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Tuesday, March 14, 2017

The Pervert's Guide to Ideology (2012)

A British documentary directed by Sophie Fiennes, starring Slavoj Zizek.
Slavoj explains his thoughts on political and religious belief systems, using films as examples.
This was very similar to The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006) to the point that I think they should be considered a single work. West Side Story was used to compare classical ideology's "they don't know what they are doing, but they are nonetheless doing it" with cynical ideology's "I know very well what I am doing, but I am still nonetheless doing it". He compared M.A.S.H. (1970) with Full Metal Jacket (1987) to discuss obscenity in military institutions and brought in If.... (1968) to back it up. The initiated involve grotesque and crude references to get the attention of new members, but sometimes this can backfire, as in the case of Gomer Pyle. If... was used to demonstrate that this is an institutional operational system that includes not only the military, but academic systems as well, with older students tormenting the younger ones. Jaws (1975) allowed many problems to be personified in a single, easily dealt with package. The concept of "big other" was dealt with in The Fireman's Ball (1967), Brief Encounter (1945) and The Last Temptation of Christ (1988). Big other (not, but maybe is Brother?) is an idea of society as a whole, with leaders and a mass known as "the people" that does not include any individuals. I think that this goes very well with the discussion of Superego from the previous film. Overall, if you can make it through and understand one of these films, the other (not big) is required viewing. I rate this awesome as well.

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