Film "Shame": reviews and reviews

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The drama "Shame" by British filmmaker Stephen McQueen won ardent love from critics, received an impressive number of flattering reviews and awards, including four prizes at the Venice Film Festival. After the release in wide distribution, the picture became the subject of public attention. She has already reacted not so unequivocally to the film "Shame". Reviews from moviegoers, however, are mostly positive. However, among the enthusiasm and admiration slips a lot of negative remarks, full of misunderstanding and bewilderment.

The plot of the film is uncomplicated, if not simple, which, however, is compensated by the charismatic performance of Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Their characters created a serious conflict in the midst of naturalistic sex scenes, impressive New York backdrops and the general monotony of the scenario of the film "Shame". The film, reviews (the plot gave a lot of reasons for discussion) and reviews wesee below.

The plot of the film "Shame"

Fassbender's character Brandon is a successful Manhattan resident whose appearance is obscenely attractive. Besides, he's just a model of respectability. However, there is a restrained inexpressiveness in him, a detachment in his eyes, which from the first frames hint at some flaws in his personality.

A man demonstrates an icy indifference to everything except sex, which is the only stimulus for his existence, destroying all emotionality and he althy interest in anything other than sexual intercourse.

The meaning of the life of a well-fed New Yorker has become porn videos from the Internet, sex chats, prostitutes, disposable women and constant masturbation. However, Brandon does not see this as a problem until his hysterical sister bursts into the hero’s apartment, whose eccentricity and impulsiveness breaks his usual way of life, causing aggression, disgust and deep shame in the man.

Genius performance by Michael Fassbender

Brandon's inner emptiness was masterfully conveyed by Michael Fassbender. You feel it physically. It invisibly permeates the entire film "Shame" from beginning to end. Reviews of the audience about his game are extremely enthusiastic, because it is she who sets the tone for the picture. Yes, and critics, not without reason, say that the role of a mature man suffering from satyriasis is Fassbender's best work in his entire career.

Brandon's sluggish movements, his words that he seems to squeeze out of himself with difficulty, an expressionless look and emotional sterilitythe hero is made to feel uncomfortable, as if in a strange world in which there is no place for anything human.

Brandon cannot be unbalanced. The boss can find gigabytes of porn on his work computer, and the sister can call on the phone, appealing to his brotherly feelings, he will treat this coldly, and his eyes will light up only with the anticipation of a new one-time connection. However, the arrival of Sissy will bring real chaos to his life, as well as to the whole movie "Shame".

Actors and reviews: Carey Mulligan as Sissy

An emotional, suicidal jazz singer breaks into the bathroom while Brandon is masturbating, witnesses his sex games on chat, and to top it off, brings his boss's brother to the apartment to have sex with.

Together with the deliberate impudence and promiscuity in the behavior of Sissi, she demonstrates sensitivity and vulnerability. Attempts to get through to Brandon, as well as to lovers, fail, exposing the soul to the audience, defenseless and rejected by everyone. Sissi is woven of contradictions, like the song New York, New York, which paradoxically turned from a catchy hit into a sad ballad in her performance. The combination of monstrous tactlessness and unbridledness with rejected sincerity naturally arouses pity in the viewer or scornful disgust, coupled with indignation.

Sissy is the true opposite of Brandon. And Carey Mulligan performed this role soundly, as evidenced by the award she received at the Hollywood Film Festival for the bestsupporting role. Sissi brought a lot of emotion to Shame. Reviews about the game of actors, however, are unequal. The audience reacts rather reservedly to Mulligan, and Fassbender gets the real laurels.

Ambiguous relationship between the characters

The main stumbling block in the analysis of the film is the painful relationship between Cissy and Brandon, which makes the film "Shame" a real mystery. Reviews and reviews are full of assumptions. According to critics, Sissi is not only a burden for her brother, but also a woman with whom Brandon, in principle, cannot have anything, which is why she becomes an extra element in his life.

