There is a ton of Adam Curtis's stuff available for download from archive.org. My favorites are "The Trap" and "Century of the Self." I tried watching "It Felt Like A Kiss on an airplane, on my ipod, and that was the wrong way to watch it. It put me in a funk. I had to listen to so much Real McCoy to recover.
― full of country goodness and green pea-ness (Abbbottt), Thursday, 19 August 2010 19:29 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm not so worried about the ethics -- most of the stuff I would want is more or less out of circulation. I just hate watching anything longer than half an hour on my computer.
― C0L1N B..., Thursday, 19 August 2010 19:30 (fourteen years ago) link
will 'power of nightmares' ever get a u.s. dvd release, i wonder? watched the first part of it in a college class a couple years ago and thought it was fantastically well done.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 19 August 2010 21:29 (fourteen years ago) link
FAO Curtis stans (kurdistans?!): he has a new show coming soon. According to Charlie Brooker's twitter:
1) It is called 'All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace'.2) Twitter shows up in it.3) It'll be on the TV quite soon.
Have really enjoyed his blog posts, but nuff excited for another series.
― sktsh, Saturday, 2 April 2011 17:02 (thirteen years ago) link
Adam Curtis on the death of Bin Laden
― Alba, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 17:26 (thirteen years ago) link
read headline, clicked back to this thread
― lloyd banks knew my father (history mayne), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 17:27 (thirteen years ago) link
ok went back in
he's kind of getting a lot worse as time wears on
When communism collapsed in 1989, the big story that had been hardwired into citizens of western countries – that of the global battle against a distant dark and evil force – came to an abrupt end.
now... was communism a 'story', or was it on some level an actual historical reality?
― lloyd banks knew my father (history mayne), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 17:28 (thirteen years ago) link
sorta don't see what the omg what an asshole thing is with trying to sort out historical/cultural narratives
― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 17:31 (thirteen years ago) link
like there's a GOP narrative of People Are Being Taxed to Death! which is bullshit, but if you show me a guy whose taxes are a burden that doesn't validate their narrative & undermine any detailing of it
― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 17:32 (thirteen years ago) link
he's a broken record on some things
kinda baudrillardwave solipsism
― lloyd banks knew my father (history mayne), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 17:32 (thirteen years ago) link
do i have to point out the obvious and say curtis has a big narrative he puts on everything?
manipulation of sheeple with invented narratives employing a corruption of freud -- something like that
― lloyd banks knew my father (history mayne), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 17:34 (thirteen years ago) link
of course he does, everybody who believes in narrative as a functioning trope knows that they have to work within that framework, except for Joan Didion who believes that narratives are inherently broken
― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 18:07 (thirteen years ago) link
it's not the narrative that's the problem, it's the rehashed version of False Consciousness
― bell hops (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 18:13 (thirteen years ago) link
It was a story born in the US and Britain at the end of the second world war – the "good war". It then went deep into the western imagination during the cold war, was reawakened and has been held together over the last 10 years by the odd alliance of American and European politicians, journalists, "terror experts" and revolutionary Islamists all seeking to shore up their authority in a disillusioned age.Barack Obama seems to be rejecting this story already. The Europeans still cling to it, though, with the return of "liberal interventionism" in Libya, but it is anxious and halfhearted.
Barack Obama seems to be rejecting this story already. The Europeans still cling to it, though, with the return of "liberal interventionism" in Libya, but it is anxious and halfhearted.
lol yes, obama's nascent pacifism is certainly striking, and the europeans are making all the running in libya.
― joe, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 18:20 (thirteen years ago) link
wish someone would put to rounds in curtis' head :D
― Romford Spring (DG), Tuesday, 3 May 2011 21:19 (thirteen years ago) link
xpost. i think he is referring to Obama's rejection of the terminology of the "war on terror" and the use of fear-based explanations for pretty radical policy changes etc.
― everything, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 21:28 (thirteen years ago) link
so... curtis just wants better PR? he's got no problem with using massive military resources to destroy the organisation called al-qaeda - which he maintains either doesn't exist or isn't important - as long as you don't use the precise term "war on terror"? instead you say:
We quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Al-Qaeda - an organisation headed by Osama bin Laden, which had openly declared war on the United States and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe. And so we went to war against Al-Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.
not really a decisive rejection of the notion of a "good war" against an evil enemy. and what the fuck is he on about re: libya? the "liberal intervention" couldn't take place without the US.
