Video, black and white and color, sound, 44 min
Director: Harun Farocki
Produced by: Harun Farocki Filmproduktion, Berlin for SWF, Baden-Baden and WDR, Cologne
The title suggests a paraphrase of Marcuse based on Solzhenitsyn. The film, made up of nothing but advertising spots, reflects the daily course of West German consumerism. The film-maker uses only the cutting room and makes no personal comment at all. Several hundred spots were selected to document the archetypes of everyday life: from cleaning one’s teeth in the morning to the nocturnal nightmare. The result was probably the most expensive documentary film ever made. (Andrei Ujica)
