Kubrick, Nixon and the Man in the Moon

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Movie
German title Kubrick, Nixon and the Man in the Moon
Original title Operation lune
Country of production France
original language English , French
Publishing year 2002
length 52 minutes
Age rating FSK without age restriction
Rod
Director William Karel
script William Karel
production Luc Martin-Gousset
camera Stéphane Saporito
cut Valley of Zana
occupation

Kubrick, Nixon and the Man in the Moon is a mockumentary by William Karel , who received the Adolf Grimme Prize for this film in 2003 . In a mock documentary, the film provides alleged evidence that Stanley Kubrick falsified television reports of the Apollo 11 moon landing in a CIA studio on behalf of the Nixon government .

content

The film states that the Nixon government feared the failure of the Apollo 11 mission, the success of which would have improved its domestic and foreign policy reputation. In order to have high- profile material for the media in the backhand in an emergency, one approached Stanley Kubrick , who was busy with the production of 2001: A Space Odyssey . The director staged the moon landing with government officials as actors in the strictest of secrecy on the set of his film (by the way, NASA was influenced by the film equipment and then redeveloped technical details of its equipment). In return for his services, Kubrick received high- speed film lenses on loan from NASA , which were necessary in order to be able to film individual scenes of Barry Lyndon at all. a After the successful Apollo 11 mission Nixon had then feared the publication of compromising material and can therefore liquidate all government officials involved in the shooting. Kubrick had withdrawn to England and very rarely left his country estate for fear of attacks on his life.

As alleged contemporary witnesses, they speak personally in interviews:

These people were interviewed by Karel with vague questions about Stanley Kubrick, his film, NASA or the moon landing. They were not aware of the actual purpose of the interviews. In addition, interviews have been staged with a number of people, such as Kubrick's widow, who allegedly represented contemporary witnesses. Among them are names that are reminiscent of characters from Kubrick films: For example David Bowman (astronaut in 2001: A Space Odyssey ), Jack Torrance (role name of the main actor in The Shining ) and Dimitri Muffley (a combination of the names of the Soviet General Secretary and the U.S. Presidents in Dr. Strange or How I Learned to Love the Bomb ). Other alleged contemporary witnesses bear names from films by Alfred Hitchcock : Eve Kendall (female main character in The Invisible Third ) and Ambrose Chapel (an important place in The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) ). A CIA agent named George Kaplan (a fictional CIA agent in The Invisible Third Party ) is named as an alleged participant . Another alleged contemporary witness is a New York rabbi named WAKonigsberg , a reference to Allan Stewart Konigsberg , the real name of Woody Allen .

Stanley Kubrick had died three years before the mockumentary was made, which created the premise for the production. Interviews with him are not included in the film. His move to England took place in the early 1960s, and his country estate was both home and work. The lenses of the film cameras for Barry Lyndon were identical to those that had been developed for NASA, but did not come from their stocks. This was an extremely fast lens from Carl Zeiss , the Planar 0.7 / 50 mm .

criticism

The lexicon of international films judged the film to be "a fascinating mixture of found footage and staged material"

Award

In 2003, William Karel was awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize for the film in the Information & Culture section .

meaning

The film also makes use of the following manipulation options:

  • Interviews with real and well-known personalities are shown (e.g. Rumsfeld, Kissinger), but also interviews with actors who play invented roles.
  • The interviews are put together in very short, ingeniously selected snippets, so that the other context gives them a completely new meaning that was not intended by the interviewee.
  • In the case of interviews in languages ​​that are foreign to the viewer, the subtitles or the dubbing do not match the content of the interviewee's actual statements.
  • The presentation mixes authentic sound and image recordings with untrue statements that are spoken by a narrative voice that is perceived as authoritative and that is accompanied by coordinated music.
  • The fact that one of the interviewees (Vernon Walters) died shortly after the interview is presented as evidence of a cover-up.

See also

literature

  • Henry M. Taylor: More than a Hoax. William Karel's Critical Mockumentary Dark Side of the Moon. In: Post Script. Volume 26, 2007, Issue 3, pp. 88-101.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ StanleyKubrick.de ( Memento of 23 December 2011 at the Internet Archive ) Newsletter No. June 7, 2004 “1. Object of the month: the Zeiss lens f / 0.7 "
  2. ↑ Kubrick, Nixon and the Man in the Moon. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used