Louis theroux

Specialun

Ive been watching a few of his documentaries over last few days..some really good and some disturbing.have you watched many? Do you like them?

Dravokivich

Who?

Magnate

Dravokivich wrote: »

Who?

Louis theroux I believe.


Edit: The documentary filmmaker.

My name is URL

Love his stuff but his newer material is a bit too serious for his style imo.

I wish he'd do another series of Weird Weekends.

Mister Vain

Aye, I saw the one on prisons and the one where he went to Thailand to have a look at the auld mail order brides.

Specialun

Dravokivich wrote: »

Who?

Louis theroux

Niemoj

Yeah I love his documentaries.

Cold War Kid

Love him. My favourite is the one about a bunch of people living in the idaho mountains to hide from the new world order and train/arm themselves should they track them down. Irrational stuff but still fascinating.

Links234

Yeah, his stuff with the westboro Baptist was nuts, I've watched quite a few of his docs.

callaway92

He's the person who got me interested in proper documentaries really. Top notch journalist/writer/presenter/producer.

Ranchu

His use of kids and people that are mentally unhinged for entertainment is ropey. I have no time for him.

fred funk }{

I've seen all his stuff and love his style. He has the ability to get his subjects to open up to him and he let's them do the talking.

buried

The Game Ain't Based on Sympathy

tinpib

My name is URL wrote: »

Love his stuff but his newer material is a bit too serious for his style imo.

I wish he'd do another series of Weird Weekends.

I'm the opposite, looking back at Weird Weekends I thought he was taking the piss out of his subjects just a bit. Even though the subjects seemed to love him.

I think his output of the last few years has been excellent.

I'm still waiting for him to do one on stalkers. I think it would be perfect for him.

anewme

His Jimmy Seville documentary was excellent, both fascinating and scary at the same time. Powerful stuff

The Backwards Man

He's kinda like an Alan Whicker for eejits.

Dick phelan

Excellent documentaries really like his new stuff as well.

Tombi!

mod: OP, just for future reference it'd be a very helpful if you gave a quick description of who the person is. It'd fix anyone having to google the person or asking who they are in thread
Tombi!

Yurt2

'Waldo the one and only, this Saturday at the Georgia Dome, tune in. Pistol Pez Watley the legend, with the utmost respect I'm afraid to tell you. I think you are going down'

Yeah the Pro Wrestling one is a personal fave of mine

retro:electro

I think he's great. I'd easily watch anything he does. I think what is great about him is that he's very non threatening. He's very likeable and the subject he's investigating always has a way of rising to the top naturally. He doesn't have to do much poking and prodding.

Cold War Kid

Ranchu wrote: »

His use of kids and people that are mentally unhinged for entertainment is ropey. I have no time for him.

That's a fair point. Come to think of it, it's the subject matter that I love - the guy himself can be a bit inflammatory and disingenuous. Still, hats off to him imo for doing quite daring investigations.

Aongus Von Bismarck

I'm a fan of his work. He has an excellent way of asking subtle questions that extract sometimes extraordinary answers from those he is asking questions of.

One of his most depressing documentaries is where he explores the porn industry. So sordid and lacking in humanity. Broken women and drug-addled psychopathic directors making gonzo porn to feed an audience that want more and more disturbing scenes to get their masturbatory kicks.

yogi37

Love his documentaries. If there is nothing good on tv I'll often stick on one of his documentaries on Netflix. Apparently he's working on a documentary on Scientology. Obviously the Scientologists aren't too pleased about it and have threatened to do their own documentary on Louis Theroux. That'd be gas, can't wait to see both sides documentaries.

retro:electro

yogi37 wrote: »

Love his documentaries. If there is nothing good on tv I'll often stick on one of his documentaries on Netflix. Apparently he's working on a documentary on Scientology. Obviously the Scientologists aren't too pleased about it and have threatened to do their own documentary on Louis Theroux. That'd be gas, can't wait to see both sides documentaries.

Louis tweeted that he can't wait to see what they reveal about him and he hopes they make him look interesting!

Cold War Kid

The dark side of porn in relation to women is well documented. He has explored the effect it has had on men too, which isn't done so much - one guy developed a devastating drug habit and killed himself, another is now middle-aged, carreer finishing and has nobody - very poignant when he talked about his loneliness and regret, another guy pretending to be all OK about the stuff he did bit clearly messed up and coked ta fuq, a guy whose partner was a hardcore porn actress and he hated what she was having done to her and worried about her welfare (it was a lot more than jealousy). Very interesting, if bleak.

nokia69

if you like Louis this is very good

Lake Palmer, an amazing man just amazing

:eek:

nullzero

anewme wrote: »

His Jimmy Seville documentary was excellent, both fascinating and scary at the same time. Powerful stuff

"I've got ye on the ropes, on the ropes. Next".

