The Power Of Nightmares/Adam Curtis

As for the likes of Irving Kristol and "Professor" Richard Pipes, the words "please kill me" sprang to mind...

Come to think of it, where exactly does Pol Pot fit into all this?

But yes, a beautiful, confident piece of documentary making, that got me feeling all 'ahh, the BBC'.

I liked this assessment in the Times today:

If 'The Power of Nightmares' had been drafted as a play, it would be hailed as a dazzlingly thought-provoking drama. As a book, its thesis would become a debating point on talk shows round the world. Even in the form of a here-are-the-facts documentary, it is so artfully crafted, so engagingly argued, so playfully illustrated, that you happily reserve your questions and reservations until the final credits start rolling.

Here is a talented, intelligent film-maker enjoying himself and showing what you can do with an hour of television. It is deliciously spliced together, seasoned with deftly chosen archive footage from an improbale palette of sources: everything from clips from episodes of 'Perry Mason' and 'Gunsmoke', to American prom dances and Egyptian television commercials.

Apparently it was going to be trailed as long ago as the weekend before last, but they pulled back on it because of Ken Bigley.

X-post. Ahh, cool. I haven't read that.

I did like his book "Russia Under The Old Regime", so was slightly disappointed to find out he was in with all the neo-cons in the '70s. Although he did have one very annoying habit of referring to all medieval people of Scandinavian origin as "Normans".

I can't remember what the Mitrokhin Archive says about Soviet sponsorship of teroorism, but there was something. Possibly supplied by The Spy Who Came In From The Garden.

A torrent for the episode, if anyone is interested.

In the end, it was strangely calming, rather than depressing. All this will pass.

Tonight's episode was very poignant, and made me sad.

I second that. I downloaded the last two episodes last Saturday and watched them, very powerful. It's sad that there's great documentaries such as this and The White House for Sale airing on UK television, and most people in the US won't get an opportunity to see them.

Also, things that weakened his argument, such as Madrid, were kind of skipped over a bit too lightly.

Kerry seemed shoved in just in case.

Quibbles aside, top-notch television. I may even go for a month without complaining about my licence fee.

It is strange that I had never heard those people swearing as the planes hit the towers.

The cumulative effect was a kind of political version of James Burke's Connections series from the '70s. OK in shaggy dog conspiracy terms but didn't really pinpoint whether it was just the expected cocktail of bilateral incompetence, stubbornness and stupidity which led us to our current pretty pass rather than a Conspiracy as such.

I too totally agree with PJ Miller. I don't recall Madrid being mentioned at all. I couldn't get the idea out of my head that while it's fine to criticise the hysteria created by the neo-cons, (that Disney video!!), you can understand why the likes of Britain have to at least be on their guard against the kind of thing that happened in Madrid - even if we acknowledge the programme's main point that there is no such thing as monstrous Al-Qaeda.

This was the third part, part 1 was all about Afghanistan

great use of music, mind.

a) didnt really explore what Bin Laden's motivations were for trying a new policy of attacking america, going against what other islamic fundamentalist gorups were interested in (eg toppling central asian regimes*).

b) kept on repeating how the neo cons "grand mission" was some titanic battle of good vs evil, that seemed a bit suspect. are these people really solely driven by moral purpose, no matter how extreme or well, silly, that moral purpose is?

c) er i tcant think of another. but i sort of inherently dont believ things on tv when people make somewhat grandiose claims, whether they be blair, bush or some dude intoning opposing views over loads of tiny clips. it was kinda eisenstein-esque, and well, his aim was kinda totally "manipulate the viewer, worry bout factual issues later".

* interesting becasue in 2000 i was in debate with loads of russian politics students, and they savaged us about Chechnya, along the lines of "Russia is under the threat of Attack by a islamic super state, chehcnya will be the first to fall to them". We (ie a few brits) were all like, "WTF? Islamic fundamentalism? whats that? whats the issue here? quit being so paranoid!". a year later, it became a bit clearer what the idea of a threat from islamic fundamentalism might mean.

there's a female morris troop called the Belles of London (do you see?) who prance around in what looks like Victorian underwear. People seem to enjoy it. their hoss is a bastard.

(Dan from enderby's room fiddles for them from time to time)

Might watch them in slow motion so it seems more portentous than annoying.

there's a female morris troop called the Belles of London (do you see?) who prance around in what looks like Victorian underwear. People seem to enjoy it. their hoss is a bastard.

