Slavoj Žižek: Blofeld rides again (The Guardian) – None of this is a product of my subconscious. In fact, we're at a studio near Dublin, working on The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, a film in which the Marxist provocateur and bestselling philosopher is starring as himself, albeit in a series of loving re-creations of movie scenes. What's being mocked up now is a key moment from the 1966 classic Seconds, about an unhappy executive who assumes a new identity. Žiz?ek is in the Rock Hudson role. I have been handed a pair of glasses and am appearing as a supporting character. Or rather, the back of my head is.
Jim Emerson kirjoittaa alastomuudesta fiktioelokuvissa – I am of two (or three) minds about this. Yes, nudity can distract you from the story when you start thinking about the performer more than the character. (On the other hand, when naked Viggo Mortensen was getting kicked and punched in that sauna in David Cronenberg's "Eastern Promises," my empathy for his character's vulnerability was only intensified.) I suppose Julianne Moore's bottomless argument with her husband Matthew Modine in Robert Altman's "Short Cuts" was somewhat distracting in some ways at first, but as the scene went on it seemed more and more natural — much less absurdly artificial than, say, those damn bed scenes where the sheets are used as enormous pasties.
