Sunday, October 14, 2007

Adam Curtis back on form...

I don't know what kind of tea Adam Curtis was drinking whilst he was putting together the final episode of The Trap but his latest short film featured in the following clip is much more like it...





Personally, I think Curtis only gives a partial explanation for why TV journalism is so crap these days. Yes, TV journalists don't know what's going on but even if they did the chances of them being allowed to explain what is going on are, um, slim.

(cheers to anon for letting me know about this new Curtis film)

As for Charlie Booker, the guy presenting the show which included the Curtis film, I'm not entirely impressed with his Ahmadinejad 'future mushroom cloud fan' line later in the clip. Right now only two countries are hinting about using nukes in the Middle East, and neither of them is Iran.

Later in the same show (not included in the above clip) Charlton, sorry, Charlie also had a bit of a pop at the punters who queued up outside an incompetently, possibly fraudulently managed and certainly insolvent Northern Rock last month for not being financial experts.

Up until the point a reluctant Treasury gave explicit guarantees about the safety of depositors' funds those people queuing up to take their money out of Northern Rock were doing a perfectly sensible thing and anyone who says or implies anything different is talking straight out of their bumhole

- all of which suggests to me that Mr Booker is part of the same fucking problem Adam Curtis is talking about
...

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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Adam Curtis did direct 'The Mayfair Set' & 'The Power of Nightmares' which, between the pair of them contained more 'truthy stuff' than several years of so called 'fact tv'.

As for Mr Brooker, he does a sterling job of disseminating TV's bullshit overdrive.

Granted neither is prepared to come out and directly say we're all being led on a merry dance around the mulberry bush, but who wants a ticket to Harrowdown Hill?

Glad you caught it nonetheless!

BZ

Stef said...

Agreed, both those series are essential viewing

as is 2/3rds of The Trap and large chunks of Pandora's Box

and even average Adam Curtis output is 50x more thought provoking than anything else you're likely to see on mainstream programming

Curtis certainly strikes me as someone who knows the limits of how much he can get away with, which makes the fact that his short film on the rise and fall of TV journalism completely neglects the censorship/ filtering/ suppression side of things quite amusing

I enjoyed most of Booker's output on this particular show but the essentially establishment line he took on both Northern Rock and Ahmadinejad left a bad taste

I'm more than willing to believe that's the result of ignorance rather than malice but it's still moderately ironic given that Booker came out with that crap at the same time as presenting a short film about how people on television don't know what the fuck is going on. Physician heal thyself...

Anonymous said...

Brooker's very good at what he does but he's certainly not one of us. He did a piece in the Guardian a while back saying how stupid 9/11 conspiracy theorists are.

You're right about the last episode of the Trap, one of the most bizarre and nonsensical things I've ever seen.

I'm pretty sure in Curtis' little film on Screenwipe he is partially spoofing his own style...

Anonymous said...

No more narcostate? Who let let the loon in?!?!

I just hope there will be no untimely death for Richard Brunstrom, the Chief Constable of North Wales... All these dangers of the modern society.

Anonymous said...

Northern Granite hits msm and commons; blogger has a mention.

Anonymous said...

Off topic again...

This year's hit single: Don't tase me, bro!

Stef said...

@tony/ anon

off topic is good, thx

Anonymous said...

Is that "The Entertainer" my old ears doth hear comning in at the 52s mark? Wow. :D

Curtis is an excellent documentary maker. He deals with subjects that TV garbage like Gavin Estler and so forth would burst into tears over, even if they were to just glance towards the general direction of such subjects.

However, by virtue of the fact he takes on very deep subjects, he does sometimes contradict himself. But hey, show me someone of his work output and range that wouldn't make the odd mistake.

We need more Cutis's. I remember he gave Blairwatch a slapping too. Lol.

DE said...

By even alerting people to Curtis, Brooker is doing a service on his excellent shhow.