0631 – Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse (2016)

From the exhibition walls to the wonder and beauty of artists’ gardens like Giverny and Seebüll, the film takes a magical and widely travelled journey to discover how different contemporaries of Monet built and cultivated modern gardens to explore expressive motifs, abstract colour, decorative design and utopian ideas. Guided by passionate curators, artists and garden enthusiasts, this remarkable collection of Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, and avant-garde artists of the early twentieth century will reveal the rise of the modern garden in popular culture and the public’s enduring fascination with gardens today. Long considered spaces for expressing colour, light and atmosphere, the garden has occupied the creative minds of some of the worlds greatest artists. As Monet said, ‘Apart from painting and gardening, I’m no good at anything’. (exhibitiononscreen)

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0619 – Patriots Day (2016)

spacetime coordinates: 2013 Boston Marathon bombing

Patriots Day is a 2016 American crime drama-thriller film about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing and the subsequent terrorist manhunt. Directed by Peter Berg and written by Berg, Matt Cook, and Joshua Zetumer, the film is based on the book Boston Strong by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge. It stars Mark Wahlberg, J. K. Simmons, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon, and Michelle Monaghan.

Academy Award-winning composers and Nine Inch Nails members Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross were hired to write the musical score for the film. (youtube)

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0614 – The Great Gatsby (2013)

spacetime coordinates: 1922 New York City

The Great Gatsby is a 2013 romance drama film based on F. Scott Fitzgerald‘s 1925 novel of the same name. The film was co-written and directed by Baz Luhrmann and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as the eponymous Jay Gatsby, with Tobey Maguire, Carey Mulligan, Joel Edgerton, Isla Fisher and Elizabeth Debicki.  The film follows the life and times of millionaire Jay Gatsby and his neighbor Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire), who recounts his encounter with Gatsby at the height of the Roaring Twenties in New York state.

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0594 – The LEGO Batman Movie (2017)

The Lego Batman Movie is a 2017 3D computer-animated superhero comedy film, produced by Warner Animation Group. It was directed by Chris McKay,  Based on the Lego Batman toy line, the film is an international co-production of the United States, Australia, and Denmark, and the first spin-off installment of The Lego Movie franchise. The story focuses on the DC Comics character Batman as he attempts to overcome his greatest fear & stop the Joker‘s latest plan, with Will Arnett reprising his role as Batman for the film, along with Zach Galifianakis, Michael Cera, Rosario Dawson, and Ralph Fiennes.

Batman and pop culture references   trivia

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0593 – Batman Ninja (2018)

spacetime coordinates: Gotham City > feudal Japan

Batman Ninja (ニンジャバットマン Ninja Battoman) is a 2018 Japanese animated period martial arts superhero film directed by Junpei Mizusaki and produced by Warner Bros. Takashi Okazaki, the creator of Afro Samurai, is the character designer for the film.

IGN awarded Batman Ninja a score of 9.7 out of 10, saying “DC tried something new by bringing in visionary Japanese animators to offer a refreshing take on one of the company’s most beloved characters, and the finished product not only built upon the great adaptations that have come before, but surpassed them.”

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0588 – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a 2005 British-American science fiction comedy film directed by Garth Jennings, based upon previous works in the media franchise of the same name, created by Douglas Adams. It stars Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, Mos Def, Zooey Deschanel and the voices of Stephen Fry and Alan Rickman. This is the ninth version of the “Hitchhiker’s Guide”. It has previously appeared as a radio series, two record albums, novels, a television series (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1981)), a computer game, a stage show, a comic book, a video game (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1984)) and a towel. (The game version is not, in fact, a video game, but was an Infocom “interactive fiction” {text only} game, plotted/scripted by Douglas Adams, programmed by Steve Meretzky, which has been available to play free on the BBC Radio 4 website since 2005.)

Flyer for the 1979 stage production at the ICA of The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

The producers have stated that this film is not a literal translation of the books (just as the books were not a literal translation of the original radio show), but all of the new ideas and characters came from Douglas Adams himself. The hired writer simply came aboard to improve structure and make the screenplay more coherent.

Easter Egg: The DVD includes an “Improbability Drive” item on every menu. Clicking this leads to a random point in one of the bonus features. Used several times leads to a strange cartoon, which is the same one Deep Thought watches.

The Hitchiker’s Guide is a parody of “The Encyclopedia Galactica” from Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation novels.

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