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{{ISZ}}* "[['The Pervert's Guide to Cinema' - Slavoj Zizek is a flamboyant philosopher with a passion for cinema – and now he wants to remake 'Psycho'interview]].profile Gareth Evans | Oct " 6 2006Zizek recreates 'The Birds'Zizek recreates [[Time]] Out'The Birds'. 6 October 2006. Gareth Evans. <http://www.timeout.com/film/news/1439.html>

‘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 yet ready to confront in our [[reality]]. If you are [[looking ]] for what is, in reality, more [[real ]] than reality itself, look into cinematic [[fiction]].’

Fighting [[words ]] indeed, care of Slovenian [[philosopher ]] Slavoj [[Zizek]], whose latest [[intellectual ]] Molotov cocktail, ''''The [[Pervert]]'s [[Guide ]] to Cinema'''', a [[three]]-part documentary made by Sophie Fiennes ('Hoover Street Revival'), opens at the ICA this Friday after going out on More4 earlier in the year. A high-octane close [[reading ]] of some of the most familiar scenes in cinema, it’s a provocative and wide-ranging declaration of the undoubted ability [[film ]] has to move, arouse, enlighten and unsettle us.

For anyone who cares [[about ]] film, and about its [[role ]] in affecting both the [[psyche ]] and [[society]], this is an important, even remarkable, undertaking. Deploying the post-[[Freudian ]] [[psychoanalytic ]] [[thought ]] of Jacques [[Lacan ]] and the [[dialectic ]] arguments of [[Hegel]], it’s unashamedly about [[ideas]]. Indeed, it is one of the very few [[films ]] made about cinema itself, and not just its performers and makers.

But this is no dry [[thesis ]] delivered from the [[dead ]] wood of a lecture hall podium. How could it be when its writer-presenter is one of the most flamboyantly unlikely stars of the intellectual jet set? An extraordinarily prolific writer-commentator on film, [[politics ]] and pop [[culture]], Zizek is a passionate anomaly within academia. The [[author ]] of numerous books and articles, he is a resident of the air, forever on the move between [[speaking ]] engagements. Ceaselessly undermining tired assumptions about the workings of reality, [[ideology ]] and [[love]], not since the heyday of Jean [[Baudrillard ]] has a [[cultural ]] intellectual enjoyed such a threshold-crossing international reputation.

On the phone from the Slovenian [[capital ]] of [[Ljubljana]], Zizek delivers an exhilarating rush of ideas, [[associations ]] and digressions; frank, provocative and often very funny, it’s an infectious brew, far from shy. And yet, when asked if he is [[satisfied ]] about the outcome of his latest [[media ]] foray… ‘I have not seen it’, Zizek declares. ‘I’m just terrified by myself on screen…’ For someone who has already been the [[subject ]] of several films, including last year’s ‘Zizek!’, which tracked his freewheeling [[global ]] itinerary, this is a perhaps surprising revelation. But, despite the fact that he appears in almost every [[frame]], 'The Pervert's Guide…' held a [[particular ]] appeal. ‘It’s not about me,’ he claims. ‘Me and Sophie, we have a focus [[outside ]] ourselves. That makes it tolerable.’

For the viewer, 'The Pervert's Guide…' is more than tolerable. In an inspired delivery, Fiennes filmed Zizek in the original locations of iconic works like '[[The Birds]]' and 'The Conversation', but also created replica sets to implant him into key scenes from dozens of films, whether '[[Psycho]]' or 'The [[Matrix]]'. For the celebrity thinker, appearing ‘inside’ the film involved a risk not associated with the page. ‘Will I be made ridiculous by showing the clips or, the [[utopian ]] [[dream]], will some [[people ]] watch it and say, ‘My God, it works.’

Zizek drew his onscreen improvisations from his extensive writings on cinema (‘Wait for the DVD, ten hours of deleted scenes!’), but is the first to note that he has an ambivalent [[relationship ]] to film.

‘I like to be very ruthless and exploit movies’, he admits. ‘70 or 80 per cent of what I write about movies is not really about movies. I exploit [[them ]] to make a [[theoretical ]] point. About a [[third ]] of the time I do a really [[formal ]] [[analysis ]] of a film with all the love of that film. So I [[think ]] my honour can be saved. But I am often afraid to see the films because it may distort my [[theory]]. Nonetheless this is a [[game ]] I play with something I am deeply fascinated with. Theorising intensifies the [[pleasure ]] of watching a film, and it can save bad films.’

Across 'The Pervert's Guide…' Zizek explores cinema’s relation to [[sexuality]], [[fantasy ]] and the [[unconscious]], seeking to inhabit the works cited all the better to understand them. But his dream is even more [[active]]. ‘My [[ideal ]] would be to digitally remaster some classic scenes, like in the plays of [[Brecht]], where a [[character ]] steps outside and comments on his actions. After the shower [[murder ]] in "Psycho", when Norman is cleaning the bathroom, I am totally on his side, the job has to be done. But imagine him doing it talking to himself, saying, “Did I have a [[mother ]] [[fixation]], am I [[neurotic]]?” This I love!’

Zizek thrives on a wilful [[reversal ]] of expectation in thought and [[action]], relishing the idiosyncratic in himself and [[others]]. On the [[recent]], atrocious [[adaptation ]] of 'Tristan + Isolde', he ‘would love to love it,’ and when I mistakenly attribute the film to Franco Zeffirelli, he is rapid in response. ‘Ah, here you touch my [[Stalinism]]. When [[Hitler ]] was burning books, one should condemn him – not for burning books, but for burning the wrong books. With Zeffirelli, they should all be burnt.’

On the [[other ]] hand, [[David Lynch ]] is central to Zizek’s [[case]]. ‘I am a [[true ]] Lynch fan. [[Fuck ]] "Blue Velvet", everyone [[loves ]] it. [[The Real|The real ]] Lynch is not "Twin Peaks" the series, but "Fire Walk with Me", and "Dune", of course.’ It’s this serious playfulness that gives ‘The Pervert's Guide…’ such forward momentum.

If he has one regret, it’s that ‘we couldn’t give more time to lesser-known films – I would really love to have looked at Capra’s "Meet John Doe", for example.’ But he and Fiennes are already plotting their next collaboration, 'The Pervert's Guide to Ideology' – a [[natural ]] [[development]], given cinema’s own implication in systems of [[belief ]] and [[control]], and Zizek’s constant unpicking of such [[processes]].

For Zizek, the cultural [[project ]] is indivisible from a wider [[political ]] involvement, however amusingly delivered. He expresses genuine concern about the [[fragmentation ]] of shared [[experience ]] resulting from the rise in home-viewing of films but goes on. ‘I was in New York and there were these [[signs]], “Don’t buy pirated movies, you are supporting [[terrorism ]] and communism” blah blah blah. So I thought, from now on, I will only buy pirate DVDs. Maybe the spontaneous [[communism ]] of the medium will finally triumph.’