Hacker Cinema
The Mayfair Set
1999 · TV series · documentary · 57 min episodes · 1 season
The Mayfair Set is a series of programmes produced by Adam Curtis for the BBC, first broadcast in the summer of 1999. The programme looked at how buccaneer capitalists of hot money were allowed to shape the climate of the Thatcher years, focusing on the rise of Colonel David Stirling, Jim Slater, James Goldsmith, and Tiny Rowland, all members of London's Clermont Club in the 1960s.
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12 comments on Hacker News
I highly recommend Adam Curtis' documentary "The Mayfair Set" [1], especially Part 2, detailing the lives of Jim Slater, Tiny Rowland and James Goldsmith who pioneered the hostile takeover, and the effect of acquisitions and mergers on the overall global economy. Hard to imagine that only 50 years ago this wasn't a "done thing". Today I see these same patterns play out in development and artistic communities oblivious to 51 percent and Sybil attacks, unaware of who is holding what key assets, and then being surprised by takeovers and defectors.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mayfair_Set
Adam Curtis is great.
I recommend even looking into his older material, such as The Mayfair Set (won a BAFTA Award in 2000). Another older documentary of his that I recommend is The Way of All Flesh (1997) which is a rather remarkable story on HeLa cells with a depth I hadn't encountered before. To give you an idea of the subject matter, here's a quote from Wikipedia:
"HeLa cell contamination has become a pervasive worldwide problem – affecting even the laboratories of many notable physicians, scientists, and researchers, including Jonas Salk. The HeLa contamination problem also contributed to Cold War tensions. The USSR and the USA had begun to cooperate in the war on cancer launched by President Richard Nixon, only to find that the exchanged cells were contaminated by HeLa."
Some of his material is viewabled on BBC iPlayer if you have access to that. His older material can be challenging to find. You can download his complete collection via torrents.
Nearly all his documentaries appear to be available to watch here https://thoughtmaybe.com/by/adam-curtis/
They are truly excellent. It's really worth going back to some of the early and mid career films. E.g. The Mayfair Set and the ever relevant The Century of the Self.
This is excellent news. My first encounter with Adam Curtis was The Mayfair Set back in 2000 or so, and I've been an avid follower of his work since then. There's something oddly satisfying about his films, and there's always something new to go and learn more about afterwards.
Having recently discovered Adam Curtis (from other HN posts), I'd highly recommend watching his documentaries. All of them. Absolutely riveting stuff.
HyperNormalization: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2cDKyFdyU
Bitter Lake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRbq63r7rys
The Trap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y97Ywl7RtUw&list=PLsGiHTmHVDNlAc15kb23Q9Oz386MNXYIn
The Power of Nightmares: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTg4qnyUGxg&list=PLtPP_-rkrT3CmuUxjezhbewL5C8fcI1Fv
The Mayfair Set: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuqYbohCLFM&list=PLtPP_-rkrT3D-9HZkN0BAgMS1F1ODLQES
The Century of the Self: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJ3RzGoQC4s
immediately started watching mayfair set. i love documentaries like this.
I learned about junk bonds from Adam Curtis' series "The Mayfair Set"[1].
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0283201/
Fantastic tip - thank you I will read his work. Amusingly I am watching a documentary called "The Mayfair Set: part 3" by Adam Curtis which is describing the idea of technostructure as developed by JK Galbraith as a response to the robber barons of the depression and how it was dismantled in the 1980's...
All his documentary series are worth watching. These are
Hypernormalisation
Bitter Lake
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
Every Day is like Sunday
The Power of Nightmares
The Century of the Self
The Trap
Pandora's Box
The Mayfair Set
Inside Story
Inquiry. The Great British Housing Disaster
The last one is particularly relevant after the Grenfell Tower Fire.
After I posted my comment I found a huge playlist of Curtis films on Youtube, and worked my way through The Mayfair Set - very enjoyable, but I feel a bit dirty afterwards (there's a lot of shady goings on and seedy people, it feels infectious)
Looking over the anecdotes here, i find myself thinking that big pharma is just an example of the "profit uber alles" mentality that has been rampant in the corporate world since at least the 80s (if not before).
An interesting set of documentaries in that regard may be The Mayfair Set: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mayfair_Set
It recounts, from a British point of view, the rise of a type of finance capitalist that revolved around strip mining established companies.
I think part 3 touched on how by the time the people that started it got cold feet about it all, it had become institutionalized thanks to pension funds and similar.
This is actually well overdue, Curtis is a genius whose work will appeal to a lot of people here.
It's not considered his best stuff, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace is probably most relevant to HN and all three episodes are well worth watching.
IMO his best stuff is on the coincidence and movement of political power. Check out The Trap and The Mayfair Set. The Power of Nightmares is good too.