"I love conspiracy theories. Once I read in the newspaper about a soap opera scoring the top ratings of the day and I thought: This can’t be! Then I thought: What if these ratings aren’t correct at all? What if a conspiracy is trying to dumb us down on purpose? Why haven’t I ever met anybody who has one of the black ratings boxes?" says German Director Hans Weingartner.

After White Sound and The Edukators, Weingartner's new feature film focuses on television ratings and the people that produces shows for the masses. Reclaim Your Brain also stars one of Germany's top actors, Moritz Bleibtreu.

- - -

- - -

What's it about: Successful TV producer Rainer (Moritz Bleibtreu) has it all: big salary, luxurious penthouse, high life, hot car, even hotter girlfriend. The 30-something go-getter has reached the top by creating TV shows of the most stupid and vulgar kind. In his latest hit, a man gets the privilege of fathering a woman’s child if his spermatozoid wins a microscopic race to fertilize an ovum!

One day, mysterious young woman Pegah vengefully drives full speed into Rainer’s car. After this near-death experience, Rainer has a major change of heart and decides to produce a thought-provoking news show for his station’s prime-time lineup. Devastated by the show’s poor ratings, Rainer quits his job and embarks on an investigation of the audience measurement system that keeps intelligence-insulting programs at Number One.

Teaming up with the beautiful Pegah and a gang of unemployed social misfits, Rainer sets out to prove that a conspiracy surrounds the boxes used in select households to estimate audience percentage. Determined to fight television’s dumbing down of society, Rainer and his new friends eventually go all the way with an intricate and ingenious plan to get the public interested in quality cultural programs. But the station execs who live off audience hunger for brainless TV are not willing to give up what they have ruthlessly built over the years …

- - -

- - -

HANS WEINGARTNER: DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS

4 hours per day – that’s how much time the average European spends watching TV. When I read this figure one morning in the newspaper, I couldn’t believe it. Let’s do the calculation: 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work, 1 hour to get to work, 1 to get back home, 1 hour for ingestion and one for digestion, 1 hour for basic personal hygiene. That leaves five hours. That would mean that the average European spends 80% of his leisure time in front of a TV set! In other words: only 1 hour per day for living. I re-read the report. There it was in black and white. 4 hours per day. I immediately started thinking of pale zombies sitting in front of shiny blue television screens, sort of remote-controlled, only reminding us vaguely of human beings. I thought this topic was old hat. We have internet now, new media – surely TV is dead. I was wrong. TV consumption is growing yearly. We thought we could get rid of this topic by not talking about it anymore, not thinking about it. Too bad it didn’t work out that way.

I love conspiracy theories. Once I read in the newspaper about a soap opera scoring the top ratings of the day and I thought: This can’t be! Then I thought: What if these ratings aren’t correct at all? What if a conspiracy is trying to dumb us down on purpose? Why haven’t I ever met anybody who has one of the black ratings boxes?

Or at least somebody who knows someone that has one? It bothers me that we’re seeing the mental decay of society but we still don’t do anything about it. On the contrary: It’s becoming cool in my generation to have never read a book at all. Studies have been done that confirm that vocabulary is constantly decreasing among the general population. Letters from the early 20th century show that people used a more complex and rich language to express themselves. Even “common” people were more interested in complex subjects as politics or science.

- - -

- - -

During my research I found out that the ratings counting system has serious shortcomings. There are no boxes in households of foreigners. Those 20% of the Germans who don’t pay the TV tax (GEZ) are not included either. If a household has more than one TV set, these secondary sets are only included to a very small part – so children and teenagers aren’t counted for either. It’s also a complete riddle to me why the advertisement industry accepts this without a word of protest. I have spoken to many responsible people in the industry, but the tenor is: it has always been like this, there is nothing else.

- - -

Hans Weingartner strives for democracy as well as humor and positive thinking in his filmmaking. His popular second feature, THE EDUKATORS, was a 2004 Cannes competition entry and was later named Best First Feature by the German Film Critics Association. Weingartner’s acclaimed 2001 debut, THE WHITE SOUND, won the prestigious Max Ophüls Prize and was named Best First Feature by the German Film Critics, as well as winning numerous awards for actor Daniel Brühl in the leading role as a young schizophrenic.

Austrian-born Weingartner studied neuroscience at the University of Vienna and graduated from the neurosurgical department at the University of Berlin’s Steglitz Clinic. During his studies (1991–97), Weingartner also began working as a camera assistant. He did his post-graduate studies (1997–2001) in filmmaking at Cologne’s Academy of Media Arts (KHM).

“Our society is drifting apart. It seems like only the elite have access to knowledge and education, while the masses are dumbed down and kept quiet with trash TV. The ever-successful ‘panem et circense’ game has reached a dangerous level. People who are kept stupid are an easy target for populist rat-catchers that offer easy solutions. But true democracy is based on well informed, thinking individuals. I made RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN as a wake-up call for human values based on sensitivity, insight and consideration. It is not intended to be a lecture, but a thriller with a lot of humor. Is it real? Or is it a satire? What is real anyway? I think that we need to mingle genres; we need to blur borders.”

[ Hans Weingartner ] [ Official movie site ] [ Moritz Bleibtreu personal site ]

Set as favorite

Bookmark

Email This

Hits: 365

Comments (1)

...

Why haven’t I ever met anybody who has one of the black ratings boxes?" says German Director Hans Weingartner.

That's funny. I've often thought the same thing. I've also never met anyone, or known anyone who knows anyone who has had a Neilson box. Who are all these people? And why are they watching Jerry Springer, Cheaters, and Survivor?

What a scarey premise, though. If it really were a conspiracy to keep the hoi polloi placated while a few run things, it would be a brilliant plan. But the bottom line still lies with the individual; whose fault is it really if you allow yourself to be led like sheep?

PhyllisC , October 07, 2007 | url

Write comment

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (Registered users only)

Add Comment Preview