Dark Side Of The Moon (2002)

Dark Side of the Moon is a French mockumentary by director William Karel which originally aired on Arte in 2002 with the title Opération Lune. The basic premise for the film is the theory that the television footage from the Apollo 11 Moon landing was faked and actually recorded in a studio by the CIA with help from director Stanley Kubrick. It features some surprising guest appearances, most notably by Donald Rumsfeld, Dr. Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, Buzz Aldrin and Stanley Kubrick's widow, Christiane Kubrick.

For those that haven't seen it I put it up in its entirety at the below YouTube link. Also suggest checking out Jay Weidner essay's covering Kubrick's Shining hinting at him working on Apollo 11.

Dark Side of the Moon
www.youtube.com...

Secrets of The Shining:
www.jayweidner.com...

How Stanley Kubrick Faked the Apollo Moon Landings:
jayweidner.com...

Great explanation on 2001 Space Odyssey
www.jayweidner.com...

S&F must see for newer people. I remember having a hard time trying to find stuff on the dark side of the moon because you get mostly Pink Floyd stuff.

this would be very interesting if it wasn't for this one word.

mockumentary

Wikipedia - The mockumentary is presented as a documentary recording real life, but is actually fictional.

Originally posted by Alaskan Man
this would be very interesting if it wasn't for this one word.

mockumentary

Wikipedia - The mockumentary is presented as a documentary recording real life, but is actually fictional.

No: that is precisely the whole point of this masterpiece.

However, I do take issue with the label "mockumentary", simply because it IS a documentary... on the power of media, specifically television, over the minds of even the most educated or/and "skeptical" people.

Also, none of it was filmed "as if" - it is composed entirely of genuine documentary footage. It's all in the EDITING.

I have seen thousands upon thousands of films and documentaries, but few that deserved to be called "must see", in my opinion.

This one is a "must see".
I would go even further and say, if you see only one documentary every ten years, this one should be your choice for the decade.
(Of course, preparing yourself in advance by studying what it's all about would diminish considerably its impact. But if you have enough mental self-discipline to refrain from "anticipating", then it should still be very powerful.)

I think it should be mandatory viewing in all schools.

And frankly, I am appalled - but no longer surprised - that there are only a handful of replies/flags in this thread...









[edit on 22-1-2010 by Vanitas]

Dark Side of the Moon

Observing some of our classmates sparring intellectually with our least brilliant member, he commented to me with a sigh, “It is not sporting to tease the village idiot.”

The mockumentary Dark Side of the Moon is a bit of mean humor, in my opinion; but that it is intended as humor is not an opinion. It starts softly with one minor error after another, and continues steadily toward the absurd—by design.

I gather it included in its conception something to the effect of wishing to push the “suspension of disbelief” gently, until it breaks; or, perhaps better stated as “How far can we go, before a viewer knows we are pulling his or her leg?” That some allow the film to go all the way… well, to those, I gently offer the following:


* Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the moon” speech was in 1962, not 1961 (Gagarin went up in 1961).
* Luna 9 landed on the moon in February, not January, 1966.
* Korolev died following surgery to remove a polyp from his intestines, not his tonsils.
* Lyndon Johnson was never Governor of Texas.
* Nixon was never Governor of California.
* No Bush had any connection with Florida until 1980 when Jeb Bush moved his family there. The Cape, however, had become the new missile test facility by 1950—when George H. W. Bush was twenty-six years old just out of college and entering the oil business in Texas. “W” was only four.
* “Jack Torrance” is a fictional character in Kubrick’s The Shining—not a Hollywood Producer and is played by David Winger (it is in the credits).
* Jan Harlan is actually Christiana Kubrick’s brother. You will note that you find the two discussing the “plot” of the film with Christiane Kubrick sitting on the same couch with her. There is a hint.
* Michael Collins did very well after Apollo 11, Director of the Air and Space Museum amongst other things.
* Armstrong never entered a monastery (you are supposed to be laughing by this point).
* “David Bowman” is a fictional character in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, not a real astronaut and is played by Tad Brown (again, it is in the credits).
* “Maria Vargas” (The Barefoot Contessa) is played by Jacquelyn Toman who is not Buzz Aldrin’s sister.
* “Eve Kendall” is a fictional character in Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest and was not Nixon’s secretary (her name was Rose Marie Woods) and is played by Barbara Rogers.
* “Dimitri Muffley” is a play on the names from Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (Soviet Premier Dimitri and American President Muffley) and is not a “former KGB agent.” He is played by Bernard Kirschoff.
* “Ambrose Chapel” is the name of a place in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, not an “ex-CIA agent” who is played by John Rogers.
* “George Kaplan” (mentioned by narrator) is a fictional character within a fictional character in the Hitchcock film, North by Northwest.
* “McDonald’s wrappers everywhere!”
* “We kept his body for the kids to play with!”
* Andy Rogers, Jim Gow, Vince Brown, and Bob Stein—I am sure there is a joke in these names—but I cannot find it.
* W. A. Keonigsberg (W. A. is for “Woody Allen,” as Koenigsberg is Woody Allen’s true name. The character is played by Binem Oreg.
* “…an ‘acidic’ Jew..” Get it?
* “When they found out he was a Jew, they forced him to altar their suits!”
* General Vernon A. Walters – the death notice is fictional. He did die, but the quote from the paper is manufactured.

So, somebody please enlighten me as to the Rogers, Gow, Brown and Stein joke.