Czech Dream (Ceský Sen)
Ever hear the one about the Czech film students and the ruthless satire on consumer society?
Continuing with our enthusiastic endorsement of the 'year of the documentary', Czech Dream is one of the Musicalbear top picks from the bumper line-up at the London Film Festival. In premise, it's one of those simple ideas, à la Supersize Me that illustrates so neatly what's wrong with consumer society in the noughties that you first kick yourself for not being so culturally astute to have dreamt it up, and then settle down into your seat to see the parable unfold.
Czech Republic: in the past five years there has apparently been phenomenal growth in the number of hypermarkets in this former communist state, so much so they now number 125 for a population the size of greater London. Two film students decide to satirise this tendency and make a film of their efforts to promote a new supermarket. The twist? It doesn't exist. The murky world of advertising is entered, promotional campaigns initiated, and an unsuspecting public are worked into a frenzy over this new opportunity to pour their hard earned korunas into the pockets of multinational corporations. All leads towards a final confrontation between the filmmakers, the public and a mock-up store hoarding that masks an empty field...
Whenever someone tries to sell me a shampoo with an ad featuring a slinky celeb, some dodgy graphics and the promise of 'special nutrasmoothing proteins', I experience a barely suppressible rage, and also a kind of luddite impotence... Am I the only one who can see what's wrong with this? Is there nothing that I can do to stop the death of culture? Luckily there are people cleverer and more daring than me who've got past the Horkheimer-and-Adorno pessimism and the Beckettian inability to act, and have got off their butts and have encapsulated perfectly exactly what is wrong. A substantial documentary perfectly illustrating the style over substance of our consumer society, the hollow core beneath the surface.
Czech Republic: in the past five years there has apparently been phenomenal growth in the number of hypermarkets in this former communist state, so much so they now number 125 for a population the size of greater London. Two film students decide to satirise this tendency and make a film of their efforts to promote a new supermarket. The twist? It doesn't exist. The murky world of advertising is entered, promotional campaigns initiated, and an unsuspecting public are worked into a frenzy over this new opportunity to pour their hard earned korunas into the pockets of multinational corporations. All leads towards a final confrontation between the filmmakers, the public and a mock-up store hoarding that masks an empty field...
Whenever someone tries to sell me a shampoo with an ad featuring a slinky celeb, some dodgy graphics and the promise of 'special nutrasmoothing proteins', I experience a barely suppressible rage, and also a kind of luddite impotence... Am I the only one who can see what's wrong with this? Is there nothing that I can do to stop the death of culture? Luckily there are people cleverer and more daring than me who've got past the Horkheimer-and-Adorno pessimism and the Beckettian inability to act, and have got off their butts and have encapsulated perfectly exactly what is wrong. A substantial documentary perfectly illustrating the style over substance of our consumer society, the hollow core beneath the surface.
