1162 – Abendland (2011)

timespace coordinates: Europe at night (2008 – 2010)

Abendland is a 2011 observational documentary film by Nikolaus Geyrhalter. The documentary, which has only scenes at night, explores European obsession with technology and security. Manohla Dargis of The New York Times called Abendland a “visually precise and politically amorphous” portrait of an imagined community: “The overall impression is a vision of Europe as a mosaic, as an artful amalgam of perfectly framed, seemingly disconnected moments during a long shared night, give or take a time zone change or two.” (wiki)

ABENDLAND Trailer

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imdb   /   review

1142 – Planet Terror (2007)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s rural Texas / Mexico

! extreme violence and gore !

Planet Terror is a 2007 American independent zombie film directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Rose McGowan, Freddy Rodriguez, Josh Brolin, Marley Shelton, Naveen Andrews, Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey, Stacy Ferguson, and Bruce Willis. It follows a group of people attempting to survive an onslaught of zombie-like creatures as they feud with a military unit. It was released theatrically in North America as part of a double feature with Quentin Tarantino‘s Death Proof under the title Grindhouse, to emulate the experience of viewing exploitation films in a “grindhouse” theater. In addition to directing the film, Rodriguez wrote the script, directed the cinematography, wrote the musical score, co-edited, and produced it. (wiki)

imdb

1134 – Mr. Nobody (2009)

timespace coordinates: 2092 > 1983, 1989, 2008, England / Canada

Mr. Nobody is a 2009 science fiction drama film written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael and starring Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Regbo and Juno Temple. The film tells the life story of Nemo Nobody, a 118-year-old man who is the last mortal on Earth after the human race has achieved quasi-immortality. Nemo, memory fading, refers to his three main loves and to his parents’ divorce and subsequent hardships endured at three critical junctions in his life: at age nine, fifteen, and thirty-four. Alternate life paths branching out from each of those critical junctions are examined. The speculative narrative often changes course with the flick of a different possible decision at each of those ages. The film uses nonlinear narrative and the multiverse hypothesis style.

The film was mostly funded through European financiers and was released in Belgium on 13 January 2010. Since its original release, Mr. Nobody has become a cult film, noted for its philosophy and cinematography, personal characters and Pierre Van Dormael‘s soundtrack. (wiki)

imdb

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themes   /   chaos theory, string theory, butterfly effect   /   Eternalism (philosophy of time)   /  Big Crunch

1132 – Upstream Color (2013)

“I love to be alone. / The sun is but a morning star. / The wildest sound ever
heard makes the woods ring far / and wide. / Faint tinkling sounds borne to my ear. / Their roots reaching quite under the house. / Fearing that they
would be light-headed. / For want of food and also sleep. / Prevailing blue mixed with yellow of the sand. / Sunshine is the color of the water. / I used to wonder at the halo /
of light around my shadow / And fancied myself one of the elect.”

Upstream Color is a 2013 American experimental science fiction film written, directed, produced, edited, composed, designed, cast by and starring Shane Carruth. The film is the second feature directed by Carruth, best known for his 2004 debut Primer. Upstream Color stars Amy Seimetz, Carruth, Andrew Sensenig, and Thiago Martins.

Upstream Color is about two people whose behaviors are affected by a complex parasite—without knowing it—that has a three-stage life cycle in which it passes from humans to pigs to orchids. (wiki)

themes   /   Walden   /   imdb

original soundtrack

1126 – Black Hawk Down (2001)

timespace coordinates: 1993  Mogadishu amid the civil war in Somalia

“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

Black Hawk Down is a 2001 war film produced and directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Ken Nolan. It is based on the 1999 non-fiction book of the same name by journalist Mark Bowden. As an embedded journalist, he covered the 1993 raid in Mogadishu by the U.S. military, aimed at capturing faction leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The ensuing firefight became known as the Battle of Mogadishu. The film features a large ensemble cast, including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, and Sam Shepard. (wiki)

imdb   /   controversies and inaccuracies

1120

The Professor and the Madman (2019)

timespace coordinates: England, 1871 – 1910

The Professor and the Madman is a 2019 Irish biographical drama film, directed by Farhad Safinia (under the pseudonym PB Shemran), from a screenplay by Safinia, and Todd Komarnicki, based on the 1998 book The Surgeon of Crowthorne by Simon Winchester. It stars Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Irvine, David O’Hara, Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane, and Steve Coogan. The film is about the famous professor, Sir James Murray, who in 1857 began compiling the Oxford English Dictionary and led the overseeing committee and W. C. Minor, a doctor who submitted over 10,000 entries while he was undergoing treatment at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. (wiki)

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Fatman (2020)

timespace coordinates: 2020’s US > Christmas present shop on a farm near the town of North Peak, Alaska.

Fatman is a 2020 American action film written and directed by Eshom & Ian Nelms and starring Mel Gibson, Walton Goggins and Marianne Jean-Baptiste. The plot follows an unorthodox Santa Claus who must fight off an assassin sent by a vengeful naughty kid. (wiki)

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1116 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

timespace coordinates: 1963 Oregon

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a 1975 American tragicomedy-drama film directed by Miloš Forman, based on the 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. The film stars Jack Nicholson as Randle McMurphy, a new patient at a mental institution, and features a supporting cast of Louise Fletcher, William Redfield, Will Sampson, Sydney Lassick, Brad Dourif, and Christopher Lloyd in his film debut. The producers decided to shoot the film in the Oregon State Hospital, an actual mental hospital, as this was also the setting of the novel. Considered by some to be one of the greatest films ever made, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is No. 33 on the American Film Institute‘s 100 Years… 100 Movies list. (wiki)

Jack Nicholson sitting on bench with Will Sampson in a scene from the film ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, 1975. (Photo by United Artists/Getty Images)

rottentomatoes critics consensus: The onscreen battle between Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher serves as a personal microcosm of the culture wars of the 1970s — and testament to the director’s vision that the film retains its power more than three decades later.

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