La société du spectacle

This is a must see, although the book is of course a lot better...

Language: French/ English subtitles
IMDB Rating: 7./ 10

Plot: The 90 minute film took a year to make and incorporates footage from The Battleship Potemkin, October, New Babylon, Shanghai Gesture, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Rio Grande, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Johnny Guitar, and Confidential Report, as well as Soviet and Polish films, industrial films, American Westerns, news footage, advertisements, and many still photographs. Events such as the muerder of Lee Harvey Oswald (who assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963), the revolutions in Spain in 1936, Hungary in 1956 and in Paris in 1968, and people such as Mao Zedong, Richard Nixon, and the Spanish Anarchist Durruti are represented. Throughout the movie, there is both a voiceover (of Debord) and inter-titles from "Society of the Spectacle" but also texts from the Committee of Occupation of the Sorbonne, Machiavelli, Marx, Tocqueville, Emile Pouget, and Soloviev. Without citations, these quotes are hard to decipher, especially with the subtitles (which exist even in the French version) but that is part of Debord’s goal “to problematize reception” (Greil and Sanborn) and force the viewer to be active (wiki).

In addition to the above film material, I think it is also perhaps worth checking this more contemporary version of the spectacle.

An Inconvenient Truth

Language: English
IMDB Rating: 8.1/ 10

Plot: Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. A longtime advocate for the environment, Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way. "Al Gore strips his presentations of politics, laying out the facts for the audience to draw their own conclusions in a charming, funny and engaging style, and by the end has everyone on the edge of their seats, gripped by his haunting message," said Guggenheim. An Inconvenient Truth is not a story of despair but rather a rallying cry to protect the one earth we all share. "It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely," said Gore (IMDB).

Why we Fight

Language: English
IMDB Rating: 8.2/ 10

Plot:He may have been the ultimate icon of 1950s conformity and postwar complacency, but Dwight D. Eisenhower was an iconoclast, visionary, and the Cassandra of the New World Order. Upon departing his presidency, Eisenhower issued a stern, cogent warning about the burgeoning "military industrial complex," foretelling with ominous clarity the state of the world in 2004 with its incestuous entanglement of political, corporate, and Defense Department interests (IMDB).

The Trap

Language: English
IMDB Rating: 9.1/ 10
IMDB website

Plot: The Trap: 'What Happened to Our Dream of Freedom' is a BBC documentary series by English filmmaker Adam Curtis, well known for other documentaries including The Century of the Self and The Power of Nightmares. It began airing on BBC Two on 11 March 2007. The series consists of three one-hour programmes which explore the concept and definition of freedom, specifically, "how a simplistic model of human beings as self-seeking, almost robotic, creatures led to today's idea of freedom."

PART I


PART II


PART III

Kurt Cobain: About a Son

Language: English
IMDB Rating: 7.2/ 10

Plot: An intimate and moving meditation on the late musician and artist Kurt Cobain, based on more than 25 hours of previously unheard audiotaped interviews conducted with Cobain by noted music journalist Michael Azerrad for his book "Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana." In the film, Kurt Cobain recounts his own life - from his childhood and adolescence to his days of musical discovery and later dealings with explosive fame - and offers often piercing insights into his life, music, and times. The conversations heard in the film have never before been made public and they reveal a highly personal portrait of an artist much discussed but not particularly well understood (IMDB).

Story of 1

Language: English
IMDB Rating: 7.2/ 10

Plot: The story of the number one is the story of Western civilization. Terry Jones ("Monty Python's Flying Circus") goes on a humor-filled journey to recount the amazing tale behind the world's simplest number. Using computer graphics, "One" is brought to life, in all his various guises, in STORY OF 1 (IMDB). More information to be found here.

Microcosmos: Le peuple de l'herbe

Language: French (although there is almost no actual text)
IMDB Rating: 7.9/ 10

Plot: A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching (IMDB).

Baraka

Language: None
IMDB Rating: 8/ 10

Plot: Without words, cameras show us the world, with an emphasis not on "where," but on "what's there." It begins with morning, natural landscapes and people at prayer: volcanoes, water falls, veldts, and forests; several hundred monks do a monkey chant. Indigenous peoples apply body paint; whole villages dance. The film moves to destruction of nature via logging, blasting, and strip mining. Images of poverty, rapid urban life, and factories give way to war, concentration camps, and mass graves. Ancient ruins come into view, and then a sacred river where pilgrims bathe and funeral pyres burn. Prayer and nature return. A monk rings a huge bell; stars wheel across the sky (IMDB).

Human, all too human : Nietzsche

Language: English/ German - English subtitles
Producer: BBC

Plot: The prescient seeds of thought disseminated by Friedrich Nietzsche in the 19th century prefigured the pivotal 20th-century concepts of existentialism and psychoanalysis. In this program, interviews with Nietzsche biographers Ronald Hayman and Leslie Chamberlain, archivist Dr. Andrea Bollinger, translator Reg Hollingdale, writer Will Self, and philosopher Keith Ansell Pearson probe Nietzsche’s life and elucidate his writings. In addition, his sister’s role in editing his works for use as Nazi propaganda is highlighted. Extracts of Nietzsche’s aphoristic prose, drawn from works such as The Parable of a Madman and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, aptly convey the essence of a supreme stylist and prophetic thinker (source).

DiG!

Language: English
IMDB rating: 7.8/ 10

Plot: Tracks the tumultuous rise of two talented musicians, Anton Newcombe, leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre; and Courtney Taylor, leader of the Dandy Warhols; dissecting their star-crossed friendship and bitter rivalry. Both are hell-bent on staging a self-proclaimed revolution of the music industry. Through their loves and obsessions, gigs and recordings, arrests and daeht threats, uppers and downers--and ultimately to their chance at a piece of the profit-driven music business--how each handles his stab at success is where the relationship frays and burns (IMDB).

