Friday, April 20th - 4:45 pm - Bell Auditorium Director: Sophie Fiennes Attention, All Perverts! And others as well!  Here is your guide to the movies, led by the charismatic Slavoj Zizek, the philosopher and psychoanalyst from a place called Slovenia (he taught at the U of MN in the nineties). In this delightful intellectual feast and exhilarating ride through some of the greatest movies ever made, Zizek passionately delves into the hidden language of the cinema to uncover what movies can tell us about ourselves.

“Cinema is the ultimate pervert art,” says Zizek, tossing off hilarious asides as we find him placed in meticulously recreated settings or original locations of famous films (the bedroom from The Exorcist, the space ship from Solaris, Bodega Bay from The Birds). “It doesn’t give you what you desire. It tells you how to desire.” Subjecting such luminaries as Alfred Hitchcock, Andrei Tarkovsky, Charlie Chaplin to his special analysis, he deepens our own appreciation of the form. Playing wittily with Freudian metaphors, he finds the Marx Brothers, for example, represent the Ego, the Superego, and Id. The sexual subtext is ever-present in the fantasy, anxiety and mortality brought to screen and television. Constructed in three parts, in collaboration with director Sophie Fiennes-- sister to celebrated actors Ralph and Joseph, The Pervert’s Guide is a breathtaking roller-coaster of ideas. His final word: “to understand today’s world we need cinema." A better motto for the festival we couldn’t find. 

Cast: Slavoj Zizek

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