― joe, Tuesday, 3 May 2011 23:48 (thirteen years ago) link
All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace
― Gukbe, Sunday, 8 May 2011 04:09 (thirteen years ago) link
that trailer induces the traditional blend of mild queasiness and actual excitement, but i think this might be the series that proves that he is actually quite genuinely mad.
Wiki tells us where the title comes from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Watched_Over_by_Machines_of_Loving_Grace
― piscesx, Sunday, 8 May 2011 22:59 (thirteen years ago) link
im all for him just being mad and letting it hang out, kinda
leads to some cool sound-image combinations, drawing random connections between things
what i will not abide is him writing ostensibly serious comment pieces/being quoted as an authority/etc
― reference + ilx meme (history mayne), Sunday, 8 May 2011 23:33 (thirteen years ago) link
while the soviet union was certainly as evil as states get, it's disingenuous to pretend that U.S. leaders didn't exaggerate the soviet threat for political reasons, increasingly so in the late '70s and early '80s and arguably even from the beginning of the cold war.
the first half of the article anyway is OTM.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Sunday, 8 May 2011 23:46 (thirteen years ago) link
back back back! new show starts in 90 minutes on BBC 2.
― piscesx, Monday, 23 May 2011 18:30 (thirteen years ago) link
looking forward to some prize bullshit
― Romford Spring (DG), Monday, 23 May 2011 18:31 (thirteen years ago) link
Great filmmaking, incoherent premise. It's so hypnotic though - it's like trying to argue with a lava lamp.
― We need to talk about Bevan (DL), Monday, 23 May 2011 22:00 (thirteen years ago) link
The "at the same time, fifty years later" schtick does get annoying.
― England's banh mi army (ledge), Monday, 23 May 2011 22:03 (thirteen years ago) link
more annoyed by his usual 'there was this idea that...' routine. his o-level history practice essays must have come back scrawled with WHO? WHEN? (etc) in frenzied red ink
― Romford Spring (DG), Monday, 23 May 2011 22:09 (thirteen years ago) link
only saw bits of it but seemed fun -- as docs on the financial bubble/crash go, this at least had some imagination and ideas, even if you don't subscribe to them, and i often don't with adam curtis
wouldn't take it straight, which is why i think he gets misfiled (by himself, sure) as an authority rather than a creative artist
― if opinions about ofwgkta could fly this place would be the wtc (history mayne), Monday, 23 May 2011 22:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Must check this out, DG hates it so I'm bound to love it.
j/k <3 DG :-)
― StanM, Monday, 23 May 2011 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link
well a big part of it is laying into alan greenspan, and he's jewish, so i'm sure you'll love it
j/k <3 StanM :-)
― Romford Spring (DG), Monday, 23 May 2011 22:22 (thirteen years ago) link
a few lols to be had from his peers giving him/the show a bit of a ribbing on twitter. feels like this is the show where the Curtis backlash is going to kick in, as his stuff is now so identifiably 'him' it almost lends itself to piss-take/parody. after the It Felt Like A Kiss movie i think everything he does now can only be a bit of a comedown. IFLAK is easily one of the top few pieces of non fiction tv/film making i've ever seen.
― piscesx, Monday, 23 May 2011 22:23 (thirteen years ago) link
Hmmm. xpost
― StanM, Monday, 23 May 2011 22:34 (thirteen years ago) link
after the It Felt Like A Kiss movie i think everything he does now can only be a bit of a comedown
hmm idk. 'the trap' is definitely his worst.
― if opinions about ofwgkta could fly this place would be the wtc (history mayne), Monday, 23 May 2011 22:56 (thirteen years ago) link
The Trap was before IFLAK. Actually, even if it was afterwards, that comment wouldn't really make sense.
― Alba, Monday, 23 May 2011 23:02 (thirteen years ago) link
i thought it felt like a kiss was aight but not a career high... i dunno. there's a fair bit of repetition in his work, which is ok, but i just felt 'the trap' was (strident and) repetitive within the series itself.
