June 2, 2006
Food for Thought in 'Slavoj Zizek: The Reality of the Virtual'
By NATHAN LEE
For those who found the recent documentary "Zizek!" spoiled by an excess of action sequences, there is now "Slavoj Zizek: The Reality of the Virtual," in which the Slovenian intellectual of the title sits in front of a camera and does nothing but talk. And talk.
Shot by Ben Wright over the course of a single day, here is the apotheosis of the talking-head movie, made up entirely of seven long, static takes of Mr. Zizek seated in front of a bookshelf. His discourse is accompanied by a habitual repertory of twitches, spasms and uncontrolled perspiration, an alarming frenzy of exuberance that contributes to his reputation as a rock star of philosophy.
Academic circles may debate whether Mr. Zizek is a legitimate philosopher or merely an especially learned and witty synthesizer. For the general audiences who flock to his lectures, it's enough to witness the ontology of difference explained vis-à-vis Woody Allen's "Love and Death," and to grapple with the notion of chocolate laxative [YET AGAIN?!] as an "almost Hegelian direct coincidence of the opposites." You'll never look at "The Sound of Music" (if not the reality of the virtual) the same way again.
"There is nothing more miserable today," Mr. Zizek concludes, "than those people who organize their life in order to enjoy themselves." The linchpin of his lecture is the notion that if the goal of classic psychoanalysis was to liberate people from their repressions, mental health under late capitalism requires the struggle to free ourselves from the compulsion to satisfy an endless and irrational set of desires. Food for thought, if definitely an acquired taste.
<http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/movies/02real.html?pagewanted=print>
Carl (who's never seen "The Sound of Music" even once)