The film Zizek! follows a Slovenian philosopher of the same name on a portion of a lecture tour and bills itself as a "compelling portrait of an intellectual maverick," who is apparently also "one of the most important -- and outrageous -- cultural theorists working today." If you are already a great fan of Slavoj Zizek or of contemporary philosophy, or have an especially high tolerance for double-talk, you may get something beneficial from the film. If not, perhaps this time might be better spent catching up on the reality show of your choice.
If the film Zizek! is difficult to follow, it is not because of any inaccessible ideas therein but, instead, because of their extremely fragmentary arrangement and, in fairness, Zizek's thick accent and habit of speaking in broken thoughts. His much-avowed belief in the necessity of indirection and metaphorical obscurity can't help matters either.
Fortunately for us viewers, the film periodically cuts to still-frame shots of expository text taken largely, it seems, from Zizek's writings. It's understandable, but still frustrating, that he can explain himself with reasonable clarity in writing while spewing either incoherent self-aggrandizement or pseudo-intellectual nonsense the minute he opens his mouth.
Zizek seems to do most of his thinking in empty, impassioned generalizations and overworked analogies (exactly the sort of thing he criticizes the public for thinking philosophers do), and the structured nature of writing is universally a great help to the articulation of incomplete ideas. Nonetheless, watching a movie for the captions is a bit like buying a CD for the liner notes, and the experience here is just as dissatisfying.
The film's content is tolerable so long as we neglect to pay attention to it. Zizek is consistently inflated, claiming to be something other than human and styling himself as a sort of psychoanalyst to the world. This air of superiority so permeates the sequences of the film that intend to make him sympathetic -- showing us his kitchen, dining out, going to a video store -- that they have the reverse effect of highlightingZizek's distorted view of the world.
He has some good ideas -- interesting, though tenor-less, ruminations on the rigorous effects of apparent tolerance, and a pretty valid analysis of modern sentiments on gratification -- but these little gems are so overwhelmed by the sequins and cheap candy adorning them that we have a hard time taking them seriously. He spends too much time dwelling on obvious points and seems not to realize that many of "his" ideas, like the absence of a Golden Age of belief and virtue, are in fairly common currency.
Furthermore, for all his criticism, Zizek provides no real answers to any of the "pathological" traits of our society and rationalizes this negligence by claiming that philosophy never provides answers, but merely reframes questions. While this has a kernel of truth in it, it's much too general. Some philosophers of antiquity did indeed refuse to answer the questions they raised, but many throughout history -- Kant especially comes to mind -- have provided real, prescriptive advice.
In one scene, Zizek talks about his compulsion to speak profusely, something with which we have by this point become well acquainted. He says that it's his great fear that, were he to be silent, he would appear vacant of ideas. This is curiously inverted -- in truth, if he were to be silent for a moment and think his statements out before making them, we might respect him. He might even have come up with something to say.
OFFScreen will host a showing of Zizek! this Sunday, Feb. 19, at both 7 and 9 p.m. in Newcomb Theater. Tickets are $3.
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