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.
― calzino, Friday, 30 April 2021 20:01 (three years ago) link
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.
― maf you one two (maffew12), Friday, 30 April 2021 20:21 (three years ago) link
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"
― calzino, Friday, 30 April 2021 20:59 (three years ago) link
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.
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Saturday, 1 May 2021 10:36 (three years ago) link
*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
― Vanishing Point (Chinaski), Saturday, 1 May 2021 10:38 (three years ago) link
irrationally angry about people on Twitter who, like clockwork, decide to do a bit on Adam Curtis, a person who I have ambivalent feelings about in many ways but who is one of just a handful of half-decent documentary-makers working in the country. hey twitter people, why not instead do a bit on the tidal wave of shit that is 95% of factual programming?
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 12 June 2021 14:42 (two years ago) link
if they had the insight of the above articles then great, however they do not have any insight, just the same crap jokes.
― A viking of frowns, (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Saturday, 12 June 2021 14:44 (two years ago) link
julia grant docs are streaming on iplayer either now or later this week
― oscar bravo, Saturday, 12 June 2021 17:30 (two years ago) link
New Curtis series coming October 13 - "Russia 1985-1999 TraumaZone: What It Felt Like to Live Through the Collapse of Communism and Democracy":https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/2022/adam-curtis-russia-1985-1999-traumazone
― ernestp, Sunday, 25 September 2022 03:14 (one year ago) link
TraumaZone?
― Karl Malone, Sunday, 25 September 2022 03:34 (one year ago) link
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/adam-curtis-russia-1985-1999-traumazone
starts 13th october
― koogs, Friday, 30 September 2022 15:07 (one year ago) link
oh, didn't scroll up, sorry ernest
― koogs, Friday, 30 September 2022 15:08 (one year ago) link
TraumaZone, a BBC documentary by Adam Curtis on the collapse of communism and democracy in Russia, comes out tomorrow. It is different from Curtis's previous films--there's no voice-over or overarching argument. We started work before the current war; I was a producer for this. pic.twitter.com/6fC2dq2woc— Grigor Atanesian (@atanessi) October 12, 2022
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 14:50 (one year ago) link
I was wondering if the no voiceover was just a feature of the trailer. If there is a subtitle narrative I'll still be reading it in his voice.
― calzino, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 15:43 (one year ago) link
my Adam Curtis wishlist is more interviews, less voiceover. So sounds good.
― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 12 October 2022 15:49 (one year ago) link
more crazy frog less burial
― mark s, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 15:54 (one year ago) link
that's right
― saigo no ice cream (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 12 October 2022 15:56 (one year ago) link
no overarching argument eh
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 15:57 (one year ago) link
that's why it's called Some Stuff That Just Happened
― saigo no ice cream (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 12 October 2022 16:04 (one year ago) link
Guessing there is no voiceover as Curtis has probably registered the reaction/parodying of it.
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 16:15 (one year ago) link
Narrator's voice:
― saigo no ice cream (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 12 October 2022 16:16 (one year ago) link
if I was him I'd put in a scene with something like some haunted '90s VHS footage of a post-Soviet grocery store with empty shelves and desperate faces with a sad BURIAL soundtrack, just for the haters, lol
― calzino, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 16:18 (one year ago) link
a nim nim nah
― mark s, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 16:19 (one year ago) link
If there is a subtitle narrative I'll still be reading it in his voice.
this tbh
― Tracer Hand, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 16:56 (one year ago) link
― barry sito (gyac), Wednesday, 12 October 2022 17:00 (one year ago) link
this is the most recent Adam Curtis documentary afaic
David Baddiel vs the worms pic.twitter.com/vACyOyKTjC— TheIainDuncanSmiths (@TheIDSmiths) January 5, 2022
― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 12 October 2022 17:12 (one year ago) link
― lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), Wednesday, 12 October 2022 17:38 (one year ago) link
ah yes he did. I'm thinking that the "something incredible happened" parts of his narration would actually sound hilarious in a deepfake Starmer voice
― calzino, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 18:12 (one year ago) link
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/12/russia-adam-curtis-extreme-capitalism-liz-truss-traumazone
― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 12 October 2022 21:58 (one year ago) link
This is good lol
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 13 October 2022 17:42 (one year ago) link
Though I do miss the bullshit
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 13 October 2022 17:43 (one year ago) link
"The main cause of fires in apartments across Russia was exploding TV sets"
― calzino, Thursday, 13 October 2022 17:56 (one year ago) link
this is the best shit on the beeb in ages.
