Adam Curtis is great. I love his newer aesthetic. Its almost like hollywood propaganda / brainwashing films a la Room 23 I still think his best work was The Century of the Self, but Bitter Lake,...
Adam Curtis is great. I love his newer aesthetic. Its almost like hollywood propaganda / brainwashing films a la Room 23
I still think his best work was The Century of the Self, but Bitter Lake, The Power of Nightmares, and the others are always exceptional.
Ditto for Century of the Self, but I have also enjoyed most of Curtis' more recent stuff as well, especially Power of Nightmares and HyperNormalisation. Some of his stuff can feel a bit alarmist,...
Ditto for Century of the Self, but I have also enjoyed most of Curtis' more recent stuff as well, especially Power of Nightmares and HyperNormalisation. Some of his stuff can feel a bit alarmist, but given how things have played out over the last 6 years, maybe he actually wasn't alarmist enough. :(
p.s. @cmccabe if you're looking for more documentaries in a similar vein, I highly recommend Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, Newswipe, and Weekly Wipe series. Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent is a classic, and the documentary of the same name is worth watching too. And while Michael Moore has somewhat lost the plot recently (to be fair, so has Chomsky), and he definitely isn't in the same league as the others I have mentioned, his older documentaries (pre-TrumpLand) are sadly still relevant and worth watching too, IMO.
Thanks! I will take a look at the *wipes. Manufacturing Consent is a favorite of mine, and I'm very interested to find more scholarly work like that but on the myriad paths Curtis lays out. One...
Thanks! I will take a look at the *wipes. Manufacturing Consent is a favorite of mine, and I'm very interested to find more scholarly work like that but on the myriad paths Curtis lays out. One person I'm preparing to look at is Stuart Ewen, who wrote PR! A Social History of Spin. Ewen was interviewed in and inspirational for The Century of the Self (also my favorite of the Curtis films I've seen so far).
I have heard good things about Power of Nightmares and Bitter Lake and plan to watch them too. I'm still in the middle of Can't Get You Out of My Head, and like other Curtis work, it's almost maddening because I constantly have to pause it to go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole.
Heh, that’s what I like most about him. :) For every hour of his documentaries I have watched, I have probably spent double that going through related Wikipedia articles on the subjects he covers...
it's almost maddening because I constantly have to pause it to go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole
Heh, that’s what I like most about him. :) For every hour of his documentaries I have watched, I have probably spent double that going through related Wikipedia articles on the subjects he covers and people he features in them. His documentaries are basically learning prompts for me, unlike most other documentarians’ work which is more self-contained, easily digestible, and has everything neatly wrapped up by the end.
Adam Curtis' documentary, Can't Get You Out of My Head, was released over a year ago but I just recently started watching it. I am curious what other Tildes members think about Curtis' work,...
Adam Curtis' documentary, Can't Get You Out of My Head, was released over a year ago but I just recently started watching it. I am curious what other Tildes members think about Curtis' work, including this one, Hypernormalisation, The Century of the Self, or others.
In much of his work, Curtis weaves together events into a mosaic history of how corporate and government elites exploit human psychological vulnerabilities to manipulate the masses. He largely focuses on the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China. With all the tumult of recent times, the topics in these films seem more relevant than ever. However, the hypnotic music and cinematographic style of these films and the fact that Curtis dances between historical "fact", conspiracy theory and his own speculation make it clear that these films were not intended to stand alone -- rather, they are intended to draw viewer attention to the topics and to then send them out looking for more information (or at least that's how I, maybe charitably, interpret them).
If you have watched any of Adam Curtis' documentaries, what did you think of them? And more importantly, what else would you recommend on the subjects he covers? I am particularly interested in written works, but all recommendations are good.
Adam Curtis is great. I love his newer aesthetic. Its almost like hollywood propaganda / brainwashing films a la Room 23
I still think his best work was The Century of the Self, but Bitter Lake, The Power of Nightmares, and the others are always exceptional.
Ditto for Century of the Self, but I have also enjoyed most of Curtis' more recent stuff as well, especially Power of Nightmares and HyperNormalisation. Some of his stuff can feel a bit alarmist, but given how things have played out over the last 6 years, maybe he actually wasn't alarmist enough. :(
p.s. @cmccabe if you're looking for more documentaries in a similar vein, I highly recommend Charlie Brooker's Screenwipe, Newswipe, and Weekly Wipe series. Chomsky's book Manufacturing Consent is a classic, and the documentary of the same name is worth watching too. And while Michael Moore has somewhat lost the plot recently (to be fair, so has Chomsky), and he definitely isn't in the same league as the others I have mentioned, his older documentaries (pre-TrumpLand) are sadly still relevant and worth watching too, IMO.
Thanks! I will take a look at the *wipes. Manufacturing Consent is a favorite of mine, and I'm very interested to find more scholarly work like that but on the myriad paths Curtis lays out. One person I'm preparing to look at is Stuart Ewen, who wrote PR! A Social History of Spin. Ewen was interviewed in and inspirational for The Century of the Self (also my favorite of the Curtis films I've seen so far).
I have heard good things about Power of Nightmares and Bitter Lake and plan to watch them too. I'm still in the middle of Can't Get You Out of My Head, and like other Curtis work, it's almost maddening because I constantly have to pause it to go down a Wikipedia rabbit hole.
Heh, that’s what I like most about him. :) For every hour of his documentaries I have watched, I have probably spent double that going through related Wikipedia articles on the subjects he covers and people he features in them. His documentaries are basically learning prompts for me, unlike most other documentarians’ work which is more self-contained, easily digestible, and has everything neatly wrapped up by the end.
Adam Curtis' documentary, Can't Get You Out of My Head, was released over a year ago but I just recently started watching it. I am curious what other Tildes members think about Curtis' work, including this one, Hypernormalisation, The Century of the Self, or others.
In much of his work, Curtis weaves together events into a mosaic history of how corporate and government elites exploit human psychological vulnerabilities to manipulate the masses. He largely focuses on the United States, Britain, the Soviet Union and China. With all the tumult of recent times, the topics in these films seem more relevant than ever. However, the hypnotic music and cinematographic style of these films and the fact that Curtis dances between historical "fact", conspiracy theory and his own speculation make it clear that these films were not intended to stand alone -- rather, they are intended to draw viewer attention to the topics and to then send them out looking for more information (or at least that's how I, maybe charitably, interpret them).
If you have watched any of Adam Curtis' documentaries, what did you think of them? And more importantly, what else would you recommend on the subjects he covers? I am particularly interested in written works, but all recommendations are good.