HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Giving you today another version of what you had yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHFrhIAj0ME

Curtis just published a new doc: https://youtu.be/MHFrhIAj0ME

⬐ MaheshC

Which is really good. Recommend.

⬐ sonthonax

Depending on your point of view. I felt it was a self indulgent sprawling mess.

I felt that I watched a random collection of undergraduate essays, which were then stitched together with music that Curtis felt expressed the zeitigest (which he delusionally thought substituted for an actual point or connection between subjects).

I watched a bit of the documentary with a friend of mine who’s a pretty senior diplomat; when Curtis came to Iraq, she exclaimed with palatable frustration “this is the most incredible 15 minute oversimplification of what happened”.

Curtis documentaries loose much of their lustre when you know what he’s talking about. He becomes less of a BBC patrician who gives you a secret insight into the world of Oxford educated intellectuals; and more of an opinionated old windbag.

At the end of an episode, I told my friend “I feel like I’ve been man-splained to for the last hour [and I’m a man]!”.

⬐ aaaaarghZombies

Have you seen the time span it covers? I don't think calling it a simplification as a criticism is fair, do you want a 1:1 mapping?

Also the sprawling messiness isn't just the aesthetic, it's the thesis.

⬐ sonthonax

Yes. I watched the documentary. I don’t expect to agree 100%, but that doesn’t mean have I to keel over laughing at its chasms.

In regards to Iraq, his opinion that Gertrude Bell’s influence led NATO to give tribal sheiks disproportionate power in the new Iraq was a hilarious simplification. It’s just an absurd narrative chasm, that ignored so much about what happened then.

An in regards to the civil war in Iraq, that didn’t boil over because NATO stopped paying the militias off. There was so much at play.

The China stuff was interesting, but uncontroversial. That stuff is quite an accessible history. The archive footage was fun though.

It just felt like I was watching a number of different documentaries. One about race relations and trans rights; and one about China.

It all just would have been better as standalone works. He could have even edited things differently, each episode covering a certain subject. He maybe could have had a concluding thesis that was better than “China: it’s not all that it’s cracked up to be”.

⬐ not1ofU

I agree. I lapped up alot of his stuff, without a second thought. After watching a deconstruction video of hypernormalisation I was left thinking I had been suckered again "loose change style" I was recommeded to watch his lastest release (of which the full 8.something hours is available directly on Curtis' own you tube channel) I watched the first 20 / 30 minutes and turned off. It felt like how I imagine brain-washing works. Lots of weird (and jarring) footage un-related to the voice over, werid music (not required for what is supposed to be a documentary IMO) and jumped from topic to topic without any cohesive thread or reason. No longer a fan.

Edit: Grammar

⬐ DoingIsLearning

On a side note, did anything change on youtube itself or am I being A/B guinea pigged?

I use to be able to watch youtube videos without any youtube app just using /embed/<video-id> on a browser or mpv.

Now it seems every link is broken unless you go through there data hoarding app? (On android not desktop)

⬐ jahnu

If I watch through the Brave browser on my phone I never see ads. Through the offical app I have to watch the same two ads for a month or two before the video starts and then again after 15 or 20 minutes. It's really bad.

⬐ DoingIsLearning

But that's ad blocking, that's not what I meant exactly, that always works.

My issue is 'embeddable' links are no longer playable for me? I can play the video in their app or on the browser after a million data consent forms.

⬐ sacomo

Also, no ads on YT, or just about any other site, in FF with the uBlock origin plugin.

⬐ Sander_Marechal

Give NewPipe a try (https://newpipe.net/). I've been using it for several months and works really well. Only thing I haven't figured out yet is streaming/casting to the youtube app on my TV.

⬐ jahnu

Here he is in interview about that one

https://www.vice.com/en/article/4ad8db/adam-curtis-charlie-b...

For those curious, here's part 1/6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHFrhIAj0ME The other parts keep getting kicked off YouTube for copyright yadda yadda, but they can be found.

