Aesthetics & Politics / Learning to Deal

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A few years ago, I Netflixed Idiocracy, a feature-length, not-so-grossly-hyperbolic-anymore futuristic dystopian satire of a world where people are fed not only on their high-tech couches, but by their high-tech couches (it was also directed by Mike Judge, creator of Beavis and Butt-Head). Such technology, no matter its superfluousness, is definitely not indicative of the current intelligence quotient exhibited by the population in the film. More relevant is this future's president (see this scene from the film), characterized by a brutish and violent man (who also makes a lot of promises about things he's going to do in the future). Anyone from this world (not the film's) might wonder from what basis or reasoning he would be elected.

I laughed during the movie's stronger first third and was disappointed by its last two, but being the cynic I am, like many films with a negative, prophetic narrative, I took from it more than just a grain of salt.

Film Comment's Post-Election piece looks at past and present cinematic likenesses to our new political reality (briefly mentioning Idiocracy) and gauges how exactly these film culture folks think the cinematic repercussions of making films will change under the demagogue president elect. Violet and company don't complain either. We know they didn't vote for Trump, and that they feel strongly about that, but they don't use the discussion as a platform for their own set of issues with our country and its new leader (they also realize cinema is becoming a smaller niche within entertainment spectra).

This discussion is moderated by the Film Society of Lincoln center's Violet Lucca, and the guests are New York Times film critic Jim Hoberman (he mentions, among others, A Face In the Crowd / Elia Kazan, 1957) and Tobi Haslett, Village Voice critic and contributing writer to n+1 and Art Forum (he mentions, among others, Hypernormalisation, a recent Adam Curtis film. Hoberman also reminds us that Birth of A Nation, the 100+ year old D.W. Griffith epic silent, is now more relevant than ever.

The more I think about this most unwelcome and recent political change in my own life, think back on something I once heard from a high school history teacher of mine.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same."