{243}{368}The problem for us is not,|"Are our desires satisfied or not?" {445}{529}The problem is,|"How do we know what we desire?" {531}{677}There is nothing spontaneous,|nothing natural, about human desires. {736}{799}Our desires are artificial. {815}{888}We have to be taught to desire. {916}{996}Cinema is the ultimate pervert art. {1028}{1151}It doesn't give you what you desire,|it tells you how to desire. {1232}{1376}The Pervert's Guide to Cinema {1445}{1525}Presented by|philosopher and psychoanalyst {1528}{1591}Slavoj ?i?ek {2042}{2187}Oh, I do like you, but it just isn't good enough. {2364}{2469}Oh, I forgot.|Your mother asked me up for supper. {2471}{2569}Okay. Bring some ice cream with you, will you? {2572}{2647}Sure. What kind do you want,|chocolate or vanilla? {2650}{2694}- Chocolate.|- Okay. {2697}{2807}What we get|in this wonderful clip from Possessed {2809}{2956}is commentary on the magic art of cinema|within a movie. {2981}{3111}We have an ordinary working-class girl,|living in a drab, small provincial town. {3115}{3242}All of a sudden she finds herself|in a situation where reality itself {3245}{3343}reproduces the magic cinematic experience. {3356}{3526}She approaches the rail,|the train is passing, and it is as if {3546}{3700}what in reality is just a person|standing near a slowly passing train {3732}{3899}turns into a viewer|observing the magic of the screen. {5150}{5193}Have a drink? {5262}{5333}Oh, don't go away. Looking in? {5368}{5432}Wrong way. Get in and look out. {5448}{5546}We get a very real, ordinary scene {5548}{5656}onto which the heroine's inner space, as it were, {5659}{5728}her fantasy space is projected, {5731}{5876}so that, although all reality is simply there,|the train, the girl, {5878}{6003}part of reality in her perception|and in our viewer's perception {6005}{6168}is, as it were, elevated to the magic level,|becomes the screen of her dreams. {6179}{6255}This is cinematic art at its purest. {6451}{6578}This is your last chance.|After this there is no turning back. {6601}{6687}You take the blue pill, the story ends. {6705}{6802}You wake up in your bed|and believe whatever you want to believe. {6805}{6894}You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland {6920}{7009}and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. {7236}{7343}But the choice between the blue and the red pill {7346}{7460}is not really a choice between illusion and reality. {7472}{7580}Of course, the Matrix is a machine for fictions, {7582}{7733}but these are fictions|which already structure our reality. {7736}{7904}If you take away from our reality|the symbolic fictions that regulate it, {7906}{7965}you lose reality itself. {7980}{8104}I want a third pill. So what is the third pill? {8147}{8285}Definitely not some kind of|transcendental pill which enables a fake, {8288}{8435}fast-food religious experience,|but a pill that would enable me {8444}{8557}to perceive not the reality behind the illusion {8559}{8694}but the reality in illusion itself. {8704}{8901}If something gets too traumatic, too violent,|even too filled with enjoyment, {8927}{9076}it shatters the coordinates of our reality.|We have to fictionalise it. {9626}{9710}The first key to horror films is to say, {9713}{9841}"Let's imagine the same story|but without the horror element." {9850}{9932}This gives us, I think, the background. {10035}{10097}We're in the middle of Bodega Bay, {10100}{10196}where the action of Hitchcock's Birds takes place. {10432}{10621}Birds is a film about a young, rich, socialite girl {10624}{10718}from San Francisco who falls in love with a guy, {10754}{10804}goes after him to Bodega Bay, {10806}{10909}where she discovers|that he lives with his mother. {10922}{11011}Of course, it's none of my business,|but when you bring a girl like that... {11013}{11064}- Darling?|- Yes? {11073}{11165}I think I can handle Melanie Daniels by myself. {11180}{11286}Well, as long as you know what you want, Mitch. {11343}{11384}I know exactly what I want. {11386}{11498}And then, there is the standard oedipal imbroglio {11500}{11580}of incestuous tension between mother and son, {11583}{11710}the son split between|his possessive mother and the intrusive girl. {11721}{11810}- What's the matter with them?|- What's the matter with all the birds? {11813}{11908}- Where do you want this coffee?|- Here on the table, honey. {11910}{11959}Hurry up with yours, Mitch. {11962}{12038}I'm sure Miss Daniels wants to be on her way. {12041}{12110}I think you ought to stay the night, Melanie. {12114}{12174}We have an extra room upstairs and everything. {12180}{12302}The big question about The Birds,|of course, is the stupid, obvious one, {12306}{12373}"Why do the birds attack?" {12416}{12454}Mitch... {12621}{12797}It is not enough to say that the birds|are part of the natural set-up of reality. {12802}{12919}It is rather as if a foreign dimension intrudes {12922}{13020}that literally tears apart reality. {13112}{13229}We humans are not naturally born into reality. {13231}{13358}In order for us to act as normal people|who interact with other people {13360}{13426}who live in the space of social reality, {13429}{13522}many things should happen.