⬐ hyko

“...and, as a result, Thabo Mbeki was swept to power”

https://youtu.be/x1bX3F7uTrg

Love a good Adam Curtis documentary, especially when he throws light on obscure moments in history. Probably best not to hang your understanding of the world on the scaffold he constructs though.

⬐ SideburnsOfDoom

And he mispronounces "Thabo". He seems to say more like "Tsabo"

⬐ prvc

I find with these documentaries that while they often contain interesting factoids here and there, they meander and never make a significant and convincing point. Can't justify spending 8 hours on this.

⬐ jonbronson

It's an hour and fourteen minutes. What do you suppose you'll be doing with the extra six hours?

⬐ StavrosK

Ooh, look at mr "I don't watch my videos at 0.25x speed" over here.

⬐ prvc

The total runtime of all six episodes is approximately 8 hours.

⬐ jonbronson

Oh thanks for the clarification! That was not immediately obvious to me, though in hindsight it does say Part 1. I agree, that is quite the time investment. Like any mini-series, the first segment really needs to nail it to keep the viewer coming back. I share some of your sentiments.

⬐ zzzbra

Century of Self is pretty self-contained and portable as far as having takeaways go.

⬐ prvc

Being what, exactly?

⬐ max_

I just finished his yesterday.

Lots of mind-blowing history.

I didn't know the ML researcher George Hinton is the great great great grandson of George Boole.

Highly recommend!

⬐ emsign

I've been awaiting a new Adam Curtis documentary for so long now. They're always a little bit more interesting, more thought-provoking and insightful than most of what is out there about whatever topic they are dealing with.

⬐ Mizza

I'm a big Adam Curtis fan, but I was pretty disappointed by this one. The first 5 parts are pretty much the exact same content as his older films - he uses all the same music and even a lot of the same interviews - and some of it seems like he's creating a parody of his own films.

That said, I liked part 6, but I think it should have been released by itself.

⬐ dijksterhuis

Most of the way throught the first episode... I swear we're watching a different series.

Hasn't been a single repeated interview yet.

A lot of the archive footage is different, although yes some of it is repeated.

The music is decidedly Curtis. Yes, Pye corner audio; worriedaboutsatan; nine inch nails and burial etc feature heavily.

But this is the first time he's used an Apex twin track. Plenty of other new bits as well.

⬐ peterstjohn

There are a few recycled interviews from The Living Dead in ep 2 for sure.

⬐ ArtWomb

Feels like an "event" in documentary cinema. The right inquiry, at the right time. The conflict between individual liberty, and the exacerbation of crisis when something beyond our immediate control occurs. At what cost comes the safety net? And who provides it?

The Reverse Marxism of Adam Curtis’s ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Head

https://artreview.com/the-reverse-marxism-of-adam-curtis-can...

⬐ codeproject

there are so many mistakes there. at 40:36, Ethel Boole wrote a book "gadfly", about a young girl who sacrificed herself to the revolution. the main protagonist, Arthur Burton, is a young man.

⬐ sam0x17

Watched this a few days ago. Highly highly recommend.

⬐ kreeben

Is there a way for a non-British to view the other episodes? Adam Curtis is brilliant.

⬐ retox

I hear it's possible to find them on the 1337x torrent site

⬐ paramost

All episodes are available on youtube for me.

⬐ desktopninja

Maybe it is just me, but the basis has always been power and tribalism. Its then wrapped in catchy words such as racism, communism, democrats, republicans ...

⬐ ZuLuuuuuu

When I first saw the title, I thought this was a link to the Kylie Minogue music video.

⬐ FriendlyNormie

What a brilliant and insightful comment. Please post more.

⬐ swimfar

So did I. But it's because I confused it with the "Come into my World" video, directed by Michel Gondry. One of the best music videos, in my opinion. It still would have been a little odd to see it here, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63vqob-MljQ

⬐ flemhans

That's exactly what I thought as well.