WHILE THE BAND PLAYED ON

Isn't this a simple matter of rhythm:
The Neu music is more 'in tune' with the dancing - the rhythms of the dancing and music are closer, which makes them feel more integrated and draws the viewer into the experience.
The Second sequence is in general a lot slower than the tempo of the dancing - there's no way the people are listening to it whilst dancing, its a layer of sound on top of the video which in turn isolates us from the experience.

Brilliant, just brilliant.

I had a similar response to Andy, but more extreme. Whilst watching the second version, I could still hear (or feel) the first one. The music just seemed disconnected and I couldn't relate it to the images, though I did look more at the people and things in the background and was less drawn to the dancers. I will try watching it again on another day in the other order. I think if I'd seen the second one first I'd have been more able to make an interpretation/acquire an understanding from it.

hurrah for the limbic system

Interesting. Perhaps it's the rhythm of things (of life, stories, conversations – and dance) that draw us together. While the lack of rhythm in the second piece does the opposite; there it's just you, the solitary viewer, silently observing.

Acceptance –vs– Questioning
Truth –vs– Searching for meaning
Single layered –vs– Multi layered
Happiness/Fun –vs– Sadness/Melancholia
Hot –vs– Cool
Broad –vs– Narrow
Collectivism –vs– Individualism
Shared social ties –vs– Individual(s') characteristics

At first I read this as an almost obvious comment about how music affects how we see things: that's Hollywood spends so much money on music for films -- making almost exclusively melodramas in the original sense. A nice demonstration of something that didn't we already know. Then, watching the second film, I started thinking that isn't this also how our personalities affect how we see the world around us. About how our personalities create our own reality distortion fields. Not just our basic temperement affecting whether we see life as happy or sad, connected or isolated, but also our political worldview. Especially those bits of it that we've internalised so strongly that we no longer think of them as views, just as the way the world is.

That we constantly have music of one sort or another playing inside us affecting the sense of how we see the world.

I agree with Andrew Smallbone's comment. The people are dancing, so the upbeat rhythm of the Neu! track draws the viewer into the context of the diegetic action - namely celebration. In the second video, you are imbuing the montage with a contrasting idea of what is going on - the editor forces the viewer to stand apart.

What is now perhaps more interesting is that everyone can play editor and add music to appropriate their own meaning.

As others, I loved the first version. I was already to go with feelings of separateness with the second as trailed by Adam, but the funny thing is it just didn't happen. Despite the introspection of the music the sheer physical joy of so many of the dancers kept breaking through and the overridding sense for me was still one of togetherness. It reminded me of the raw physicality of dance and the fun that it gives people, especially when in a group of friends. And thanks for introducing me to Neu.

Could you post one of these on Youtube, please? I'd like to rip the video and add my own score. Thanks.

Wonderful! It's great when you start both videos at the same time.

You always have such great soundtracks in your films Adam, was very happy to hear Burial used in All Watched Over. His music evokes so much of the strange hollowness of contemporary life you often talk about in your work.

Wonderful stuff Adam, particularly the Neu! cut. A fantastic piece of music anyway and you add to it making the image musical and the music generate images.
All power to the Inner DJ! Even threw in Gunter Grass & Yeltsin arf arf. My girlfriend knows one of Legs & Co who must have been in there somewhere.

Agree with Andy & ook about the comtemplative Burial jarring with the dancing action. But conversely, Burial plus slowed down footage equals a moving piece!

I expect you're probably absorbed with the new Rihanna album right now. Interesting review in the Guardian which praised its poptasticness but was uneasy with its apparent accommodation to her violent ex-partner.

It must be rather tough at the BBC right now for investigative journalism with a section dedicated to it shut down and Newsnight shot down in flames. You have my sympathy. Keep on pushing! Don't let them get away with it! You Shall Return (as Muhammed Ali had it)...

I found both videos hypnotic and I have been haunted by memories of some of the images for days. Neu, Burial et al make a superb soundtrack.

In mentioning hypnosis, I'm keen to share the following remarkable story of how a young German WWI corporal with a trauma was transformed by a hypnotic therapy with great consequences.

http://www.dredmundforster.info/1-edmund-forster-adolf-hitler

Also these two videos were really interesting to me as a musician (and also as someone who loves neu and stuff like burial/eno/glass/carpenter/dystopian soundscapey things in general!)

With video 1, I was smiling all the time.... perhaps connected is too strong a word for how I felt. I felt just kind of happy to see all these people dancing! Still really cool but when compared to video 2 I would say almost pedestrian (not saying your work is pedestrian I quickly add!!)

With video 2 however, I felt like an alien who had just come to earth for the first time and was gleaning our planet for signs of life! It was so moving. I felt disconnected but in a way strangely connected.... How do I qualify that last sentence. It was as if the juxtaposition of the 'other worldly', sublime music with those very personal human interactions almost amplified the disconnect. But in amplifying the disconnect, you are also reminded that you too are also human, and I got a sense of 'Isn't it amazing, all these human interactions are played out in a little microcosm of the universe... and as if by chance some guy in an editing room in the BBC decided to put them together..... The feeling was amplified over the course of the piece. With the last 3-4 minutes almost over-whelming... Beautiful stuff indeed, and thanyou for taking the time to do this :)

I am gonna stop spamming you now......but when it comes to all your films, you have an uncanny ability to 'show not tell'..... Music is so powerful and can evoke a subtext we didn't even know existed. In the right hands, It plays our emotions like no other medium can. You are a master of this Adam Curtis. Much love and respect to you

Nice to hear This Mortal Coil getting some attention! they made some of the most gorgeously emotional music.

I've just finished a video essay on salsa dancing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqk6KefHBpo

It also matters which one you watch first. Love the song. Love the footage. Thank you for this.

Hi Adam,

Just out of an absolute love of all your work and this blog in particular, about a year ago I borrowed/stole/took footage from 'all watched over..' and put it to one of my songs.... Please do not be mad! It was a non commercial release which basically just went to a few select friends..... http://vimeo.com/24986356

For me the Neu track pushes the narrative, in such a combination we are used to, and in doing so it does not allow room for any introspection or pause. The Burial track seems to disrupt this narrative and in doing so delivers a different emotional response, one that we are not used so perhaps and don't swallow so easily.
In the first edit I was drawn to the movement of the dancers and in the second edit I was drawn to their faces, to see who was in there.
Excellent, as always.
(PS Any chance of putting whole of the AC Serpentine Memory Marathon presentation up at some point?)