|Like, we should be properly installed {13525}{13585}within the symbolic order and so on. {13587}{13745}When this, our proper dwelling|within a symbolic space, is disturbed, {13748}{13793}reality disintegrates. {13904}{13990}So, to propose the psychoanalytic formula, {14015}{14151}the violent attacks of the birds|are obviously explosive outbursts {14154}{14263}of maternal superego,|of the maternal figure preventing, {14267}{14355}trying to prevent sexual relationship. {14382}{14479}So the birds are raw, incestuous energy. {14556}{14640}What am I doing? I'm sorry, now I got it. {14839}{14962}My God, I'm thinking like Melanie.|You know what I'm thinking now? {14988}{15061}"I want to fuck Mitch."|That's what she was thinking. {15063}{15143}No. Sorry, sorry, sorry. {15154}{15269}Oh my God, I got this spontaneous|confusion of directions. {15568}{15604}Mrs Bates. {16009}{16142}We are in the cellar of the mother's house|from Psycho. {16162}{16294}What's so interesting is that|the very disposition of mother's house... {16335}{16455}Events took place in it at three levels, {16488}{16588}first floor, ground floor, basement. {16610}{16772}It is as if they reproduce the three levels|of human subjectivity. {16829}{16887}Ground floor is ego. {16894}{16981}Norman behaves there as a normal son, {17008}{17098}whatever remains of his normal ego taking over. {17133}{17193}Up there, it's the superego. {17257}{17337}Maternal superego, because the dead mother {17339}{17409}is basically a figure of superego. {17411}{17527}No, Mother. I'm gonna bring something up. {17554}{17662}I am sorry, boy,|but you do manage to look ludicrous {17664}{17749}when you give me orders.|- Please, Mother. {17752}{17837}No, I will not hide in the fruit cellar. {17875}{17936}You think I'm fruity, huh? {17945}{18063}And down in the cellar, it's the id, {18087}{18201}the reservoir of these illicit drives. {18242}{18399}So we can then interpret the event|in the middle of the film, {18401}{18524}when Norman carries the mother {18526}{18667}or, as we learn at the end,|mother's mummy, corpse, skeleton, {18670}{18741}from the first floor to the cellar. {18744}{18847}You won't do it again. Not ever again.|Now get out. {18877}{18970}- I told you to get out, boy.|- I'll carry you, Mother. {18972}{19116}It's as if he is transposing her in his own mind {19119}{19276}as the psychic agency from superego to id. {19326}{19413}Put me down. Put me down.|I can walk on my own... {19416}{19552}Of course, the lesson of it is the old lesson|elaborated already by Freud, {19555}{19671}that superego and id are deeply connected. {19678}{19768}The mother complains first,|as a figure of authority, {19770}{19876}"How can you be doing this to me?|Aren't you ashamed? {19878}{20032}"This is a fruit cellar." And then,|mother immediately turns into obscenity, {20034}{20097}"Do you think I'm fruity?" {20099}{20238}Superego is not an ethical agency.|Superego is an obscene agency, {20241}{20374}bombarding us with impossible orders,|laughing at us, {20377}{20517}when, of course, we cannot ever fulfil its demand. {20533}{20635}The more we obey it, the more it makes us guilty. {20644}{20783}There is always some aspect|of an obscene madman {20786}{20858}in the agency of the superego. {21072}{21196}We often find references to psychoanalysis {21206}{21317}embodied in the very relations between persons. {21346}{21426}For example, the three Marx Brothers, {21428}{21540}Groucho, Chico, Harpo. {21548}{21643}It's clear that Groucho, the most popular one, {21645}{21776}with his nervous hyper-activity, is superego. {21778}{21868}Well, that covers a lot of ground.|Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself. {21871}{21923}You better beat it.|I hear they're gonna tear you down {21926}{21975}and put up an office building|where you're standing. {21977}{22055}You can leave in a taxi. If you can't get|a taxi, you can leave in a huff. {22058}{22113}If that's too soon,|you can leave in a minute and a huff. {22116}{22173}You know you haven't stopped talking|since I came here? {22180}{22338}Chico, the rational guy, egotistic,|calculating all the time, is ego. {22375}{22495}Chicolini, you're charged with high treason,|and if found guilty, you'll be shot. {22498}{22563}- I object.|- Oh, you object? {22566}{22658}- On what grounds?|- I couldn't think of anything else to say. {22661}{22697}Objection sustained. {22699}{22867}And, the weirdest of them all, Harpo,|the mute guy, he doesn't talk. {22876}{23055}Freud said that drives are silent.|He doe...
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