HyperNormalisation (2016)

Adam Curtis explains how, at a time of confusing and inexplicable world events, politicians and the people they represent have retreated in to a damaging over-simplified version of what is happening.

Director:

Adam Curtis

Writer:

Adam Curtis

Stars:

Adam Curtis, Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Adam Curtis	...	Narrator (voice)
Donald Trump	...	Himself - Businessman (archive footage)
Vladimir Putin	...	Himself - Russia Leader (archive footage)
Victor Gotbaum	...	Himself - NYC Workers League (archive footage)
Patti Smith	...	Herself - Singer (archive footage)
Henry Kissinger	...	Himself - US Secretary of State (archive footage)
Hafez al-Assad	...	Himself - President of Syria (archive footage)
Thomas Schelling	...	Himself - Economist (archive footage)
Soraya El-Hayan	...	Herself - Syria Social Affairs Minister (archive footage)
Leslie Gelb	...	Himself - US Department of Defense (archive footage)
Ronald Reagan	...	Himself - President of the United States (archive footage)
Nancy Reagan	...	Herself - Ronald Reagan's Wife (archive footage)
Ayatollah Khomeini	...	Himself - Ayatollah of Iran (archive footage) (as Ruhollah Khomeyni)
George Pucciarelli	...	Himself - US Navy Commander, Chaplain (archive footage)
Timothy Leary	...	Himself - Psychologist (archive footage)

Storyline

HyperNormalisation tells the extraordinary story of how we got to this strange time of great uncertainty and confusion - where those who are supposed to be in power are paralysed - and have no idea what to do. And, where events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control - from Donald Trump to Brexit, the War in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, and random bomb attacks. It explains not only why these chaotic events are happening - but also why we, and our politicians, cannot understand them. The film shows that what has happened is that all of us in the West - not just the politicians and the journalists and the experts, but we ourselves - have retreated into a simplified, and often completely fake version of the world. But because it is all around us, we accept it as normal. From BBCiPlayer

---

Plot Keywords:

infotainment | perception | deception | uncertainty | power | 

---

Taglines:

They know we know they lie

---

Genres:

Documentary

---

Details

Official Sites:

bbc Official Blog

Country:

UK

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

16 October 2016 (UK)

Also Known As:

Гипернормализация

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

166 min

Color:

Color (archive footage) Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The term "hypernormalisation" is taken from Alexei Yurchak's 2006 book Everything was Forever, Until it was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, about the paradoxes of life in the Soviet Union during the 20 years before it collapsed.

---

Quotes

Narrator: This was a new world that the old systems of power found it very difficult to deal with. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the security agencies secretly collected data from millions of people online. One program was called optic nerve. It took stills from the webcam conversations of millions of people across the world, trying to spot terrorist planning another attack. The program did not discover a single terrorist, but it did discover something else.

---

Connections

Features Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

---

Soundtracks

Welcome to Lunar Industries
By Clint Mansell

User Reviews

We're not the good guys

HyperNormalisation is both fascinating and hard to watch. Its format is more like a postmodern art film: there's a stream of archive news interspersed with interviews and close-up footage and repeated frames. It features disturbingly violent scenes. There's a voice-over and sometimes on-screen text. It's busy and frantic, and it keeps coming at you like a battering ram. It's also very long - and yet it's also very easy to watch. It draws you in and keeps you there, horrified but hypnotized. It's strange to think a documentary about deeply contentious political issues could be so compelling, and yet Curtis pulls it off.

This film alone can't explain the Middle East situation or life under the corporate thumb, but it provides enough detail and curiosity to make you want to verify the details for yourself - and that's exactly as it should be. It pulls no punches naming and shaming a politicians, bankers, advertisers, strategists and war mongers on all sides. Curtis' aim is to unpick our culture of 'hypernormalisation' - in which nothing seems real anymore, because it isn't (it's carefully orchestrated or controlled, even when it appears to be chaotic). It's an anti-propaganda film, similar in approach to Noam Chomsky or even Michael Moore, and it burrows to the heart of everything that makes our society seem at times so sick and hopeless. It's brutal, but in the most useful way.