Can't Get You Out Of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World

[ICTChris]

A new Adam Curtis series will be released on the iPlayer on 11th February.

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2021/cgyoomh

I love Adam Curtis series, very much looking forward to this.

[coprolite]

1 minute ago, ICTChris said:

A new Adam Curtis series will be released on the iPlayer on 11th February.

https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2021/cgyoomh

I love Adam Curtis series, very much looking forward to this.

Nice one.

Think this was meant to be a single long film originally, he had a 3 film deal with Bitter Lake and Hypernormalisation being 1 & 2. 

Hypernormalisation was released in 2016, and the Trump presidency is basically what it was talking about. 

This should be good. 

[NotThePars]

Aye looking forward to this. I know his narratives are too neat or whatever but he's very interesting and a good filmmaker. Plus it'll be a good way to work out which Burial cuts from the Tunes 2011-2019 compilation are worth downloading.

[ICTChris]

This is almost like a parody of Adam Curtis.

 

 

[NotThePars]

This is almost like a parody of Adam Curtis.
 
 

I don’t think it’s possible to out parody Curtis’s intro to Bitter Lake with the montage of Afghans dancing to Come Down to Us

[Detournement]

I'll probably watch this just so I can moan about it. I'm fully convinced that the BBC fund this shite to discourage people from reading books. 

Eduard Limonov is obviously going to be Jeremy Irons to Vladimir Surkov's Alan Rickman in the Curtis canon. 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Detournement

[coprolite]

15 minutes ago, Detournement said:

I'll probably watch this just so I can moan about it. I'm fully convinced that the BBC fund this shite to discourage people from reading books. 

Eduard Limonov is obviously going to be Jeremy Irons to Vladimir Surkov's Alan Rickman in the Curtis canon. 

Who's Bruce Willis? 

[D.A.F.C]

Really like his films, hypernormalisation and power of nightmares made me realise that politics is pretty much worthless now.

He asks the questions that seem obvious but nobody wants to ask like why are we pretending that everything is working and in order or the severely hypocritical finger pointing of the west when we are really the problem. Some of the facts and storylines are a bit questionable but it’s a great watch.

Im just surprised that the bbc actually funded it when they spew out the complete opposite on the news channel.

 

[NotThePars]

[NotThePars]

[ICTChris]

Haha, I saw that video and immediately thought about Adam Curtis.

Saw this headline on Twitter today

[Detournement]

On 28/01/2021 at 23:52, D.A.F.C said:

Really like his films, hypernormalisation and power of nightmares made me realise that politics is pretty much worthless now.

 

And that's exactly what he is aiming for. 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

On 1/28/2021 at 23:52, D.A.F.C said:

Really like his films, hypernormalisation and power of nightmares made me realise that politics is pretty much worthless now.

I get why this is something people feel when watching Curtis but it's not the impression I get. While not exactly a call to arms I wouldn't say they are hopeless or completely pessimistic. 

[D.A.F.C]

1 minute ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

I get why this is something people feel when watching Curtis but it's not the impression I get. While not exactly a call to arms I wouldn't say they are hopeless or completely pessimistic. 

Its not that theyre hopeless they are intelligent people but have changed the agenda now into fear as the broken promises aren't working.

When I grew up it was all the tories and how bad they were. Labour were supposed to change Britain but then just became the tories and wrecked the economy and housing market.

Like Curtis says its not really governments that control things its money and large cooperations. Yes politicians can influence things but in the case of independence for example fear and money changed the result.

I think that its a naive view to think governments really control much and as he said we live in this hypernormalisation pretending that the system works.

Its a cynical view but based on reality.

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

2 minutes ago, D.A.F.C said:

Its not that theyre hopeless they are intelligent people but have changed the agenda now into fear as the broken promises aren't working.

When I grew up it was all the tories and how bad they were. Labour were supposed to change Britain but then just became the tories and wrecked the economy and housing market.

