The Power Of Nightmares/Adam Curtis

*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

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?

if they had the insight of the above articles then great, however they do not have any insight, just the same crap jokes.

julia grant docs are streaming on iplayer either now or later this week

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

TraumaZone?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/adam-curtis-russia-1985-1999-traumazone

starts 13th october

oh, didn't scroll up, sorry ernest

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

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.

my Adam Curtis wishlist is more interviews, less voiceover. So sounds good.

more crazy frog less burial

that's right

no overarching argument eh

that's why it's called Some Stuff That Just Happened

Guessing there is no voiceover as Curtis has probably registered the reaction/parodying of it.

Narrator's voice:

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

a nim nim nah

If there is a subtitle narrative I'll still be reading it in his voice.

this tbh

Guessing there is no voiceover as Curtis has probably registered the reaction/parodying of it.

this is the most recent Adam Curtis documentary afaic

David Baddiel vs the worms pic.twitter.com/vACyOyKTjC

— TheIainDuncanSmiths (@TheIDSmiths) January 5, 2022

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

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

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/12/russia-adam-curtis-extreme-capitalism-liz-truss-traumazone

This is good lol

Though I do miss the bullshit

"The main cause of fires in apartments across Russia was exploding TV sets"

this is the best shit on the beeb in ages.

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.

"move your fat arse and fire the rocket"!

lol yes
also 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

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.

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.

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

That cake factory. Jesus.

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!?"

i'm looking forward to watching. my VPN is having trouble fooling the bbc iplayer but it'll work somehow.

episode 2
loved 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.

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 soundscapes
https://lawrenceenglish.bandcamp.com/album/themes-and-atmospheres-for-adam-curtiss-russia-1985-1999-traumazone

I was confusing him with Adam Curry in my mind - talk about the Power of Nightmares

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.

Episode 4: Every scene with the national anthem committee had me laughing.

Interview with Curtis from yesterday as the UK government collapsed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=663vLIYBcpI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtVx3KaZ-Z0

curtis on office hours

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.

need to know what this karaoke track from Kyrgyzstan in episode 4 is

this is good

Did v much enjoy the taxi driver saying

The plan is the plan.
It's a pain in the arse.

lol that the Russian fascists decided to call themselves liberal democrats

extra lol at a party calling itself demicrats and openly campaigning for abolishing elections