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FILM PREVIEW: 'SHAME' TRAILER

Carey Mulligan’s New Erotic Thriller Features Images Fraught with Frenetic Energy

October 24, 2011

(Fox Searchlight Pictures - Release date: December 2, 2011) This awards season, a dark horse enters the race. Fox Searchlight Pictures recently acquired the rights for U.S. distribution of Steve McQueen’s Shame -- an erotic thriller about a sex addict. Starring Michael Fassbender (Hunger, Inglourious Basterds) and Carey Mulligan (An Education, Drive), the film has received critical acclaim at film festivals and sparked controversy over its graphic sex scenes. The first trailer for Shame reveals a tantalizing glimpse into the movie’s style and plot.

Shame on buzzine.com Brandon (Fassbender) is a corporate New Yorker with a sex addiction. He spends his nights in cheap motel rooms with increasingly unhealthy one-night stands. His meticulous rhythm and routine is interrupted when his younger sister (Mulligan) comes to stay with him. Though we don’t yet know how deep this addiction goes, the trailer showcases multiple wayward glances from a variety of seemingly random women, entangled limbs, and Brandon’s heavy panting as he races to escape his demons. Fassbender’s tough, intense acting style will no doubt work wonders with Mulligan’s raw vulnerability. The trailer’s images are fraught with a frenetic energy -- the sense of something brewing just under the surface.

Shame is Fassbender’s second film with director Steve McQueen. The duo worked together on McQueen’s feature debut, Hunger -- a 2008 film about the 1981 Irish hunger strike that earned McQueen the Camera d’Or at Cannes, and Fassbender the Best Actor Award at the British Independent Film Awards. The team behind Shame has other potential Oscar projects circulating at the festivals as well. McQueen co-wrote Shame with The Iron Lady screenwriter Abi Morgan, and Fassbender plays Carl Jung in Cronenberg’s A Dangerous Method.

Shame premiered at the 68th annual Venice Film Festival and has already wracked up several awards. In Venice, the film took home Best Film (the "CinemAvvenire" Award and Fipresci Prize) and Best Actor (Volpi Cup), while Carey Mulligan won Best Supporting Actress of the Year from the Hollywood Film Festival. After its runaway success of Black Swan at the Oscars last year, Fox Searchlight Pictures has planned a bold campaign for Best Director, Picture, Original Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actress, and Cinematography. If Shame succeeds at the box office and with the Academy, this shows a remarkable step forward for the film industry. Its divisive content includes full frontal, orgies, a hint of incest, and brutal violence. The film seeks to address how sex permeates our everyday lives and exposes the descent of a man who cannot resist his carnal urges.

Searchlight’s President Steve Gilula commented to The Hollywood Reporter: “NC-17 is a badge of honor, not a scarlet letter… I’m optimistic that this will be a significant film and change the attitude of people toward this kind of subject matter.” Shame is about something everyone has dealt with on one level or another but is largely glossed over in mainstream movies. I, for one, hope that the provocative film not only pushes boundaries but obliterates them, and takes the award season by storm.

For Fans Of: An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Black Swan

Why We're Excited: Carey Mulligan, Oscar Buzz, Team Buzzine Hearts Sex