I Love Dollars

Director: Johan van der Keuken
Year Released: 1986
Rating: 2.5

Globetrotting Keuken visits several of the most vital prosperous cities in the world - New York, Berlin, Hong Kong, Geneva (as well as his own beloved Amsterdam) - to interview both financial gurus and poor people trying to make a living. I like the quasi-Marxist approach and feel that, given a basic framework, the 'free jazz' approach he employed makes the time pass rather quickly (and allows for nice shots of food markets in Hong Kong and Amsterdam, not to mention some lovely images of the cities themselves), but feel the ultimate point is a little banal - and the on-screen title gives it away - about how our 'love' has shifted from the things money can buy to the object itself (which, if I'm not mistaken, is what J.S. Mill said a while ago). Keuken's interviews are a little roundabout and don't reveal anything most people don't know about the system at large - we're trapped in it, we can't get out and 'history' is probably over (sorry Derrida, Chomsky, Commies, et. al.).