― if opinions about ofwgkta could fly this place would be the wtc (history mayne), Monday, 23 May 2011 23:05 (thirteen years ago) link
I think I read your full-stop as a semicolon.
― Alba, Monday, 23 May 2011 23:09 (thirteen years ago) link
It Felt Like A Kiss watchable here (via iplayer, so probably uk only):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/it_felt_like_a_kiss/
― koogs, Friday, 27 May 2011 20:06 (thirteen years ago) link
It's available for download on archive.org (as is most of his stuff).
― free inappropriate education (Abbbottt), Friday, 27 May 2011 20:09 (thirteen years ago) link
So the first part of this was v poor - the connections are often reaching as expected but the collage just wasn't as good as in some of his past series.
Low point was possibly the quote from msg board rant.
― xyzzzz__, Monday, 30 May 2011 18:03 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/may/29/adam-curtis-ecosystems-tansley-smuts
I quite enjoyed this article, simultaneously trolling UK Uncut and laying bare the limitations of his approach by applying it to people who are - I assume - fans of his work.
― oppet, Monday, 30 May 2011 19:22 (thirteen years ago) link
saw the rest of the first ep and it definitely went downhill and sped up, getting very garbled. says things like 'for the first time in human history everyone believed everything would be stable forever...' it's almost as if he takes what people say at face value. or takes thinkers like ayn rand to be saying something radically new and different -- when it translates to a belief in low taxes and unregulated markets, it's not as if the rand-ness is that significant. it wasn't all bad though.
― ^^ new board description!!!1!! (history mayne), Monday, 30 May 2011 19:38 (thirteen years ago) link
man he shd check out some of the 18th century Parliamentary debates on Income Tax and get his mind proper blown
― banter panchali (Noodle Vague), Monday, 30 May 2011 19:47 (thirteen years ago) link
no amusing video footage of the Earl of Bute tho
― banter panchali (Noodle Vague), Monday, 30 May 2011 19:48 (thirteen years ago) link
He's incredibly irritating.
― "Comin', Comin', Com-in-a-round (comin' around) com-in-a-round (comin (Bob Six), Monday, 30 May 2011 20:55 (thirteen years ago) link
Missed part 2, does that Observer article cover the same ground? i.e. californian hippies fail at recreating the earth in a greenhouse, lol who gives a shit.
― England's banh mi army (ledge), Monday, 30 May 2011 22:08 (thirteen years ago) link
i'm with hm, he's much better appreciated on the level of absolute style and take no notice of the polemicism
― banter panchali (Noodle Vague), Monday, 30 May 2011 22:09 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't find his style that engrossing, just seems like standard stock footage playfulness. I have not seen IFLAK tho.
― England's banh mi army (ledge), Monday, 30 May 2011 22:19 (thirteen years ago) link
He's got a really irritating habit of authoritatively and wrongly conflating a wide spectrum of views - "scientists believed", "hippies believed", "psychologists believed", "economists believed, "scientists discovered that ", "psychologists discovered that " etc - as if there was one convergent view across these groups. This invariably conveniently sets an inaccurately summarised 'philosophy' that Curtis says completely misled politicians. (Not that they are completely blameless - presumably the point of the Lewinsky footage in the first episode is that Clinton was so distracted by the Lewinsky episode that he ignored urgent messages from economists that could have saved the world from doom.
― "Comin', Comin', Com-in-a-round (comin' around) com-in-a-round (comin (Bob Six), Monday, 30 May 2011 22:27 (thirteen years ago) link
wish someone would tabulate exactly how many people i kill with each consumer electronics purchase
― Once Were Moderators (DG), Monday, 6 June 2011 21:12 (thirteen years ago) link
well y'know that sort of is how the economy works but best not to think about it too hard unless u wanna wind up making cut-up documentaries for a living
― aka best bum of the o_O's (Noodle Vague), Monday, 6 June 2011 21:16 (thirteen years ago) link
monday night is genocide night at the G household
― Once Were Moderators (DG), Monday, 6 June 2011 21:18 (thirteen years ago) link