The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema

Is cinema primarily there to serve the fears and desires of the audience? Or is it not rather the other way round, that we who go to the cinema only recognise our desires there in the first place? The controversial sociologist, philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek takes us on an entertaining ride through film history. In replicas of sets from several famous classics (which we also encounter in this retrospective), the Lacanian Žižek, who also turns out to be a true cineaste and shrewd master of ceremony, conveys the strategies and subtexts with which cinema negotiates the real, the imaginary and the symbolic. Afterwards, you will not only see these films with different eyes, but also take a completely fresh look at the seventh art. (Florian Widegger)