Complete looper but he managed to take Louis and his crew in, a talented deceiver.

retro:electro

Cold War Kid wrote: »

The dark side of porn in relation to women is well documented. He has explored the effect it has had on men too, which isn't done so much - one guy developed a devastating drug habit and killed himself, another is now middle-aged, carreer finishing and has nobody - very poignant when he talked about his loneliness and regret, another guy pretending to be all OK about the stuff he did bit clearly messed up and coked ta fuq, a guy whose partner was a hardcore porn actress and he hated what she was having done to her and worried about her welfare (it was a lot more than jealousy). Very interesting, if bleak.

Does it show much sex/nudity in the porn one? I've watched most of them with my younger sister and I don't mind the subject matter but am reluctant to show her this one if its very graphic..

Cold War Kid

anna080 wrote: »

Does it show much sex/nudity in the porn one? I've watched most of them with my younger sister and I don't mind the subject matter but am reluctant to show her this one if its very graphic..

There are two I think. One from the 90s and another from probably ten years later - revisiting the people from the first one. Ive only seen the second one and there's not much graphic content but a lot of explicit dialogue. I'd say the first one is more about the graphic.

retro:electro

nullzero wrote: »

"I've got ye on the ropes, on the ropes. Next".

Complete looper but he managed to take Louis and his crew in, a talented deceiver.

The best line in the Saville one was where Louis questioned him on his earlier admission of tying up young girls when he ran a youth club. He said it when he didn't realise the camera was rolling. He later backtracks saying "oh that was just a figure of speech louis". What a nut job.
The Max Clifford one is very revealing too right to the very end. Had I watched that ten years ago I would whole heartedly believe that Simon Cowell was gay.

Bobby Baccala

I've seen pretty much everything he's made so far I think he's great at making a dick out of the people who deserve it like the westboro baptist church heads and and neo Nazis.

nullzero

anna080 wrote: »

The best line in the Saville one was where Louis questioned him on his earlier admission of tying up young girls when he ran a youth club. He said it when he didn't realise the camera was rolling, "oh that was just a figure of speech louis". What a nut job.
The Max Clifford one is very revealing too right to the very end. Had I watched that ten years ago I would whole heartedly believe that Simon Cowell was gay.

To be fair it was young lads in a night club, but he did deny it. Completely bonkers and used his eccentricity as a smoke screen and it worked.

retro:electro

The only one I think he failed at was the Paul Daniels and Debbie Mc Gee one. He tried his best to drive a rift between them and pit them against one another but he wasn't able. Paul still came out looking like an arse though.

buried

nullzero wrote: »

"I've got ye on the ropes, on the ropes. Next".

Complete looper but he managed to take Louis and his crew in, a talented deceiver.

A very telling part in that documentary was when Savile went to shake former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's hand at some function and Prescott just looked at him in total disgust and turned away

retro:electro

nullzero wrote: »

To be fair it was young lads in a night club, but he did deny it. Completely bonkers and used his eccentricity as a smoke screen and it worked.

Oh was it? I thought it was some youth club he was involved with? Maybe I took it up wrong

tinpib

nokia69 wrote: »

Lake Palmer, an amazing man just amazing

Yep, Lake and his toxic rage. Poor sod.

briany

My name is URL wrote: »

Love his stuff but his newer material is a bit too serious for his style imo.

I wish he'd do another series of Weird Weekends.

Yes, he lost something when he dropped the quirky humour aspect of his presentation. These days he's not greatly different from a Panorama investigator, but I still enjoy his documentaries because he's built a caché, if you will, and am looking forward to the Scientology one.

P4DDY2K11 wrote: »

I think he's great at making a dick out of the people who deserve it like the westboro baptist church heads and and neo Nazis.

Yeah, but you have to say they're two groups of people who need absolutely no help making dicks out of themselves.

RDM_83 again

Posted this before on a previous thread about him but I have came the conclusion though he's watchable and his shows are entertaining, he works far better with idiots or Americans, when he is dealing with somebody who is actually smart or understands the self-deprecating brit thing his approach doesn't work half as well.

He is entertaining but the programmes are a bit heavy on anecdote, light on stats and science. Like the porn one, he'll just maybe interview a pornstar or two, a director, a fan...but there is no huge analysis of the industry etc. I guess it makes for more entertainment but less objective analysis. There is something engaging about him, like someone who would be interesting to have a pint with.

