series

706 – Sacred Games (TV Series 2018– )

timespace coordinates: 70’s – 80’s – 90’s – 2010’s Mumbai

netflix-sacred-games-poster_1525417102640

Sacred Games is an Indian web television series by Netflix based on Vikram Chandra‘s 2006 thriller novel of the same name. The series was produced in partnership with Phantom Films. The novel was adapted by Varun Grover, Smita Singh and Vasant Nath, and all eight, hour-long episodes were directed by Anurag Kashyap and Vikramaditya Motwane. All eight episodes were made available for streaming on 6 July 2018.

Sacred-Games

Sacred Games tells the story of Sartaj Singh (Saif Ali Khan), a jaded police inspector living under the shadow of his deceased father and seeking validation from a police force he nevertheless loathes for its corruption. When Singh receives an anonymous tip-off regarding the whereabouts of Ganesh Gaitonde (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a notorious crime lord who has been missing for 16 years, it initiates a chain of events that burrows deep into India’s dark underworld.

Screenshot_20190730-100041_cropped

जन्नत तोह मैं हो


The episode titles are inspired by Hindu mythology. The first episode titled “Aswatthama”, was based on the namesake character from the Sanskrit epic Mahabharata. He was cursed with immortality by Krishna after the Kurukshetra war. In the series, Gaitonde calls himself immortal like Ashwatthama, but later commits suicide. “Halahala”, another episode, was named after a poison of the same name, which was retrieved from Samudra manthan. Aatapi and Vatapi were two demons who used to trick travellers with hospitality and kill them. Brahmahatya means killing of a Brahmin, which is a crime in Hinduism. In the episode, the Hindu Gaitonde agrees to try to attract Muslim votes for Hindu politician Bhosale. Sarama is referred to as a dog. Pretakalpa learns the rites of a Hindu to perform the cremations. In this episode, Katekar is killed and Sartaj cremates him. Rudra is the angered version of Shiva. Gaitonde’s wife Subhadra is killed in this episode; he takes revenge by murdering her killers. Yayati was king cursed with premature old age.

imdb

movies

683 – Hanna (2011)

timespace coordinates: 2011 Finland > Morocco > Spain > Germany

hanna-movie-poster

Hanna is a 2011 action adventure thriller film that contains some prominent fairy tale elements, directed by Joe Wright. The film stars Saoirse Ronan as the title character, a girl raised in the wilderness of northern Finland by her father, an ex-CIA operative (Eric Bana), who trains her as an assassin. Cate Blanchett is a senior CIA agent who tries to track down and eliminate the girl and her father. The soundtrack was written by The Chemical Brothers.

f2f6538d5d04c78f5639e6e3ee149557

themes and motifs


imdb

animation, Uncategorized

681 – Isle of Dogs (2018)

timespace coordinates: 2038 Japan

Isle of Dogs (Japanese: 犬ヶ島 Hepburn: Inugashima) is a 2018 stop-motion animated film written, produced and directed by Wes Anderson. Set in a dystopian near-future Japan, the story follows a young boy searching for his dog after the species is banished to an island following the outbreak of a canine flu. The film’s ensemble voice cast includes Bryan CranstonEdward NortonBill MurrayJeff GoldblumBob BalabanGreta GerwigFrances McDormandCourtney B. VanceFisher StevensHarvey KeitelLiev SchreiberScarlett JohanssonTilda SwintonF. Murray AbrahamFrank WoodKunichi Nomura and Yoko Ono.

Anderson said that the film was strongly influenced by the films of Akira Kurosawa, as well as the stop-motion animated holiday specials made by Rankin/Bass Productions. (wiki)

https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/23-29-april-2018/erica-dorn-on-creating-graphics-for-wes-andersons-isle-of-dogs/

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5104604/

movies

676 – Zama (2017)

timespace coordinates: 18th century in a remote South American colony

Zama is a 2017 Argentine period drama film starring Daniel Giménez Cacho, Lola Dueñas, and Matheus Nachtergaele & directed by Lucrecia Martel. It is based on the 1956 novel of the same name by Antonio di Benedetto, on Don Diego de Zama, a Spanish officer of the 18th century settled in Asunción, Paraguay, who awaits his transfer to Buenos Aires.

