New Adam Curtis documentary film (May 23rd)

For everyone outside the UK:

Part 1 = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX5jImWRREc

cheers bread.

Excellent - something to watch tonight :)

yeah, thanks for the link. at the very least Curtis is a stylistic genius.

nice.

Also up on torrent sites....jus sayin.

Hmmm well I had a watch of it - gonna have to revisit some of it, but not as impressed with this one as with some of his previous efforts. Little things, like putting South Korea in Southeast Asia.

Maybe not as much of it was revelatory to me - especially since I lived through the 1997 economic crisis in South Korea.

Some of those long shots of Ayn Rand in the interview dubbed with music so she looked like she was on acid were odd, perhaps slightly spurious way of supporting the argument that she's a loon

Some good music in the film though :)

My brother and I were a little annoyed at that south Korea thing as well. He could have mentioned that malaysia refused to allow capital outflows during the crisis so both saved it's economy and put up the middle finger to the suggestion of IMF loans.

That's the thing with Curtis though, he's single minded about proving his thesis. So you have to gloss over the embellishment or less than detailed analysis, that resides here or there. And just go along for the ride on the narrow path, coughing all the way.

I also noticed that there were quite a few stretches that were less than information dense. Atmospheric is fine, but he was deliberately stretching things out, probably so it could be three shows.

Oh well, it's only him doing things like this.

Excellent read (Errol Morris interviews Adam Curtis in 2005):

http://www.errolmorris.com/content/interview/believer0406.html

Also, I find it difficult to imagine that Curtis will ever top The Century of Self or Power of Nightmares.

Sadly, the fuckheads who need to see his films most will never bother.

  On 5/25/2011 at 4:36 PM, delet... said:

My brother and I were a little annoyed at that south Korea thing as well. He could have mentioned that malaysia refused to allow capital outflows during the crisis so both saved it's economy and put up the middle finger to the suggestion of IMF loans.

 

That's the thing with Curtis though, he's single minded about proving his thesis. So you have to gloss over the embellishment or less than detailed analysis, that resides here or there. And just go along for the ride on the narrow path, coughing all the way.

Yeah he could have also mentioned how the Koreans repaid their debt with incredible speed - well in advance of IMF forecasts - and how the Korean economy is stronger today than it was before the currency crisis.

But yeah - he is quite single minded. I'm looking forward to part 2 - so he must have pushed some of the right buttons.

  On 5/25/2011 at 5:39 PM, The Overlook said:

Excellent read (Errol Morris interviews Adam Curtis in 2005):

 

http://www.errolmorris.com/content/interview/believer0406.html

 

Also, I find it difficult to imagine that Curtis will ever top The Century of Self or Power of Nightmares.

 

Sadly, the fuckheads who need to see his films most will never bother.

Interesting read, thanks for the link. The Fog of War is a great documentary by the way, for those who don't know.

Yeah I think Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares have been his best works to date. They are such outstanding documentary films that it will certainly be hard to top them.

  On 5/15/2011 at 11:56 PM, MAXIMUS MISCHIEF said:

cyber hippies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nUEXzDtipU

I think I want to make a list of documentaries that would make up a Future-Shock cocktail...this would be on it..and so would "We Live in Public".

what soundtrack is that extremely angsty piano tune from? is it donnie darko? I can't remember.

oh shit it was "moon" now I remember

so...first episode seemed to end on a statement that wasn't directly explained by any of the documentary before it...

"the original promise of the californian ideology was that the computers would liberate us from all the old forms of political control and we would become randian heroes in control of our own destiny. Instead, today we feel the opposite that we are helpless components in a global system; a system that is controlled by a rigid logic that we are powerless to challenge or to change"

I don't feel like episode 1 explicitly says anything about that. Maybe it will come in subsequent episodes.

  On 5/25/2011 at 4:58 AM, chenGOD said:

Also up on torrent sites....jus sayin.

yeah i noticed, it's not a very impressive file size. None of his stuff seems to get a fair shake in that respect from those groups. Not that i know about such things.

triple ex: watch "century of the self" and "the power of nightmares" by far his best works. I was not a big fan of "the trap" - I felt it was disjointed, and yes repetitious.

Yeah, century of the self, is definitely awesome. He really nails his style on that one.

i liked this new documentary my only complaint about is why more Clinton? Hasn't he covered clinton enough in his previous documentaries? I just feel like as a European watching our president get caught in a sex scandal was much more interesting to them than it was if you were an american.

Im very interested in a larger focus on the Californian Utopian philosophy and how it directly relates to the growth of companies like Apple and Microsoft now.

Next episode will be on BBC2 tomorrow night (30th May) at 9pm

It will be about ecology apparently... I believe the title is "The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts"

haha,

Plus i get the feeling that he was overstating the, computer start-up bosses all being randian coverties thing. Seriously. Feels like a wind up.

My understanding was that the next episode is supposed to be about how the ecological movement was created as part of the same idea that we are all part of this system.

Everyone should take the 4 hours out and sit down for "The Century of Self" "Power of Nightmares" is also required viewing imo

even if you disagree with some of the points, it's important for documentary makers like Curtis to get people *THINKING about these issues, to wake people up to a degree and get dialogue on the go