Hacker Cinema
Rams
Hrútar
2015 · Film · 93 min
Directed by Grímur Hákonarson
In a secluded valley in Iceland, Gummi and Kiddi live side by side, tending to their sheep. Their ancestral sheep-stock is considered one of the country’s best and the two brothers are repeatedly awarded for their prized rams who carry an ancient lineage. Although they share the land and a way of life, Gummi and Kiddi have not spoken to each other in four decades. When a lethal disease suddenly infects Kiddi’s sheep, the entire valley comes under threat. The authorities decide to cull all the animals in the area to contain the outbreak. But Gummi and Kiddi don’t give up so easily – and each brother tries to stave off the disaster in his own fashion: Kiddi by using his rifle and Gummi by using his wits.
14 positive1 neutralfrom 15 commenters
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16 comments on Hacker News
I was introduced to this documentary through the YouTube clip "Dieter Rams pointing at things he doesn't like" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypyAg3Zbs_8
As someone who read quite a bit about Rams and what he has done, what football teams are named after him or not would probably go pretty far down on the list of stuff I'd like to know.
If anything, this makes the documentary sound even better in my head, as then they haven't wasted run time on useless details that aren't about his philosophy of design or him as a person.
If you're unfamiliar with Gary's design documentary series, do yourself a favor and buy all of them for a marathon watch. Rams' is one of the best because Dieter is so smart/charming.
Had the chance to see the premiere of Gary's doc Urbanized in Detroit a decade or so ago and ask him a question about the music he uses (from the band El Ten Eleven). Really nice guy who deeply cares about his craft.
This documentary is one of my favorites. I’ve probably watched a dozen times over the years. Seeing the Braun designs of yesteryear and hearing Mr. Rams philosophy on design is inspiring and refreshing each time I watch.
If you're interested Dieter Rams itself goes into it a little bit in the "Rams" documentary. But it all happened after Gillette acquired Braun in the 1970's.
Another masterpiece of his is https://www.hustwit.com/rams and I'm quoting directly from the website:
> Rams is a documentary portrait of Dieter Rams, one of the most influential designers alive, and a rumination on consumerism, sustainability, and the future of design.
I watched it during initial COVID lockdown when Gary offered it for free for 24 hours it was an amazing experience to watch...and I'm a programmer, not a designer (LOL!) and loved it like crazy!
In honor of Dieter Rams’ 89th birthday, director Gary Hustwit is screening his documentary film “Rams” free, worldwide, now through 3pm EST, may 21st
https://www.ohyouprettythings.com/rams
I watched the Hustwit documentary on Rams this year too, and while I liked the documentary (my review: https://www.gwern.net/Movie-reviews#rams ), I felt it put a finger on why Apple imitates Rams's surface but doesn't actually live up to his philosophy. Rams's radio and chair etc are all fully functional. Rams removed the accidental complexity by careful design, leaving only the essential complexity (the user still has to choose a radio channel, the radio can't choose it for him!). But there is a difference between removing accidental complexity and hiding intrinsic complexity.
Apple's approach is, all too often, to avoid intrinsic complexity and optimize for a surface simplicity which actually shoves away all the hard problems by either forbidding them or relegating them to the CLI or 'power user' tools or makes it the devs' problem. This makes for products which look great sitting in the Apple Store, but then as you try to do anything complex or hard... You run straight into Tog's "third-user" critique: https://asktog.com/atc/the-third-user/ Apple's products are far more shiny than empowering or deep solutions. (Who would ever dare compare an iPad with a Smalltalk or Lisp Machine?)
So you get inordinate attention to making the perfect squircled corner, but meanwhile, you have to grip your iPhone right for the antenna to work, or your keyboard breaks at the dust from the drop of a hat, and as always, the web browser lags half a decade behind and can't play basic audio file formats like OGG Vorbis, and Mac OS X ships with breaking bugs; this isn't even reaching the standards of basic competence, much less truly fulfilling Rams's 10 principles and creating user-empowering interfaces and violins of the mind.
Earlier this year, I saw Gary Hustwit's documentary about Rams. Rams is arguably one of the most influential designers of the last century. His lessons on design are valuable for software engineers and others.
https://www.hustwit.com/rams
Heh, for a second I thought this was the 2015 Icelandic film that got much love from the critics. [0] But this is even more interesting, I've never heard the guy's name before but if his style influenced Apple, he's the kind of creator I'd like to know.
Also, those who might not be interested in a documentary about a designer should at least check out the film's soundtrack. The amazing Brian Eno made it and he rarely misses.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rams_(2015_film)
Good thing i never bought a Nest device. As with most "Google made" devices the lifespan and their commitment to support a product are abysmal.
Honestly we need to change the way we think about products - especially household products like those Nest was selling. No way can i save money with it if i pay 300$ and it gets killed after 2 or 3 years. And i'm not even talking about the environmental aspects.
The documentary about Dieter Rams makes me long for more designers who understand their responsibility.
https://vimeo.com/ondemand/ramsfilm
Where can I view the documentary Rams?
Dieter Rams — As Little Design As Possible [0]
Also, if you like Dieter Rams, the film “Rams” by Gary Hustwit [1] is digitally available on Dec 14th.
[0] https://www.phaidon.com/store/design/as-little-design-as-possible-9780714849188/
[1] https://www.hustwit.com/rams/
He has a new documentary out soon all about Dieter Rams, called "Rams". https://www.hustwit.com/rams/
One of their better shows last year was Marcella [1], the British show from the guy who wrote the original The Bridge (Broen/Bron).
(If you liked Trapped, make sure you check out Baltasar Kormákur's [2] other non-Hollywood work. 101 Reykjavik and Jar City are particularly good. I also liked The Sea.)
I love that they're pulling in quality indie/foreign films such as Rams [3], but these are few and far apart. There are so many superb "arthouse" films out there that they could offer. I wish someone would sponsor the digitalization of older "out of print" works that now only survives on old, out-of-production DVDs or on VHS. I wanted to find a few of Icelandic director Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's films (Children of Nature is one of my all-time favourites), but they're not available anywhere. I was hopeful for Filmstruck [4], but their selection is very limited.
[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5269594/
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltasar_Kormákur
[3] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3296658/
[4] https://filmstruck.com/
In that case, check out Rams (2016) [1]. An Icelandic film about two estranged, elderly brothers who work as sheep farmers in a remote location, until a crisis occurs. Beautiful little film; great photography and music.
[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/03/movies/review-in-rams-brothers-at-odds-face-a-shared-threat-to-their-livelihood.html (although I recommend not reading anything about it beforehand)