Film Noir Buff Style Forum / Hypernormalisation

woofboxer · 2016-12-01 16:21:49

Okay so who's seen this? Adam Curtis' latest film, took me a couple of viewings to get my head around what he is saying........

'We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the War in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, random bomb attacks. And those who are supposed to be in power are paralysed - they have no idea what to do.

This film is the epic story of how we got to this strange place. It explains not only why these chaotic events are happening - but also why we, and our politicians, cannot understand them.

It shows that what has happened is that all of us in the West - not just the politicians and the journalists and the experts, but we ourselves - have retreated into a simplified, and often completely fake version of the world. But because it is all around us we accept it as normal.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04b183c

woofboxer · 2016-12-01 16:26:19

' social media created filters, complex algorithms that picked out what people liked, then fed more of the same back to them. In the process individuals began to move, without noticing, into bubbles that isolated them from enormous amounts of information, they only heard and saw what they liked. Increasingly news feeds excluded anything that might challenge their pre-existing ideas'

adorable homunculus · 2016-12-01 23:03:05

The piece is one of rare beauty - surpassing even Bitter Lake in this respect - which presents a compelling perspective: we all now encounter reality as a cut-up, fragments of disjointed information detatched from context, arranged without an objective pattern, from which we strive to extract meaning, reassembling haphazardly to construct our subjective experience.

Last edited by adorable homunculus (2016-12-01 23:19:41)

4F Hepcat · 2016-12-02 01:47:26

Last edited by 4F Hepcat (2016-12-02 01:55:03)

adorable homunculus · 2016-12-02 02:02:04

The spoof made me smile.

However, any distinctive work can be pastiched - the more distinctive the work the easier the pastiche becomes.

Of course, Curtis' references very much inhabit my own well-worn prejudices and tastes - alarmingly so upon occasion - I cannot expect to be anything other than beguiled by his spiel.

Last edited by adorable homunculus (2016-12-02 02:04:40)

woofboxer · 2016-12-02 03:10:57

Acton_Baby · 2016-12-02 04:39:56

My mate Gavin ( his band is called 'worriedaboutsatan') was 'music supervisor' on Bitter Lake and Hypernormalisation,
A lot of those ominous electronic drone backing 'beds' ( bits of Burial, Pye Corner Audio and a load of old Eno were looped and edited to fit the film sequences at my old studio.

They are currently working on inserts for Charlie Brooker's 'Screenwipe 2016' and another short film for Vice due in Feb 2017.

adorable homunculus · 2016-12-02 04:57:54

Charlie Brooker is another fellow whose opinion I give credence to.

Acton_Baby · 2016-12-02 05:07:20

If you want to catch up with Adam Curtis' earlier stuff this blog is a good source of links.

http://adamcurtisdocumentaries.tumblr.com/

His cancer doc 'The Way of All Flesh' (1997) is worth a watch as you can see his style of 'story telling' being to crystallise.

adorable homunculus · 2016-12-02 06:08:51

I wasn't aware of that and haven't seen all of his earliest docs. Thank you!

Last edited by adorable homunculus (2016-12-02 06:09:23)

Acton_Baby · 2016-12-02 06:11:33

^ no worries a_h,
if you dig the soundtracks there are some great Spotify 'series specific' playlists, just search Adam Curtis ( but beware there's an awful country singer with the same name).

Patrick · 2016-12-02 09:58:32

As you may know, I spend a lot of time fly-fishing.

It's an activity best practiced alone, although there are times when I fish with someone else.

I have spotted guys streamside fiddling with their phones. Leaving aside the fact that a signal is probably going to be faint at best, I really think they are missing out on something increasingly rare -- being off the goddamn internet.

In the last couple of years have consciously reduced the amount of time I spend online. It does wonders for my peace of mind.

And I'm still working on it.

When I retire I will have a laptop and the most primitive "pay-as-you-go" phone available, for emergency use in the car. Everything else gets shot, and there will be no video posted of the event.

adorable homunculus · 2016-12-02 11:56:35

More easily believed if not posted on the internet.