The audience is either outraged by the behavior of the protagonist, or they condemn his sister, and some even catch notes of incest in their relationship. Scenes seem too strange and ambiguous when Sissy appears naked in front of Brandon, climbs into his bed or fights with his naked brother on the couch. Some viewers consider her to be an erotomaniac, and the conflict between the characters is attributed to Brandon's perverted jealousy.

However, this idea seems absurd to many. Everyone sees the painful relationship of the characters in their own way. After all, the conflict is based on how an individual perceives the film "Shame". Reviews also vary on Brandon's underlying problem.

Addiction or lifestyle?

Controversial was the dependence on the sex of the protagonist. Many people wonder if he is really sick? Perhaps Brandon's lifestyle is a common occurrence in today's world.society, which is simply not customary to declare openly? Such a question is put before the viewer by the film "Shame" (film, 2011). Reviews, however, indicate that the majority perceives his behavior as a sexual pathology that should at least be treated by a specialist.

The appearance of Sissy on the stage leads him to realize his own inferiority and the need for change. However, the first relationship in several years with a work colleague, Marianne, only aggravates the situation, because Brandon's body refuses him, as soon as feelings appear on the horizon. Failed intimacy pushes him back, leading the hero to a real emotional crisis.

The problem of addiction of this kind makes the film "Shame" non-trivial. Reviews from moviegoers put him on a par with the notorious film Requiem for a Dream. Dependence, however, as well as hopelessness, are a unifying factor for them. For some, the needle, for others, sex serves as the basis for total degradation of the individual.

Erotic orgy

Stephen McQueen filled the film with an impressive amount of sex scenes. However, endless sexual intercourse, masturbation, naked genitals, contrary to expectations, did not cause much indignation, indignation and complaints about the director, who boldly demonstrates soft porn on the screens. Naturalism, as the audience notes, harmoniously fits into the film "Shame". Moviegoers' reviews are extremely tolerant, perhaps because Brandon's eroticism initially looks like a pathology. In the context of the protagonist's problem, sex itselfbecomes asexual, painful, cold, repulsive. In Steve McQueen's film, it is intended to induce shame, although it is filmed with obvious aesthetics.

Innuendo

The object of heated discussion was the understatement that permeates the film "Shame". The description and reviews of it eloquently hint that much will remain unclear and foggy for the viewer.

In the phrases of the heroes there are only hints that encourage reflection and conjecture. The lack of clear explanations and the mute reality of the conflict alarm and irritate many moviegoers, provoking negative responses. McQueen's picture is reproached for the lack of depth, ideas, global design.

Many are wondering: why make such a movie? However, if for some this film is an empty story about a horny clerk and his stupid negligent sister, then for others it is a catalyst for assumptions and ground for reflection.

That woman

The image of the same woman with a wedding ring on her finger, whom Brandon meets in the subway car at the beginning and at the end of the film "Shame" (film, 2011), will also become the object of all kinds of fantasies.

Reviews about her are full of guesswork. The image is deliberately symbolic, and the viewer will have to analyze this symbolism, as well as the entire film, on their own. Innocence at the beginning and blatant vulgarity at the end are interpreted differently. For some, the image of a woman on the subway is a reflection of the changes in Brandon's personality, for others it is part of the entourage created by McQueen.

Profound changes of the main character alsohighly controversial. Everyone will perceive the film "Shame" in their own way. Reviews and reviews of the work of the British filmmaker make us perceive a film full of mysteries as a blank slate (tabula rasa), on which an attentive viewer will write whatever fantasy dictates to him.

In conclusion

Shame is unanswered questions that few people like. The drama, in fact, borders on arthouse, which obviously means that it is unlikely to be of interest to the general public. Understatement, depressive atmosphere, monotonous course of events annoy many. However, having shot the film "Shame", the credit (reviews confirm this) of the trust of fans of non-standard cinema Stephen McQueen nevertheless justified.