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 "What it felt like to live through the collapse of communism and democracy." https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ke600MgW1F0 Adam Curtis is back with another documentary TV series. I haven't watched it yet but I'd be interested to hear what he gets wrong and what he gets right. If you are looking for more information about Russia in podcast format Radio War Nerd did a 3 part series about Yeltsin's US-backed coup that took place in 1993. It's episode 260-262. previous adam curtis thread about his documentary tv series can't get you out of my head from 2021: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3958870
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Oct 16, 2022 20:00
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oh man that seems cool as hell, but I can't watch it right now because I'm busy posting and watching cooking videos on youtube that I will never recreate, maybe when I find some free time
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Oct 16, 2022 20:03
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I saw it last night, some cool clips but many reused from previous movies. A little heavier on Arial-font captions and they’re mostly blaming communism and human nature. He doesn’t narrate the film like others — it’s the captions that perform that role. It’s an ok watch if you’re into this stuff. He’s been phoning it in for years though. e: at this point you could probably train an AI model to generate Adam Curtis movies from a given set of archival footage mawarannahr has issued a correction as of 20:11 on Oct 16, 2022 |
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Oct 16, 2022 20:08
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mawarannahr posted:I saw it last night, some cool clips but many reused from previous movies. A little heavier on Arial-font captions and they’re mostly blaming communism and human nature. He doesn’t narrate the film like others — it’s the captions that perform that role. do you actually know anything about editing archival footage?
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Oct 16, 2022 22:34
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bongmaster posted:do you actually know anything about editing archival footage? absolutely not, but you can probably have stable diffusion figure that out in like 2 years. I also do bit understand stable diffusion, but I’ve seen a video it made!! there’s stuff like style transfer and all that could refine it. so maybe it would just figure the style out. anyway this is kinda pointless. I was trying to say it feels mechanical and very similar to previous work.
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Oct 16, 2022 22:40
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mawarannahr posted:absolutely not, but you can probably have stable diffusion figure that out in like 2 years. I also do bit understand stable diffusion, but I’ve seen a video it made!! there’s stuff like style transfer and all that could refine it. so maybe it would just figure the style out. well, you post like a diffusing fart, very similar to past fart
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Oct 16, 2022 22:43
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bongmaster posted:well, you post like a diffusing fart, very similar to past fart Sorry for hurting your feelings Adam
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Oct 16, 2022 22:53
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mawarannahr posted:Sorry for hurting your feelings Adam it's alright, it's just that criticicing someone for having a particular artistic style to their work feels kinda pretentious
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Oct 16, 2022 22:56
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by using only music and archical footage itself, eschewing interviews and narration, i feel like curtis has developed his technique quite a bit, AAA crystal level instead of pipe junkey, you know
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Oct 16, 2022 23:06
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only watched the first ep so far, was a bit disappointed at the lack of narration https://i.imgur.com/6J0uCng.mp4
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Oct 16, 2022 23:24
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this is pretty good, only on ep 3 so far but the people are memorable
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Oct 22, 2022 21:29
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err posted:this is pretty good, only on ep 3 so far but the people are memorable same, actually. there are storylines. they are being built and i cant wait to get the cult together in the temple to see ep 4
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Oct 22, 2022 22:24
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I really liked it. Was genuinely mad at boris yeltsin by the end lol
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Oct 22, 2022 23:43
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why didnt his bodyguards just push him back into that ditch he was later drowning in while drunk
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Oct 23, 2022 00:00
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Yeltsin was a dumb bitch
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Oct 23, 2022 10:16
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i like these films. i’ve watched 3 so far the lack of narration helps imo. could be because his narration was starting to become a parody of itself - maybe he wanted people to focus more on the images than his voice and thesis? is there really that much reuse? i watched all of his movies in the past year and i don’t recognize more than 5-10%
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Oct 23, 2022 15:23
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what was the reason people didn’t like his last movie? I didn’t see it
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Oct 24, 2022 00:31
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:what was the reason people didn’t like his last movie? I didn’t see it i liked it
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Oct 24, 2022 01:48
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Ramrod Hotshot posted:what was the reason people didn’t like his last movie? I didn’t see it At the end of the day he’s a liberal. He usually says thinks like “and then something odd happened,” where he mentions some movement but fails to look at materialism or the structures behind it. He spends a lot of time talking about liberals who try to change the system, inevitably fail and shrug his shoulders and say “I guess no ideas work.” He finds a lot of interesting stuff but lacks the tools to analyze it. So an Adam Curtis movie sans his narration goes a lot further, IMO.
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Oct 24, 2022 03:46
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The Atomic Man-Boy posted:At the end of the day he’s a liberal. He usually says thinks like “and then something odd happened,” where he mentions some movement but fails to look at materialism or the structures behind it. He spends a lot of time talking about liberals who try to change the system, inevitably fail and shrug his shoulders and say “I guess no ideas work.” yea this. the TrueAnon episode on adam curtis talked about this a lot. still, he has access to a lot of cool footage that's fun to watch old footage but curtis himself is a liberal who fundamentally believes in capital as an structural framework upon which to conduct society, but it's been ~corrupted~. he can point out the patient is sick, but he doesn't exactly question or dig deeper why the patient is sick.
