1236 – Christopher Robin (2018)

timespace coordinates: 1920s – 1940s London / East Sussex

Christopher Robin is a 2018 American fantasy film directed by Marc Forster. The film is inspired by A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard‘s Winnie-the-Pooh books and is a live-action/CGI follow-up of the Disney franchise of the same name. The film stars Ewan McGregor as the title character, alongside Hayley Atwell and the voices of Jim Cummings, Brad Garrett, Nick Mohammed, Peter Capaldi, Sophie Okonedo, Sara Sheen, and Toby Jones. The story follows an adult Christopher Robin as he loses his sense of imagination, only to be reunited with his old stuffed bear friend, Winnie-the-Pooh. (wiki)

imdb

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“Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”
― A.A. Milne

1023 – Slaughterhouse Rulez (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s British boarding school

imdb   /   rt

958 – Suspiria (2018)

timespace coordinates: 1977, Berlin during the height of the German Autum

(!extreme violence!)

Suspiria (Latin pronunciation: [sʊsˈpɪria]) is a 2018 supernatural psychological horror film directed by Luca Guadagnino with a screenplay by David Kajganich, inspired by the 1977 Italian film of the same title directed by Dario Argento. Guadagnino’s film, which is set in 1977, stars Dakota Johnson as an American woman who enrolls at a prestigious dance academy in Berlin run by a coven of witches. Tilda Swinton co-stars in three roles, including as the company’s lead choreographer and as a male psychotherapist involved in the academy. Mia Goth and Chloë Grace Moretz appear in supporting roles as students, while Angela Winkler, Renée Soutendijk, Ingrid Caven, and Sylvie Testud portray some of the academy’s matrons. The star of the original film, Jessica Harper, has a cameo appearance.

An “homage” to the original rather than a straightforward remake, the movie explores themes of generational guilt in Germany during the Cold War. The film also focuses on themes of motherhood, evil, and the dynamics of matriarchies.Unlike the original film, which used exaggerated colors, Guadagnino conceived Suspiria as visually “winterish” and bleak, absent of primary colors. The film incorporates stylized dance sequences choreographed by Damien Jalet, which form part of its representation of witchcraft. The musical score was composed by Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, who took inspiration from krautrock. (wiki)

Analysis and themes

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imdb /  body horror

957 – Suspiria (1977)

timespace coordinates: 1970’s Freiburg, Germany

Movie Poster Design

Suspiria (Latin: [sʊsˈpɪria]) is a 1977 Italian supernatural horror film directed by Dario Argento, co-written by Argento and Daria Nicolodi, partially based on Thomas De Quincey‘s 1845 essay Suspiria de Profundis (Sighs from the Depths) and co-produced by Claudio and Salvatore Argento. The film stars Jessica Harper as an American ballet student who transfers to a prestigious dance academy in Germany but realizes, after a series of brutal murders, that the academy is a front for a supernatural conspiracy. It also features Stefania Casini, Flavio Bucci, Miguel Bosé, Alida Valli, Udo Kier and Joan Bennett, in her final film role.The film is the first of the trilogy Argento refers to as The Three Mothers, which also comprises Inferno (1980) and The Mother of Tears (2007). Suspiria has become one of Argento’s most successful feature films, receiving critical acclaim for its visual and stylistic flair, use of vibrant colors and its score by the prog-rock band Goblin.Suspiria has become a cult classic, and is recognised as an influential film in the horror genre. It served as the inspiration for a 2018 film of the same title, directed by Luca Guadagnino. (wiki)

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imdb

772 – Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

timespace coordinates: 1900. girls’ private school, near the town of Woodend, Victoria, Australia

“What we see and what we seem are but a dream, a dream within a dream.”

Picnic at Hanging Rock is a 1975 Australian mystery drama film which was produced by Hal and Jim McElroy, directed by Peter Weir, and starred Vivean Gray, Dominic Guard, Anne-Louise Lambert, Helen Morse, and Rachel Roberts. It was adapted by Cliff Green from the 1967 novel of the same name by Joan Lindsay, who was deliberately ambiguous about whether the events really took place, although the story is in fact entirely fictitious.

The plot involves the disappearance of several schoolgirls and their teacher during a picnic at Hanging Rock, Victoria on Valentine’s Day in 1900, and the subsequent effect on the local community.

imdb

read: 770

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Marion stares down at the Picnic Ground and says, “Whatever can those people be doing down there, like a lot of ants? A surprising number of human beings are without purpose though it is probable they are performing some function unknown to themselves.”

568 – Kongen av Bastøy / King of Devil’s Island (2010)

spacetime coordinates:  Bastøy prison for youths, Norway 1915King of Devil’s Island (French: Les Révoltés de l’île du Diable), (Norwegian: Kongen av Bastøy) is a 2010 French-Norwegian film directed by Marius Holst. The story is based on true events that occurred at Bastøy Prison in Norway.Although it is set in winter, the film is a fictionalized retelling of a rebellion among the youth at the Bastøy Reform School in May 1915. The reformatory was located on Bastøy Island in the Oslo fjord south of Horten municipality in the county of Vestfold in Norway. The Norwegian government purchased the island in 1898 for 95,000 kroner, and the reformatory opened in 1900.

See Bastøy Prison for the real events which the film fictionalizes.

imdb

531 – The Awakening (2011)

spacetime coordinates: boys’ boarding school in Cumbria 1921

“Maud Hill: There’s no place on earth people understand loneliness better than here.”

The Awakening is a 2011 British  supernatural thriller/ horror film directed and co-written by Nick Murphy, starring Rebecca Hall, Dominic West, Isaac Hempstead-Wright and Imelda Staunton.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1687901/

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Down a Dark Hall (2018)

spacetime coordinates: 2010’s  exclusive Blackwood Boarding School

imdb   /   rottentomatoes