Clip from The Pervert's Guide To Cinema: Part 1

[libertyno5]

Wow- this is very interesting! As a filmmaker and student of psychology- I disagree with his conclusions but I do believe he is one the right track. There is no purple pill. He is confusing reality with perception of reality or (a consciousness within reality). The environment we live in is of deception or of representation which can be perceived in various ways. But, our contact w reality or the truth gives our consciousness the red pill, temporarily. But there is only a temp cessation of lies.

[hidenorivideo]

Philosophers always seem to do their thing better when the conversational aspect, as in where their words slip into the spaces other people leave for them, is in plain view, rather than merely implicit due to it's status as language (that is, their philosophy's).

[erniehead]

What do we do with the dirty water?

[frtgb]

Logic is a tool, not an end in itself. If you are smart, you can say anything and it will sound logic. The problem is if you start to believe in what you say. Then you will see the truth in illusion, and you are lost.

[marlboroman1985]

I never really gave Zizek any credit, but the interpretation of the birds symbolizing a mother's incestous sexual defense mechanism actually sounds like something Hitchcock would have concocted.

[NielsDouglas]

@marlboroman1985 Calling it now: Zizek is the next wave in pop philosophy. You'll be hearing his name brought up by nineteen year old film studies students in every side-alley indie-pop bar for the next five years. Which is a double-edged sword, really.

[spetsnaz5]

Symbolic fictions?

[sponsoredwalk1]

The birds are raw incestuous energy

:O

haha!

[keepitinyourpantsjoe]

"The Birds are raw, incestuous energy." Ahahaha.

[nothke]

Oh my god, this is one of the rare things that really made me laugh hard!! Not only the last sentence(s), but... ZIZEK CONFRONTING MORPHEUS!! JUST EPIC!!

[prdxestie]

...is this matrix thing realizeable without using entheogenic substances?

[HonorRepresentative]

Fascinating, when I follow... =) Thank-you.

[darkeyce02]

lol spontanious confusion of directions... funny,

[roryphelan]

Would Hitchcock have been aware of Lacans theory of the Symbolic?

Zizek is a credit to philosophy obviously, but planting his own Lacanian reading here...

Is this explanation he gives for the presence of the birds the real explanation, a real explanation, if Hitchcock was unaware of such theories?

[NielsDouglas]

@roryphelan Hitchcock was famous for deliberately layering Freudian symbology into his films. You just have to look at Psycho, The Rear Window or Vertigo to see that. The fact that The Birds can be fairly consistently interpreted in this way is significant evidence for the argument in and of itself.

[memoriesofhpl]

I'm getting a t-shirt made with 'i want a third pill' on it!

[InitiateZ]

"the birds are symbolic of incestual energy" ! ? Well I"LL be damned....chuckle

[aljaz12]

i want to fuck mitch?? xD nice one :P

[DungeonMasterJ]

To my surprise, this is actually pretty good, except some of the third pill stuff (what he wants there seems to me to be internally inconsistent, and therefore impossible, if his language is to be taken literally; if it's not then I don't know what the hell he was talking about). He should stick to things like film criticism and shut up about things like quantum mechanics.

[robgiri]

the 'third pill' he talks about, funnily enough, IS the religious experience documented throughout the ages - just not the fast-food, new age bullshit one that most people talk about. seeing reality in illusion, and illusion in reality - and so on.

[ashutoshmikku]

I want a thirrrrrrrrd pill :)

[zacd1]

I have no idea where Zizek's mind is.

[DoCWaSaBe]

is he Freudian?

[blackflower75]

"I want to fuck Mitch" ...Perfect ;)

[HerrNebuchadnezzar]

I laughed my ass off when I saw in that chair.

He would make a fine Neo.

[brunobonisiol]

extraordinary contemporary intellectual. he is not a conceiver, he is a culture-bearer, or a culture bear in some respect I really appreciate what he is doing for the masses

[jajaja69nyc]

"the birds are raw incestuous energy..."hahahahahaha that is so funny! what a joker!

[iggypot]

all the translations of zizeks slovenian slur are hilarious

[bndavis187]

@iggypot he writes his books in english

[eydos]

Quite impressive. I like to hear thoughts based on conntinental tradition of philosophy rather than the empty brain wankering which some in america knows as "serious" philsosophy. They confuse content with contour.

[PObserver]

Yeah eydos, tell us how the analytic tradition failed philosophy.

[yourbesteyes]

Even though your comment was written about 10 months ago,I feel the need to sincerely congratulate you for writting one of the very few intelligent comment we can read on Youtube:philosophy is incredibly underestimated and ignored on our continent (from Canada).

[Itsnattatooma]

There are many diverse sub-fields and approaches in philosophy. It would be a mistake to judge one based on the aims and methodology of another.

