The highly anticipated new work from
journalist and Bafta award-winning filmmaker, Adam Curtis premiered
exclusively on BBC iPlayer on 11 February 2021.
Spanning eight hours over six episodes, the series presents an audacious
and frequently mind-boggling attempt to explain how we got to the
present moment: turbulent and chaotic times in which nothing ever
fundamentally seems to change, during which those in power have lost the
ability either to make sense of it or offer a way out to something
better. It is an exploration of how, throughout history, different
characters from all over the world have sought to break through the
stasis and corruption of their time and transform reality – and how very
often in so doing, have unleashed powerful forces that would ultimately
lead to their destruction. And why both
those in power - and we - find it so difficult to move on.
The films trace different forces across the
world that have led to now, not just in the West, but in China and
Russia as well. It covers a wide range - including the strange roots of
modern conspiracy theories, the history of China, opium and opiods, the
history of Artificial Intelligence, melancholy over the loss of empire
and, love and power. And explores whether modern culture, despite its
radicalism, is really just part of the new system of power.
Adam Curtis says: “These strange days did not just happen. We - and those in power - created them together.”
The world is an exciting, maddening and confusing place. As a documentary-maker and visual historian, Adam Curtis' films have been a perfect cipher for those elements to run wild.
Packed with eclectic soundtracks and images that tantalise, horrify and
baffle, allied to Curtis' simultaneously soothing and scary narration of
his own scripts, his work begins with a grand theme and aims to throw
as much at the wall as possible in order to build up a picture that
persuades the viewer of his case.
The
joy of an Adam Curtis film resides in following his journey which is
never less than richly coloured and compactly detailed, with surprising
(and yes, extraordinary) stories of those who often played a marginal
role alongside the real players of history. So we have the tragic arc of
Mao's seemingly Machiavellian wife Jiang Qing, or social activist
Michael X, the UK's wannabe Malcolm X, who ended up paying a terrible
price for his own vaulting ambitions and psychological flaws.
We are indeed living through strange days. Across Britain, Europe and America
societies have become split and polarised. There is anger at the
inequality and the ever growing corruption - and a widespread distrust
of the elites. Into this has come the pandemic that has brutally
dramatised those divisions. But despite the chaos, there is a paralysis -
a sense that no one knows how to escape from this.
Few documentary filmmakers care more about music than Adam Curtis. Since his award winning 2002 film, The Century of the Self,
Curtis’ baroque style has returned – year on year – to haunt the BBC
airwaves like a spectre, each time supported by an extraordinary
soundtrack. Reportedly, Curtis delayed the release of his new six-part
series, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, because he couldn’t think of the right song to end it on.
If you sit
down to Can't Get You Out Of My Head to receive all the
answers about this mystifying planet, ultimate frustration lies in wait.Adam Curtis is after all a populist and a lot of what he offers is pure escapism.and a form of ambient soup. But nevertheless does allow us to learn some intriguing unheard stories and raise many questions it's also totally mesmerising, so different from the norm that we usually see, so much needed right now in the current climate, so cheers Adam Curtis.
All episodes available now on BBC iPlayer.
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