An agglomeration of films recently broached the issue of corporate scandals and malicious CEOs:
- The Enron documentary film - a film by Alex Gibney, based on the book "The Smartest Guys in the Room", largely cut together from Enron corporate material plus interviews conducted after the breakdown, released in April 2005.
- Fun with Dick and Jane by Dean Parrisot, starring Alec Baldwin, and Jim Carrey, released in late 2005: a malicious but funny piss take of the Enron scandal. A Houston couple turns into robbing supermarkets, gas stations and banks to pay their bills after they were fired.
- Grounding, released in 2006 and directed by Michael Steiner features the Swissair breakdown and bancruptcy, which is attributed to the banks. The film contains portraits of the UBS and CreditSuisse top management.
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- Ivresse du pouvoir by Claude Chabrol in 2006, starring Isabelle Huppert as magistrate investigating a corporate executive. The story bears an incredible resemblance to the ELF Aquitaine case in France. The film is centered both on large traffics and corruption.
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Watch these films in a movie theater and the reactions of the audience become part of the experience. I was in New York to see the Enron documentary and was certain that ex-employees were in the small theater on Unions square. People laughed cynically at moments that clearly marked them as insiders. In Zurich I also felt that ex-employees and/or victims of the Swissair company breakdown were in the room watching "Grounding". The way they laughed about the behavior of the top management made me shiver. |