Like Curtis says its not really governments that control things its money and large cooperations. Yes politicians can influence things but in the case of independence for example fear and money changed the result.

I think that its a naive view to think governments really control much and as he said we live in this hypernormalisation pretending that the system works.

Its a cynical view but based on reality.

No you're right about that, it's a cynical (and not particularly new) view. I suppose I was more reacting to Detournement's point that engendering pessimism is his aim, along with being an MI5 plant and part of a coordinated attempt to stop people reading books. That people watch his stuff and enjoy it but shrug their shoulders is more a reflection of the society he's describing than his work imo.

[D.A.F.C]

Its not all 100% fact but its good to get both sides of the story.

Worth researching facts rather than taking someone's opinions as the truth. Its the right side of the conspiracy theory line though. Thought provoking and striking which nobody else really can do imo.

[NotThePars]

No you're right about that, it's a cynical (and not particularly new) view. I suppose I was more reacting to Detournement's point that engendering pessimism is his aim, along with being an MI5 plant and part of a coordinated attempt to stop people reading books. That people watch his stuff and enjoy it but shrug their shoulders is more a reflection of the society he's describing than his work imo.

If you listen to his interviews on topics like Occupy his biggest critique was that they never took the notion of power seriously. He clearly believes that mass movements like this have the capability to affect change but they were hamstrung by their ideology or made strategic errors.

[J_Stewart]

On 02/02/2021 at 10:24, NotThePars said:

 

I guarantee Aaron Sorkin has cry wanked to this tweet at least 7 times in the last two days.

[Detournement]

4 hours ago, Genuine Hibs Fan said:

No you're right about that, it's a cynical (and not particularly new) view. I suppose I was more reacting to Detournement's point that engendering pessimism is his aim, along with being an MI5 plant and part of a coordinated attempt to stop people reading books. That people watch his stuff and enjoy it but shrug their shoulders is more a reflection of the society he's describing than his work imo.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140102024706/http://plover.net/~bonds/pandorasdocs.html

This is a good article about Curtis's links to the RCP, Living Marxism and Spiked and collects some quotes which shine some light on his personal politics. 

As the article explains with quotes from Curtis his films are attempts to promote a worldview which focuses on Great Men and battles of ideas and explicitly shuns historical materialism and issues of economic power. Now given that historical materialism has inspired the only successful challenges to monopoly capitalism I don't think it's an accident that the BBC are funding and promoting Curtis's work which when it comes down to it are reactionary ideas dressed up as radicalism.

Curtis's films are based on the form of Guy Debord's The Society Of The Spectacle but it has the entirely opposite effect. Debord (and all good Marxist analysis) is liberating because it provides a mental framework to understand the world around you. Curtis purposefully sets out to confuse and the overwhelming effect of his movies is to make his viewers feel the world/society is inherently unknowable and enigmatic.

 

[Genuine Hibs Fan]

23 minutes ago, Detournement said:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140102024706/http://plover.net/~bonds/pandorasdocs.html

This is a good article about Curtis's links to the RCP, Living Marxism and Spiked and collects some quotes which shine some light on his personal politics. 

As the article explains with quotes from Curtis his films are attempts to promote a worldview which focuses on Great Men and battles of ideas and explicitly shuns historical materialism and issues of economic power. Now given that historical materialism has inspired the only successful challenges to monopoly capitalism I don't think it's an accident that the BBC are funding and promoting Curtis's work which when it comes down to it are reactionary ideas dressed up as radicalism.

Curtis's films are based on the form of Guy Debord's The Society Of The Spectacle but it has the entirely opposite effect. Debord (and all good Marxist analysis) is liberating because it provides a mental framework to understand the world around you. Curtis purposefully sets out to confuse and the overwhelming effect of his movies is to make his viewers feel the world/society is inherently unknowable and enigmatic.

 

Can't argue with that, have skimmed that article but will give it a proper read later. Tbf I think I enjoy his format and ability to follow a ( admittedly cherry picked) narrative through different places and time rather than agree with the narrative itself.