intellectual arrogance

His films repeatedly expose how intellectual superiority and rational control collapse when confronted with human irrationality and chaos, from *Dr. Strangelove* to *A Clockwork Orange*.

He dissected how educated elites use ideology and sophistication as weapons of manipulation and self-deception, particularly in *The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant* and *World on a Wire*.

His protagonists—brilliant, calculating, and convinced of their intellectual superiority—are systematically humbled by their own blind spots and moral delusions in films like *Gone Girl* and *The Social Network*.