it begins in a standard hitchcockian way. he looks up the stairs. this exchange creates the hitchcockian tension between the subjects, luke, and the stairs themselves or rather the void on the top of the stairs returning the gaze, emanating some kind of a weird unfathomable threat. the camera then provides kind of a geometrically clear guts point of view shot image of the entire shin. it is as if here we pass from god as neutral creator to god in his unbearable divine rage. this murderer is us, for us an unfathomable monster. we don't know. who he is, but because we are forced to assume the murderer's position in a way we don't know who we are. as if we discover a terrifying dimension in ourselves. as if we are forced to act as the doll, as the tool of another evil. divinity's will. it's not as classical metaphysics thinks. we are too terrified to accept the fact that we are mortal beings. we would like to be immortal. no. the truly horrible thing is to be immortal. immortality is the true nightmare. not to death. we. can you hear me? we should... remember the exact moment when the normal everyday person, okay not quite everyday, but ordinary person of anakin skywalker changes into darth vader. this scene when the emperor's doctors are reconstituting him after heavy wounds into darth vader, that these scenes are intercut with the scenes of princess padme, anakin's wife, giving birth.
Film Clip
ec, i do. hello.
ec, i do. hello.
Slavoj Žižek
so it is as if we are witnessing the transformation of anakin into father. but what kind of father? a monster of a father who doesn't want to be dead. this deep breathing is the sound of the father. the freudian primordial father, this obscene overpotent father, the father who doesn't want to die. this, i think, is for all of us the most... obscene threat that we witness. we don't want our fathers alive. we want them dead. the ultimate. object of anxiety is a living father. this brings us to what we should really be attentive about in david lynch's film, namely what is to be taken seriously and not seriously in his films.
so it is as if we are witnessing the transformation of anakin into father. but what kind of father? a monster of a father who doesn't want to be dead. this deep breathing is the sound of the father. the freudian primordial father, this obscene overpotent father, the father who doesn't want to die. this, i think, is for all of us the most... obscene threat that we witness. we don't want our fathers alive. we want them dead. the ultimate. object of anxiety is a living father. this brings us to what we should really be attentive about in david lynch's film, namely what is to be taken seriously and not seriously in his films.
Film Clip
hey, we love beer. he love it. here's the bear. yearsars to been. mr. b. be polite.
hey, we love beer. he love it. here's the bear. yearsars to been. mr. b. be polite.
Slavoj Žižek
here ben. frank is one of these terrifying, ridiculously obscene paternal figures. apart from franklin blue velvet, we have baron harkonnen in dune, we have willem dafoe in wild at heart, we have mr. eddy in lost highway.
here ben. frank is one of these terrifying, ridiculously obscene paternal figures. apart from franklin blue velvet, we have baron harkonnen in dune, we have willem dafoe in wild at heart, we have mr. eddy in lost highway.
Film Clip
don't you fuckingate! oh! tell them you won't tailgate. ah! i won't ever do. i many fucking car! it takes to stop a car at 35 miles an hour. take fucking car! that's 106 fucking feet miss. if i had have stopped suddenly, you would have hit me! i want you to get a fucking driver's manual and i want you to study that motherfucker! i want to spit once. on your head. just some spittle in your face.
don't you fuckingate! oh! tell them you won't tailgate. ah! i won't ever do. i many fucking car! it takes to stop a car at 35 miles an hour. take fucking car! that's 106 fucking feet miss. if i had have stopped suddenly, you would have hit me! i want you to get a fucking driver's manual and i want you to study that motherfucker! i want to spit once. on your head. just some spittle in your face.
Slavoj Žižek
what a lecture. but i think that this very appearance of ridiculously violent comedy is deceiving. i think that these ridiculous paternal figures are the ethical focus. the topic of practically all david lynch's films.
what a lecture. but i think that this very appearance of ridiculously violent comedy is deceiving. i think that these ridiculous paternal figures are the ethical focus. the topic of practically all david lynch's films.
Film Clip
let's fuck! i fuck moves! exactly.
let's fuck! i fuck moves! exactly.
