4-hour Musk documentary in Venice: This is the simulation speaking

At the beginning is the end. A globe, or more precisely the computer animation of a globe. The off-camera voice of entrepreneur Elon Musk speaks of his fascination with simulations and the likelihood that we ourselves are living in a simulation. From there he jumps to the idea of ​​a multitude of simulations of our reality, in which he takes it for granted that only the best of them “survives”. At that moment the globe explodes.

“Musk” is the name of Alex Gibney's documentary, which is showing out of competition in Venice and in which the director traces the career of the temporarily richest person in the world over four hours. Already in the opening sequence with the simulations, Musk is seen in the picture, sitting on a sci-fi-like armchair in a strange, shiny leather jacket. There is also something strangely unnatural about his face.

Gibney explains the reason for this artificial appearance. For his project, he naturally contacted Musk to get an interview with him. Musk refused. Gibney then decided on an approach that fits the subject matter of his film, at least conceptually. He used a variety of statements that Trump made in writing on the Internet. In the absence of the real Musk, this allows Gibney to speak of the artificial Musk. Aesthetically, it takes some getting used to.

Fortunately, there is plenty of archive material with Musk, and Gibney has also asked other people to be interviewed, including his first wife Justine Musk, the influencer Ashley St. Clair, various former business partners from Tesla to SpaceX and a number of journalists. Gibney recalls stages in Musk's life that correct the image of the super-entrepreneur blessed with success.

Many of his companies were unsuccessful, or at least initially unsuccessful, but thanks to his ego he managed to continually increase their value. That too with very unclean means. So after a few years, Musk kicked out one of Tesla's actual founders, Martin Eberhard, in order to appear as a founder himself and thus increase his market value.

Particularly irritating are scary aspects such as the fact that Musk offers various women to have a child with him with the aim of becoming a “legion” and spreading his own genes in order to create an “army”. After reproduction, he sometimes treats mothers very disrespectfully, to say the least, including the musician Grimes, with whom Musk has three children. A custody battle was a fallout from their relationship.

Gibney creates a disturbing image of a man of power who has very little interest in individual people. His stint in the Trump administration as chief government spending cutter is ample evidence of this. The elections in Saxony-Anhalt also occur indirectly.

The material told by actor Casey Affleck in his third directing work, the competition film “Company,” is also uncanny. Told on three levels, various black-robed figures play a role who appear on strangers' doorsteps at different times in the 19th and 20th centuries and tell their surprised hosts a story, with each additional level belonging to the original story. Here everything is connected in a miraculous way, you only realize how late. Haunting is part of it, wintry landscapes and people who are often unaware of their own wishes. A puzzle that keeps you thinking.