Guy Debord’s landmark cinematic analysis of consumer society is based on his influential sociological book “La société du spectacle” (1967). Debord was a leading member of the avant-garde art movement ‘Situationist International’. This cinematic essay uses their method of ‘détournement’ to decontextualize and rearrange preexisting audiovisual materials and texts to critizise them and create new meaning. The result is a subversive collage of ideological (moving) images from socialist and capitalist societies that are presented here as artefacts of a global media ‘spectacle’: Social relations between people are mediated by artificial images and false representations that transform humans into mere passive consumers and ‘spectators’ of their alienated existence. Guy Debord’s motivation was to create a radical social critique and a disruptive, anti-illusionist cinema as an antidote and revolutionary tool against the dominant cultural and sociopolitical forces of his time.

San Francisco filmmaker Konrad Steiner has produced a dubbed version of this film using Ken Knabb’s English translation as read by artist/scholar Dore Bowen. Konrad also located and reinserted the original English-language clips from the many quoted films (which in Debord’s film were mostly dubbed in French). This enables English-speaking viewers to pay full attention to the images instead of trying to follow subtitles, and thus better perceive the complex interplay between montage, image, and language through which Debord presents his theses.

1.34GB | 1s 27m | 718×538 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/FA483E9155D1C0B/Society.of.the.Spectacle.1973.DVDRIP.x264.AC3.KJNU.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:English, French. Hardcoded Fr & En subtitles in some scenes

The post Guy Debord – La société du spectacle AKA Society of the Spectacle [English Version] (1974) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

This film by Guy E. Debord is based on his 1967 book of the same title both of which convey ideas about the consumer capitalism’s mode of production and the effects on everyday life. Though both sources use a different means of communication they both powerfully convey the ideas of the situationists. I wont rant on about the ideas contain within this film which are quite profound and have influenced heavily on the Anti-Capitalist movement and post-structuralism through thinkers like Jean Baudrillard. The structure of the film itself is a series of shots from Hollywood films to soviet “collective hero” film experiments to soft-core porn(nothing past topless) to archival footage of historical events(e.g. May 68 revolt in France) and representations of everyday life. The way in which the scenes are manipulated work well with the voice over commentary reinforcing the ideas while hitting emotional notes. The Music also contributes well to the emotional sentiment which the director wants to be associated with different ideas and issues. The technique used reminds me of Wagner, how he used the structure of music to convey hopelessness and the philosophy of Schopenhauer in “The Ring” covering over the once socialists allegory for the contradiction of modernity. Debord and the situationists used their music to convey of the feeling of hope and the spirit negation (the negation of capitalism and the creation of a new “totality” of “situations”). Debord during this film highlights the influences of the “situationits” in the agitation for May 68 (the largest general strike in history). Henri Lefebvre criticized Debord on this point expressing the view that the situationists greatly exaggerate their influence on events. Other then the self-pampering which is small fraction of the film it is a well done piece of radical documentary both in form and content (style and ideas, though this dichotomy is to come degree false) which is quite interesting just for those uninterested or hostile towards Revolutionary Anti-Capitalism.

1.38GB | 3h 37mn | 1:27:18 | avi

https://nitro.download/view/CD09B304E68A682/The_Society_of_the_spectacle_-_Guy_Debord_1973.avi
https://nitro.download/view/BCE2D8D12B1B4FD/subtitles-images-text.rar
https://nitro.download/view/CFA114B46873934/Textes_filmes_-_sous-titres_et_doublages_VF_des_films_du_film.rtf
https://nitro.download/view/D217C90225DC70E/Textes_filmes_-_sous-titres_et_doublages_VF_des_films_du_film.txt

Language(s):French
Subtitles: English + Spanish + Italian (SRT)

The post Guy Debord – The Society of the spectacle AKA La Société du spectacle (1973) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Werner Herzog and Andre Singer’s riveting documentary, filled with unforgettable archive materials and based on three never before seen interviews, provides incredible access to arguably the world’s greatest living politician.

Now 88 and battling illness, the visionary Mikhail Gorbachev, the former General Secretary of the U.S.S.R., is still gently but resolutely pushing towards his goals. Herzog celebrates Gorbachev’s three remarkable accomplishments: negotiations with the U.S. to reduce nuclear weapons, cessation of Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the reunification of Germany, and the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc. All of this in six years!

Herzog and Singer explore pivotal moments in history through a series of exclusive one-on-one interviews with the man who ended the Cold War.

1.55GB | 1h 35mn | 853×480 | mkv

https://nitroflare.com/view/4EDE594ED6E455E/Meeting.Gorbachev.2018.DVD.AC3.part1.rar
https://nitroflare.com/view/C027B0BF3C5C8DE/Meeting.Gorbachev.2018.DVD.AC3.part2.rar

Language(s):English (with some Russian, German, and Polish)
Subtitles:English (Hardcoded for non-English parts), English SDH

The post Werner Herzog & André Singer – Meeting Gorbachev (2018) first appeared on Cinema of the World.