Slavoj Žižek
a normal paternal authority is an ordinary man who as it were, wears phallus as an insignia. he has something which provides his symbolic authority. this is, in psychanalytic theory, phallus. you are not. phallus, you possess phallus. phallus is as it were something attached to you, like the king's crown is his phallus. something you put on and this gives you authority so that when you talk, it's not simply you as a common person who is talking, it's symbolic authority itself, the law, the state talking through you. so these excessively ridiculous paternal figures. it's not simply that they possess phos, that they have phos as the insignia of their authority. in a way, they immediately are. thisus this is for, if they still exist, a normal male subject. this is the most terrorizing experience you can imagine to directly being the thing itself, to assume that i am a phallus. and the provocative greatness of these lan obscene paternal figures is that not only they don't have any anxiety, not only they are not afraid of it. they fully enjoy being it. they are truly fearless entities beyond life and death, gladly assuming as it were their immortality. der... non-castrated life energy.
a normal paternal authority is an ordinary man who as it were, wears phallus as an insignia. he has something which provides his symbolic authority. this is, in psychanalytic theory, phallus. you are not. phallus, you possess phallus. phallus is as it were something attached to you, like the king's crown is his phallus. something you put on and this gives you authority so that when you talk, it's not simply you as a common person who is talking, it's symbolic authority itself, the law, the state talking through you. so these excessively ridiculous paternal figures. it's not simply that they possess phos, that they have phos as the insignia of their authority. in a way, they immediately are. thisus this is for, if they still exist, a normal male subject. this is the most terrorizing experience you can imagine to directly being the thing itself, to assume that i am a phallus. and the provocative greatness of these lan obscene paternal figures is that not only they don't have any anxiety, not only they are not afraid of it. they fully enjoy being it. they are truly fearless entities beyond life and death, gladly assuming as it were their immortality. der... non-castrated life energy.
Film Clip
okay.
okay.
Slavoj Žižek
this is indicated in a very nice way in the scene towards the end of wild at card where bobby peru is killed.
this is indicated in a very nice way in the scene towards the end of wild at card where bobby peru is killed.
Film Clip
stop your sons the bitches! this is the police!
stop your sons the bitches! this is the police!
Slavoj Žižek
he accepts the mortal danger he is in with kind of exuberant vitality and it's truly that when his head explodes, it's as if we see the head of the penis being torn apart.
he accepts the mortal danger he is in with kind of exuberant vitality and it's truly that when his head explodes, it's as if we see the head of the penis being torn apart.
Film Clip
six. poor best.
six. poor best.
Slavoj Žižek
and then at the end, these figures are sacrificed.
and then at the end, these figures are sacrificed.
Film Clip
oh.
oh.
Film Clip
it's all over, jeffrey.
it's all over, jeffrey.
Film Clip
thank.
thank.
Film Clip
i'm. .
i'm. .
Film Clip
thank.
thank.
Slavoj Žižek
joseph stalin's favorite cinematic genre were musicals. not only hollywood musicals, but also soviet musicals. there was a whole series of so-called kolkhoz musicals. why we should find this strange stalin who personifies communist austerity, terror and musicals? the answer again is the psychoanalytic notion of superego. superego is not only excessive terror, unconditional injunction, demand of utter sacrifice, but at the same time obscenity laughter. and it is sergei eisenstein's genius to guess at this link.
joseph stalin's favorite cinematic genre were musicals. not only hollywood musicals, but also soviet musicals. there was a whole series of so-called kolkhoz musicals. why we should find this strange stalin who personifies communist austerity, terror and musicals? the answer again is the psychoanalytic notion of superego. superego is not only excessive terror, unconditional injunction, demand of utter sacrifice, but at the same time obscenity laughter. and it is sergei eisenstein's genius to guess at this link.
Film Clip
thank.
thank.
Slavoj Žižek
in his last film, which is a coded portrait of the stalin era, even the terrible part2, which because of all this was immediately prohibited. in the scene, unique scene towards the end of the film, we see the tsar ivan. throwing a party, amusing himself with his so-called oprichniki. his private guard, who were used to torture and kill his enemies, his, if you want, kgb secret police, are seen performing a musical. an obscene musical which tells precisely the story about killing the rich boyars, ivan's main enemies.
in his last film, which is a coded portrait of the stalin era, even the terrible part2, which because of all this was immediately prohibited. in the scene, unique scene towards the end of the film, we see the tsar ivan. throwing a party, amusing himself with his so-called oprichniki. his private guard, who were used to torture and kill his enemies, his, if you want, kgb secret police, are seen performing a musical. an obscene musical which tells precisely the story about killing the rich boyars, ivan's main enemies.
Film Clip
i!
i!
Slavoj Žižek
so terror itself is staged as a musical.
so terror itself is staged as a musical.
Film Clip
i!
i!
