RobertScorpio
Pariah
finding it is proving to be harder than I thought. I'll watch it...even if it is 'strange'. I'm into strange...well..sort of.
Rob
underated SCIFI movies
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finding it is proving to be harder than I thought. I'll watch it...even if it is 'strange'. I'm into strange...well..sort of.
Rob
Not all that surprising. I still think Alphaville's a trifle guilty of being too indulgent for its own good - but yeah, it's the sort of movie that references to Mr. Arkadin and Nosferatu and French poetry and, while good, isn't something that jumps to mind as something I'd recommend here.
Basically it's far more a cinephile's movie than a sci-fi fan's movie.
You might be on to something there, but it was nevertheless this thread that made me rummage around in the basement to find it (along with that ancient machine called a VHS-player to play it on)
You might be on to something there, but it was nevertheless this thread that made me rummage around in the basement to find it (along with that ancient machine called a VHS-player to play it on)
And it was this thread that made me rummage around in the dusty dregs of my memory and recall it.
True.
For myself, I've always been a bit allergic to this movie and I'm not really sure why. I love La jetee. Maybe it was because Goddard was universally worshipped in my film classes back in the 70's and I found a lot of his oevre just a bit too pretentious in its rebeliousness. But I need to see Alphaville again actually, which I will right after I sit down with my new release of Last Year At Marienbad (not SF, but essential viewing for any cineastes into Lynch, Greenaway or Roeg). It may have just been my own pretentiousness and not Goddard's at all ;-)
I'm going out on a limb, but I always liked "Android" from 1982..a No budget gem..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubcEUr5ALJ0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubcEUr5ALJ0
Peter Strauss, at least according to IMDB.com, is still alive and has a tv movie in post production.
though I'm not sure if that's scifi or fantasy... Probably somewhere in between. 
I adore The Abyss (SE). Some folks deride it as "E.T. underwater", which is obviously bullshit as I can't stand that film. Amidst its other achievements it features the best drowning/resuscitation scene ever.
Agreed. About 'Abyss SE' being great, not the hating E.T. bit.
It's one of those rare cases where a "Special Edition" make the theatrical look like a barely watchable pile-o-crap by comparison. The ended made no sense at all until they released the SE.
RobertScorpio
Pariah
I adore The Abyss (SE). Some folks deride it as "E.T. underwater", which is obviously bullshit as I can't stand that film. Amidst its other achievements it features the best drowning/resuscitation scene ever.
Agreed. About 'Abyss SE' being great, not the hating E.T. bit.
It's one of those rare cases where a "Special Edition" make the theatrical look like a barely watchable pile-o-crap by comparison. The ended made no sense at all until they released the SE.
Oh i so agree..I thought ABYSS was a ripoff of C.E when I saw it at the movies..the SE made the ending, as you said, make sense. Perhaps no other SE was as good as that one. I thought the ALIENS SE added to much stuff and slowed the movie...
Rob
This thread is becoming more and more expensive to read: all those films I'd all but forgotten and need to get (again) 
The Element of Crime has some SciFi elements (well; it's set in the future) and is to this day a favourite of mine, Lars Von Trier does some of the things he later perfected in "Europa" and came up with a brilliant little dystopian film. Not for the action or FX fans though.
The Element of Crime has some SciFi elements (well; it's set in the future) and is to this day a favourite of mine, Lars Von Trier does some of the things he later perfected in "Europa" and came up with a brilliant little dystopian film. Not for the action or FX fans though.
I've never been able to sit through the entirety of Epidemic -But I love the cinematography (and stories) of both Element and Europa.
It's been a while since I tried last though, perhaps I should give Epidemic another chance...
It's been a while since I tried last though, perhaps I should give Epidemic another chance...
RobertScorpio
Pariah
Europa is easily my favourite von Trier film, however, it doesn't have any science fiction elements. Not really, anyway. I'd call it significantly better and also more watchable then the other two films of the trilogy - though I remember them being okay and having some interesting elements, like Dreyer references and so on.
The first two are, well, very, very experimental to put it politely. (Which I like, yet still, IIRC, Epidemic was a movie made on a low budget about a movie being made on a low budget or something like that - fuzzy memory here.) Europa is a paranoiac and occasionally dreamlike black and white noirish film about early postwar Germany and very, very nice.
The first two are, well, very, very experimental to put it politely. (Which I like, yet still, IIRC, Epidemic was a movie made on a low budget about a movie being made on a low budget or something like that - fuzzy memory here.) Europa is a paranoiac and occasionally dreamlike black and white noirish film about early postwar Germany and very, very nice.
^Sounds about right.
Yeah, all the money went into making Europa -which is why Epidemic was made on a very, very low budget
ETA: I Brought my grandmother with me to watch Europa back in the day -probably the most "experimental" film experience she'd ever had -but she liked it and commented on how well made the strange and creepy stuff was.
Yeah, all the money went into making Europa -which is why Epidemic was made on a very, very low budget
ETA: I Brought my grandmother with me to watch Europa back in the day -probably the most "experimental" film experience she'd ever had -but she liked it and commented on how well made the strange and creepy stuff was.
Oh yes, and since we've veered into arty sci-fi films of an often experimental nature, allow me to name-drop Brand Upon the Brain, by Guy Maddin. Absolutely amazing in his replication of classic silent film technique, and also, well, hallucinatory and dreamlike and intense and I just love this guy.
It is a sci-fi film, honest, but again, a taste for silent film is really essential to like this. It's the antithesis of accessible so should not be a sci-fi fan's first silent film (that's Metropolis, obviously.)
It is a sci-fi film, honest, but again, a taste for silent film is really essential to like this. It's the antithesis of accessible so should not be a sci-fi fan's first silent film (that's Metropolis, obviously.)
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