Dark Side of the Moon (documentary)

"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.

Plot summary

The tone of the "documentary" begins with low key revelations of NASA working closely with Hollywood at the time of the Moon landings. Over the course of the tale, Karel postulates that not only did Kubrick help the USA fake the moon landings but that he was eventually killed by the CIA to cover up the truth. First hand testimony backing these claims come from Rumsfeld and Dr. Kissinger seems to lend credence to the story.

It is finally revealed that this is a mockumentary as the end credits roll over a montage of blooper reels, with the main participants laughing over the absurdity of their lines or questioning if particular ones would give the joke away too soon. Besides being a comedic documentary, it is also an exercise in Jean Baudrillard's theories of hyperreality. In a 2004 interview, the director was asked why he would elect to make a film "closer to a comedy than a serious film"; Karel replied that in the wake of having made serious documentaries, the objective was "de faire un film drôle" (to make a funny film). [cite web|url=http://www.arte.tv/fr/histoire-societe/archives/operation-lune/William-Karel/385476.html|title="Interview: Entretien avec William Karel"]

Trivia

Australian broadcaster SBS television aired the film on April 1 as an April fools' joke.

Several of the fictitious interviewees, such as Dave Bowman and Jack Torrance, are named after characters from movies directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Beside the staged interviews with actors, the quotes from notable personnalities such as Donald Rumsfeld or Henry Kissinger are quotes from serious-tone interviews, taken out of context, thus playing a practical prank on the unsuspecting personalities. Only real-life officer Vernon Walters deliberately plays his own character in a fake interview in French language.

ee also

*Apollo moon landing hoax accusations
*"Capricorn One"
*"Wag the Dog"
*"World War III (film)"

External links

*imdb title|id=0344160|title=Operation lune
* [http://www.pointdujour.fr/Va/programmes/prog_fiche.asp?idProg=20965 Programme summary] at Point du Jour
* [http://www.flybyfoy.com/pages/Space.htm Flying By Foy] , the company contracted to fake the moon's gravity
* [http://www.arte.tv/fr/histoire-societe/archives/operation-lune/416762.html Operation lune] at Arte.tv

References