Slavoj Žižek
now, what has all this to do with the reality of political terror? isn't this just art, imagination? no, not only were the... political show trials in moscow in the mid and late 1930s. theatrical performances, we should not forget this, they were well staged, rehearsed and so on. even more, there is... horrible as it may sound, something comical about them. the horror was so rootless that the victims, those who had to confess and demand death penalty for themselves and so on, were deprived of the minimum of their dignity so that they behaved as puppets. they engaged in dialogues which really sound like out of alice in wonderland. they behaved as persons from a cartoon. i!
now, what has all this to do with the reality of political terror? isn't this just art, imagination? no, not only were the... political show trials in moscow in the mid and late 1930s. theatrical performances, we should not forget this, they were well staged, rehearsed and so on. even more, there is... horrible as it may sound, something comical about them. the horror was so rootless that the victims, those who had to confess and demand death penalty for themselves and so on, were deprived of the minimum of their dignity so that they behaved as puppets. they engaged in dialogues which really sound like out of alice in wonderland. they behaved as persons from a cartoon. i!
Film Clip
public enemy number one. you're on trial today for the crimes that you've committed. we're gonna prove you're guilty! just try and get her acquitted.
public enemy number one. you're on trial today for the crimes that you've committed. we're gonna prove you're guilty! just try and get her acquitted.
Slavoj Žižek
in the mid-30s, walt disney studios produced an unbelievable cartoon called pluto's judgment day.
in the mid-30s, walt disney studios produced an unbelievable cartoon called pluto's judgment day.
Film Clip
get up.
get up.
Slavoj Žižek
in which the dog, well-known pluto, falls asleep and in his sleep is persecuted by, haunted by the dream of cats who were all in the past his victims molested by him, dragging him to the court where a proper, truly stalinist political trial is in process against him.
in which the dog, well-known pluto, falls asleep and in his sleep is persecuted by, haunted by the dream of cats who were all in the past his victims molested by him, dragging him to the court where a proper, truly stalinist political trial is in process against him.
Film Clip
we've seen and heard enough. jury, do your duty. i still my!
we've seen and heard enough. jury, do your duty. i still my!
Film Clip
we trying to defend the guilty. he's guilty. he's guilty! g-u-y, l-t-y, guilty, guilty, guilty-y!
we trying to defend the guilty. he's guilty. he's guilty! g-u-y, l-t-y, guilty, guilty, guilty-y!
Slavoj Žižek
the law is not only severe, ruthless. blind. at the same time, it mocks us. there is an obscene pleasure in practicing the law. our fundamental delusion today is not to believe. in what is only a fiction, to take fictions too seriously. it's on the contrary. not to take fictions seriously enough. you think it's just the game, it's reality. it's more real than it appears to you. for example, people who play video games. they adopt a screen persona of a sadist, rapist, whatever. the idea is, in reality i'm a weak person. so in order to to supplement my real life weakness i adopt their a image of a strong, sexually promiscuous person and so on and so on. but... so this would be the naive reading. i want to appear stronger, more active, because in real life i'm a weak person. but what if we read it in the opposite way? that this strong, brutal, rapist, whatever identity is my true self in the sense that this is the psychic truth of myself and that in real life, because of social constraints and so on, i am not able to enact it. so that precisely because i think it's only a game game. it's only a persona, a self-image i adopt in virtual space, i can be there. much more. truthful. i can enact their an identity which is much closer to my true self. we need the excuse of a fiction to stage what we truly are. stalker is a film about a zone, a prohibited space where there are debris, reminders of aliens visiting us. and stalkers are people who specialize in smuggling foreigners who want to visit into this space where you get very magical objects. but the main among them is the room in the middle of this space where it is claimed your desires will be realized.
the law is not only severe, ruthless. blind. at the same time, it mocks us. there is an obscene pleasure in practicing the law. our fundamental delusion today is not to believe. in what is only a fiction, to take fictions too seriously. it's on the contrary. not to take fictions seriously enough. you think it's just the game, it's reality. it's more real than it appears to you. for example, people who play video games. they adopt a screen persona of a sadist, rapist, whatever. the idea is, in reality i'm a weak person. so in order to to supplement my real life weakness i adopt their a image of a strong, sexually promiscuous person and so on and so on. but... so this would be the naive reading. i want to appear stronger, more active, because in real life i'm a weak person. but what if we read it in the opposite way? that this strong, brutal, rapist, whatever identity is my true self in the sense that this is the psychic truth of myself and that in real life, because of social constraints and so on, i am not able to enact it. so that precisely because i think it's only a game game. it's only a persona, a self-image i adopt in virtual space, i can be there. much more. truthful. i can enact their an identity which is much closer to my true self. we need the excuse of a fiction to stage what we truly are. stalker is a film about a zone, a prohibited space where there are debris, reminders of aliens visiting us. and stalkers are people who specialize in smuggling foreigners who want to visit into this space where you get very magical objects. but the main among them is the room in the middle of this space where it is claimed your desires will be realized.