Patrick · 2016-12-02 15:38:29

adorable homunculus · 2016-12-02 16:15:59

Last edited by adorable homunculus (2016-12-02 16:50:46)

4F Hepcat · 2016-12-03 06:07:46

4F Hepcat · 2016-12-03 09:38:45

I might add and I will: what Curtis accuses Russia of, can equally be applied to the US/Brit strategy in Syria in supporting the ever elusive moderate Islamist opposition and various groups of Islamists. He doesn't draw the dots together that the piper who is calling the tune is The Kingdom who hold a powerful sway over US and UK positions in Syria.

woofboxer · 2016-12-03 16:04:42

Of the two films, for me, Bitter Lake is the one where the arguements hold water (see what I did there). The malign influence of the Saudis and their money on the Muslim world is well explained. The tale of Afghanistan is told as comparatively straightforward story of the unintended consequences of their actions, and those of the Americans in the 1950s, and those of the Russians, and most recently those of the US led coalition.

Hypernormalisation requires some leaps of faith to stay with the plot. The part about the flying saucers conspiracy subtracted from the films credibility. Other bits made perfect sense, for example; the sudden and nexplicable rehabilitation of Col Gadaffi that everyone can remember and never rung true at the time. Overall it tapped into the strange mood of these times and the feeling that nothing is quite what it seems to be.

Acton_Baby · 2016-12-04 05:52:37

In case you've not seen this, Adam Curtis blog is still on the BBC website, pain in the arse to navigate but lots of interesting stuff and additional footage...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis

this post is interesting as it exist as 45min standalone film,
It was an experiment in using Powerpoint to deliver an 'adam curtis documentary' for a mooted 'live' performance ( a spinoff of his live work with Massive Attack) and occasionally pops up on youTube ( I'll add a link when I find a working one)...
it's very minimal even by his usual standards and very rough (timecode still on the footage and rough as hell editing), it's so rough the soundtrack/footage and audio effects are on the right stereo channel and an 'as live' narration track on the left stereo channel, that could be 'dropped out' and replaced by a live narrator.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/entries/44122901-c2e8-34f5-93e0-d4402c163966

Last edited by Acton_Baby (2016-12-04 05:53:21)

Acton_Baby · 2016-12-04 05:56:15

Also his curated 'box set' of American documentaries is worth dipping into...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/group/p00lk1tt

4F Hepcat · 2016-12-04 09:25:36

#1 2016-12-01 16:21:49

Hypernormalisation

#2 2016-12-01 16:26:19

Re: Hypernormalisation

#3 2016-12-01 23:03:05

Re: Hypernormalisation

#4 2016-12-02 01:47:26

Re: Hypernormalisation

#5 2016-12-02 02:02:04

Re: Hypernormalisation

#6 2016-12-02 03:10:57

Re: Hypernormalisation

#7 2016-12-02 04:39:56

Re: Hypernormalisation

#8 2016-12-02 04:57:54

Re: Hypernormalisation

#9 2016-12-02 05:07:20

Re: Hypernormalisation

#10 2016-12-02 06:08:51

Re: Hypernormalisation

#11 2016-12-02 06:11:33

Re: Hypernormalisation

#12 2016-12-02 09:58:32

Re: Hypernormalisation

#13 2016-12-02 11:56:35

Re: Hypernormalisation

#14 2016-12-02 15:38:29

Re: Hypernormalisation

#15 2016-12-02 16:15:59

Re: Hypernormalisation

#16 2016-12-03 06:07:46

Re: Hypernormalisation

#17 2016-12-03 09:38:45

Re: Hypernormalisation

#18 2016-12-03 16:04:42

Re: Hypernormalisation

#19 2016-12-04 05:52:37

Re: Hypernormalisation

#20 2016-12-04 05:56:15

Re: Hypernormalisation

#21 2016-12-04 09:25:36

Re: Hypernormalisation

Board footer