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MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... viewing day count
259 .......................... 295
__________________________
October 23rd
—— 2011 ——
S H A M E
—— drama ——
REWATCH
Steve McQueen strips the human brain and body bare
with his sophomore effort, Shame...
this review contains spoilers
The movie is bleak in its appearance and even bleaker in its story about appearance, asociality, anxiety and abnormal sexual activity. The distinctive directional style of Steve McQueen goes hand in hand with the intimate and inner struggles of a man, who is mostly driven by lust and dragged down by life. His sexual obsession has distanced himself from any real emotions or relationships, which causes his decisions to cloud up and slowly become a blur based on protective intuition. Siblings and strangers are no longer separated by affection or priority, but begin to break off into little pieces that slowly crumbles in the hands of our main character, Brandon, who can no longer control nor distinguish one from the other, without putting his personal and overly protective and obsessive addiction first, no matter who or what stands in his way.
'Shame' is such a draining, daunting and daring deconstruction of the human brain and body. Together with Steve McQueen's distanced yet dominating direction, it makes for a very different and almost demoralizing cinematic experience. As an audience, we really get to dwell in the deepest state of the mind, uncomfortably lingering in that of loneliness and lust, while (un)willingly being witnesses to how such things may lead to depressive and even deadly conclusions. I love the arc of our main character; how he is first presented as a lone predator of sorts; a man who hunts down women for sex, while surrendering to sad and desperate self-pleasure when there is no woman around to please his needs. And when he finally falls for someone who sees him as a person and not a “paycheck for prostitutes”, he is unable to hand over his heart to a soul mate and actually commit to something genuine. His obsession with sex has steered his every move for far too long and love is too complicated and controlled for his otherwise straight-forward and free-form lifestyle.
His very loose understanding of actual sensual intercourse as an intimate, elegant, experimental as well as essential element in life has been completely cut down in favor of sex as a demand, a need or simply a hobby. So when his mind is presented with love instead of pure and utter lust, his body has nothing familiar to go on, and like his erection, his addiction leaves him weak and helpless when he tries to have sex with someone he really loves. This only makes matters worse and he goes on a sexual vendetta of sorts to overcome his failures and feel dominate and in control again, all the while his grip on relationships, reality, and the repairing of these factors, degrades even further than before. He sends himself down a destructive and almost demonically driven spiral, which sees all of his emotions rage forward in a split set-up of revenge and regret. No matter if he psychologically slaps himself across the soul several times or he gets someone else to physically do it for him, the worst of scars are those he leaves on the ones he cares about, with every step he takes in the wrong direction.
All the while Brendon was a man in desperate need of a true slice of life, someone else was depressingly seeking the same thing; and that slice slit itself a little too close to Brendon and his destructive path of sexual addiction, which has now ended in suicide attempt by his mentally destressed sister. Being too dear to discuss, too fragile to fumble with, too powerful to play around with, too dangerous to disarm, too personal to present, too evolved to erase, too cemented to change and too essential to end, the shame in Brandon has been put on display in the most humiliating and hurtful way possible. ‘Shame’ is a beautifully ugly movie that truly creeps under your skin and slowly forces itself onto your mind throughout. Thankfully though, there is no shame to be said about what McQueen has created here. This is excellent cinema right here.
__________________________
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
total movie count ........... viewing day count
259 .......................... 295
__________________________
October 23rd
—— 2011 ——
S H A M E
—— drama ——
REWATCH
Steve McQueen strips the human brain and body bare
with his sophomore effort, Shame...
this review contains spoilers
The movie is bleak in its appearance and even bleaker in its story about appearance, asociality, anxiety and abnormal sexual activity. The distinctive directional style of Steve McQueen goes hand in hand with the intimate and inner struggles of a man, who is mostly driven by lust and dragged down by life. His sexual obsession has distanced himself from any real emotions or relationships, which causes his decisions to cloud up and slowly become a blur based on protective intuition. Siblings and strangers are no longer separated by affection or priority, but begin to break off into little pieces that slowly crumbles in the hands of our main character, Brandon, who can no longer control nor distinguish one from the other, without putting his personal and overly protective and obsessive addiction first, no matter who or what stands in his way.
'Shame' is such a draining, daunting and daring deconstruction of the human brain and body. Together with Steve McQueen's distanced yet dominating direction, it makes for a very different and almost demoralizing cinematic experience. As an audience, we really get to dwell in the deepest state of the mind, uncomfortably lingering in that of loneliness and lust, while (un)willingly being witnesses to how such things may lead to depressive and even deadly conclusions. I love the arc of our main character; how he is first presented as a lone predator of sorts; a man who hunts down women for sex, while surrendering to sad and desperate self-pleasure when there is no woman around to please his needs. And when he finally falls for someone who sees him as a person and not a “paycheck for prostitutes”, he is unable to hand over his heart to a soul mate and actually commit to something genuine. His obsession with sex has steered his every move for far too long and love is too complicated and controlled for his otherwise straight-forward and free-form lifestyle.
His very loose understanding of actual sensual intercourse as an intimate, elegant, experimental as well as essential element in life has been completely cut down in favor of sex as a demand, a need or simply a hobby. So when his mind is presented with love instead of pure and utter lust, his body has nothing familiar to go on, and like his erection, his addiction leaves him weak and helpless when he tries to have sex with someone he really loves. This only makes matters worse and he goes on a sexual vendetta of sorts to overcome his failures and feel dominate and in control again, all the while his grip on relationships, reality, and the repairing of these factors, degrades even further than before. He sends himself down a destructive and almost demonically driven spiral, which sees all of his emotions rage forward in a split set-up of revenge and regret. No matter if he psychologically slaps himself across the soul several times or he gets someone else to physically do it for him, the worst of scars are those he leaves on the ones he cares about, with every step he takes in the wrong direction.
All the while Brendon was a man in desperate need of a true slice of life, someone else was depressingly seeking the same thing; and that slice slit itself a little too close to Brendon and his destructive path of sexual addiction, which has now ended in suicide attempt by his mentally destressed sister. Being too dear to discuss, too fragile to fumble with, too powerful to play around with, too dangerous to disarm, too personal to present, too evolved to erase, too cemented to change and too essential to end, the shame in Brandon has been put on display in the most humiliating and hurtful way possible. ‘Shame’ is a beautifully ugly movie that truly creeps under your skin and slowly forces itself onto your mind throughout. Thankfully though, there is no shame to be said about what McQueen has created here. This is excellent cinema right here.
__________________________