Film Clip
das now with certza. i'm indulgence because well. what must w me? stay in the parochchia. but the summer was amendment. was. w. st. explplan. v som isabeth. some is. samuel buister né.
das now with certza. i'm indulgence because well. what must w me? stay in the parochchia. but the summer was amendment. was. w. st. explplan. v som isabeth. some is. samuel buister né.
Slavoj Žižek
the contrast between solaris and stalker is clear. in solaris, we get id machine as an object which realizes your nightmares, desires, fears, even before you ask for it, as it were. in stalker, it's the opposite, a zone where your're... desires, deepest wishes get realized on condition that you are able to formulate them, which of course you are never able, which is why everybody fails once you get there in the center of the zone.
the contrast between solaris and stalker is clear. in solaris, we get id machine as an object which realizes your nightmares, desires, fears, even before you ask for it, as it were. in stalker, it's the opposite, a zone where your're... desires, deepest wishes get realized on condition that you are able to formulate them, which of course you are never able, which is why everybody fails once you get there in the center of the zone.
Film Clip
t. das gear. d.. t.. h shall we be right, re-sh. i brad st sam new project. how's that cheer. we just this vai time have it. k, you to with.'s... voyager boy.
t. das gear. d.. t.. h shall we be right, re-sh. i brad st sam new project. how's that cheer. we just this vai time have it. k, you to with.'s... voyager boy.
Slavoj Žižek
tarkovsky's solution to this tension is that of religious obscurantism. the way out of this deadlock is a gesture of self-sacrifice. his last two films, nostalgia and sacrifice, both end up with some suicidal gesture of the hero.
tarkovsky's solution to this tension is that of religious obscurantism. the way out of this deadlock is a gesture of self-sacrifice. his last two films, nostalgia and sacrifice, both end up with some suicidal gesture of the hero.
Film Clip
ichi. yeah. dos mo. .
ichi. yeah. dos mo. .
Slavoj Žižek
but i don't think this is what makes tarkovsky interesting. what makes him interesting is the very form of his films. tarkovsky uses as this material element of pre-narrative density, time itself. all of a sudden, we are made to feel this inertia, drabness. of time. time is not just a neutral light medium within which things happen, we feel the density of time itself. things that we see are more markers of time. he treats even humans in this way. if we look at the unique face of stalker himself, it's a face of somebody exposed to too much radiation and as it were, rotting, falling apart alive. it is this disintegration of the very material texture of reality which provides the spiritual depths. tarkovskyian's subjects, when they pray, they don't look up, they look down, they even sometimes, as in starker, put their head directly onto the earth. here i think tarkovsky affects us at a level which is much deeper, much more crucial for our experience than all the standard spiritual motives of elevating ourselves above material reality and so on. there is nothing specific about the zone. it's purely a place where a certain limit is set. you set a limit, you put a certain zone of limit and although things remain exactly the way they were, it's perceived as another place. precisely as the place onto which you can project your beliefs. your fears, things from your inner space. in other words, the zone is ultimately the very whiteness of the cinematic screen. chaplin's city lights is one of those masterpieces which are really too sophisticated for the sophisticated. it's a deceptively simple movie. when we are enraptured by it, we tend to miss its complexity and extreme finesse. h already the first scene of the movie provides the coordinates. it's kind of a microcosm of chaplin's entire art. what's the source of chaplin's comic genius? what's the archetypal comic situation in chaplin's films? it's being mistaken for somebody or functioning as a disturbing spot. it's a disturbing stain. he distorts the vision. so, he wants to. he raised himself to get out of the picture. or people don't even note him, take note of him, so he wants to be noted. or if they perceive him, he is misperceived, identified for what he is not. the tramp ich. wrongly identified by a beautiful blind girl who is selling flowers on a street corner. as a millionaire. he accepts the game. helps her even steals money to pay for her operation to restore her sight then after he serves the punishment and returns he tries to find her. and i think that this is the metaphor of our predicament. all too often, when we love somebody, we don't accept him or her as what the person effectively is. we accept him or her insofar as this person fits the coordinates of our fantasy. we misidentify, wrongly identify him or her, which is why when we discover that we were wrong, love can quickly turn into violence. there is nothing... more dangerous more little for the loved person than to be loved as it were for not what he or she is but for fitting the ideal. in this case, love is always mortifying love. here it's not only the trem s. the figure within the film's narrative, exposing himself to his beloved girl, is at the same time chaplin as actor-director. exposing himself to us, the public. i am shameless, i'm offering myself to you, but at the same time, i'm afraid. the true genius of... chaplin. resides in the way he was able to stake this psychological moment of recognition. at the level of form. music. visual aspect and at the same time at the level of acting. when the two hands meet, the girl finally recognizes him for what he is. this moment is always extremely dangerous, pathetic. the beloved falls out of the frame of the idealized coordinates, finally there exposed in his psychological nakedness. here i am is what i really am. and i don't think we have to read it as a happy ending. we don't know what will happen. we have the letters, the end, the black screen, but the singing goes on. as if the emotion is now too strong. it. spills over the very frame. in order to understand. today's world. we need cinema, literally. it's only in cinema that we get that crucial dimension which we are not ready to confront in our reality. if you are looking for what is in reality more real. then reality itself. look into the cinematic fiction.
