Slavoj Zizek & Sophie Fiennes' THE PERVERT'S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY is the most fun your brain, memory and synapses will have at the movies

He's back. That philosopher/film critic/political theorist/culture maven/
theologist/psychoanalyst (have I left something out?) Slavoj Zizek, of The Pervert's Guide to Cinema has returned, along with his director, Sophie Fiennes, to bring us THE PERVERT'S GUIDE TO IDEOLOGY. If you enjoyed the former, you're gonna love the latter -- which is every bit as film-oriented even as it tackles the thorny question of ideologies and which to choose: Communism, Capitalism, Religion and everything in between. No surprise, Mr. Zizek advises none of the above and makes is very clear exactly why, as he uses film (or fee-lum, as his Slovenian accent so charmingly pronounces it) to explain what the powers-that-be are feeding us, and how best to prevent digestion. (The glory moment here is the guy's take-down of Titanic: Who needs an iceberg when the Ziz is here!)

Zizek writes and delivers his, well, pretty-much-a-monologue, while Ms Fiennes (shown at right) directs the film (with terrific help from her usual editor Ethel Shepherd), which offers dozens of movies and Zizek's theories about how these impact on our history, culture and thinking. The result is the most eye-to-the-screen/ear-to-the-soundtrack piece of cinema you will have seen since this threesomes's last collaboration. As much as I urge you to rush to theaters to experience this amazingly intelligent, fun and funny piece of work, I admit that I was more than happy to be watching it via screener, so that I could backtrack and listen to what Zizek says one more time to make sure I understood it properly.

Because this guy, shown below and further below, is first of all a philoso-pher, this sort of sets him in a special class. Yet, though I wouldn't exactly call him "mainstream," neither is he highfalutin. He's accessible. His ideas are often surprising, but he offers them up with precision and a lot of back-up, especially of course via movies -- once again seeming to appear on or in the sets of many of the film he discusses, from the bed Robert DeNiro used in Taxi Driver to the pristine lavatory that gets so bloodied up in Full Metal Jacket (below), from Jaws to Triumph of the Will.

Zizek opens the fee-lum with one of my favorite movies (and I hope yours, too; seek it out if you haven't seen it), They Live, during which he challenges us to say why a particular fight scene goes on for so long and is so violent (It's hard giving up the view of the world we've been taught to see), and then moves on the The Sound of Music, in which he tackles the idea of enjoyment versus pleasure. For his musing on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony alone, the movie is must. (Funny how, this very week, another film called Following the Ninth opens here and shows us exactly what Zizek means about how this fabulous work can be made to mean all sorts of thing -- and used for evil, as well as good. (I'll have more to say about that film soon).

He covers popular culture and the the Neo-Nazi phemonenon, explaining in passing why he doesn't consider the rock group Rammstein to be Nazi propaganda. It's all here: Ideology as a kind of bribe, a very fluffy cat, and why capitalism is all the time in crisis. "This is precisely why Capitalism appears almost indestructible," he tells us. (I guess because it seems to somehow weather all those crises?) And then he goes on to show us the invisible side of Capitalism, which is... ah, yes: waste.

Religion takes its licks, too: His lengthy look at Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ (a movie I didn't much care for) makes me want to see it again. His explanation of how, in its way, Christianity as a religion is actually much more atheistic than your typical atheist, is something to hear and then ponder. Seconds, Zabrieskie Point, and a number of other films get the Zizek approach, as well, and come out the better for it.

Perhaps his most splendid moment comes when he asks, "Why it is easier for us to imagine a huge change -- like an asteroid hitting earth -- than even a modest change in our economic order?" Why indeed. See The Pervert's Guide to Ideology and you'll be asking that question, too. Maybe even answering it. And then rushing out to see a few movies you thought you understood and appreciated (or not)--now with a whole new viewpoint.

The movie -- from the indispensable Zeitgeist Films, and running 2 hours and 16 minutes (not one of which I'd have wanted to miss) opens this Friday, November 1, in New York City at the IFC Center, and in Chicago at the Gene Siskel Film Center. For all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, click here and scroll down.

Zizek's Crash Course on Movies: PERVERT'S GUIDE TO CINEMA at IFC

Could there be a better "Amen" to TrustMovies's own philosophy of why films are so important to our culture and our world than the final minute of the two-and-

one-half-hour, three-part collaboration THE PERVERT'S GUIDE TO CINEMA by Slavoj Zizek and Sophie Fiennes? I don't think so. If I'd written it myself, I couldn't have summarized better than Slavoj (shown above):

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 than reality itself, look into the cinematic fiction.