RomanKnows

He's probably in the position that he's ran out of subjects to make truly insightful documentaries about. It's not like he is unrecognisable or unknown.

The Paul Daniels one was a case in point. Daniels may turn out to be a dreadful human being. The documentary itself just showed a small man who was bitter about no longer being on primetime TV. Theroux asked many leading questions, but they were answered in a taciturn style that just made the whole hour seem rather forced. Looking for an insight that wasn't there.

murpho999

Deleted User wrote: »

He is entertaining but the programmes are a bit heavy on anecdote, light on stats and science. Like the porn one, he'll just maybe interview a pornstar or two, a director, a fan...but there is no huge analysis of the industry etc. I guess it makes for more entertainment but less objective analysis. There is something engaging about him, like someone who would be interesting to have a pint with.

Why does he have to analyse an industry? He's just showing what he experienced with the people he met.

His recent shows about people who committed crimes whilst insane was very insightful. I found his questions got more out of the patients than some of the doctors could and he made me realise that these people are not "getting off" a charge as is the common perception, as happened here in the courts last week.

nokia69

RomanKnows wrote: »

He's probably in the position that he's ran out of subjects to make truly insightful documentaries about. It's not like he is unrecognisable or unknown.

I think thats why he does most of his work in the US now

his last few programs have been just as good as the early stuff

Mechanical Clocktail

Deleted User wrote: »

He is entertaining but the programmes are a bit heavy on anecdote, light on stats and science. Like the porn one, he'll just maybe interview a pornstar or two, a director, a fan...but there is no huge analysis of the industry etc. I guess it makes for more entertainment but less objective analysis. There is something engaging about him, like someone who would be interesting to have a pint with.

He's not a scientist in fairness. He makes great docomentaries by focusing on the human angle, and that means talking to specific people and hearing their stories. Rather than rattling off statistics that could be summed up in an article or something. I think he has the right approach for the subjects he chooses and I enjoy his stuff whenever I see it.

KungPao

Love his stuff.

His very early docs were a little Ali G at times, playing a total wally and just looking for the subject to make a silly remark. But they were hilarious at times. I miss the early ones where he is laughing and messing around and clearly enjoying himself. But I suppose he's a good bit older now so is a fair bit more serious.

His new ones are good, but not essential viewing...I think the Scientology one will be a hoot.

OneOfThem

Mechanical Clocktail wrote: »

He's not a scientist in fairness. He makes great docomentaries by focusing on the human angle, and that means talking to specific people and hearing their stories. Rather than rattling off statistics that could be summed up in an article or something. I think he has the right approach for the subjects he chooses and I enjoy his stuff whenever I see it.

It's really best to think of his docs as being about the specific individuals involved, rather than as an accurate representation of the overall subject matter. The porn one should be viewed as a documentary about those specific porn stars, rather than the porn industry, the body building one about those individual body builders, rather than body builders in general, etc. It can perhaps give you a glimpse into the thing that relates the people to each other, but the focus is the individual people, not the thing. They're documentaries about individuals with a specific thing in common, rather than one's about the thing it's self, for the most part. There's perhaps a criticism to be made that they pass themselves off as the latter rather than the former, and by doing so, mislead people. But I'm not sure how intentional that is.

murpho999

murpho999 wrote: »

Why does he have to analyse an industry?

Oh he doesn't have to. It's kinda light entertainment, and as I said it is entertaining.

brick tamland

He has a feature length doc ready to go on scientology apparently. Looks like it's gotten caught up in legal ****e though. Really looking forward to it

Really like his stuff

Magnate

briany wrote: »

Yes, he lost something when he dropped the quirky humour aspect of his presentation. These days he's not greatly different from a Panorama investigator, but I still enjoy his documentaries because he's built a caché, if you will, and am looking forward to the Scientology one.

I can't wait to see the documentary on him by the scientologists, should be a laugh..

nokia69

brick tamland wrote: »

He has a feature length doc ready to go on scientology apparently. Looks like it's gotten caught up in legal ****e though. Really looking forward to it

Really like his stuff

and mind head are working on a doc about Louis, the clowns

Yurt2

brick tamland wrote: »

He has a feature length doc ready to go on scientology apparently. Looks like it's gotten caught up in legal ****e though. Really looking forward to it

Really like his stuff

That should be well worth a watch. Although it'll hardly top the Panorama one where the Scientology spokesman who looked like Agent Smith from the Matrix pushed the BBC reporter until he flipped out.

QuinDixie

Links234 wrote: »

Yeah, his stuff with the westboro Baptist was nuts, I've watched quite a few of his docs.

The head man in that church, he gave one of the best lines ever to Louis.
Question asked and answered in a strange US accent. Classic.