Shame

  • 99'
  • UK
  • 2011

The bare prison cell of IRA man Bobby Sands in Hunger has been exchanged in Steve McQueen’s second feature for the equally suffocating space in the head of New Yorker Brandon Sullivan, again a striking role by Michael Fassbender. Sullivan’s existence revolves around sex: with whores, on the phone, with colleagues or women he picks up in the clubs of a sterile blue Manhattan, Sullivan’s personal laboratory. That daily routine of emotionless sex is disrupted when Sullivan’s younger sister Sissy moves in with him. The shadows of a past that injured both of them slowly intrude. But where Sissy directs her destructive tendencies within and lets the world overwhelm her, Sullivan keeps them at a distance.

As in Hunger, McQueen is a man of few words. Shame is as physical and naked as Hunger, equally focussed on textures and sounds that make the space of the cell visible. Ironically, in this case it is the total freedom of unbridled consumption of bodies with which Sullivan creates that prison.

  • 99'
  • UK
  • 2011
Director
Steve McQueen
Country of production
UK
Year
2011
Festival Edition
IFFR 2012
Length
99'
Medium
DCP
Language
English
Producers
Iain Canning, Emile Sherman
Production Company
See-Saw Films
Sales
HanWay Films
Screenplay
Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan
Cinematography
Sean Bobbitt
Editor
Joe Walker
Production Design
Judy Becker
Sound Design
Glenn Freemantle
Music
Harry Escott
Cast
Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan
Local Distributor
Cinéart Netherlands
Website
http://see-saw-films.com/film/shame/#visuals
Director
Steve McQueen
Country of production
UK
Year
2011
Festival Edition
IFFR 2012
Length
99'
Medium
DCP
Language
English
Producers
Iain Canning, Emile Sherman
Production Company
See-Saw Films
Sales
HanWay Films
Screenplay
Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan
Cinematography
Sean Bobbitt
Editor
Joe Walker
Production Design
Judy Becker
Sound Design
Glenn Freemantle
Music
Harry Escott
Cast
Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan
Local Distributor
Cinéart Netherlands
Website
http://see-saw-films.com/film/shame/#visuals