JustHavingALook

Would love to have a chat with the filmmakers, to ask them what was their emotional state when the so called subprime crash manifested in all its power and the wave hit the Siegel family.

I mean, in a way or another they had to reconsider how to film from that moment on, how to convince the whole family to still be part of it, how to edit everything together, and how to market the documentary. That's the stuff that fascinates me the most.

Incidents like this one can break a documentary, but here I'm pretty sure that the consequences of losing a good chunk of their fortune elevated the Siegel drama narration to another level. And I loved it.

Not because I feel pleasure by watching other people's misfortunes (I think it is a serious personality disorder) but because of the storytelling opportunities together with powerful visuals.

I mean: the mansion under construction being left behind as a skeleton; the dogs' excrements around the costly rooms; the nanny sleeping in the little house; the powerful patriarch forced in isolation with his demons.

Great editing btw.

And let's not forget our queen Jaqueline: going from middle of nowhere obscurity to landing a solid job, to modeling to marrying an older richer business man, to having 8 kids, and living a luxurious American dream.

Here and there it gives the impression to be a bit scripted/acted. I mean, those people are aware there's a camera rolling at any given moment: the scene at the car rental where our queen seems unaware of how it works (no spoiler here)... nah...

On a personal level: mind blowing they had no money out aside for the kids' schools. But in the end greed and pride and selfishness are sins for a reason: you might have to pay the price.

What is beauty? Who decides what beauty is?

A beautiful place make people coming back to it. Look how many tourists visit Florence in Italy vs Florence in SC.

So this is obviously a very important subject matter but the host doesnt come out as being so relatable. He gives the impression of knowing it all and just preaching what he knows as being absolutely correct. Yes, of course, he speaks very well. He is cordial and has a neat sense of humor

and yes I'd say he's right: a "contemporary artist" goal is to shutter moral taboos and become famous doing so.

I don't completely agree with the statement that spiritual values have been dismissed and replaced with materialism, the idea that "art" today is just a monetary investment. It was similar during the peak of Renaissance, art was currency, artists were prized players like in today's sports. Then yes, artists in the past had faith in the divine, but the church was paying good money to have those artwork done, so I guess the truth is somewhere in the middle.

Other complaints I have:

• there is just too much to digest: paintings, architecture, sculptures, music...
• everything is centered around Western civilization. They should have expressed this point of view clearly at the beginning
• historical ideologies that gained popularity at the end of 1800s and beginning of 1900s are not mentioned... those have played a crucial role in shaping human thinking and then the arts.

So overall: if you understand why beauty matters, you won't get much out of this documentary. If you think that so-called contemporary modern art is perfectly fine you won't change much.

This should have been a docuseries.

I decided to watch this documentary after listening to the director, talking during an interview on youtube.

The guy said something like: "it was my first documentary, we didnt really know what we were doing, we realized we didnt have a story, we worked hard to film additional scenes and make it coherent" don't quote me on that but you get the point.

I thought: well, I'm not really into about Star Trek, not even fandom stuff for that matter but... How interesting! I'm in, I wanna see how they put the whole thing together. What kind of story they found.

Spoiler alert: They didn't.

Yes, there's the blonde lady who was part of a movie or something related to the Star Trek universe going around, but... it's all pointless. Not enough weirdness to make it funny for the uninitiated and if the goal was to present "normal" people who enjoy the show have their quirk side and some healthy obsession: personally they failed since they gave the opposite impression. I'm not sure about the correct psychological terms that need to be used but a bunch of those guys might need help. Especially the one who decided to pay good money for a glass of water a ST actor had used during a conference; and then drank it knowingly the actor was utterly sick.

Anyway: the whole thing doesnt have a specific thread to keep the different scenes glued together so it becomes a slideshow of memorabilia, anecdotes and costumes. Good stuff if you are into it.

If not: I can't remember anything entertaining (let alone meaningful) so just move on.