― calzino, Thursday, 13 October 2022 19:00 (one year ago) link
loved episode one. tho I do actually miss his voice tbh. thought the lemur/porcupine guy at the start was de niro circa taxi driver for a minute. Chernobyl stuff was wince inducing especially the scientists who must of known the folly of their improvised has-suits. loads of stuff I didn't know about ie Georgia gassing. liked the Mujahedin fighting in the background over which one got the surrendered Soviet soldiers weapons.
― oscar bravo, Thursday, 13 October 2022 19:52 (one year ago) link
"move your fat arse and fire the rocket"!
― calzino, Thursday, 13 October 2022 19:57 (one year ago) link
lol yesalso thought it was sweet that the hotel receptionist turned down the offer of a bribe from the prostitute and allowed her to go about her business tax free.found the voice and tone of the reform school den mother v soothing
― oscar bravo, Friday, 14 October 2022 06:27 (one year ago) link
i’m about halfway into the second one. it’s true that he’s not making the kind of big argument he usually does with these. it’s like a footage reclamation exercise, well edited, well subtitled. i mean that’s what it says on the tin - “what it felt like” - and so he’s putting the mundane side by side with the extraordinary, the personal side by side with big public news, as it would have felt, day by day. i suppose the economic history of looting and perestroika he has to tease out of the footage a bit more. but you can imagine this sort of project done with any number of subjects in the bbc archives really.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 14 October 2022 07:53 (one year ago) link
extraordinary moment when the soviet soldiers are surrendering and one of them has a shaved head and your brain tells you it must be that young man we saw leaving home earlier.
― Tracer Hand, Friday, 14 October 2022 07:59 (one year ago) link
Ha!
An absolute disaster on the train as I settle down with my laptop to watch Episode 4 of Adam Curtis’s new BBC series about Russia in the 1990s.— Dominic Sandbrook (@dcsandbrook) October 14, 2022
― link.exposing.politically (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 14 October 2022 09:56 (one year ago) link
That cake factory. Jesus.
― 29 facepalms, Friday, 14 October 2022 11:16 (one year ago) link
all that could have been avoided with a simple "I'm so sorry! I'm watching a documentary and didn't know they would be showing things like that! ...have you heard about TraumaZone!?"
― Karl Malone, Friday, 14 October 2022 13:45 (one year ago) link
i'm looking forward to watching. my VPN is having trouble fooling the bbc iplayer but it'll work somehow.
― Karl Malone, Friday, 14 October 2022 13:46 (one year ago) link
episode 2loved the old woman taking the long journey to visit her friend to get some potatoes. she was great.holy shit at the laundry that had a refit one year that resulted in lots of scrap metal of old machines and the central planners noting this volume of scrap and writing it into future plans that they must have the same amount of scrap EVERY year from now on or be fined despite the fact that obviously no new refitting was taking place in subsequent years. resulting in the laundry going looking for scrap to fulfill their quota. astonishing.
― oscar bravo, Friday, 14 October 2022 20:10 (one year ago) link
Just started in on this. Am reminded a lot of El Narco: Inside Mexico's Criminal Insurgency another really good breakdown of how a country becomes a kleptocracy.
FYI, it's Lawrence English doing some of the soundscapeshttps://lawrenceenglish.bandcamp.com/album/themes-and-atmospheres-for-adam-curtiss-russia-1985-1999-traumazone
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 15 October 2022 05:15 (one year ago) link
I was confusing him with Adam Curry in my mind - talk about the Power of Nightmares
― | (Latham Green), Saturday, 15 October 2022 11:26 (one year ago) link
holy shit at the laundry that had a refit one year that resulted in lots of scrap metal of old machines and the central planners noting this volume of scrap and writing it into future plans that they must have the same amount of scrap EVERY year from now on or be fined despite the fact that obviously no new refitting was taking place in subsequent years. resulting in the laundry going looking for scrap to fulfill their quota. astonishing.
― circa1916, Sunday, 16 October 2022 00:11 (one year ago) link
Episode 4: Every scene with the national anthem committee had me laughing.
― blatherskite, Sunday, 16 October 2022 23:41 (one year ago) link
Interview with Curtis from yesterday as the UK government collapsed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=663vLIYBcpI
― Elvis Telecom, Thursday, 20 October 2022 17:31 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtVx3KaZ-Z0
curtis on office hours
― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar..., Thursday, 20 October 2022 17:44 (one year ago) link
That little beggar girl, she does act up for the camera with the confidence of a Hollywood child actor, it's quite amazing. Wonder what happened to her, most probably I don't want to know.
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 22 October 2022 12:10 (one year ago) link