The Weekly Scene: The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology

3 Critiques-of-Culture out of 4 

It’s tough being a critic these days. Given the fact that everyone has an opinion they’re more than willing to share, it can be difficult differentiating between criticism and opinion. What are critics good for? After all, if a critic is willing to deconstruct an artist’s work and comment on perceived nuances or imperfections, why not just create art? If a movie critic knows so much about mis-en-scene and is educated enough to criticize Hollywood’s incessant big-budget-blockbusters, why not make an amazing movie and fascinate the entire planet? What are good critics, anyway? If a song is good a music critic makes it seem like Beethoven, and if a book is bad a literary critic makes the author seem like a two-year-old typing away at a grand piano. 

I should mention that Sophie Fienne’s The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology doesn’t answer what critics are good for. Neither does Slavoj Zizek, the film’s narrator, star, and writer. What The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology does accomplish is the use of movies and recent events like the England Riots of 2011 to explain the basis of ideology to the audience. On paper, the film is a two-hour long lecture delivered by a professor all too obsessed with popular culture. On display, the film is a chance for Slavoj Zizek to explain the importance of studying popular culture in order to better understand society’s hidden messages and values.

Over the course of 136 minutes, Sophie Fiennes directs Zizek into various scenes from cinema history including West Side Story, The Sound of Music, MASH, and The Dark Knight while Zizek explains the ideological significance of each film. Ideology and cinema are interwoven into a single continuous fabric defined by Marxist philosophy, conflict theory, psychoanalysis, and Zizek’s words. Viewer beware: this is not a film for those looking for an easy way to spend two-hours. Zizek simplifies complicated philosophical ideas for his audience, but tuning out or getting distracted means missing out on bits and pieces from his lesson.

Upon reflection, the film is less a lecture and more a visual novel. Zizek’s script could very well be published as a standalone piece of literature. All cinematic references would remain intact, and audiences would be able to study Zizek’s ideas at their own adjusted pace.

However, separating film from philosophy would mean missing out on all of Zizek’s visual quirks, Remko Schnorr’s cinematography, and Ethel Shepherd’s editing. Whether it’s recreating a scene from John Carpenter’s They Live to feature Zizek, or having him lie down on Travis Bickle’s bed from Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, Schnorr manages to capture everything that makes Zizek such a compelling figure. Shepherd’s editing, which splices sequences from each film Zizek discusses into the overall narrative constructs much-needed juxtaposition between words and visuals. I knew that Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is a film about a man’s slow descent into oblivion, but it wasn’t until now that I realized that Travis’s entire mission is purposefully suicidal.

In my time writing this column, I’ve never once had to specify which audience would enjoy a film the most. Setting yet another landmark, I’m afraid that I must define who I believe would best appreciate The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. Students, scholars, and academics are obvious. However, fans of cinema who want to learn more about film’s famous works, people fascinated by popular culture, and critics are those who would enjoy Sophie Fienne’s and Slavoj Zizek’s film the most.

I mention critics again because society needs people who are willing to look upon something great and claim otherwise. The critic has the ability to educate and inform; the critic’s goal should never be to humiliate, but to elucidate. The self-serving irony of a critic defending criticism certainly isn’t lost on me, but the notion that art shouldn’t be judged because it’s nothing more than a form of opinion goes against the idea of criticism. Art is neither good nor bad, it merely evokes positive or negative emotion depending on the person. The critic’s role, as so beautifully embodied by Zizek, is that of an emotional mediator making sense of all the ideas in the pool.

The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology is educational, interesting, and attention grabbing. In short, it’s a great movie.