Warning, “Shame” is a film not for the puritan or the deprived. It is one for the mature and the artistically intelligent. It is also not a film for the delicate, of which I must admit I am. If you could not sit through “Clockwork Orange” this is not a film for you. “Shame” is defined in the Webster dictionary as “a painful feeling of having lost the respect of others because of the improper behavior, incompetence, etc. of oneself or of someone that one is close to or associated with.” The British artist Steve McQueen takes this concept into the relationship of a brother “Brandon” (played by Michael Fassbender) and sister Sissy (played by Carey Mulligan) bound by blood and a hint of a dark past in his latest film. This is a very dark exploration of a man lost in the underbelly of perverted desires and a sister lost in needs to both self mutilate and chose relations with individuals unavailable and unattainable.
As I watch this movie I was struck by the depravity it showed. I imagine censors and critics will not be kind to its explicit content. McQueen’s style reminded me a bit of Kubrick in subject matter and its stress on the visual over verbal exploration of the characters. I was also reminded of the film “sex lies & video tape” in that one of the most important moments in the film was a choice not to act or to act completely against what was normal for the main character.
This film is very explicit. At the same time I must state that art to be truthful must reflect the reality of our current culture. I do not approve of the actions of the main character at all. As a woman, I personally would approve of a respectful relationship with an intimacy that unfortunately is difficult to find at best. Yet I see the need for a film like this. We can hide all we want the truth of the dark side of our current culture; however the reality is that there are relationships and men and women like this. These two individuals represent the effects of abuse. I wondered as I watched the film what kind of past led this brother and sister to be who they are. According to the female lead, little was done in the form of creating a past life for her character, and yet every action and verbal exchange demonstrated a depth of past pain. The sister is desperate for attention, even if it means violating the vows of others. The brother is a man whose need for physical instant gratification supersedes a need for real human contact. When he is offered the possibility of humane intimacy he runs from it. At the same time he lectures his sister about the shame her actions bring to him, actions that he himself is guilty of. At the final moment one wonders if his shame can cure him. I also see the complexity of the sister brother dichotomy. Does a brother respect other women as he should his sister? Is it right he demand that his sister respect relationships and vows he himself is willing to ignore to fulfill his needs?
We cannot hide that our society is flawed. I myself have met men like the one portrayed in this film. The question is will we be remembered for seeing the flaws our suppressive and abusive society has caused and finding a way to mature and overcome them, or will we sink further into a need to hide our shame and cloak the truth in portraits of false innocence. I say this because sometimes the best way to cure a problem is to reveal it is there. This film was incredibly difficult for me to watch. I myself have been abused. The awareness of their existence and the humiliation of their attempt to pull me into their world have tainted my life in ways I am still fighting to heal from. An alcoholic needs to admit there is a problem before the disease can be cured. Forcing a good dose of Sunday school and sermonizing will not cure a man who is so deprived of normal intimacy. Shame must come from within to affect a desire to change. In the end I was left wondering if the brother in the end finally realized his salvation from his shame or if he would continue as he is. The truth of our culture today is that there is abuse. There is a lack of intimacy between men and women. There is shame. Recognizing that there are problems in the connection between men and women, husband and wives, boyfriend and girlfriends, sister and brothers, is the first step toward a change to intimacy, love and perhaps salvation. We cannot expect to take a man who is willing to step into the dark side of humanity without conscious and change him by forcing normalcy. That change must come from within.
This film was incredibly hard for me to watch. I personally would not recommend it to someone who would shy away from the obscene or explicit. But it does have artistic merit. Unfortunately it is a plausible story for our times. Truth is at the root of real art and without it there can be no change for the better. I would never want a man to treat me the way the lead does in this film, but recognizing that is a good thing. It is my truth. I see the beauty that can be in an intimacy shared between two people who act from the heart and not a place of shame or disgrace. The lead for one moment almost had it and depending on how you see the end, may have it again. For the record, I would personally require dates, and a level of private intimacy not demonstrated by this film and I think so should I hope most women, but we do live in difficult times. We need to learn to be more mature and less judgmental and willingness I think to help those in pain to heal. The danger of this film is if we also do not make art and film that reflects healing and growth and the effect of being strong enough to find real emotional connections and real emotional bonds.