Gimme Shelter

Language: English
IMDB Rating: 7.8/ 10

Post: In December of 1969, four months after Woodstock, the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane gave a free concert in Northern California, east of Oakland at Altamont Speedway. About 300,000 people came, and the organizers put Hell's Angels in charge of security around the stage. Armed with pool cues and knifes, Angels spent the concert beating up spectators, killing at least one. The film intercuts performances, violence, Grace Slick and Mick Jagger's attempts to cool things down, close-ups of young listeners (dancing, drugged, or suffering Angel shock), and a look at the Stones later as they watch concert footage and reflect on what happened (IMDB).

A Guide to Happiness: "Nietzsche on Hardship"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

106 - "Nietzsche on Hardship"

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 106 is “Nietzsche on Hardship.” Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) advocated suffering and the overcoming of hardship as good aspects of life. Why and how did Nietzsche advocate difficulty as necessary for worthwhile life achievements?

A Guide to Happiness: "Schopenhauer on Love"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

105 - "Schopenhauer on Love"

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 105 is "Schopenhauer on Love." 19th Century Arthur Schopenhauer believed that love is the most important human striving because of its powerful impulse toward "the will to life." What light does Alain de Botton shed on the irony of an unhappy philosopher probing the subject of love?

A Guide to Happiness: "Montaigne on Self-Esteem"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

104 - "Montaigne on Self-Esteem"

Plot: Episode 4: "Montaigne on Self-Esteem" looks at the problem of self-esteem from the perspective of Michel de Montaigne (16th Century), the French philosopher who singled out three main reasons for feeling bad about oneself - sexual inadequecy, failure to live up to social norms, and intellectual inferiority - and then offered practical solutions for overcoming them.

Michel de Montaigne lived in 16th Century France, long before modern psychology developed and the expression "self-esteem" was coined. In what ways was this contemporary psychological concept central to his worldview?

A Guide to Happiness: "Seneca on Anger"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

103 - Epicurus on Happiness

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 103 is "Seneca on Anger." What practical guide can we adopt from the principles developed by Roman philosopher Lucious Annaeus Seneca (4 BC-65 AD) to accommodate the stresses and dangers of his era?

Seneca took the subject of anger seriously enough to dedicate a whole book to the subject. Seneca refused to see anger as an irrational outburst over which we have no control. Instead he saw it as a philosophical problem and amenable to treatment by philosophical argument. He thought anger arose from certain rationally held ideas about the world, and the problem with these ideas is that they are far too optimistic. Certain things are a predictable feature of life, and to get angry about them is to have unrealistic expectations.

A Guide to Happiness: "Epicurus on Happiness"

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

102 - Epicurus on Happiness

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 102 is “Epicurus on Happiness.” Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher who lived from 341-270 BC, believed that “friends,” “freedom,” and “thought” are the path to happiness. What kind of happiness was Epicurus seeking – and is this still relevant today?

A Guide to Happiness: “Socrates on Self-Confidence”

Scooting on a motorbike around the native lands of Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Alain de Botton talks to the people of all ages he encounters. He engages them in conversations about the central concepts each of these philosophers grappled with. Surprisingly, these were the same things that trouble many of us today: lack of money, the pain of love, inadequacy, anxiety, the fear of failure and the pressure to conform. Each of the half-hours is devoted to one of these philosophers:

01 - Socrates on Self-Confidence

Plot: Philosophy: A Guide to Happiness: 101 is “Socrates on Self-Confidence.” What did Socrates (470-399 BC) mean by “searching for the truth,” “self-knowledge,” and his dialectic method, and how does Alain de Botton extrapolate these concepts into our lives in the 21st Century?

Derrida - The Movie

Language: French with English subtitles
IMDB rating: 6.6/ 10

Plot: An odd portrait of Jacques Derrida, one of the most polemical and influential theorists of the end of the 20th century. The filmmakers 'deconstruct' the French thinker's private and professional life, in an attempt to capture the processes of an inquisitive and iconoclastic mind which has greatly influenced our way of understanding the limits of language (official site).

Hearts and Minds

Language: English/ French/ Vietnamese - English subtitles where needed
IMDB Rating: 8.5/ 10
Prices won: Oscar (1974)

Plot: This film recounts the history and attitudes of the opposing sides of the Vietnam War using archival news footage as well as their own film and interviews. A key theme is how attitudes of American racism and self-righteousness militarism helped create and prolong this bloody conflict. The film also endeavors to give voice to the Vietnamese people themselves as to how the war has affected them and their reasons why they fight the United States and other western powers while showing the basic humanity of the people that US propaganda tried to dismiss (IMDB).

"Possibly the best documentary ever made" (Source)

Sartre - The Road to Freedom

Some time ago I published a post on Martin Heidegger. This time I want to introduce another figure of contemporary European philosophy, Jean Paul Sartre.

In this excellent BBC documentary, Sartre's life is discussed by one of the grounding members of the "Nouvelle Philosophie" (for those interested in this stream of thought, click here for a great introductory essay) Bernard-Henry Levy. Jean-Paul Sartre's abstract ideas, grounded in everyday life, crystallized the mood of the times and became both a rallying point for youth and a touchstone for reaction to world events. This documentary covers accounts by Olivier Todd, Jean Pouillon, and Michelle Vian and includes interviews with Jonathan Ree, Baroness Mary Warnock, Patrick Vaudey, Bernard Levy, and others to analyze Sartre's life and existential outlook from the vantage point of World War II and its aftermath. Dramatized excerpts of "Nausea" and "No Exit" underscore Sartre's themes of alienation and commitment and offer a glimpse of his vision of hell.