serial consign

[frank booth menaces in blue velvet]

Given the inevitable social disconnect that comes along with the final push in grad-school I now find myself playing catch-up with loads and loads of media that I ignored throughout the beginning of the spring. Today I discovered a gem of an episode of Radio Open Source. The show featured an extended interview with theorist Slavoj Zizek and filmmaker Sophie Fiennes who discussed their recent collaborative project The Pervert's Guide to Cinema. The documentary is a vehicle through which Zizek uses cinema to speculate on the nature of desire, voyeurism, metaphysics and gender.

Zizek on King Kong:

The producers of King Kong visited the Soviet Union just before shooting the film, in the late 20s, and they were showing the modernist plans for the new Palace of Soviets. High tower, on the top of it, gigantic statue of Lenin. And they said, wait a minute, if we replace Lenin with the big ape, we have it. So, paradoxically, the origin of one of the exemplary, iconic, images of Hollywood — King Kong, ape on the top of the Empire State Building — is Soviet communism.

Zizek also dissects Blue Velvet, The Wizard of Oz, City Lights, The Matrix, and Werner Herzog. There is a particularly memorable back and forth between Fiennes and Zizek on Vertigo and Hitchcock in general. This is completely fascinating listening that will nourish both your inner film and theory nerd. I haven't seen the documentary yet (the trailer is available here) but I can't recommend this episode of Radio Open Source enough.