0808 – Gravity (2013)

timespace coordinates: Earth orbit, mission STS-157 to service the Hubble Space Telescope in the not too distant past

Gravity is a 2013 science fiction thriller film directed, co-written, co-edited, and produced by Alfonso Cuarón. It stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as American astronauts who are stranded in space after the mid-orbit destruction of their space shuttle, and their subsequent attempt to return to Earth.

Visual effects company Framestore spent more than three years creating most of the film’s visual effects, which make up over 80 of its 91 minutes. (wiki)

Although Gravity is often referred to in the media as a science fiction film, Cuarón told BBC that he sees the film rather as “a drama of a woman in space”. According to him, the main theme of the film was “adversity” and he uses the debris as a metaphor for this. Despite being set in space, the film uses motifs from shipwreck and wilderness survival stories about psychological change and resilience in the aftermath of a catastrophe. (read more: Themes)

scientific accuracy

imdb

768 – The Office Quest (2018 video game)

The Office Quest is a ‘casual’ point & click adventure game for those who cannot stay in the office any longer, full of visual humor, puzzles, riddles.

steam   /    theofficequest.com

0761 – Jurassic World

timespace coordinates: 2010’s Isla Nublar, off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica / Northern California

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Jurassic World (2015)

Jurassic World is a 2015 American science fiction adventure film, the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park film series, and the first film in a planned Jurassic World trilogy.

Set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, Jurassic World takes place on the same fictional Central American island of Isla Nublar, which is located off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, where a theme park of cloned dinosaurs has operated for nearly a decade. The park plunges into chaos when a genetically-engineered dinosaur escapes from its enclosure and goes on a rampage.

Lego Jurassic World: The Indominus Escape (2016)   /   Lego Jurassic World: Employee Safety Video (2016)

Themes and analysis   /   Scientific accuracy   / imdb

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Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a 2018 American science fiction adventure film and the sequel to Jurassic World (2015). Directed by J. A. Bayona, it is the second installment of a planned Jurassic World trilogy. Derek Connolly and Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow both returned as writers, with Trevorrow and the original Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg as executive producers. (wiki)

imdb

756 – David Attenborough’s Light on Earth / Life That Glows (2016 documentary)

Life That Glows is a 2016 British nature documentary programme made for BBC Television, first shown in the UK on BBC Two on 9 May 2016. The programme is presented and narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Life That Glows films the biology and ecology of bioluminescent organisms, that is, capable of creating light. The programme features fireflies, who use light as a means of sexual attraction, luminous fungi, luminous marine bacteria responsible for the Milky seas effect, the flashlight fish, the aposematism of the Sierra luminous millipede, earthworms, the bioluminescent tides created by blooms of dinoflagellates in Tasmania, as well as dolphins swimming in the bloom in the Sea of Cortez, the defensive flashes of brittle stars and ostracods, sexual attraction in ostracods, prey attraction by luminous click beetles in Cerrado,Brazil and the Arachnocampa gnats in New Zealand.

The programme then introduces many luminous deep sea animals, including the vampire squid, the polychaete worm Tomopteris that generates yellow light, the jellyfish Atolla, the comb jelly Beroe, the viper fish, pyrosomes, a dragonfish, and the polychaete worm Flota. Then, the programme discusses specialised adaptations in the eyes of particular animals to see bioluminescence, such as the barreleye fish and the cock-eyed squid. Lastly, they feature the mass spawning event of the firefly squid in Japan. (wiki)

imdb   /   on YouTube

0740 – Mary Magdalene (2018)

timespace coordinates: Judea, 33 AD.

Mary Magdalene is a 2018 biblical drama film about the woman of the same name, written by Helen Edmundson and Philippa Goslett and directed by Garth Davis. It stars Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Tahar Rahim. It is the last film score completed by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson before his death.

Mary Magdalene, starring Rooney Mara as the titular character, sought to reverse the centuries-old portrayal of Mary Magdalene as a repentant prostitute, while also combating the conspiracy claims of her being Jesus’s wife or sexual partner. Instead, the film portrays her as Jesus’s closest disciple and the only one who truly understands his teachings. This portrayal is partially based on the Gnostic Gospel of Mary Magdalene. The film, which described as having a “strongly feminist bent”, was praised for its music score and cinematography, its surprising faithfulness to the Biblical narrative, and its acting, but was criticized as slow-moving, overwritten, and too solemn to be believable. 

imdb   /    liberation theology

729

Too hot inside Too hot outside Lazy days when I said let’s go for a ride

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CocoRosie / insta / twitt /

freak folk / New Weird America

0725 – Låt den rätte komma in / Let the Right One In (2008)

timespace coordinates:  western Stockholm suburb of Blackeberg in 1981

Let the Right One In (Swedish: Låt den rätte komma in) is a 2008 Swedish romantic horror film directed by Tomas Alfredson, based on the 2004 novel of the same title by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay.

The film tells the story of a bullied 12-year-old boy who develops a friendship with a vampire child in Blackeberg, a suburb of Stockholm, in the early 1980s. Alfredson, unconcerned with the horror and vampire conventions, decided to tone down many elements of the novel and focus primarily on the relationship between the two main characters. Selecting the lead actors involved a year-long process with open castings held all over Sweden. In the end, the 11-year-olds Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson were chosen for the leading roles. They were subsequently commended by both Alfredson and film reviewers for their performances.

(Spoilers) The novel presents Eli as an androgynous boy, castrated centuries before by a sadistic vampire nobleman. The film handles the issue of Eli’s gender more ambiguously: a brief scene in which Eli changes into a dress offers a glimpse of a suggestive scar but no explicit elaboration.  When Oskar asks Eli to become his girlfriend, Eli tries to tell Oskar “I’m not a girl”. An actress plays Eli’s character, but her voice was considered to be too high pitched, so it was dubbed by voice actress Elif Ceylan. According to an interview with the director, as the film was originally conceived, flashbacks explained this aspect in more detail, but these scenes were eventually cut. (wiki)

imdb

Let Me In (2010 american version)

timespace coordinates: Los Alamos, New Mexico, 1983

imdb