(Dan from enderby's room fiddles for them from time to time)

I see Paul Morley has met them

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

oh no

Ha ha, well I'm living in New York now so it may be quite a while before I get to see who's right.

Was tickled to read a while back that on the nite he had his Damascane punk conversion moment, viewing the Clash in Leeds 1977, Green Gartside was in full Morris get-up, having gone to the gig after an evening folk dance class.

There's a mini series on BBC Sounds called My Albion that features reflections on this stuff from the perspective of black british ppl involved in the folk scene, some Twitter Left folks show up too. Worth hearing.

oh i would like to hear that Daniel - thanks for the tip.

in case anyone didn't know the entirety of Can't Get You Out Of My Head is up on youtube

I'm enjoying it even if only as a respite from the "is this person a baddie or goodie" type discourse that seems to be the entirety of the internet rn. I'm sure it's chock full of simplifications and elisions but there's a lot of stuff I previously knew jack shit about, and lots of great footage. Amazing that he managed to hold out for almost 4 full episodes before dropping in "you are the generation that bought more shoes and you get what you deserve".

Wouldn't be mad if the editing was tightened up 25% or so

My roommate and I have been watching at opposite ends of the apartment and then emerging to narrate our lives at each other.

yatgtbmsaygwyd was meant to be the title but the beeb told him it was too long

that's so rude! "yatgtbmsaygwyd" is one of the most beautiful words in the entire welsh language

My roommate and I have been watching at opposite ends of the apartment and then emerging to narrate our lives at each other.

i did this with my cat during the week that i watched it. i was really disappointed in what he came up with, but i got some sick burns in on him

His list of films that 'express the social and political mood of their time':

https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/lists/adam-curtis-10-films-capture-mood-times

Gotta admit I wasn't expecting some of those

Scream 2 was a fun surprise.

Stalker, Society, and Starship Troopers are very on brand and I think quoted in his work. But some of the others are slightly unexpected. Including The Souvenir is cheating the "political mood of their time" criteria a bit! BG is probably haunted by the Bush Era in the early seasons but then more influenced by the pure ridiculum of Lost by the end.

Would like to hear of some other examples of "that growing fascination and fear of the human body that grew up in the 1980s" besides Society, Cronenburg and the like.

cocoon

Teen Wolf

Haha he writes exactly like he talks. Would much rather hear/read him talk about movies than history and society tho

Including The Souvenir is cheating the "political mood of their time" criteria a bit!

That choice leapt out at me too, but rather than put it down to cheating it made me interesting in rewatching the film through that lens. I wanted to rewatch it anyway.

it is an interesting 80's period movie in that it is genuinely hungry and curious about reaching the parts others of that genre don't even seem to know exist, but what I meant was most of the other movies were of their time rather than looking back. I know you've clocked that yourself, but just saying!

movies on the list - I should add

Ah, I see! No, I hadn’t really clocked that. I just meant that I saw it as such a personal rather than political film.

the personal approach in this movie is still imbued with the politics of the era and could potentially be a very crude bunch of caricatures in a bad 80's period movie, and there are lots of them. I respect Hogg's naturalistic approach. But still a movie that couldn't be more detached from the era it was made in.

I just mean that in the sense that Cutis usually seems quite rigidly obsessed with the significance of what popular culture says about the socio political milieu it was created in. I'll let him off with this one!

Surprised "I May Destroy You" isn't listed. He brought it up on his interview on the Red Scare podcast as "a series of films" that captures our age like nothing else. ilx will be pleased to hear.

Would much rather hear/read him talk about movies than history and society tho

Hard disagree. I enjoy Curtis' programmes but, as I think calzino pointed out before, he tends to be a total dolt in interviews.

This list would be ok w/o the blurbs but it's so embarassing - Starship Troopers is prophetic because "the humans send giant armies to kill the insects in the deserts of the remote planet"? Like the US bombing a middle east country was some sort of wild sci-fi in '97?

💥NEW EPISODE💥 @owenhatherley, @zinovievletter, and Alberto Toscano on Adam Curtis' Can't Get You Out of My Head. We chatted about Curtis' politics, the changes in his documentary style since the early 1990s, and why he avoids talking about neoliberalism:https://t.co/cuFxPERLPG

— Politics Theory Other (@poltheoryother) March 28, 2021

lol I'd never heard that rumour before that he went door knocking for Corbyn in '19. He does have some strange definitions of what the Left is in his work and of course there are going to be constrictions on what stories he decides to tell when he is selling his work to the BBC and is completely reliant on the BBC archives.

https://www.thewhitereview.org/feature/on-adam-curtis-cant-get-you-out-of-my-head/

excellent and otm piece by Juliet Jacques

good piece, nice to read a balanced critique for a change

yeah I think she's nailed just about everything that is good and bad about him there and I learned that he cut his teeth on That's Life! (execrable 70's middle-class television for non UK's!)

