Eye For Film >> Festivals >> BIFF >> 2017 >> Retrospective: Future Imperfect. Science. Fiction. Film.
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The Fifth Element and THX 1138
1984
(Country: UK, US; Year: 1956; Director: Michael Anderson; Writer: William Templeton, Ralph Gilbert Bettison, based on the novel by George Orwell; Stars: Edmond O'Brien, Michael Redgrave, Jan Sterling, David Kossoff, Mervyn Johns, Donald Pleasence, Carol Wolveridge, Ernest Clark, Patrick Allen, Ronan O'Casey, Michael Ripper, Ewen Solon, Kenneth Griffith, Barbara Cavan, Walter Gotell)
A man living in a Totalitarian future falls in love.
Alien (The Eighth Passenger)
(Country: UK; Year: 1979; Director: Ridley Scott; Writer: Dan O'Bannon, Ronald Shusett; Stars: Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Ian Holm, John Hurt, Harry Dean Stanton, Yaphet Kotto, Veronica Cartwright)
Ridley Scott's fabulously frightening grimy spaceship classic.
Algol. Tragedy of Power (Algol - Tragödie der Macht)
(Country: Germany; Year: 1920; Director: Hans Werckmeister; Writer: Hans Brennert, Friedel Köhne; Stars: Emil Jannings, John Gottowt, Hans Adalbert Schlettow, Hanna Ralph, Erna Morena, Ernst Hofmann, Gertrude Welcker, Käthe Haack, Sebastian Droste)
Thanks to renewable energy from the planet Algol, the founder of the “Bios Works” transforms himself into Earth’s ruler. But then fortune deserts the former coal miner.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
(Country: USA; Year: 1982; Director: Ridley Scott; Writer: Hampton Fancher, David Webb Peoples, Roland Kibbee, based on the story by Philip K Dick; Stars: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah, William Sanderson, Brion James, Joe Turkel, Joanna Cassidy, James Hong)
The final cut is the deepest for Ridley Scott's remastered sci-fi epic.
Full Review
See:
Hampton Fancher in conversation on writing Blade Runner for Robert Mitchum and his fascination with evil and beauty
, Hampton Fancher and Michael Almereyda in conversation on Blade Runner 2049, Blade Runner and Phillip K Dick
, Blade Runner: The Final Cut
, The Cinema according to Philip K. Dick
, Hampton Fancher and Michael Almereyda in conversation on Blade Runner 2049, Blade Runner and Phillip K Dick
, Blade Runner: The Final Cut
, The Cinema according to Philip K. Dick
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
(Country: US; Year: 1977; Director: Steven Spielberg; Writer: Steven Spielberg; Stars: Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Teri Garr, Melinda Dillon, Bob Balaban, J. Patrick McNamara, Warren J. Kemmerling, Roberts Blossom, Philip Dodds, Cary Guffey, Shawn Bishop)
Spielberg's sci-fi extravaganza about first contact with aliens.
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
A Day After 100 Years (Jûden Sentai Kyôryûjâ: Handoreddo Iyâzu Afutâ)
(Country: Japan; Year: 2014; Director: Noboru Takemoto; Writer: Riku Sanjyo; Stars: Ryô Ryûsei, Shûsuke Saitô, Yamato Kinjo, Akihisa Shiono, Ayuri Konno, Atsushi Maruyama, Marie Iitoyo, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Reika Fujisawa, Haruka Tomatsu, Ai Orikasa, Takayuki Sugô, Satoshi Tsuruoka, Yû Mizushima, Shôtarô Morikubo)
Short film about a filmmaker killed in World War II, who is brought back to life in 2032 Tokyo and joins a space flight to Mars.
Dark City
(Country: Australia/US; Year: 1998; Director: Alex Proyas; Writer: Alex Proyas, Lem Dobbs, David S Goyer; Stars: Rufus Sewell, William Hurt, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, Richard O'Brien, Ian Richardson, Bruce Spence, Colin Friels, John Bluthal, Mitchell Butel, Melissa George)
Film noir plotting meets a fiendish science fiction underworld in an extravagant fantasy.
