Slavoj Zizek on The Children of Men at bavatuesdays

Slavoj Zizek on The Children of Men

Published by Reverend May 7th, 2007 in YouTube, movies and video.

Here’s a five minute commentary on Children of Men by Slavoj Zizek that is packaged with the DVD. I watched this movie for a second time tonight and I was even more enthralled and impressed than the first go around (which is saying a lot). Zizek has a wonderful reading of the film, which he frames as an anamorphosis. In short, the film’s ability to obliquely capture the social oppression and the despair of late capital through the backgrounds constitutes its power as a political commentary. Good stuff…

4 Responses to “Slavoj Zizek on The Children of Men”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 D'Arcy Norman May 8th, 2007 at 9:41 am

What blows me away every time I watch the movie is that the real story is entirely happening in the background. Rickshaws on London streets. Immigration camps in the outskirts. It’s the seemingly infinite layers of details that really tell the story.

What’s got me really freaked out is that if the fertility problem is replaced with the disappearance of cheap oil, this may be a pretty accurate picture of how society could degenerate. Scary stuff.
2 Reverend May 8th, 2007 at 10:38 am

Agreed, the film is actually happening in the background. The dead son o the street of the fugee camp, th “terrorist” march around an ostensible martyr, the camps, the beating you see through the bus windows -just amazing stuff. The oil bomb you dropped yesterday has me bit freaked out, quite frankly- and watching this movie was oddly reassuring. Not sure how I can explain this adequately -I’ll have to think on it.
3 D'Arcy Norman May 8th, 2007 at 11:38 am

The stories I want to see involve what happens beyond Britain’s borders. What happened to the other 7 billion people who didn’t “soldier on” ?
4 Matt Mar 15th, 2008 at 9:16 am

I could listen to Zizek pronounce the word “film” all day. “Feel-lum”

browse the bavarchive

Polls

What are your five favorite film adaptations of a Stephen King novel or story?

The Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick (23%, 34 Votes)
Shawshank Redemption (1994) by Frank Darabont (21%, 32 Votes)
Stand by Me (1986) by Rob Reiner (18%, 27 Votes)
Misery (1990) by Rob Reiner (17%, 25 Votes)
The Green Mile (1999) by Frank Darabont (13%, 19 Votes)
Carrie (1976) by Brian DePalma (11%, 17 Votes)
The Dead Zone (1983) by David Cronenberg (8%, 12 Votes)
Creepshow (1982) by George Romero (5%, 7 Votes)
Pet Cemetary (1989) by Mary Lambert (5%, 7 Votes)
The Mist (2007) by Frank Darabont (4%, 6 Votes)
Firestarter (1984) by Mark L. Lester (3%, 4 Votes)
The Running Man (1987) by Paul Michael Glaser (3%, 4 Votes)
Cujo (1983) by Lewis Teague (2%, 3 Votes)
Christine (1983) by John Carpenter (2%, 3 Votes)
Children of the Corn (1984) Fritz Kiersch (2%, 3 Votes)
Cat's Eye (1985) by Lewis Teague (1%, 2 Votes)
Dreamcatcher (2003) by Lawrence Kasdan (1%, 2 Votes)
Maximum Overdrive (1986) by Stephen King (1%, 2 Votes)
The Lawnmower Man (1992) by Brett Leonard (I imagine Stephen King would suggest this should not be on the list) (1%, 2 Votes)
Dolores Claibourne (1995) by Taylor Hackford (1%, 2 Votes)
The Dark Half (1993) by George Romero (1%, 2 Votes)
Apt Pupil (1998) by Bryan Singer (1%, 1 Votes)
Thinner (1996) by Tom Holland (1%, 1 Votes)
Needful Things (1993) by Fraser Clarke Heston (1%, 1 Votes)
Silver Bullet (1985) by Daniel Attias (1%, 1 Votes)
Sleepwalkers (1992) by Mick Garris (1%, 1 Votes)
The Mangler (1995) by Tobe Hooper (0%, 0 Votes)
Sometime's They Come Back (1991) by Tom McLoughlin (0%, 0 Votes)
Creepshow 2 (1987) by Michael Gornick (0%, 0 Votes)
Graveyard Shift (1990) by Ralph S. Singleton (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 150

Loading ...

bavatuesdays