"arguing that the US counter-culture had failed to change the world because it had become too concerned with individual self-expression"

this was the most ridiculous bit of Hypernormalisation

The son of English surrealist poet and filmmaker Humphrey Jennings’s cinematographer, Curtis

i did not know this

meh, he clearly used his surrealism/avant-garde doc connections to get a plumb production job on That's Life!

or possibly a bat soup production job!

ha this is great

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1bX3F7uTrg

B-, music cues need work

any essay that contains both this passage

I had to spend ninety minutes per day holding Perspex dilators inside my ‘neo-vagina’ to stop it closing. I binged on Curtis films while I did this, and eventually discovered my clitoris worked while watching THE CENTURY OF THE SELF.)

and this one


Graeber argued that the morally and intellectually bankrupt Labour establishment, already furious about losing two leadership elections in what felt like (and was) a repudiation of their public-private partnerships and interventionist foreign policy, deliberately sabotaged their own party to defeat a paradigm shift against them. They did this mainly by casting themselves as supporters of the EU, without questioning the EU’s migration policies or imposition of austerity on Greece and elsewhere, and using Corbyn’s refusal to disregard the EU referendum result as a ‘wedge issue’ to divide his base, hoping to demobilise his young supporters and peel away the liberal end of his voter coalition. In the process, many of Labour’s ‘centrist’ MPs lost what were once safe seats in Leave-voting constituencies and handed a thumping majority to one of the most right-wing governments in British history, who immediately voted through the hardest possible Brexit.

is like it was made by robots for me to like it.

Good read. Thanks calzino

this is absolutely excellent. jacques is really very smart and very unusual now to see someone who can really draw on and bring together the political historical and aesthetic critiques that area ll necessary to thinking about this and using it as a jumping off point to think more broadly and critically about our present moment.

i haven't read much by her, the few bits i have were frustratingly short and now seem even more so after reading this where its really clear that she is well able to draw out a complex critique from a pretty dizzying breadth of insights as uh tracers post intimates

although lol tbf i only half watched this i thought it was boring as sin and i cant really deal w/ curtis's tone though if i like the music and archive footage

the main reason I liked Juliet's piece, aside from the fact that she's always an interesting writer was because I also think Curtis is good and love loads of his work but also consider him very problematic and very myopically dumb at times, although possibly this is by design or part of price for access to the bbc archive or maybe he's just a bit of a dickhead! But the segments on Julia Grant are very empathetic and heartfelt and incredibly moving imo and the cold arrogance of the Mengellesque clinician John Randell, was so enraging and powerful.

I'd felt the series left Julia Grant on a strange note as well. Then heard Curtis on Chapo talking about the very happy ending she has in the film.... in her 5 seconds dancing in the closing montage thing.

there is a bit where Julia encapsulates all the shit she has gone through, can't remember exactly how she put it - but it wasn't exactly a happy ending but sort of defiantly "I've taken so much shit, just punch me to the deck right here and I won't be surprised"

That's a fantastic piece. I struggle with Curtis - I find the programmes physically exhausting to watch for some reason - but this is the summary of his work I've seen.

This is an extraordinary dip into the (relatively) recent past: A look at BBC2 in the first week of June 1992, when PANDORA’S BOX was first broadcast, shows an OPEN SPACE strand where the public could make programmes; documentaries on the failure of the Green Revolution in India, post-Communist Czechoslovakia and the assassination of high-ranking Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich; Toni Morrison on THE LATE SHOW; a set of films on culture and identity from a black perspective; a dance film by Anthony Minghella; a showcase for new filmmakers; a documentary on the Troubles in Northern Ireland, written by poet Damian Gorman, and another on Frida Kahlo, narrated by Helen Chadwick in Mexico; films directed by Alex Cox and Karel Reisz; a political drama made in Colombia; and daily Open University content.

*this is the *best* summary of his work. Gah.

This Politics, Theory, Other podcast (with Owen Hatherley and Alberto Toscano) is a good companion piece: https://soundcloud.com/poltheoryother/hypercurtisisation-w-owen-hatherley-juliet-jacques-and-alberto-toscano