[frege666]

@eydos

"empty brain wankering". That's funny, because that's what I think of the continental tradition of philosophy. Clarity and precision of thought, my friend. Hegel is empty brain garbage.

[NielsDouglas]

@frege666 I agree that the earlier post was an unneccessary and altogether too popular dig at Americanism, but what you've said is really no more meritorious or, in fact, meaningful. You can't really dismiss pretty much the majority of philosophical reasoning, mostly grouped together by minor and trivial aspects with little to no bearing on the schools of thought contained therein.

[timtak1]

Zizek is looking good or a lot better than in his wedding photos. Marriage seems to suit him. Go zizkek go:-)

I want a third pill but would like it to be fast food nirvahna. It should show us not another reality (people in vats of glop) but the illusory nature of reality. I thought that they were going to show us that the other world, Zion, and the vats of glop too are fictional. A flip flopping between two irrealities is coming. They are here. Incipit "The Departed"

[greenwanders]

"My gott, I'm tinking like Melanie. You know what I'm tinking, now? I want to fack Mitch!

No, shorry, shorry...I got dish...shpontaneoush confushion of direcshins."

[m4lvolio]

It's a good thing he didn't say "My gott, I'm tshinking like Mitcsh. I vant to fuck my mother."

[radimlabuda]

"My gott, i tink i vant to fack Slavoj Žižek!"

[fissionchips303]

i laughed so hard when he said that!

[jabberwock01]

It's such an easy way out to say that something is bollocks when you don't understand it. Hitchcock's major films were made when Freudianism was at its cultural height in America, so it makes even more sense to tease out Freudian meanings. Oedipal themes are also there a-plenty in Psycho. Son/mother/stranger. Hitchcock knew what he was doing. Zizek is always worth listening to. Catchy title!

[touchogrey]

@jabberwock01 I always find that interesting in older, classic cinema that people seem to disregard what these well-read filmmakers were doing. Kubrick is always over-read or mis-read for his postmodern/deconstructuralism slants (A Clockwork Orange anyone?) and Bergman for some obvious Jungian references (Persona, cmon.) Fellini too.

It does have a tendency to dumb down their works. Considering the apex of thought now is all about unreality and anarchy I can't imagine what'snext in'artfilm'

[revolutiondave]

When I first saw this late at night on TV, and I had no idea what it was. I assumed Zizek was a comedian pretending to be a central european intellectual. I seriously thought using pulp novel freudianism and a bastardised 1960s version of marxism to over analyse movies was a complex joke.

-Then it turns out he is a "serious" philosopher. He's still talking bollocks even if its funny bollocks.

[schzx]

I never looked at Zizek that way, but now that you mention it... :D

[palebluefilms]

why does it make sense for a psychoanalyst to analyze film from his professional perspective? it's not as if hitchcock made birds with these themes in mind. it's like analyzing the birds from the perspective of an ornithologist...sure the subjects are related, but not close to what hitchcock was thinking

[vermeerembrandt]

to be honest, it doesn't matter much what hitchcock was thinking. look up "the death of the author" by roland barthes. not that anyone should take barthes position without some salt, but it contains within it a useful mode of reading art

[elvis32z]

Well put!

[hurting]

The idea of ignoring author intent goes back further than Barthes - look at the New Critics.

[aMyCrImSoN]

omg...thanks for uploading! i saw zhis a few months ago on tv. zizek is amazing.

[SLACKER614]

Zizek is a post-modern Herbert Marcuse...

[2degucitas]

Yeah, I can tell he's a Marxist. Everything is deconstructed by them to the point one questions what they believe in about everything. Communism is dying because it FAILED. Not that commercialism/capitalism is better, because it isn't.

[KajiCarson]

"I want to fuck Mitch! ^_^"

[GordonMorrice]

If Zizek didn't exist, it would be necessary to invent him. It thrills me to know he walks the Earth. I'd wind him up if I met him, though! Wouldn't you? Keep asking him if he farted - stuff like that!

[Smcgabhainn]

Reality, as referred, to can be divided into two categories; 1. Sense data, which can be dismissed as fundamentally illusory by definition and, 2. Descartes reality of the homonculus, the indivisible reality of sensation. The reality of Descartes is not so easily disproved, although it does suggest a further contradiction, in the shape of infinite regress.

[Twonkx]

i just saw the perverts guide to cinema yesterday and i loved it ^^

[electricrussell]

"My God, I'm thinking like Melanie now! You know what I'm thinking? I want to fuck Mitch."

That had me in stitches.

[laromero]

LOL. Zizek constantly catches me off guard by his humor.

[Moredread25]

What's the name of the film that he talks about in the movie with the orgy on the beach - where the woman talks about it, but the viewer dosen't actually see it.

[benchimin]

Persona by Ingmar Bergman.

That film is a work of genius.

