Zizek IS culture industry
Zizek's new film , which I saw in London, is called "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema and I believe it was only part 1 of 3. Screening at the ICA after a sold out talk whose tickets could be had at the breathtaking sum of 15 pounds, that's is almost thirty dollars for us poor Yanks, um, the film was well, very, very entertaining.
The Slovenian Pop Philosopher and Psychoanalyst has found his true calling as star of the screen. Brilliantly put together by Sophie Fiennes, the film proves that slightly misogynistic (the pervert part) takes on film culture wrapped in the trappings of psychoanalytic theory can render hilarious, if slightly inane readings of everything from David Lynch to Alfred HItchcock, or Slavoj's favorite films. Fiennes has taken Zizek to his favorite scenes in a variety of films, from The Conversation to Vertigo, to the Birds and recast the mise en scene to cut from Tippie Hedren to Slavoj on Bodega Bay, from Jimmie Stewart to Slavoj again in the green light of the hotel room of Vertigo...and even Slavoj in the rocking chair of the Bates Motel.
I once worshipped this iconoclastic thinker's anti-liberal rants and invited him to a gig while I was on a post-doc at CalArts. I felt pathetically that I might be able to invoke "But I know him..." to get past the phalanx of young hipsters worshipping at his shrine now, but I couldn't bring myself to do utter those words in order to hear him rant and rave about pop culture, although this lecture promised us Zizek's wisdom on the 9/11 films.
London has embraced Zizek and Zizek dominates this city's intellectual scene with conferences, media events and now film. Or in his accent, FILUM. Am I jealous? Yes! The man has got a bully pulpit from which to proclaim things like "Freud says anxiety is the only emotion that doesn't lie." And i am left to weakly wonder, "Wasn't that Lacan?" But the Pedant's Guide to Cinema wouldn't be nearly as funny, nor as filled with tortured and insane women....
The Slovenian Pop Philosopher and Psychoanalyst has found his true calling as star of the screen. Brilliantly put together by Sophie Fiennes, the film proves that slightly misogynistic (the pervert part) takes on film culture wrapped in the trappings of psychoanalytic theory can render hilarious, if slightly inane readings of everything from David Lynch to Alfred HItchcock, or Slavoj's favorite films. Fiennes has taken Zizek to his favorite scenes in a variety of films, from The Conversation to Vertigo, to the Birds and recast the mise en scene to cut from Tippie Hedren to Slavoj on Bodega Bay, from Jimmie Stewart to Slavoj again in the green light of the hotel room of Vertigo...and even Slavoj in the rocking chair of the Bates Motel.
I once worshipped this iconoclastic thinker's anti-liberal rants and invited him to a gig while I was on a post-doc at CalArts. I felt pathetically that I might be able to invoke "But I know him..." to get past the phalanx of young hipsters worshipping at his shrine now, but I couldn't bring myself to do utter those words in order to hear him rant and rave about pop culture, although this lecture promised us Zizek's wisdom on the 9/11 films.
London has embraced Zizek and Zizek dominates this city's intellectual scene with conferences, media events and now film. Or in his accent, FILUM. Am I jealous? Yes! The man has got a bully pulpit from which to proclaim things like "Freud says anxiety is the only emotion that doesn't lie." And i am left to weakly wonder, "Wasn't that Lacan?" But the Pedant's Guide to Cinema wouldn't be nearly as funny, nor as filled with tortured and insane women....
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