Sightlines · reception
How Shame was received
2011 · Steve McQueen · Shame on Sightlines
The arc
Landed at Venice 2011 as a scandalous NC-17 art film carried by Fassbender's fearless performance, and its stock has only risen since — now remembered as the peak of the McQueen–Fassbender partnership before 12 Years a Slave took McQueen to the Oscars.
What’s debated
Film fans still argue whether it's a devastating portrait of addiction and loneliness or gorgeous, glacial miserabilism — with Carey Mulligan's full-length 'New York, New York' scene the dividing line between 'transcendent' and 'interminable'.
Its footprint
Mulligan's achingly slow 'New York, New York' is the film's calling card, and its NC-17 rating became a story in itself when Fox Searchlight wore it proudly instead of cutting for an R.
Where it stands
A Letterboxd staple of the 'sad men in cities' canon and the middle panel of the McQueen–Fassbender triptych (Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave).
Did you know? Michael Fassbender won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice for Shame, yet was famously snubbed for an Oscar nomination — a snub George Clooney openly joked about at the Golden Globes.