Eolomea
(Country: East Germany, Soviet Union, Bulgaria; Year: 1972; Director: Herrmann Zschoche; Writer: Angel Vagenshtain, Willi Brückner; Stars: Cox Habbema, Ivan Andonov, Rolf Hoppe, Vsevolod Sanaev, Petar Slabakov, Wolfgang Greese, Holger Mahlich, Benjamin Besson, Evelyn Opoczynski, Justus Fritzsche, Heidemarie Schneider, Arndt-Michael Schade, Harald Wandel, Jürgen Scharfenberg, Ivan Ivanov)
A young scientist searches for answers in the disappearance of several spaceships.
The Fifth Element (Le Cinquieme Element, The 5th Element)
(Country: France; Year: 1997; Director: Luc Besson; Writer: Luc Besson, Robert Mark Kamen; Stars: Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Milla Jovovich, Ian Holm, Chris Tucker, Luke Perry, John Neville, Mathieu Kassovitz, Julie T Wallace)
A futuristic cabbie battles to save the world.
Ghost In The Shell (Kôkaku Kidôtai)
(Country: Japan; Year: 1995; Director: Mamoru Oshii; Writer: Kazunori Itô, Masamune Shirow; Stars: Akio Ôtsuka, Atsuko Tanaka, Iemasa Kayumi, Kôichi Yamadera, Tamio Ôki, Stephen Apostolina, Steve Blum, Steve Bulen, Toni Burke, Richard Cansino, Tom Carlton, George Celik, Shigeru Chiba, Gina Connell, Richard Epcar)
A cyborg cop and her partner hunt a powerful hacker.
Dark City and Soylent Green
Gog
(Country: US; Year: 1954; Director: Herbert L Strock; Writer: Tom Taggart, Richard G Taylor, Ivan Tors; Stars: Richard Egan, Constance Dowling, Herbert Marshall, John Wengraf, Philip Van Zandt, Valerie Vernon, Stephen Roberts, Byron Kane, David Alpert, Michael Fox, William Schallert, Marian Richman, Jean Dean, Tom Daly, Andy Andrews)
An underground research station in New Mexico is the target of fatal acts of sabotage.
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
(Country: US; Year: 1956; Director: Don Siegel; Writer: Jack Finney, Daniel Mainwaring, Richard Collins; Stars: Kevin McCarthy, Dana Wynter, Larry Gates, King Donovan, Carolyn Jones, Jean Willes, Ralph Dumke, Virginia Christine, Tom Fadden, Kenneth Patterson)
A doctor finds his community is being secretly taken over by an alien invasion.
Ikarie XB 1 (Voyage to the End of the Universe)
(Country: Czechoslovakia; Year: 1963; Director: Jindrich Polák; Writer: Pavel Jurácek, Stanislaw Lem, Jindrich Polák; Stars: Zdenek Stepánek, Frantisek Smolík, Dana Medrická, Irena Kacírková, Radovan Lukavský, Otto Lackovic, Miroslav Machácek, Jirí Vrstála, Rudolf Deyl, Jaroslav Mares, Martin Tapák, Marcela Martínková, Jozef Adamovic, Jaroslav Rozsíval, Ruzena Urbanova)
The year is 2163. Starship Ikaria XB 1 embarks on a long journey across the Universe, to search for life on the planets of Alpha Centauri.
Kamikaze 89 (Kamikaze 1989)
(Country: West Germany; Year: 1982; Director: Wolf Gremm; Writer: Wolf Gremm, Robert Katz, Per Wahlöö; Stars: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Günther Kaufmann, Boy Gobert, Arnold Marquis, Richy Müller, Nicole Heesters, Brigitte Mira, Jörg Holm, Hans Wyprächtiger, Petra Jokisch, Andreas Mannkopff, Ute Koska, Frank Ripploh, Hans-Eckart Eckhardt, Christoph Baumann)
After a bomb threat to a press conglomerate, a police detective stumbles on evil intrigue.
