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your self is not your own
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By
Matthew Ross
February 05, 2007
When it comes to foreign films and television programs that haven't secured a DVD release in the U.S., the Internet has become the only option for adventurous viewers. Such is the case with Adam Curtis' astonishing documentary, The Century of the Self.
your self is not your own
For those familiar with Curtis' work, you know that he wears his Leftist politics squarely on his sleeve. His controversial 2004 film, The Power of Nightmares, which chronicled the parallel rise of NeoConservatism and Islamo-Fascism, made the brazen claim -- backed by powerful factual material -- that Al Qaeda is, for the most part, a myth propagated by right-wing Western idealogues.
The Century of the Self was made earlier, in 2002, and, unlike Nightmares, hasn't had much of a chance to be seen by U.S. audiences. (It enjoyed a brief theatrical run at New York's Cinema Village in 2005.) Commissioned by the BBC, the four-hour doc posits that Freud's theory of the unconscious was instrumental in the creation of modern advertising and marketing. Not surprisingly, Curtis isn't interested is presenting an objective history lesson: he clearly views the application of Freudian thought to the consumer marketplace as a destructive event.
As he did with Nightmares, the director supports his argument with solid, often shocking evidence. For example: the man who created the term "public relations" was Freud's American nephew, Edward Bernays, who invented the term "public relations" and who is credited, among other accomplishments, with convincing women to start smoking.
The entire four-part series can be in its entirety on Google Video here. And as far as we can tell, it can't be found on DVD anywhere on the continent, so you don't have to feel too guilty about watching it.
The Century of the Self was made earlier, in 2002, and, unlike Nightmares, hasn't had much of a chance to be seen by U.S. audiences. (It enjoyed a brief theatrical run at New York's Cinema Village in 2005.) Commissioned by the BBC, the four-hour doc posits that Freud's theory of the unconscious was instrumental in the creation of modern advertising and marketing. Not surprisingly, Curtis isn't interested is presenting an objective history lesson: he clearly views the application of Freudian thought to the consumer marketplace as a destructive event.
As he did with Nightmares, the director supports his argument with solid, often shocking evidence. For example: the man who created the term "public relations" was Freud's American nephew, Edward Bernays, who invented the term "public relations" and who is credited, among other accomplishments, with convincing women to start smoking.
The entire four-part series can be in its entirety on Google Video here. And as far as we can tell, it can't be found on DVD anywhere on the continent, so you don't have to feel too guilty about watching it.