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Oct 24, 2022 03:50
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The Atomic Man-Boy posted:He finds a lot of interesting stuff but lacks the tools to analyze it. So an Adam Curtis movie sans his narration goes a lot further, IMO. Yes - his best material looks at what life is like for average people during these huge upheavals. he’s better at capturing that feeling than analyzing why things happened. The chechnyan dudes doing their folk dances in episode 4 ruled. Just love all these cuties doing their silly dances with big mustaches
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Oct 24, 2022 12:26
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exmarx posted:only watched the first ep so far, was a bit disappointed at the lack of narration hello
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Oct 24, 2022 15:19
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I want to marry the girl who stabbed her husband
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Oct 24, 2022 15:26
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Carmant posted:I want to marry the girl who stabbed her husband salmon rushdie has entered the chat
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Oct 24, 2022 17:03
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Carmant posted:I want to marry the girl who stabbed her husband so much of this footage makes me wonder "why was somebody filming this? were they making a documentary? can i see it?" i want to know the backstory behind everything
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Oct 24, 2022 17:10
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traumazone 1985-1999? is this a freakin documentary about my parents' house???
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Oct 24, 2022 17:41
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the horse in episode 5 is so cool
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Oct 25, 2022 02:34
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a.p. dent posted:i like these films. i’ve watched 3 so far Like the red army faction stuff that was in the 'The Walking Dead' and 'Can't get you out of my head' I think he danced around pretty big parts of that story. IIRC in 'The Walking Dead' he didn't mention the Red Army Faction's big critique of West Germany's government literally being nazis was 100% true, and it's framed more as an escalation that creates the security apparatus run by nazis. He does go over that in 'Can't get you out of my head' but in both films he left out the murder/faked suicides of RAF leadership in state custody and makes it seem like the group fizzled or went in wacky directions and leaves out they were crushed, so of course the remnants either renounced the cause or fled to other enemies of their enemy. The Atomic Man-Boy posted:At the end of the day he’s a liberal. He usually says thinks like “and then something odd happened,” where he mentions some movement but fails to look at materialism or the structures behind it. He spends a lot of time talking about liberals who try to change the system, inevitably fail and shrug his shoulders and say “I guess no ideas work.” That's an interesting take. Which of his films that you've seen do you feel didn't have an actual critique or advocacy related to the stories he followed? I will agree he doesn't come out on screen and look at the camera to say "Imperialism is bad, and the US and UK shouldn't do it," but I think you're really misreading things if you think his advocacy is "nothing can ever get better and we don't know why" Coolness Averted has issued a correction as of 14:28 on Oct 25, 2022 |
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Oct 25, 2022 14:25
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exmarx posted:only watched the first ep so far, was a bit disappointed at the lack of narration "And then a very peculiar thing happened..."
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Oct 25, 2022 17:07
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Not made by Adam Curtis, but I saw a documentary at a local film fest that seemed very CurtCore. "Riotsville USA", centering a US government program where the police simulated riots in the 50s/60s. 100% archival footage with intertitles, narration, ambient music, all that poo poo. Currently in limited release, worth checking out when it heads to streaming.
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Oct 25, 2022 17:17
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bit of a tangent but where does adam curtis "formally" upload his stuff? I keep finding vids on different sources and Hypernormalisation is one where there are like 3 or 4 different cuts of it floating around on youtube with +/- ~15 minutes of runtime and even this video is some rando youtube channel I thought https://thoughtmaybe.com/ was it but they don't have traumazone
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Oct 25, 2022 18:57
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Tempora Mutantur posted:bit of a tangent but where does adam curtis "formally" upload his stuff? BBC iPlayer, i believe
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Oct 25, 2022 19:01
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Coolness Averted posted:That's an interesting take. Which of his films that you've seen do you feel didn't have an actual critique or advocacy related to the stories he followed? Hypernormalisation stands out in my mind when he talks about how the left in the US just "looked inwards and did nothing" or whatever in the 60s/70s and zero mention of the state assassinating some major leaders (e.g. Fred Hampton) or even iirc zero mention of mccarthyism just "and then the left in america decided to get high, for no reason, and stop fighting. it *definitely* wasn't because any public leaders/members were systematically imprisoned or killed by the state from the 1940s onward, that uh... well if that DID happen, it wouldn't matter, ok? they're just dumbass hippies doin drugs with zero reason. the left didn't fight hard enough to keep the banks at bay so of course capital moved in to capture society in the early 70s! anyway if that whole 'systematic killing of the left by the capital-captured state' thing did happen, don't think too hard about 'when exactly did america become a shithole nation build on blood for the benefit of a very select few?' because that's uh... that's not part of my documentary, which is about accepting horrible reality as the new normal because processing even part of the truth is too hard. also it's the russians who pioneered this twisting-of-reality-for-the-wealthy-few, specifically this one dude that putin hired." didn't make the shitlib connection at the time of watching it but it fits it's funny because I read that post and initially was thinking that well, curtis is kind of lending an emotional feel the material conditions and individuals who made major decisions, before realizing nope, he's completely papering over those material conditions in favor of individual stories/abstractions that favor the status quo like he calls out the assads, trump, putin, and the dude who I can't remember that worked for putin who did a lot of messaging work for him, but when he talks about NYC being captured by finance, it's just "the banks" not specific CEOs and people who facilitated it (yet when we flip over to his parallel of NYC in Syria, again we have specific names, specific actors, like how assad got help from the named person in Iran who taught him about "the poor man's nuke") so yeah the more I think about it, it's a very curated shitlib perspective with clear-cut villains and capital is just a nebulous, nameless Thing that happens to do stuff sometimes and cannot be helped, not like those evil individuals who are wrong and bad and made things bad e: still love the dude's work, gonna enjoy the gently caress out of traumazone Tempora Mutantur has issued a correction as of 20:00 on Oct 25, 2022 |
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Oct 25, 2022 19:20
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here's an interview where he talks more explicitly about his thoughts on the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=663vLIYBcpI
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Oct 25, 2022 20:01
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where marx took hegel and set his philosophical method firmly on its feet by placing material conditions before ideas, curtis seeks to place hegel back on his head again.
