The Century of the Self

United Kingdom

2002

240 Min

Color

English

Currently 4.6/5 Stars.
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CAST Werner Erhard, Martin S. Bergmann, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton, Adam Curtis, Robert Reich, Wilhelm Reich

SOUND Jody Davidson, Austn Wyers

Synopsis

Adam Curtis’ acclaimed series examines the rise of the all-consuming self against the backdrop of the Freud dynasty.

To many in both politics and business, the triumph of the self is the ultimate expression of democracy, where power has finally moved to the people. Certainly the people may feel they are in charge, but are they really? The Century of the Self tells the untold and sometimes controversial story of the growth of the mass-consumer society in Britain and the United States. How was the all-consuming self created, by whom, and in whose interests?

The Freud dynasty is at the heart of this compelling social history. Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis; Edward Bernays, who invented public relations; Anna Freud, Sigmund’s devoted daughter; and present-day PR guru and Sigmund’s great grandson, Matthew Freud.

Sigmund Freud’s work into the bubbling and murky world of the subconscious changed the world. By introducing a technique to probe the unconscious mind, Freud provided useful tools for understanding the secret desires of the masses. Unwittingly, his work served as the precursor to a world full of political spin doctors, marketing moguls, and society’s belief that the pursuit of satisfaction and happiness is man’s ultimate goal. —BBC.co.uk

Director

Adam Curtis

Adam Curtis (born 1955) is a British television documentary maker who has during the course of his television career worked as a writer, producer, director and narrator. He currently works for BBC Current Affairs. His programmes express a clear (and sometimes controversial) opinion about their subject, and he narrates the programmes himself.

After attending Sevenoaks School (a member of the ‘art room’ that produced musicians, Tom Greenhalgh, Kevin Lycett and Mark White of The Mekons along with Andy Gill and Jon King of the Gang of Four) Curtis studied for a BA in Human Sciences (which included introductory courses in genetics, psychology, politics, geography and elementary statistics) at the University of Oxford. Curtis taught politics there, but left for a career in television. He obtained a post on That’s Life!, where he learned to find humour in serious subjects.

Curtis makes extensive use of archive footage in his documentaries. An Observer profile said: Curtis has… read more

Curtis makes extensive use of archive footage in his documentaries. An Observer profile said: Curtis has a remarkable feel for the serendipity of such moments, and an obsessive skill in locating them. “That kind of footage shows just how dull I can be,” he admits, a little glumly. “The BBC has an archive of all these tapes where they have just dumped all the news items they have ever shown. One tape for every three months. So what you get is this odd collage, an accidental treasure trove. You sit in a darkened room, watch all these little news moments, and look for connections.”

The Observer adds “if there has been a theme in Curtis’s work since, it has been to look at how different elites have tried to impose an ideology on their times, and the tragi-comic consequences of those attempts.”

Curtis received the Golden Gate Persistence of Vision Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival in 2005. In 2006 he was given the Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Contribution to Television at the British Academy Television Awards. In 2009 Sheffield Doc/Fest awarded Curtis the inaugural Sheffield Inspiration Award for his inspiration to documentary makers and audiences. —wikipedia

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Th MZA

8Oct11

Employing neither the tone of righteous disapproval expected in U.S. political discourse nor an appeal to nostalgia, Curtis traces individualism's history: Bernays adapts Freud's idea of subconscious desire, invents PR; psychoanalysis rises to combat perceived widespread mental illness; later psychoanalysts reject control, favor self-actualizing; politics mirrors business, sells you you. Mathematical, metal, 'mazing.

dschank

9Oct11

glad you liked this one, d00d... i've been watching curtis' documentaries almost non-stop for about a month now. definitely try "all watched over by machines of loving grace" as well... also excellent!

Matthew Martens

30Aug11

A fascinating, complex, precisely syncopated four-part suite that both identifies a prevailing monomania -- the centrality of the consuming self in contemporary culture -- and exemplifies a monomania of its own by overlooking various prominent counter-tendencies of the 20th century, from class, race, and national identification to the communitarian pretensions of fascism and family-values conservatism. Searing stuff.

Th MZA and Matt Reddick like this

Tom Noblett

28Jan11

I saw this when it first came on TV and it altered my thinking. Curtis dismembers the 20th century self with surgical finesse. His selection and editing of archive material is a masterful appeal to the image hungry zip-edit generation, and is the perfect foil to a soaring yet penetrating polemic. All should watch.

ieve likes this