Hacker Cinema
The Invention of Lying
2009 · Film · 100 min
Directed by Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson
Set in a world where the concept of lying doesn't exist, a loser changes his lot when he invents lying and uses it to get ahead.
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17 comments on Hacker News
He also did The Invention of Lying, which, 16 years since I watched it in the cinema, is still the answer I give without hesitation to "what's the worst movie you've ever seen?"
What if advertising were 100% truthful and straightforward. Like in that movie "The Invention of Lying" with the scene that shows a close up of the side of a bus with "Pepsi" on it, then as it pulls away the full advert reads "Pepsi... For when then don't have Coke".
Every kid is different and every parent is different.
At 12, I found most horror movies silly or disgusting rather than horrifying. But ALIEN and ALIENS are both great. A few scenes from THE TERMINATOR were disturbing, but it's a good story and TERMINATOR 2 is very good. PREDATOR wasn't for me at 12, but certainly was at 14.
THE TRUMAN SHOW, THE MARTIAN, BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE, THE INVENTION OF LYING are all well-made, entertaining, and should be thought-provoking.
> The most important ingredient to the success of a movie is the plot.
Provably false by all the bad sequels which nonetheless made more money than the original¹. If plot were that crucial, movies would consist of a person sitting down reading a book, à la The Invention of Lying². Money matters to commercial success of a film above anything else.
¹ https://www.vox.com/2016/7/1/12070048/resurgence-independence-day-bad-movie-sequel
² https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invention_of_Lying
Regarding the caring for elderly part of this article, I want to write a story that's like the Ricky Gervais movie, The Invention of Lying, but instead, it's about the first person to build their own house. Until then, everybody lives in big houses of a hundred or more, sharing responsibilities and taking care of each other but still free to move to different houses if they find a better fit.
I think there's a lot to explore in the effects of isolation that we experience living in our own houses that people are made to think is the only way to live. "A house for every family" is an ideal that many people as virtuous but I think it's instrumental to lots of the problems of our society.
they would have to be Moriarty level like in their inventiveness, most people start low and then expand their inventiveness with experience, the low early frauds would establish the new invention in the society.
Also The invention of Lying: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1058017/
You remind me of the TV bits in the movie "the invention of lying".
They can't lie, so they are perfectly correct.
> what real things can be attributed to Jesus?
His words. They may be the words of someone else, misremembering or misquoting him but ultimately what he said had such an impact that people carried his ideas forward for two thousand years.
I've always wanted to do a movie where Jesus was just a man living in a barbaric time, who used a bit of ancient prophecy to get people to listen to him and make the world a little less barbaric. This sort of happens at the end of the film The Invention of Lying, but it's set in modern day.
So what you're implying is that if everyone had everything they needed (perhaps prescribed by someone else), then we would need little or no policing? No cuts, no bandage! This reminds me of the movie "The Invention of Lying" where everyone was truly honest until someone decided they could get away with whatever they wanted.
The movie “The Invention of Lying”, where everyone tells the truth (as lying hasn’t been ‘invented’) has an example of this. “Please drink Coca Cola. It’s basically just brown sugar water.”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fhtTU-guW60
I like comparing this idea to Ricky Gervais' movie "The Invention of Lying". To think about the first person to lie in a news headline... It's just hilarious.
It seems to me, though, that if we did, we wouldn't care. Sure it would bother me if two people I work with whom I respect told me what they truly thought of me and it was incongruous with my expectation of what they thought of me. But I think if I found out what EVERYONE thought of me it would quickly stop caring.
But I guess to your point, if that happened then structures of society would break down. Still, I'm not sure that would be a bad thing necessarily since at the very least we'd start being completely honest with one another. Kind of makes me thing of the movie The Invention Of Lying.
There was a pretty entertaining Ricky Gervais movie called The Invention of Lying in which everyone on earth is physically incapable of lying, save one. Before you ask for ubiquitous radical honesty, watch it :).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfmXodInxTU
I'm reminded of the Ricky Gervais movie The Invention of Lying, and how easily his character is able to manipulate the society he is part of because he lies and no-one else does.
In Dyer's privacy-less utopia, it just takes one person to break the rules, to keep things to themselves, to create a power disparity.
I have been following this case for quite some time. I think it is worth noting that the defence lawyers[1] are a pro bono libertarian law firm, initially funded by the Koch brothers, that strategically litigates media friendly cases. It has been said that "In pursuit of its goal of a radical laissez-faire capitalism, the Institute has initiated a number of lawsuits aimed at ending government regulation of business. While the lawsuits generally involve small businesses, often in communities of color, the goal is to set a legal precedent for the deregulation of big business in general."[2]
As a bit of silly trivia, in the movie "Invention of Lying" Ricky Gervais' character had a quicky fling set there where it was named "A Cheap Motel for Intercourse with a Near Stranger".
[1] http://www.ij.org/massachusetts-civil-forfeiture [2] http://my.execpc.com/~ajrc/ifj.html [3] http://www.futuregamez.net/movies/inventionoflying/inventionoflying2.jpg
The invention of lying (2009) - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1058017/
To quote Dr. Gregory House, everybody lies (and hides the truth). Especially during dates. Why do you think the cliché advice for dating is "be yourself"?
For an amusing view of how the world would be without the lying, watch the movie The Invention of Lying.