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Oct 25, 2022 23:40
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a.p. dent posted:here's an interview where he talks more explicitly about his thoughts on the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=663vLIYBcpI ...this is so surreal to me the dude can only talk about communism as dead while in the same breath explaining how the USSR just "suddenly" collapsed (like how some people in america just suddenly collapse after a police officer shoots them 30 times, it was just so sudden and we'll never really know how or why they died!) and how now everyone sees capitalism doesn't work but there's just no other way "the way is open" and "no I don't think fascism will come back because that still requires you to give yourself to a greater whole which we don't do anymore" after correctly diagnosing how the hyperindividuality of capital culture (which ofc makes capital stronger) has rendered collective action towards complex issues impossible is... one helluva take like lol you don't need *poo poo* to become a fascist other than lots of dumb people suffering (which he also explicitly calls out, at least on the suffering part) and a megaphone, that's the whole loving problem, especially in areas like america where we have untreated mental illness in huge swathes of the population and love it so whoops just another rando lone wolf shooter, nothing that can be done whoops just another militia in the woods that the capital-owned government treats with kid gloves, nothing can be done gee sure hope someone realizes "the way is open" and isn't a competent fascist hoooooo boy would that be awkward! if only there was some other way... ah well it also sucks because his own ideology, e.g.: Fat-Lip-Sum-41.mp3 posted:where marx took hegel and set his philosophical method firmly on its feet by placing material conditions before ideas, curtis seeks to place hegel back on his head again. would make me think he'd at least say "drat we really need to figure out how to get people to want to be a part of collective actions again such as the way the now-destroyed-and-barely-coming-back unions did," but instead he says something along the lines of "individuality is here forever and fucks us forever... maybe! maybe not!" maybe it's my own ignorance or misreading of what he's said but it sounds like "yeah man we're turbofucked, and there is no alternative to capitalism but drat we really need one. if only someone highlighted a way to do this. also china is probably hosed imo so don't really listen to them because again, there's just no other way! it's so weird, there's only capitalism, nothing else could possibly work that we've already conceived of. nothing."
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Oct 26, 2022 17:26
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Tempora Mutantur posted:maybe it's my own ignorance or misreading of what he's said but it sounds like "yeah man we're turbofucked, and there is no alternative to capitalism but drat we really need one. if only someone highlighted a way to do this. also china is probably hosed imo so don't really listen to them because again, there's just no other way! it's so weird, there's only capitalism, nothing else could possibly work that we've already conceived of. nothing." Welcome to Capitalist Realism, baby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3ErYUeuk0w
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Oct 26, 2022 17:31
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Barry Foster posted:Welcome to Capitalist Realism, baby that is the most depressing thought and while it's been brought up in other threads I keep pushing it out of my mind because accepting the fact that the vast majority of coredwellers cannot conceive of a better life, and will thus implicitly accept the boot upon the neck of others as well as themselves (so long as they can be sure the boot is pressed harder on the necks of others) really uh really makes you realize how important it is to VOTE 
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Oct 26, 2022 17:53
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Tempora Mutantur posted:would make me think he'd at least say "drat we really need to figure out how to get people to want to be a part of collective actions again such as the way the now-destroyed-and-barely-coming-back unions did," but instead he says something along the lines of "individuality is here forever and fucks us forever... maybe! maybe not!" huh, this isn't my reading of it at all. he blames all of the problems on concentrated capital, and glorifies collective protests movements (the part in episode 6 with the mothers going to the front line for example). he doesn't come out and say "and that's why we need to go back to communism!" because he's not interested in writing political polemics, but he certainly makes the communist party regime look better than the capitalist one (IMO). and yeltsin is portrayed as a villain. i guess it's the nihilism that's the problem? which, fair, but i might feel the same way if i've been looking at all this history and seen it fail so many times
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Oct 26, 2022 18:07
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