In other words, trust movies. Well, for some things. I am not saying here that Mr. Zizek would begin to agree with my own philosophy of film, but we certainly agree that film is vitally important to our world because, as with all real art (and aren't movies the art of the 21st Century?), the artist's needs and desires, along with a certain reality, will bubble to the surface -- no matter how hard that artist may try to obfuscate deliberately or unconsciously. I also realize that Slavoj is so much more intelligent and well-read than I that any comparison is beyond the pale. Still, nobody's right all the time, and at my age one does want to keep his gray matter functioning.

Director Fiennes, right, and Zizek case Judy's "Vertigo" apartment

Mr. Zizek (Was he born with that name? How appropriate does it sound? Talk about onomatopoeia!) gives us a very lengthy discussion of some of his (and maybe our) favorite films and tells us why they are so important. Will you disagree -- not about whether these films are important, but why? Of course! And this is half the fun. The other half is provided by Zizek's witty discourse, including pronunciation (film is always fil-um, for instance). And the third half of the fun (yes, it's that kind of documentary) comes via the master psychoanalyst / philosopher / critic's inserting himself (seemingly) into the actual setting of many of the "filums" he's discussing: on a boat in Bodega Bay (for The Birds), in the basement of the Psycho house, in the bathroom where a pivotal scene from The Conversation takes place. This witty and appropriate touch adds so much delight to the proceedings that, even as you are disagreeing with Zizek's "take" on these filmmakers' veiled intentions, you can't help but go along for the ride.

Zizek lectures atop the toilet in the bathroom of "The Conversation."

One of the more interesting reactions I had to the movie was to look back at some of the films Zizek finds more meaningful than I and wonder if I should give them a second (or by now, third or fourth) chance: Campion's In the Cut, Lynch's Lost Highway, Fincher's Fight Club and Von Trier's Dogville to name but four. Slavoj makes a compelling case for all. That said, I must admit that I found this lengthier film not quite as entertaining and thought-provoking as the earlier Zizek!, directed by Astra Taylor. In that one he discusses everything from his own life and family to consumerism, movies, Marx and more.

But don't trust me. See that earlier film, as well as another titled Zizek: The Reality of the Virtual and Ms Taylor's new Examined Life, which includes some more of Zizek (and others) and will open in NYC at the end of February. And definitely check out The Pervert's Guide to Cinema for yourself when this provocative doc opens for a week-long run Friday, January 16, at the IFC Center here in NYC. (And elsewhere, I hope, because really now, NYC cannot the only place in America where enough folk enjoy thinking and being challenged to make a theatrical run like this possible. Or can it…?)

Kerry Candaele's doc FOLLOWING THE NINTH: In the Footsteps of Beethoven's Final Symphony

Who doesn't like Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, particularly that final movement, with its evergreen "Ode to Joy." Hell, even Adolf Hitler loved it, using it to inspire his Nazi hordes. You won't learn about Hitler's love for this musical classic via FOLLOWING THE NINTH: In the Footsteps of Beethoven's Final Symphony, however. No: For that bit of information, you'll have to see a much stronger, provocative and chal-lenging documentary, The Pervert's Guide to Ideology. Coincidentally enough, both movies open in New York City this Friday. For those who simply want to revel in the beauty of the Beethoven, while being fed reams of feel-good information and first-person testaments about how the symphony -- as Kerry Candaele (shown below), writer/producer/director of Following the Ninth, explains upfront -- "200 years after its writing, continues to inspire struggles for freedom, survival and healing during dark times," here's the film for you!

Yes, Beethoven's Ninth is a great piece of music. And the Pinochet regime of torture, murders and disappearance in Chile was a horror; China's student protests and the Tiananmen Square massacre, was a one-off jolt backward in that country's extra-long march toward some kind of freedom; while the post-WWII division of Germany into East and West, together with the construction of the infamous Berlin Wall was yet another, major slice of repression from Communism's Soviet leaders. But the documentary that results from the awkward conjoining of all these (plus a trip to Japan where, unless I missed something, there is no struggle for freedom but instead merely a festival honoring Beethoven's Ninth that occurs each December) is simply silly and wrong-headed.