imdb

animation, games, movies

668 – Ready Player One (2018)

spacetime coordinates: 2045 Columbus, Ohio

82c54d64460309.5ad378d8a4859

imdb

cultural references

Ready-Player-One-2018-movie-poster

The film was noted to have significant differences from the book, with some critics calling the film’s plot an improvement over the source material. 🙂

ready-player-one-game-poster

music, Uncategorized

666


People of Color in European Art History



ZEF – This Is France   THIS IS BRAZIL

movies, Uncategorized

651 – Manifesto (2015)

Manifesto is a 2015 Australian-German multi-screen film installation written, produced and directed by Julian Rosefeldt. It features Cate Blanchett in 13 different roles performing various manifestos. A 90-minute feature version premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2017.

028

The film integrates various types of artist manifestos from different time periods with contemporary scenarios.

imdb


Manifestos: 
Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party (1848)
Philippe Soupault, Literature and the Rest (1920)

Situationism
Lucio Fontana, White Manifesto (1946)
John Reed Club of New York, Draft Manifesto (1932)
Constant Nieuwenhuys, Manifesto (1948)
Alexander Rodchenko, Manifesto of Suprematists and Non-Objective Painters (1919)
Guy Debord, Situationist Manifesto (1960)

Futurism
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism (1909)
Giacomo Balla / Umberto Boccioni / Carlo Carrà / Luigi Russolo / Gino Severini, Manifesto of the Futurist Painters (1910)
Guillaume Apollinaire, The Futurist Antitradition (1913)
Dziga Vertov, WE: Variant of a Manifesto (1922)

Architecture
Bruno Taut, Down with Seriousism! (1920)
Bruno Taut, Daybreak (1921)
Antonio Sant’Elia, Manifesto of Futurist Architecture (1914)
Coop Himmelb(l)au, Architecture Must Blaze (1980)
Robert Venturi, Non-Straightforward Architecture: A Gentle Manifesto (1966)

Vorticism / Blue Rider / Abstract Expressionism
Wassily Kandinsky / Franz Marc, “Preface to the Blue Rider Almanac” (1912)
Barnett Newman, The Sublime is Now (1948)
Wyndham Lewis, Manifesto (1914)

Stridentism / Creationism
Manuel Maples Arce, A Strident Prescription (1921)
Vicente Huidobro, We Must Create (1922)
Naum Gabo / Antoine Pevsner, The Realist Manifesto (1920)

Suprematism / Constructivism
Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Manifesto (1916)
Olga Rozanova, Cubism, Futurism, Suprematism (1917)

Dadaism
Tristan Tzara, Dada Manifesto 1918 (1918)
Tristan Tzara, Manifesto of Monsieur Aa the Antiphilosopher (1920)
Francis Picabia, Dada Cannibalistic Manifesto (1920)
Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, The Pleasures of Dada (1920)
Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, To the Public (1920)
Paul Éluard, Five Ways to Dada Shortage or two Words of Explanation (1920)
Louis Aragon, Dada Manifesto (1920)
Richard Huelsenbeck, First German Dada Manifesto (1918)

Surrealism / Spatialism
André Breton, Manifesto of Surrealism (1924)

Pop Art
Claes Oldenburg, I am for an Art… (1961)

FluxusMerz 
Yvonne Rainer, No Manifesto (1965)
Emmett Williams, Philip Corner, John Cage, Dick Higgins, Allen Bukoff, Larry Miller, Eric Andersen, Tomas Schmit, Ben Vautier, George Maciunas, Fluxus Manifesto (1963)
Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Maintenance Art Manifesto (1969)
Kurt Schwitters, The Merz Stage (1919)

Conceptual Art / Minimalism
Sol LeWitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art (1967)
Sol LeWitt, Sentences on Conceptual Art (1969)
Sturtevant, Shifting Mental Structures (1999)
Sturtevant, Man is Double Man is Copy Man is Clone (2004)
Adrian Piper, Idea, Form, Context (1969)

Film
Stan Brakhage, Metaphors on Vision (1963)
Jim Jarmusch, Golden Rules of Filmmaking (2002)
Lars von Trier / Thomas Vinterberg, Dogme 95 (1995)
Werner Herzog, Minnesota Declaration (1999)
Lebbeus Woods, Manifesto (1993)