But after watching it, I feel that Shame did not describe 100% force in "sex addiction restricted like drug use". In the first half of the movie, Brandon’s sexual habit can only be said to be "far more enthusiastic than ordinary people" rather than "severely addicted to out of control", but that seems to be his dirty little secret. He is under a perfect appearance. Hidden well. Cece's arrival in the second half led to an increase in the situation of his trapped beast. Cece is the inducement of all Brandon's dramatic actions in this play. The director of her first scene deliberately let her be naked in front of her brother (and for a long time). The existence of Cece obviously forced Brandon's perfect cover to gradually loosen. She let her brother shrink in grief in the living room, she let her brother smashed the computer and lost all the pornographic magazines and wanted to have a girlfriend. The dispute between the two led to the last continuous painful sex scenes and 3P shots of the film.
Therefore, does the so-called "Shame" in this film refer to "sex addiction" or "the ambiguity between Brandon and his sister"? I must say that after watching the movie, I think it is the latter. If the director wants to emphasize the former, he is obviously out of focus on the main axis of the plot. Of course, it's not that sibling incest and sex addiction cannot go hand in hand, but no matter which side (or at the same time) the director wants to emphasize, it seems that it is not clear to the point of cruelty. Maybe they want to leave a lot of space for the audience to imagine, but this can be regarded as the advantage of the film, or it can be said to be a major disadvantage. After the strength is dispersed, the whole film is weakened in terms of humanity, desire, despair, and cruelty.
This movie is full of many combinations similar to the above-mentioned "both advantages and disadvantages", making it a matter of opinion whether it is considered an "extremely outstanding" movie. Take the soundtrack as an example. At the beginning, the soundtrack of the subway station is broken and beautiful, but it also weakens the impact of Brandon’s fascination with sex. It is more like portraying Brandon as a Greek tragic character (suddenly reminds me Incest in the Greek tragedy is also fixed), instead of using a realistic method to show the naked sense of helplessness, if I can, I would prefer it to remove the soundtrack altogether. Beautiful shots are the feature of this film. The director likes to leave Fassy in a corner of the screen. This is a design that I like very much. There are also a lot of soft focus and montage, which make this film more like a sad poem rather than a cruel documentary. Although the emergence of a large number of long shots succeeded in reaching the extension of the sad mood, they were sometimes too long to radiate the emotions of the audience, but they were not the kind that many French films liked to use and were long enough to make the audience feel ruthless and unobtrusive.
In addition, although some shots are beautiful and sad, they seem to be shot for the sake of shooting. For example, the scene where Brandon went to the beach and wept bitterly. Fassy's performance here is wonderful and delicate, as if all the lights around him were dimmed and only a SPOT LIGHT hit him as dramatic, but why did he go to the beach and cry? Why not cry in the toilet of the hospital? Makes the meaning behind this lens a bit ingenious. The small and small shortcomings made the film finally lead to "the audience is watching Brandon trapped inside through a cage." I have to quote a friend’s comment here, "After reading it, I would like to pay Brandon and Cece to go to the doctor soon" instead of "It's over, I'm so desperate, I want to see a doctor." Therefore, as a more difficult viewer, this film gave me too little connection, resonance, and pain, which made it difficult for me to give it too high a rating.
However, from the perspective of an actor alone, this is undoubtedly the perfect solo show of Michael Fassbender. For SOLO SHOW, it is a perfect score. The director and Fassy seem to trust each other completely. The director gave Fassy perfect angles, light and shadow, and a lot of close-up shots. Fassy's performance is also poetic, sad and beautiful enough to withstand those close inspections. Other actors, whether it is Cece or the black girlfriend Marion, have all become prop-type characters that promote Brandon's emotions. Fassy alone is the highest energy and light in this film, even surpassing the film itself. Of course, the lack of interaction between the characters is also one of the reasons for the lack of connection between the film and the audience. That's why I said that the advantages of this movie happen to be its disadvantages. If you look at it from a different angle, it may be loved, but when an actor is so good that it surpasses the movie, the movie itself may hardly be perfect.
But I still have a few favorite passages. For example, Brandon heard Cece crying and wooing his lover on the other side of the phone through the door, and he heard tears. For example, Brandon’s boss, David, had an affair himself, but said that having a lot of heavy-tasting porn is perverted. These two images make it easy to feel the distance between Brandon and the world around him, and how deep in his heart he desires to love. It is a pity not to continue to do more powerful extensions.
In the end, my friends and I hope that Lars Von Tier can find Fassy to act. Since he is an actor with such a high degree of plasticity, I really hope to see what kind of energy he can explode under the pressure of Lars Von Tier, a sadistic director (actor abuse, audience abuse, self abuse).
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