Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World review: Werner Herzog delivers another masterful documentary focussing in on the past, present and the future of the internet.
Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World review by Paul Heath, LFF 2016.
Besides playing bad guys in the likes of Jack Reacher and popping up in popular TV series like Parks and Recreation, Werner Herzog sometimes directs movies. The iconic German helmer is known for his dramatic efforts, documentary films and instantly detectable voice overs, and the latter two of those three are present here.
Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World sees Herzog cast his eye over the Internet – it’s history and its future – assembled for cinema audiences over ten distinct chapters. Herzog travels back to the 1960s and the so-called birth of the Internet at the University of Southern California, to feature the man pictured above show us the very first computer that spoke with another 400 miles away. The room at UCLA still exists and is completely preserved at the end of a really rather ‘disgusting’ looking corridor. From there the director, who is present in every scene though never appears, takes us on further journeys littered with informative fact and baffling though interesting boffins and eccentrics. Being a Herzog film, there is tons of humour laced throughout, most of it coming from the direction of our guide as he observes from a far the complexities, advanced technologies and even the darker side of the Internet – a tool which we’ve now come to rely upon in almost every aspect of everyday life.
There are tons of talking heads from Stanford professors to neuro-scientists, to those who have become addicted by aspects of the web, to those who are completely tortured by its presences through radio-activity etc. As expected, Herzog’s film is very watchable, totally immersive and informative – his style and personality constantly present to endear the viewer.
The filmmaker manages to touch on internet security – even interviewing a strangely watchable former hacker Kevin Mitnick and even touches on present and future technologies with a chat with Google X founder and the driver-less care genius Sebastian Thrun.
You will constantly laugh along with this film as well as be baffled with its intellect and science facts (in a good way). Herzog continues to delight with his all very different studies of the modern world through his distinct, unique, masterful documentaries, of which this is an absolute must.
Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World plays at the BFI London Film Festival 2016. It wll be released in UK cinemas on 28th October 2016.
Pingback: ‘Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World’ review [LFF 2016] | Box Office Collections