0986 – Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

 timespace coordinates: 1927 Paris / London / New York City

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is a 2018 fantasy film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling. A joint British and American production, it is the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). It is the second instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series, and the tenth overall in the Wizarding World franchise, which began with the Harry Potter film series.

The film features an ensemble cast that includes Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Dan Fogler, Alison Sudol, Ezra Miller, Zoë Kravitz, Callum Turner, Claudia Kim, William Nadylam, Kevin Guthrie, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp. The plot follows Newt Scamander and Albus Dumbledore as they attempt to take down the dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, while facing new threats in a more divided wizarding world.

Hogwarts exteriors, like some interiors, were shot in the historic Lacock Abbey, dating from 1229. This abbey, located in Wiltshire, England, had already been used for the same purpose for the first films of the Harry Potter saga .

As with the first film, animal making required months of graphic, pattern, and animation testing to determine the appearance, behavior, movements, attitude, and personality of each creature. J.K. Rowling was inspired, for many of them, by legendary creatures from different cultures, such as the Chinese Zouwu, the Scottish Kelpie and the French Matagot.

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The Art of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald

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The interior of the basement where Newt Scamander keeps his beasts is stylized according to the lithograph “Relativity” by Maurits Cornelis Escher.

0981 – Defiance (2008)

timespace coordinates: the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany

Defiance is a 2008 American war film directed by Edward Zwick set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany. The screenplay by Clayton Frohman and Zwick was based on Nechama Tec‘s 1993 book Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, an account of the Bielski partisans, a group led by Belarusian Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Belarus during the Second World War. The film stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski, Liev Schreiber as Zus Bielski, Jamie Bell as Asael Bielski, and George MacKay as Aron Bielski. (wiki)

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0980 – At Eternity’s Gate (2018)

timespace coordinates: 1888 – 1890 Arles – Saint-Rémy – Auvers-sur-Oise

At Eternity’s Gate is a 2018 biographical drama film about the final years of painter Vincent van Gogh‘s life. The film is directed by Julian Schnabel, from a screenplay by Schnabel, Louise Kugelberg and Jean-Claude Carrière. It stars Willem Dafoe as van Gogh, Rupert Friend, Oscar Isaac, Mads Mikkelsen, Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Seigner and Niels Arestrup. (wiki)

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0979 – The Isle (2019)

timespace coordinates: island off the west coast of Scotland in 1846 (Eilean Shona)

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0976 – The Hole in the Ground (2019)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s Irish backwood rural town

The Hole in the Ground is an 2019 horror thriller film directed by Lee Cronin, from a screenplay by Cronin and Stephen Shields. The film stars Seána Kerslake, James Cosmo, Kati Outinen, Simone Kirby, Steve Wall and James Quinn Markey. The story follows a young woman who begins to suspect that her son’s disturbing behaviour is linked to a mysterious sinkhole.

imdb   /  rottentomatoes

973 – Prospect (2018)

Prospect is a 2018 American science fiction film starring  Sophie Thatcher,  Jay Duplass, and Pedro Pascal. The film is written and directed by Christopher Caldwell and Zeek Earl. Based on the 15 minute short film of the same name.

Zeek Earl and Chris Caldwell: “PROSPECT originated from a desire to make the kind of sci-fi we wanted to see. We wanted to create a rich and detailed original universe and explore it from the perspective of relative nobodies on the fringe of civilization. It’s not a projection of earth’s near future or a new technological paradigm, nor does the fate of the universe hang in the balance. Rather, the focus is on the people no one cares about who struggle just to forge a palatable existence. People who push into the treacherous frontiers of space, driven by economic desperation to put their lives on the line for a shot at changing the status quo. This kind of expansive, fantastic world becomes the platform to tell a more intimate story, tethered to the experiences of one girl as we follow her strange, survival-induced coming of age. And we hope we’ve created a universe that feels deep and alive; a backdrop that feels incidental to the story, rather than purpose-built for it. Though the perspective is focused, we want the world to feel like it extends well beyond the edges of the film.” (PROSPECT Wiki)

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967 – 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

timespace coordinates: 1490s Spain,  the Bahamas

1492: Conquest of Paradise (in French, 1492 : Christophe Colomb) is a 1992 English-language French-Spanish epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Roselyne Bosch, which tells the fictionalized story of the travels to the New World by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (Gérard Depardieu) and the effect this had on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

historical accuracy   /   imdb