settima

SciFi

Mauvais sang [Bad Blood / The Night Is Young] (Leos Carax, 1986)

Jan

8

David Bowie – 1947

Mauvais sang (1986)

(Alex) Denis Lavant in a scene set to David Bowie's Modern Love. DP: Jean-Yves Escoffier.

A [favourite] scene featuring a Bowie song for David Bowie's birthday (1947).

“They pulled in just behind the fridge He lays her down, he frowns “Gee, my life's a funny thing Am I still too young?” He kissed her then and there She took his ring, took his babies It took him minutes, took her nowhere Heaven knows, she'd have taken anything”

– David Bowie, Modern Love (from Let's Dance, 1983)

Operation Ganymed [Helden, verloren im Staub der Sterne] (Rainer Erler, 1977)

Jan

7

moons

Operation Ganymed (1977)

Jupiter rising. DP: Wolfgang Grasshoff.

Moons for Galileo Galilei's observation of Jupiter's four largest moons in 1610: Ganymede and Callisto on January 7, and Europa and Io on January 8.

“I therefore concluded and decided unhesitatingly, that there are three stars in the heavens moving about Jupiter, as Venus and Mercury round the Sun; which at length was established as clear as daylight by numerous subsequent observations. These observations also established that there are not only three, but four, erratic sidereal bodies performing their revolutions round Jupiter… the revolutions are so swift that an observer may generally get differences of position every hour.”

– Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius (”Starry Messenger”), 1610

A spacecraft named Ganymede II returns back to Earth after its expedition to Jupiter's moons followed by 1500 days stuck in space. The Earth they find, is deserted.

Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)

Jan

7

Wed

Altered States (1980)

Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) in his tank. Around him visions of clouds, fishes, the ocean. DP: Jordan Cronenweth.

“I'm a man in search of his true self. How archetypically American can you get?”

– Eddie Jessup

Space Is the Place (John Coney, 1974)

Jan

5

Space Shuttle

Space Is the Place (1974)

Ra's arrival. DP: Seth Hill.

A film about space travel on the day Nixon announced the Space Shuttle program in 1972.

“I came from a dream that the black man dreamed long ago. I’m actually a presence sent to you by your ancestors.”

Sun Ra

他人の顔 [Tanin no kao / The Face of Another] (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)

Jan

3

Tutankhamun's tomb

他人の顔 (1966)

Mr. Okuyama (Tatsuya Nakadai). DP: Hiroshi Segawa.

Bandages for that day in 1924 when Howard Carter came across Tutankhamun's sarcophagus.

“You'll feel better soon. Once you're used to the mask, you'll be a new man — one with no records, no past. A mind invisible to the world.”

– psychiatrist

Czułe miejsca [Tender Spots] (Piotr Andrejew, 1981)

Jul

7

ice cream

Czułe miejsca (1981)

Ewa (Hanna Dunowska) licks melting ice cream with Janek (Michał Juszczakiewicz) looking on. DPs: Jerzy Zieliński & Ryszard Lenczewski.

Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)

May

18

tea

Altered States (1980)

An almost monochrome man and woman in Edwardian costumes sit at a round table under a parasol. The couple looks out over a field with bright orange poppies. The flowers are filmed through a fisheye lens and appear to be on a grassy green planet.. DP: Jordan Cronenweth.

“She's still crazy about him. He's still crazy.”

Invasión [Invasion] (Hugo Santiago, 1969)

Dec

27

maté

Invasión (1969)

Don Porfirio (Juan Carlos Paz) pours water from a small kettle into a maté. DP: Ricardo Aronovich.

1999 A.D. (Lee Madden, 1967)

Nov

27

Cyber Monday

1999 A.D. (1967)

Mother Karen (Marj Dusay) taking a break from online food planning by shopping for a new wardrobe for everyone but herself. DP: Vilmos Zsigmond.

Shopping online on Cyber Monday

 

In the soul crushing future of 1999, one heroic nuclear family bravely fulfils their gender-specific duties. While Father Mike works in his computer-aided office, Son Jamie fails at computer homeschool and Mother Karen slavishly shops, cooks, and cleans as if the 70s never happened.

 

Thankfully, the future turned out to be even bleaker.

Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)

Nov

7

International Merlot Day

Seconds (1966)

Nora (Salome Jens), seen from the back with her dress half unzipped, holds up a glass of red wine while kissing a reluctant Antiochus (Rock Hudson) during the ecstatic Bacchanal scene. DP: James Wong Howe.

At a bacchanalia, Rock Hudson's Antiochus Wilson finally strips down his hesitancy and realises he has a second chance at life, as a member of the new generation. To the Queen of wine! To Bacchus! To Pan!

“Bacchus gives us his blood so we may be born again.”

Director of photography James Wong Howe's very controlled framing of the (initially censored) pre-Woodstock #Bacchana​lian scene beautifully frames this pinnacle moment and proved almost too much for American censors.