758 – Wake in Fright (1971)

timespace coordinates: 1970’s mining town of Bundanyabba – known by the locals as “The Yabba” – outback Australia

Wake in Fright (initially released as Outback outside Australia) is a 1971 psychological thriller film directed by Ted Kotcheff, written by Evan Jones and starring Gary Bond, Donald Pleasence, Chips Rafferty, Sylvia Kay and Jack Thompson. Based on Kenneth Cook‘s 1961 novel of the same name, the film follows a young schoolteacher from Sydney who descends into personal moral degradation after finding himself stranded in a brutal, menacing town in outback Australia.

Filmed on location in Broken Hill and Sydney, Wake in Fright was an Australian-American co-production between NLT Productions and Westinghouse Broadcasting. Alongside Walkabout, it was one of two Australian films to be nominated for the Grand Prix du Festival at the 24th Cannes Film Festival. Despite attracting positive reviews, the film was a commercial failure in Australia, in part due to minimal promotion by United Artists, as well as audiences being uncomfortable with its portrayal of outback life, including a controversial hunting scene involving real kangaroos being shot.

By the 1990s, Wake in Fright had developed a cult reputation as Australia’s great “lost film” because its master negative had gone missing, resulting in censored prints of degraded quality being used for its few television broadcasts and VHS releases. After the original film and sound elements were rescued by editor Anthony Buckley in 2004, the film was digitally remastered and given a 2009 re-release at Cannes and in Australian theatres to widespread acclaim; it was issued commercially on DVD and Blu-ray later that year. Praised by critics for its direction and performances, Wake in Fright is now considered a pivotal film of the Australian New Wave and has earned a rare 100% approval rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes.

A televised miniseries remake of Wake in Fright premiered in 2017. (wiki)

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754 – The House of Tomorrow (2017)

The House of Tomorrow is a 2017 American independent drama film written and directed by Peter Livolsi and starring Asa Butterfield and Alex Wolff. The film is based on Peter Bognanni’s 2010 novel of the same name. It is Livolsi’s directorial debut. Co-stars Ellen Burstyn and Nick Offerman served as executive producers of the film.

16-year-old Sebastian Prendergast has spent most of his life with his Nana in their geodesic dome home tourist attraction where she raises him on the futurist teachings of her former mentor Buckminster Fuller in hopes that one day Sebastian will carry Fuller’s torch and make the world a better place. But when a stroke sidelines Nana, Sebastian begins sneaking around with Jared, a chain-smoking, punk-obsessed 16-year-old with a heart transplant who lives in the suburbs with his bible-thumping single father Alan and teenage sister Meredith. Sebastian and Jared form a band, and with his Nana’s dreams, his first real friendship, and a church talent show at stake, Sebastian must decide if he wants to become the next Buckminster Fuller, the next Sid Vicious, or something else entirely. (rottentomatoes)

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0753 – Death Wish (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2016 Chicago

Death Wish is a 2018 American vigilante action thriller film directed by Eli Roth and written by Joe Carnahan. It is the sixth installment of the Death Wish series and a remake of the 1974 film of the same name starring Charles Bronson, based on Brian Garfield‘s 1972 novel. The film stars Bruce Willis as Paul Kersey, a Chicago doctor who sets out to get revenge on the men who attacked his family. Vincent D’Onofrio, Elisabeth Shue, Dean Norris, and Kimberly Elise also star.

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750 – Rudolf Steiner and the Science of Spiritual Realities (1991 documentary)

Dr. Rudolf Steiner‘s fundamental gift to mankind was the creation of the science of spirit known as anthroposophy, from the Greek “anthropos,” or man, and “sophia,” or wisdom.

This one hour television documentary takes us on a fascinating journey into the realms just beyond our five senses. Rudolf Steiner not only found how to experience these areas directly, in a very safe and methodical manner, but he also developed specific techniques which, if utilized in the right way and with the proper intention, enable the individual to have insight into the spiritual realities.

In addition to learning of this extraordinary individuality, we meet some of the men and women who are utilizing the impulses brought by Dr. Steiner to expand and enhance their specific vocations in very practical ways, e.g. education, agriculture, medicine, mathematics, architecture, the arts, +working with retarded children and adults.

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749 – Lucy (2014)

timespace coordinates: 2014 Taipei, Taiwan / Paris

Lucy is a 2014 English-language French Science-fantasy / Biopunk / Postcyberpunk action-thriller film written and directed by Luc Besson and produced by his wife Virginie Besson-Silla for his company EuropaCorp. The film was shot in Taipei, Paris, and New York City. It stars Scarlett Johansson, Morgan Freeman, Choi Min-sik, and Amr Waked. Johansson portrays the title character, a woman who gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream.Luc Besson once called this film as “one part Léon (1994), one part Inception (2010) and one part 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)”. Many shots in the film were mirrored after these three films.

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The 10 percent of the brain myth is a widely perpetuated urban legend that most or all humans only use 10 percent (or some other small percentage) of their brains. It has been misattributed to many people, including Albert Einstein. By extrapolation, it is suggested that a person may harness this unused potential and increase intelligence. (read more)

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imdb   Lucy    mental time travel

0746 – The Island (2005)

timespace coordinates: 2019 Arizona > Los Angeles

The Island is a 2005 American science fiction thriller film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay. It stars Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Michael Clarke Duncan and Steve Buscemi.

In the story, Lincoln Six Echo (McGregor) struggles to fit into the highly structured world he lives in, isolated in a compound, and the series of events that unfold when he questions how truthful that world is. After Lincoln learns the compound inhabitants are clones used for organ harvesting as well as surrogates for wealthy people in the outside world, he attempts to escape with Jordan Two Delta (Johansson) and expose the illegal cloning movement.

The Island has been described as a pastiche of “escape-from-dystopia” science fiction films of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Fahrenheit 451, THX 1138, Parts: The Clonus Horror, and Logan’s Run. (wiki)

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744 – Scarred Hearts / Inimi cicatrizate (2016)

timespace coordinates: 1937  Tekirghiol  Romania

“Scarred Hearts” is inspired by Romanian author Max Blecher‘s novel, which is set in 1937. It centers on Emanuel, a man in his early 20s, who spends his days at a sanatorium on the Black Sea coast, suffering from bone tuberculosis. Falling in love with another patient, he narrates his and his fellow patients’ attempts to live life to the full as their bodies slowly wither but their minds refuse to give in. Blecher wrote the text, hailed as a masterpiece on publication in Romania in 1939, as autobiographical notes before he died, after 10 years of suffering, at the age of 29.

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