Facebook in particular seems to deny the hope of abandoning “the face” as described by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari in A Thousand Plateaus: “if human beings have a destiny, it is rather to escape the face, to dismantle the face and facializations, to become imperceptible, to become clandestine”. Instead, Facebook welcomes everyone to become a little bit more like Edvard, the dreaded bishop in Fanny and Alexander (1982), who explains: “I have only one mask. But it is branded into my flesh. And if I try to tear it off—”
— J. M. Tyree (Film Quarterly)
Synopsis: As children in the loving Ekdahl family, Fanny and Alexander enjoy a happy life with their parents, who run a theater company. After their father dies unexpectedly, however, the siblings end up in a joyless home when their mother, Emilie, marries a stern bishop. The bleak situation gradually grows worse as the bishop becomes more controlling, but dedicated relatives make a valiant attempt to aid Emilie, Fanny and Alexander.