Shame is one of my favorite character studies. Not only you pick up a lot details on subsequent rewatches, it is beautifully shot and well acted with a lot of long takes. I also found the use of music to be very Michael Hanekesque. Apart from the main theme, all other music is actually music being played in the universe of the film itself.

Shame follows the life of Brandon - a man addicted to lust who won't let himself have a meaningful relationship. Things get complicated when his sister Sissy moves into his apartment. Now if you haven't seen the film yet then I would suggest you go and see it first without reading further as I am going to go into spoiler territory.

SPOILERS BELOW

The opening 10 minutes of Shame are probably the best opening 10 minutes of any film I have seen. Not a single line of dialogue is spoken yet we learn so much. We see his cycle of addiction visually shown by him walking in circles inside his apartment every morning.
The film can be divided into various segments each showing the stages of his addiction:
1.) The Cycle
This part of the movie shows the cyclic nature of his addiction.

2.) Realization
This part shows Brandon realizing the seriousness of his addiction and his actions to get out of the cycle by getting rid of all of his pornography and get into a meaningful relationship with his coworker. This attempt although fails as he isn't able to get it up but has no difficulty getting it up with a prostitute. This shows how his addiction to lust has damaged him and has probably led to him objectifying women. This leads to the next stage - Relapse.

3.) Relapse
Like any addict, after abstaining from lust, he relapses and sorts of overdoses. He flirts with a girl for which he gets beaten up by the girl's boyfriend, gets into a gay bar for sex just because he couldn't get into a straight bar and then goes for a threesome ignoring the call for help from his sister. During this scene we see the mastershot of the film - We his face face, full of pain and agony..... he is having an orgasm.
When he gets back into his right mind, he gets paranoid and starts worrying about his suicidal sister. He hurries back to his apartment to find his sister bleeding from a self inflicted wound.

4.) Shame
After realizing the repercussions of his actions and how his addiction almost cost the life of his sister, he feels a huge amount of Shame. For the first time in the movie, he cries thinking about his actions. The film ends on an ambiguous note - will he restart the cycle?

There is a lot to appreciate in this movie and a lot more I have to say about it but maybe I'll keep that for another post. Thanks for reading!