Letters From A Dead Man (Pisma myortvogo cheloveka)
(Country: Soviet Union; Year: 1986; Director: Konstantin Lopushanskiy; Writer: Konstantin Lopushanskiy, Vyacheslav Rybakov, Boris Strugatskiy; Stars: Rolan Bykov, Iosif Ryklin, Viktor Mikhaylov, Aleksandr Sabinin, Nora Gryakalova, Vera Mayorova, Vatslav Dvorzhetsky, Svetlana Smirnova, Nikolai Alkanov, Vadim Lobanov)
In a post-apocalyptic world a scholar recites letters to his dead son.
Strange Days and Alien
O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization (O-bi, o-ba: Koniec cywilizacji )
(Country: Poland; Year: 1985; Director: Piotr Szulkin; Writer: Piotr Szulkin; Stars: Jerzy Stuhr, Krystyna Janda, Kalina Jedrusik, Mariusz Dmochowski, Marek Walczewski, Jan Nowicki, Henryk Bista, Leon Niemczyk, Krzysztof Majchrzak, Stanislaw Igar, Mariusz Benoit, Wlodzimierz Musial, Adam Ferency, Ryszard Kotys, Marcin Tronski)
The survivors of a nuclear holocaust have retreated underground.
Oil Gobblers (Ropáci)
(Country: Czechoslovakia; Year: 1988; Director: Jan Sverák; Writer: Jan Sverák; Stars: Lubomir Benes, Ivo Kaspar, Emil Nedbal, Jiri Nemec, Jan Rokyta)
Researchers try to find a species of animal that feeds only on poythene.
On The Beach
(Country: US; Year: 1959; Director: Stanley Kramer; Writer: John Paxton, Nevil Shute; Stars: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, Fred Astaire, Anthony Perkins, Donna Anderson, John Tate, Harp McGuire, Lola Brooks, Ken Wayne, Guy Doleman, Richard Meikle, John Meillon, Joe McCormick, Lou Vernon, Kevin Brennan)
After a nuclear war, Earth is contaminated with radiation; only Australia has so far been spared from the toxic cloud.
On The Silver Globe (Na srebrnym globie)
(Country: Poland; Year: 1988; Director: Andrzej Zulawski; Writer: Andrzej Zulawski, Jerzy Zulawski; Stars: Andrzej Seweryn, Jerzy Trela, Grazyna Dylag, Waldemar Kownacki, Iwona Bielska, Jerzy Gralek, Elzbieta Karkoszka, Krystyna Janda, Maciej Góraj, Henryk Talar, Leszek Dlugosz, Jan Frycz, Henryk Bista, Wieslaw Komasa, Jerzy Golinski)
Astronauts stranded on a faraway planet develop into a new, shamanistic human tribe with a totalitarian streak.
Seconds
(Country: US; Year: 1966; Director: John Frankenheimer; Writer: Lewis John Carlino, David Ely; Stars: Frank Campanella, John Randolph, Frances Reid, Barbara Werle, Edgar Stehli, Aaron Magidow, Young De De, Françoise Ruggieri, Murray Hamilton, Thom Conroy, Jeff Corey, Will Geer, Richard Anderson, Rock Hudson, Khigh Dhiegh)
A middle-aged banker is re-born as a young painter - but at what cost?
Soylent Green
(Country: US; Year: 1973; Director: Richard Fleischer; Writer: Stanley R. Greenberg, based on the book Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison.; Stars: Charlton Heston, Leigh Taylor-Young, Chuck Connors, Joseph Cotten, Brock Peters, Paula Kelly, Edward G. Robinson)
On an overheated, overcrowded future Earth, a detective investigates the death of a wealthy corporate mogul.
Strange Days
(Country: US; Year: 1995; Director: Kathryn Bigelow; Writer: James Cameron, Jay Cocks; Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Vincent D'Onofrio, Glenn Plummer, Brigitte Bako, Richard Edson, William Fichtner)
Forbidden memories on disk, yours for the right price.