but i don't think this is what makes tarkovsky interesting. what makes him interesting is the very form of his films. tarkovsky uses as this material element of pre-narrative density, time itself. all of a sudden, we are made to feel this inertia, drabness. of time. time is not just a neutral light medium within which things happen, we feel the density of time itself. things that we see are more markers of time. he treats even humans in this way. if we look at the unique face of stalker himself, it's a face of somebody exposed to too much radiation and as it were, rotting, falling apart alive. it is this disintegration of the very material texture of reality which provides the spiritual depths. tarkovskyian's subjects, when they pray, they don't look up, they look down, they even sometimes, as in starker, put their head directly onto the earth. here i think tarkovsky affects us at a level which is much deeper, much more crucial for our experience than all the standard spiritual motives of elevating ourselves above material reality and so on. there is nothing specific about the zone. it's purely a place where a certain limit is set. you set a limit, you put a certain zone of limit and although things remain exactly the way they were, it's perceived as another place. precisely as the place onto which you can project your beliefs. your fears, things from your inner space. in other words, the zone is ultimately the very whiteness of the cinematic screen. chaplin's city lights is one of those masterpieces which are really too sophisticated for the sophisticated. it's a deceptively simple movie. when we are enraptured by it, we tend to miss its complexity and extreme finesse. h already the first scene of the movie provides the coordinates. it's kind of a microcosm of chaplin's entire art. what's the source of chaplin's comic genius? what's the archetypal comic situation in chaplin's films? it's being mistaken for somebody or functioning as a disturbing spot. it's a disturbing stain. he distorts the vision. so, he wants to. he raised himself to get out of the picture. or people don't even note him, take note of him, so he wants to be noted. or if they perceive him, he is misperceived, identified for what he is not. the tramp ich. wrongly identified by a beautiful blind girl who is selling flowers on a street corner. as a millionaire. he accepts the game. helps her even steals money to pay for her operation to restore her sight then after he serves the punishment and returns he tries to find her. and i think that this is the metaphor of our predicament. all too often, when we love somebody, we don't accept him or her as what the person effectively is. we accept him or her insofar as this person fits the coordinates of our fantasy. we misidentify, wrongly identify him or her, which is why when we discover that we were wrong, love can quickly turn into violence. there is nothing... more dangerous more little for the loved person than to be loved as it were for not what he or she is but for fitting the ideal. in this case, love is always mortifying love. here it's not only the trem s. the figure within the film's narrative, exposing himself to his beloved girl, is at the same time chaplin as actor-director. exposing himself to us, the public. i am shameless, i'm offering myself to you, but at the same time, i'm afraid. the true genius of... chaplin. resides in the way he was able to stake this psychological moment of recognition. at the level of form. music. visual aspect and at the same time at the level of acting. when the two hands meet, the girl finally recognizes him for what he is. this moment is always extremely dangerous, pathetic. the beloved falls out of the frame of the idealized coordinates, finally there exposed in his psychological nakedness. here i am is what i really am. and i don't think we have to read it as a happy ending. we don't know what will happen. we have the letters, the end, the black screen, but the singing goes on. as if the emotion is now too strong. it. spills over the very frame. in order to understand. today's world. we need cinema, literally. it's only in cinema that we get that crucial dimension which we are not ready to confront in our reality. if you are looking for what is in reality more real. then reality itself. look into the cinematic fiction.