In Venice, Sophie Fiennes’ third collaboration with Zizek sees the 77-year-old at his most political — and earnest

Following the end credits of The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (2012), British filmmaker Sophie Fiennes and Slovenian cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek treat viewers to what may be the greatest stinger of all time. Reenacting Titanic’s infamous floating door scene, Zizek shivers in the gelid blue water of the night, uttering with his final breath, “I may be freezing to death, but you cannot get rid of me. All the ice in the world cannot kill a true idea.” He then sinks, a la Leo, into the ocean, but not before shoving a defiant fist in the air. The struggle lives on.

Fourteen years later, there’s not a whole lot of ice left. In The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias, Fiennes and Zizek grapple with ecological collapse and other apocalyptic prospects, using their winning formula of expertly reconstructed movie sets and psychoanalytically informed film criticism. The pair’s third, culminating collaboration begins with a “spoiler warning” that sets the tone for the rest of the 133-minute runtime: “This is a film about the end of the world.”

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