Saw Teorema for the first time last night. The seductions were all much more matter-of-fact than I’d expected and I was surprised that the real substance of the film seemed to lie in their aftermath. Once the middle class is enlightened by the truth of communism we can never return to the banality of bourgeois life? Having tasted the apple of the tree of knowledge we will be driven mad by the promise of that which we can never experience again?
I liked some thought-provoking touches: the replacement domestic is largely interchangeable with the revolutionary first, complete with the same name. The enlightened servant doesn’t successfully organize a mass of workers, but rather dies a martyred saint. The enlightened bourgeoisie likewise suffer alienation from their class, cut off from what had been seemingly fulfilling albeit perhaps empty bonds.
In other news I just learned that Baldur von Schirach’s mother was from Philadelphia. Puts a new spin on Vonnegut and Pynchon for me. After finishing Speer’s memoirs I think I’ll have a look at von Schirach.