The fact that in Chile and China protestors (shown above and below) were inspired by the symphony is worth an anecdote (just as Slavoj Zizek uses the Hitler/Ninth Symphony connection in The Pervert's Guide to Ideology) rather than a whole movie. Mr. Candaele forces the issue then comes to a kind of feel-good conclusion that I found almost insulting to Chile's followers of Allende who became victims of the Pinochet regime, as well as to the Chinese students.

The individual stories we hear from Chilean progressives and some of the Chinese students today are interesting and moving  -- there's a particularly surprising bit of information about one of our narrators who shares a history with the President of the Chilean Republic -- and the young woman who tell her story about growing up in East Berlin and what happened to her family is also worth hearing. Any one of these country's/people's stories might well fill up a film. But the connections of all this to Beethoven's Ninth are tenuous indeed.

In addition, neither the constant cutting back and forth between countries and tales nor the unnecessary inclusion of some moments of would-be "dance" (above) serves the movie well. The documentary's division into four chapters to ape the movements of the music is another needless stretch. I am guessing that the filmmaker's great love for the symphony inspired him to make the movie. This is commendable, but the result is certainly not.

FOLLOWING THE NINTH: In the Footsteps of Beethoven's Final Symphony opens this Friday, November 1, at the Quad Cinema here in New York.

Sophie Fiennes' documentary, GRACE JONES: BLOODLIGHT AND BAMI, gives us the performer, the musician and the woman

TrustMovies has long felt that cinema has rarely, barely ever, shown off that most unusual performer/singer Grace Jones to good advantage. Of her three major movies -- the second-rate Bond film, A View to a Kill; a lesser Eddie Murphy vehicle, Boomerang; and the surprisingly entertaining vampire movie, Vamp -- only in the latter did the filmmakers put this strong and visually striking woman to anything approaching maximum use.

Now, in the new documentary, GRACE JONES: BLOODLIGHT AND BAMI, filmmaker Sophie Fiennes (of The Pervert's Guide to Cinema and Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow) manages to do this larger-than-life presence cinematic justice -- and then some.

Ms Fiennes, shown at left, seems to have been given remarkable access to Jones, her family, friends and co-workers -- and over a period of several years, at that --  and although the filmmaker does not identify time frames, or even places, her documentary provides a surprisingly good entryway into the life and times, as well as the music and performing abilites of this remarkable woman. Ms Jones turns 70 next month, but you would hardly know it watching and hearing her sing, prance, move and command whatever stage she is on.

As a young man, I found myself in awe but also somewhat frightened of this incredibly statuesque and sexual icon. With age and a better understanding and appreciation of who Jones is and what she is doing, I am now a major fan. You may be, too, once you've spent the nearly two hours of time that Fiennes, as both director and editor, has cobbled together in such a free-form but oddly gripping fashion.

There is no way around the fact that this entertainer cuts such as formidable figure -- the lithe/lean body, the bizarre head-gear, and those endless legs! The movie begins and spends a good deal of time in a musical number or two, and then lets us see her adoring fans, with whom she interacts  The music we hear seems more impressive than I remember from decades past. But, then, perhaps my tastes  have changed for the better over the years.

Fiennes spends a good deal of time with Jones' family -- mother, siblings, kids, even I think, a grandchild -- and almost as much behind the scenes as she works to bring about another concert. There's a little of her love life, too. And even some casual, full-frontal nudity (yes, she looks justs as fabulous unclothed).

She goes to church, where we hear (I think it's her mom singing) His Eye Is on the Sparrow. Later the preacher fills us in on Jones' history as a naughty little girl. Along the way, we get snippets of her philosophy: "Sometimes you have to be a high-flying bitch!" and "Deep love is like a beating with a cloth belt." Family history and her father's death crop up, too.

The documentary ends with the idea of possibly building a house in the hills of Jamaica (where Jones was born) and where an earlier house was destroyed by a hurricane. Set to this is one of her more recent songs, Hurricane, which is an impressive piece of music sung with all the strength and power one might expect of this phenomenon.

Watching the viewing link I was sent, I sometimes wished for English subtitles to help decipher the soundtrack's dialog that was occasionally hampered by too-loud ambient sounds and/or the Jamaican accents. Otherwise, this documentary proved engrossing and impressive -- a "must," I think, for any Jones fan, and a film that will most likely convert a number of newcomers, too.

From Kino Lorber and running 115 minutes, Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami opens tomorrow, Friday April 13, in New York City at the Metrograph and Film Society of Lincoln Center and at BAM in Brooklyn. On April 20 it hits Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt, and then over the weeks to come open in cities all across the country. Click here and scroll down to see the complete list of playdates, cities and theaters.