Test Pilota Pirxa
(Country: Poland, Soviet Union; Year: 1978; Director: Marek Piestrak; Writer: Stanislaw Lem, Marek Piestrak, Vladimir Valutskiy; Stars: Sergei Desnitsky, Boleslaw Abart, Vladimir Ivashov, Aleksandr Kaidanovsky, Zbigniew Lesien, Ferdynand Matysik, Igor Przegrodzki, Tõnu Saar, Zygmunt Bielawski, Janusz Bylczynski, Adam Cieslak, Edmund Fetting, Józef Fryzlewicz, Marek Idzinski, Mieczyslaw Janowski)
The commander of his spaceship discovers one of his crew members is a robot... but which one?
A Trip To Mars
(Country: Denmark; Year: 1918; Director: Holger-Madsen; Writer: Sophus Michaëlis, Sophus Michaëlis, Ole Olsen; Stars: Gunnar Tolnæs, Zanny Petersen, Nicolai Neiiendam, Alf Blütecher, Svend Kornbeck, Philip Bech, Lilly Jacobson, Frederik Jacobsen, Birger von Cotta-Schønberg, Nils Asther, Alfred Osmund)
Silent film sees a group of researches travel to Mars.
THX 1138
(Country: US; Year: 1971; Director: George Lucas; Writer: George Lucas, Walter Murch, Matthew Robbins; Stars: Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Don Pedro Colley, Maggie McOmie, Ian Wolfe, Marshall Efron, Sid Haig, John Pearce, Irene Cagen, Gary Alan Marsh, John Seaton, Eugene I. Stillman, Jack Walsh, Mark Lawhead, Robert Feero)
In a dystopian future, a couple rebel against society's no-emotion rules.
The Tunnel
(Country: France, Germany; Year: 1933; Director: Curtis Bernhardt; Writer: Curtis Bernhardt, Bernhard Kellermann, Henry Koster, Reinhart Steinbicker; Stars: Paul Hartmann, Attila Hörbiger, Olly von Flint, Otto Wernicke, Gustaf Gründgens, Max Weydner, Elga Brink, Richard Ryen, Georg Henrich, Max Schreck, Magda Lena, Will Dohm, Ferdinand Marian, Josef Eichheim, Günther Vogdt)
Worker unrest and sabotage disrupt construction of an undersea tunnel between America and Europe.
Warning From Space (Uchûjin Tôkyô ni arawaru)
(Country: Japan; Year: 1956; Director: Kôji Shima; Writer: Jay Cipes, Gentaro Nakajima, Hideo Oguni, Edward Palmer; Stars: Keizô Kawasaki, Toyomi Karita, Bin Yagisawa, Shôzô Nanbu, Bontarô Miake, Mieko Nagai, Kiyoko Hirai, Isao Yamagata, Gai Harada, Yûzô Hayakawa, Kanji Kawahara, Sachiko Meguro, Toshiyuki Obara, Fumiko Okamura, Shiko Saito)
UFOs are seen around Tokyo, causing panic, but are the aliens as frightening as they first appear?
The War Of The Worlds
(Country: US; Year: 1953; Director: Byron Haskin; Writer: Barré Lyndon, based on the story by HG Wells; Stars: Gene Barry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Robert Cornthwaite, Sandro Giglio, Lewis Martin, Houseley Stevenson Jr., Paul Frees, William Phipps, Vernon Rich, Henry Brandon, Jack Kruschen, Cedric Hardwicke, Cliff Clark, Rudy Lee)
Martians invade a small town in America.
World On A Wire
(Country: West Germany; Year: 1973; Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Writer: Daniel F. Galouye, Fritz Müller-Scherz, Rainer Werner Fassbinder; Stars: Klaus Löwitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben, Karl Heinz Vosgerau, Wolfgang Schenck, Günter Lamprecht, Ulli Lommel, Adrian Hoven, Ivan Desny, Joachim Hansen, Kurt Raab, Margit Carstensen, Ingrid Caven, Gottfried John, Rudolf Lenz)
The new director of a research project that simulates human life with electronic circuits increasingly begins to doubt reality.
59th New York Film Festival early bird highlights Futura, Jane By Charlotte, James Baldwin: From Another Place and The Velvet Underground
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