When I was watching this film The Idiots (1998), I felt kind of confused and astonished, not only about the eccentric behaviors of the “idiots” group, but the crude way of shooting and post-production. Sometimes the unstable camera shake, thoughtless composition and movement, and occasional interviews towards the group members pretend this film to be a documentary via hand-held camera. However, the interviews seem to take place chronologically after the story is finished, because the subjects tend to speak in the past tense and sometimes refer to things we did not see. In addition, the occasional scenes that the microphone or camera enters our vision field are deliberately emphasize that it was a film rather than a documentary. Anyway,I think it does not make sense to find the answer that this is a film or a documentary or a documentary within a film through trying to interpret the actions or little tricks of the filmmaker.
As for the structure of the narrative, it seems quite unorganized and digressive in a spontaneous rhythm without focus. The story of Karen which is about her losing her son and leaving her family in pain and then meeting the idiots group, is actually a prologue that serves to introduce the existence of the group. The group, which held on “anti-middle-class” ideology, claims that they are on a quest to search for “inner idiots” to see the world from a vantage point. I think that kind of manifesto is based on the idea that to one way to avoid the alienation of human and maintain the subjectivity in the consumptive society is to refuse participating in the construction, and to pretend fundamentally wacky. If all the normal actions,languages that carries so-called “meaning” are actually faked and fabricated meaning that does not exist in nature but only to be invented to serve to varnish the meaningless reality, then perhaps the abnormality can be an exploration to challenge the fake real and real itself . And since the role of the idiot challenged the normal rationality and the inevitable order, it also verified the value of the film: the fictional viewing is more meaningful than the real experience, and the real simulation is more meaningful than the real itself.the fictional viewing is more meaningful than the real experience, and the real simulation is more meaningful than the real itself.the fictional viewing is more meaningful than the real experience, and the real simulation is more meaningful than the real itself.
View more about The Idiots reviews