[2degucitas]

Suddenly Last Summer?

[jacy136]

Bergman's 'Persona' has a scene like that, I loved it

[mwhite36]

Kinky!

[MindUrTube]

so mom was cock-blocking mitch? did i get that right?

[ipeqi]

Aren't we all a little psycho?

[ELuhn]

Well, he raises interesting points about reality and symbology, but I think his interpretation of the birds is a bit of a leap.

The thing about symbols -- as many artists as well as psychologists know -- is that they are entirely prone to the interpretation of the observer. Thus, each of us should be dwelling in an independent reality. Yet, if I kick a rock, I'll hurt my foot, no matter how I interpret the "meaning" of the rock. That's the paradox.

[Rythsaad]

"...fast-food religious experience..."

Genius! ;D

To reply you - it's not the interpretation that counts. It's the fact that a third party intrudes and destroys our perception of reality. Going by your example, it's not the rock that is being interpreted; it's the pain that comes after kicking it.

[Przecinek]

Can't agree but Youtube allowes only 500 characters so I don't think there's any point in starting a discussion here :)))

As far as video is concerned birds representing the mother figure trying to prevent sexual relationship of her son makes alot of sense, especially considering the timing of the attack.

[TimeCurator23]

That is because you do not really exist in a independent reality but you think you do due to the limitations of time and space - you are only a human with human senses for a short period of time and then you die. You are one glimpse of the self consciousness and power that the universe is. You ARE me, you are everything in a sense.

[fawazr]

But cinema is nothing but symbolism, so the subjective experience of actively kicking a rock doesn't adequately apply to the experience of being a passive observer who has become a repository for a filmmaker's ideas.

Psychoanalysts were hugely popular (and powerful) during Hitchcock's prime, so it wouldn't be at all surprising if Zizek's interpretation is spot on.

[cutemermaid13]

very interesting

[tsar987]

I got this spontaneous confusion of directions!

[chinable]

"So the birds are raw incestuous energy!"

Brill

[andjosephsaid]

What does that statement actually mean? I can't understand how that statement would work in the Birds.

I can see that the birds are symbolic of "women" but that statement doesn't make sense to me.

[bondurango]

The birds signify the Oedipal energy of the female superego. In this case, the mother's incestuous desire for her son.

[fawazr]

andjosephsaid,

the birds are the champions of the Oedipal dynamic between mother and son. They work to undermine the efforts of the female intruder who ultimately seeks to take Mitch away. And since all desire is presumably sexual, the mother's desire to hold on to Mitch (that same desire manifested as the aggressive birds) is incestuous. Hope that helps.

[zootsoot2006]

Well, you'd have to bring in Melanie's own relationship with her mother as well, which is referred to in the film. I don't believe the birds somehow are visited upon her by Mitch's mother, rather they are internal to Melanie herself and as such the theme is psychological rather than magical. Perhaps they represent her Elektra complex?

[AmpedAL]

Why is it that certain people sound smarter with a foreign accent?

[Oostman86]

Zizek is the best. we watched some of this in film school. if you're intrested in cool films search for "i have seen!" by mookamongus.

[zenbeer]

This is actually pretty insightful in a goody way... I like Slavoj Zizek's commentaries in the documentary film: The Possibility Of Hope. The last 30 seconds of this video are priceless.

[blazingbunnyofdoom]

!!!! I wish I knew this was on here yesterday, I had to watch it for class. Yay Freud.

[HyperNathan]

So this clip of the movie is Freud Jr. telling us that birds attacking people is a symbol of people wanting to engage in incest?

Wow.

[tmfjones]

The clip of the movie is Freud Jr. telling us that a cinematic reenactment of birds attacking people is a symbol of people wanting to engage in incest, yes.

[corbaman]

Brilliant.

[bigyiko]

Yes, it is

[kidaime]

His accent is hot

[ControversialVideos]

woot first cool video very ineresting

[TheShinyDemon]

7000+ views... why no comments?

This guy is brilliant... in a perverted sort of way (but only at the end) lol

[greganwortman]

outstanding!

[darklightthecatalyst]

Wooow, this is really good xD keep it coming! O.o

[jo51bev]

really clever and very well filmed! i'd love to see more!

[111films]

wow..that is really neat..

[SomeGuyWhoMakesVids]

preety cool

[yanndick]

GREAT !

[asumazilla]

Awesome.

[majawow]

humans think they re rulers of this world, they re arogant, don t understand laws of nature and that s why birds attact them.warning...

[suburbandrone]

did you listen to Zizek? have you ever studied art or film? are you able to interpret something without being told how? to settle on your explanation of the birds attacking is limited, sad, and simply no fun.

[undeny]

cool

[angelinakitty]

this guy is great. thanks so much for this vid.

[luxOculta]

great!!!!

more please.