Meanderings of a Monkey Juggler

Last night saw the show that's entertained me more than any other in recent months.

It was called something along the lines of "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema" and had the most wonderfully accented Eastern European doctor of Psychology presenting it.  The enjoyment came from lots of clips being analysed by this slightly odd Freudian.

So we start with a fillum from 1933 which switches from normality to something far more cinematic as an ordinary girl walks down a street then watches as a train passes and you see lots of little individual stories pass by.  "Za character becomes ze viewer in a way zat has not been done before."

Then we cut to that scene in the Matrix where Whassname offers Neo the blue or red pill.  The red pill stopping the "ride" and "If you take the blue pill; I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes".

Cue presenter:"I do not want one of zees pills.  I'm not interested in stopping ze ride nor do I wish to see the reality behind ze illusion.  I wish to see ze reality OF ze illusion".

And on it went like this for the whole show.

"Psycho is like ze Freudian parts of the ze consiousness. Ze action takes place on 3 levels.  Downstairs ze ego is in charge so ze behaviour is outvardly normal.  Upstairs, where ze mother is, the superego is in charge so der is conflict between Norman and ze mother.  In ze basement ze Id is in charge, dis is where ze acts of brutality are engendered....."

What a wonderful show! Putting Alien and Charlie Chaplin fillums next to each other.  Comparing the Marx brothers to the 3 parts again (Groucho is the Superego, Harpo the Ego and Chico the Id).

Then he's wittering about "ze change in reality where you no longer feel comfortable" as a mechanism in fillum.  He uses a David Lynch fillum (I think it was Mulholland Drive) where someone is singing live and then collapses but the song goes on.  It's a very surprising clip.

Highly entertaining.

Have fun.

[edit, 'cos I just remembered] "Ven ve flush za toilet ve expect not to see what we flush again.  It has gone, as it were, to anaza place, a parallel world if you will.  Za unreality of cinema is like when you flush and za shit comes back out of za toilet and zis surprises us.  When ve sit in ze cinema is ze screen not a toilet and are we not seeing ze shit come back out and surprise us?". Fantastic!