Atom: A Love Affair
Directed by Vicki Lesley.
Featuring Lily Cole. 89 mins. Streaming on Curzon Home Cinema.
This history of nuclear power from Eisenhower's “Atoms for Peace,” programme in the 50s, right through to our current dithering over the Hinkley Point station, is a tale of not being able to let go. Despite numerous setbacks and consistently failing to deliver on the promise of the cheap, clean energy, governments keep going back to it, always willing to give it one last chance. Similarly, Lesley's film attempts to frame this story within a love story metaphor that gets tiring very quickly, but that it refuses to give up on. You dread the latest mention in Cole's narration of passion “reigniting” or “cooling” but the film sticks with it to the very end.
As a piece of film making it's a bit tired. Other than flogging a dead metaphor, the post colon "A Love Story" is nabbed from a Michael Moore film and the ironic use of vintage public information films is like rudimentary Adam Curtis. Still, never mind the style, feel the substance. Concentrating on the USA, UK, France, Germany and Japan, with a late cameo by China, it is a comprehensive and remarkably balanced survey of all its false dawns with views from both sides of the argument. Disconcertingly, almost every viewpoint, pro and con, seems reasonable. By the end, you'll be much better informed on the issue, but probably none the wiser.
Directed by Vicki Lesley.
Featuring Lily Cole. 89 mins. Streaming on Curzon Home Cinema.
This history of nuclear power from Eisenhower's “Atoms for Peace,” programme in the 50s, right through to our current dithering over the Hinkley Point station, is a tale of not being able to let go. Despite numerous setbacks and consistently failing to deliver on the promise of the cheap, clean energy, governments keep going back to it, always willing to give it one last chance. Similarly, Lesley's film attempts to frame this story within a love story metaphor that gets tiring very quickly, but that it refuses to give up on. You dread the latest mention in Cole's narration of passion “reigniting” or “cooling” but the film sticks with it to the very end.
As a piece of film making it's a bit tired. Other than flogging a dead metaphor, the post colon "A Love Story" is nabbed from a Michael Moore film and the ironic use of vintage public information films is like rudimentary Adam Curtis. Still, never mind the style, feel the substance. Concentrating on the USA, UK, France, Germany and Japan, with a late cameo by China, it is a comprehensive and remarkably balanced survey of all its false dawns with views from both sides of the argument. Disconcertingly, almost every viewpoint, pro and con, seems reasonable. By the end, you'll be much better informed on the issue, but probably none the wiser.
