So if we’re going to ‘ruin’ any Christmas movies with a Zizekian interpretation, it simply must be the Frank Capra’s classic It’s a Wonderful Life. (Notably, James Stewart is the lead actor in this film and in Hitchcock’s Rear Window, a Zizek favorite.)
The clip (shown above) shows life as if George Bailey, the film’s protagonist, had never been born. Clarence, George’s guardian angel, in a last ditch effort to gain his wings, shows George life in Bedford Falls (which has become Pottersville, named after the evil antagonist banker of the film, Ben Potter) without him. (A Marxist reading of this film would be delightful were it not for the confines of time, so Real during the week before finals.) As George walks through town, all that was once beautiful and familiar is no longer. Everyone and every place become unheimlich; what’s worse is that George is a mere observer…the man who knows too much and so all of his interactions with people are rendered uncanny. The tree he hit with his car after a night of collegiate-level consumption? Gone. The barkeep named Martini? No, his name is Nick and the only thing he’s serving is a black-eye to George Bailey. And his wife, Mary? The horror: “a spinster, George!”
Interestingly, the softly falling snow seems to signify the oral stage, increasing, we move into the anal stage, and by the phallic stage, it’s a blizzard. The camera work follows the stages as well; the anal stage is a “montage,” according to Zizek, and as such, the scenes become increasingly fragmented; what was once a bizarre scenario of life without George Bailey has become a frightening series of short clips consisting mainly of George running about town in panic. (I might also point out that, excepting the happy ending, American Psycho ends in a similar vein with Patrick Bateman running direction-less, full of dread and despair.)
December 7, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Apparently, without George, there is no heterosexuality either, as the town has become queer space in the transformation from Bedford Falls to Pottersville. We begin the clip with a post-coital scene of two men in their underwear, right after they have just “taken the plunge” together, with Clarence in his femme gown and George in the more manly longjohns. Martini’s seems to have been transformed into a gay bar, as almost everyone there is grouped in same sex pairs, and those who aren’t seem to be crossdressing (e.g., the man dressed as Princess Leia from Star Wars). George seems to want to continue further his earlier adventure with Clarence, as he starts feeding him lines, either trying to pick him up (“Hey, little fellow, you worry me. You got some place to sleep?” or offering himself as trade (“You got any money?”). Only the bartender doesn’t realize it’s a gay bar, as he tosses Clarence and George for their queer behavior (“Out you two pixies go”).
And Mary, a “spinster,” yeah, right.