Hacker Cinema
Master of the Universe
2013 · Film · documentary · 88 min
Directed by Marc Bauder
He was one of Germany's leading investment experts with an income of several million Euros per day. Now, he sits on one of the upper floors of an empty bank building in the middle of Frankfurt, overlooking a skyline of glass and steel. And talks. In an extended mix of a monologue and an in-depth interview, which is as frightening as it is fascinating, he shares his inside knowledge from a megalomaniac parallel world where illusions are the market's hardest currency. Marc Bauder's 'Master of the Universe' is based on meticulous research and provides us with geniune insight into the notoriously secretive and self-protective 'universe' of which our nameless protagonist experiences himself a master. Where other films on the financial meltdown have focused on the epic nature of larger-than-life business, Bauder probes the mentality that made it possible in the first place. A tense drama where psychology meets finance - two things that are more closely linked than you would like to believe.
3 positivefrom 3 commenters
Where to watch
No streaming data for this title.
Videos commenters linked
From YouTube links in the comments below. Most are clips and trailers; “Full” means the uploader says so.
3 comments on Hacker News
The full movie can be watched on the website of the BPB[x]: http://www.bpb.de/mediathek/225092/master-of-the-universe
I really like the style that the main/only actor/narrator is filmed in an abandoned former bank's office buildung.
[x] The Federal Agency for Civic Education, FACE (German: Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung, bpb) is a German federal government agency responsible for promoting civic education.
There was a good documentary about the financial crisis and the banking crisis from the view of a former German banker called Master of the Universe [0] (has been on public television, but I was not able to find it from a quick search).
In this documentary, the banker describes how the Germans were eager to learn from the US bankers in the late eighties and early nineties and how they did not question anything, but behaved like stupid sheep, who wanted to play with the big guys. They did not understand the products at all.
The phenomenon that makes this "German provincialism" and not just provincialism is that you can see a pattern here. You can spot it in different areas: the BND and the NSA, the entertainment industry and Hollywood, politics and the US president (especially Obama).
Germans have this schizophrenic trait, that on the one hand they think the US is totally nuts with all it's guns and broken systems and on the other hand very much care what the US does and what it thinks about them.
[0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3129484/
There's a documentation called "Master of the universe" by Marc Bauder, which really shows the insides of how finance works nowadays. I don't know if it's available in english yet, :/.
Trailer with english subs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIUPWWwEclc
From IMDB [0]: "A former banker in Germany, who entered the business with the advent of modern computer systems reminisces of his working years in some of the world-leading banking corporations."
[0] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3129484/