Interview with Yuval Noah Harari | VPRO Documentary
1,716Interview with Yuval Noah Harari in Tel Aviv. Due to copyright limitations we don’t show the clips he discusses, but instead we describe them below.
A long conversation with writer and historian Yuval Noah Harari, who was asked to pick six clips from films and tv-series and talk about them and his personal view of our time and the world.
Yuval Noah Harari is one of the most influential thinkers of our century. He became world famous with his books 'Sapiens', 'Homo Deus' and '21 lessons for the 21st century'. Harari explains in his books the enormous success of the species of man. But he also explains that dark clouds are gathering over that autocratic status.
Janine Abbring speaks to Yuval Noah Harari in Tel Aviv. Due to copyright limitations we don’t show the clips they discuss, but instead we describe them below:
00:00 Introduction
03:34 Once Upon a Time...Man
This is a French animated children TV series from 1978 directed by Albert Barillé. We see human evolution depicted. This series contains many examples, such as the hunt for mammoths in this scene, that emphasize that the different tribes gradually learned to work together to make life more pleasant. It also quickly becomes apparent in this scene that some people have a tendency to boss others around, or take off with the loot. But the message, of course, is that the group will eventually make it through working together.
14:25 Game of Thrones
A military battle scene from the fantasy series Game of Thrones. We see Jon Snow- he’s the "good guy"- talking to the leader of the Wildlings, a more anarchistic posse. And then they suddenly find themselves surrounded by the massive army of another king, Stannis Baratheon, whose cavalry overruns the wildling encampment. They are interrupted by a massive cavalry charge led by Stannis and Davos that overruns the wildling encampment. Mance surrenders and is taken captive on Jon's suggestion.
22:10 The Big Short
The Big Short is a 2015 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Adam McKay. The film is noted for the unconventional techniques it employs to explain financial instruments. In this scene we see singer-songwriter Selena Gomez, and economist Richard Thaler, who break the fourth wall to explain the concept of so-called "synthetic collateralized debt obligations" by using the metaphor of black jack in a casino.
35:03 Inside Out
Inside Out is an American animation film from 2015 made by Pixar. The film was written and directed by Pete Docter. The movie shows the inner workings of an 11-year old girl named Riley. Most of the movie we are inside her head, where different emotions are portrayed as characters. The emotions are: Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. These personified emotions live inside her.
The clip Harari chose is the beginning of the movie, where the different emotions are introduced and the basic workings of Riley’s personality are explained.
45:10 Her
Her is a 2013 American science-fiction romantic drama film by Spike Jonze. The film follows Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix), a man who develops a relationship with Samantha (Scarlett Johansson), an artificially intelligent virtual assistant, personified through a female voice. Harari chose a scene where we see Theodore and Samantha on a date together. Samantha is playfully guiding Theodore around on a fun fair while he has his eyes closed. She is talking about her fantasies and feeling embarrassed.
53:34 Please like me
Please Like Me is an Australian television comedy-drama series created by Josh Thomas, who also plays the main character Josh. The series gives us an honest and humorous portayal of friendship, love and sexuality. It deals with heavy themes like depression, loss and homophobia, but approaches them with an admirable lightness.
Harari chose a clip from Season 2 episode 6. In the episode Josh agrees to take his mum and her friend Hannah and Arnold to the zoo. Arnold is more Josh's age and they go see the meerkats and butterflies together. When they're in the aquarium, Arnold suddenly kisses Josh. Josh responds positively and they have a sweet first kiss.
01:08:45 Once Upon a Time...Man
See clip 1 for general series information.
We see an extremely bleak future for mankind in the last episode of the series Once Upon a Time….Man: we see a polluted earth, crowded cities, conflict, war. In the evolution and long history of the earth and mankind, we have managed to ruin almost everything in one short century. We have polluted the earth and people have created an atomic bomb to kill each other.
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