0058 – Alexander (2004)

spacetime coordinates: 4th century BC Macedonia // India // Babylon // Arabia // Persian Empire // Battle of Gaugamela // Battle of Hydaspes

Alexander is a 2004 epic historical drama film based on the life of Alexander the Great. It was directed by Oliver Stone, with Colin Farrell in the title role.

The film was an original screenplay based in part on the book Alexander the Great, written in the 1970s by the University of Oxford historian Robin Lane Fox.

________

imdb

0052 – Night on Earth (1991)

spacetime coordinates: 1991 Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki

Night on Earth is a 1991 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It is a collection of five vignettes, taking place during the same night, concerning the temporary bond formed between taxi driver and passenger in five cities. Jarmusch wrote the screenplay in about eight days, and the choice of certain cities was largely based on the actors with whom he wanted to work. The soundtrack of the same name is by Tom Waits.

---

TRAILER

imdb

050 – ATB – Chillout (Mixed Views Of Cities Around the World)

049 – Shirley: Visions of Reality (2013)

spacetime coordinates: 

saturday, august 28th 1931 paris, 11 p.m.
sunday, august 28th 1932 new york, 9 p.m.
monday, august 28th 1939 new york, 10 p.m.

wednesday, august 28th 1940 new york, 10 p.m.
friday, august 28th 1942 new haven, 8 p.m.

thursday, august 28th 1952 new york, 6 a.m.
tuesday, august 28th 1956 new york, 9 a.m.
wednesday, august 28th 1957 pacific palisades, 6 p.m.
friday, august 28th 1959 cape cod, 11 a.m.

monday, august 28th 1961 cape cod, 7 a.m.
wednesday, august 28th 1963 albany, 7 p.m.
thursday, august 28th 1963 albany, 9 a.m.

Faithfully reproducing 13 of Edward Hopper‘s tableaux three-dimensionally on set, the basis of the film is the story of an independent and opinionated New York actress (Stephanie Cumming) whose life we follow through three turbulent decades of American history, from 1931’s Great Depression to the Riots of 1963.

“Unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city,” Edward Hopper once remarked of his masterpiece Nighthawks, the famous scene depicting a downtown diner late at night. In fact, many pieces in Hopper’s oeuvre, a sun-drenched yet grimly nostalgic memento of midcentury modern America, depict solitary figures engaged in an act of reflection. Whether we see them deep in thought in the morning sun or swallowing whisky at a bar after dark, Hopper’s paintings conjure a sense of curiosity for his subjects’ past – and indeed, Vienna-born director Gustav Deutsch was so inspired by this aura of mystery that he decided to create Shirley: Visions of Reality, an exquisite example of interdisciplinary cinema based on the imagery in Hopper’s paintings.

read more: www.anothermag.com

043 – Sébastien Tellier – L’amour naissant (Official Video) 2013

Directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino

042 – the chinese botanist’s daughters (2006)

spacetime coordinate:  1980s China

Les filles du botaniste (Chinese: 植物园, Botanic Garden) is a dramatic and delicate story of two star-crossed lovers set against the fantastic lush of Chinese gardens.

based on a true story

The story starts when Min, a botanist who spent her childhood as an orphan, comes to intern at the botanical gardens under her new instructor, Chen. It is there that she meets An, Chen’s daughter, and finds herself falling in love in a time and place where same-sex relationships are an unforgivable crime.

Since it delves into a topic considered taboo in China, the government refused to allow for the film to be shot or even shown in the country (it was ultimately filmed in Vietnam)

Dai Sijie (director) “I felt that the deep love that brought these two young women together was extremely romantic. In my mind, these women weren’t so much ‘lesbian’ – since they didn’t really possess a recognition of knowledge of themselves as such – but rather they just were determined to love each other dearly. That unwavering surety of pure love just tears at the heart. Also, what really got to me was the fact that these were women denied their freedom. They were justified in their love and there should be no reason why they shouldn’t be able to continue in it–so one has to wonder, why do they not have that right? Since I have experienced losing the right to my own expression, I know what it feels like to not be able to be who you are in your own country. I felt close to both of them, because to me it seemed like we were all outsiders.”

The Chinese Botanist’s Daughters Interview with Dai Sijie in Tokyo Wrestling

____

imdb

041 – The Assassin (2015)

spacetime coordinate: 8th century China during last years of the Tang Dynasty / the distant province/circuit of Weibo in the north

he Assassin (Chinese: 刺客聶隱娘; pinyin: Cìkè Niè Yǐnniáng; or: The Assassin Niè Yǐnniáng) is a 2015 martial arts film directed by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. A Taiwan/China/Hong Kong co-production, loosely based on the late 9th century martial arts story “Nie Yinniang” by Pei Xing, a core text in Chinese swordsmanship and wuxia fiction.

landscapes

“The King of Kophen’s bluebird failed to sing for three years.
One day the Queen remarked : Birds sing only to their own kind, set the bird before a mirror!
The King heeded her advice.
The bluebird saw its own image, it sang of its sadness, it danced, until it expired.”

(trivia:  In the film, the actors speak classical Chinese which was mostly used for literary texts and almost never spoken. The final version henceforth includes Chinese subtitles.)

____

imdb