What are you watching?

[Faust]

Yes, forgot about Inception. I suppose I don't view it as a traditional sic-fi film, for it certainly is! Again, I think it will take an auteur like Nolan to get something like this out. I am afraid Ridley Scott is past his prime. He still's got the eye but there is some filter missing somewhere in his storytelling ability.

$100 mil or not, it can be done. Look at the success of LOTR. This film has something transcendental about it - it goes beyond the genre to appeal to a very wide audience. Same with Star Wars, the Matrix, The Blade Runner, Aliens. And I think that something is that those films treat philosophical questions seriously and not on the level of children's comic books. Ironically, these days Pixar takes their audience more seriously than most science fiction movies do.

[Arkady]

True, though those are also 80 year old books that serve as the models for a lot of other narratives / are very archetypal structures so they're about as 'predictable' as it gets. LOTR is the second top selling (non-religious) book of all time after A Tale of Two Cities so I wonder how much of that transcendence is priming. The Passion did pretty well too, and at a much higher margin to boot.

It's hard not to find something transcendentally appealing about a basic heroes journey, which is why Inception and the Matrix became massive hits as well -- proper Campbell / Vogler structure. Both also pull a lot of influences from very well known mythos, contemporary and classical. Inception from Paradise Lost, 2001, Bond films, Ridley's work, and the Matrix itself, and the Matrix from Ghost in the Shell, Neuromancer and of course Plato's allegory of the cave and many tenets of Buddhism. More deeply for both, creation myths from cultures around the world that revolve around archetypal gods dreaming the world into being.

So in a sense it seems what you and I are hungering for is a return to un-originality in the purist sense. Or ultimate origin-ality, however you want to look at it. There must be a mythic core surrounded by well-engineered theft and relentless delusion for a film to be truly successful / lend the feeling of exploring new territory while still feeling familiar.

For what it's worth I've been revisiting a lot of the Clarke / Asimov / Bradbury register of work and god is a lot of that shit pedantic and terminally dull. Gems like 2001 and Fahrenheit to be sure, but most of it reads like excruciating diatribes on the ethics of vacuum cleaners -- particularly in the case of the former two.

There is just so much work left to tap from Sci-Fi writers like Bester, Zelazny, Leguin, Strugatsky and even Dick (whose genius somehow still hasn't been done to death) that was considered unfilmable due to its originality until now. Or, god forbid someone risks something entirely new.

[nathaliew817]

Not a recent movie but recently surfaced:
Welt am draht from Fassbinder.

I think they rediscovered copies or something in 2010.
It's the movie the Matrix was based on. But yes, also based on a 70s book.

I did like Ex Machina's art direction. Okay, the story was quite predictive.
However, I feel like 'big surprises' and 'difficult' movies aren't produced, not only due to a lack of talent, but perhaps also to offer something pre chewed entertainment to the masses.

I do not know how the film industry works, but I can tell you that the final ad commercial I sen into the world is watered down a million times to please the client. And in film, we're the client.

Also, I disagree with Faust, maybe there hasn't been a good film. Inception was okay...But I do feel the 2004 series of Battlestar Galactica were/are worth watching.

These touched a wide range of problems, psychological as well as delivering social commentary. Especially with terrorist attacks on the rise, I think it's very current to watch again. But technically, not a "film".

@Faust: don't worry, everyone in Brussels is working from home and we have cat pictures to defeat the terrorists

Gotta love our surrealism

[Arkady]

70s book thing with the Matrix is a hoax, if you're referring to the lawsuit. If anything it's a re-articulation of John Carpenter's They Live but I think the influences are too many to say it's directly based on any one thing.

I would take care to separate television in this case -- we're really in some sort of golden age or renaissance of television as the distribution deals have made financing more interesting projects possible and even attainable. Agreed that BSG is quite a wonderful piece of television for the most part (I think there's a season and a half that lost me), especially the religious mysticism and the Dead Can Dance-like soundtrack.

Plenty of difficult movies are produced but not on the level of international theater, the trouble is there are far fewer movies being made by studios with huge resources per year. It's much easier to concentrate efforts on 5 marquee releases a year rather than 15 midsize ones. For what it's worth I'd say we're in the most difficult age as far as producing large pieces goes but easiest as far as producing midsize and art house features goes. Not only has the technology advanced to the point that one can shoot what would be considered a big budget film 15, 20 years ago for substantially less, but the streaming deal structures often ensure that everyone's broken even by the time they get up from the table. If you're someone with a Herzog-esque mentality wherein your drive is to create films by any means necessary and success be damned, you are living in the easiest time Earth has known for your personality.

Though really, what's a big budget film from any other era we'd consider "difficult"?

[Faust]

True, though those are also 80 year old books that serve as the models for a lot of other narratives / are very archetypal structures so they're about as 'predictable' as it gets. LOTR is the second top selling (non-religious) book of all time after A Tale of Two Cities so I wonder how much of that transcendence is priming. The Passion did pretty well too, and at a much higher margin to boot.

A) It's hard not to find something transcendentally appealing about a basic heroes journey, which is why Inception and the Matrix became massive hits as well -- proper Campbell / Vogler structure. Both also pull a lot of influences from very well known mythos, contemporary and classical. Inception from Paradise Lost, 2001, Bond films, Ridley's work, and the Matrix itself, and the Matrix from Ghost in the Shell, Neuromancer and of course Plato's allegory of the cave and many tenets of Buddhism. More deeply for both, creation myths from cultures around the world that revolve around archetypal gods dreaming the world into being.

So in a sense it seems what you and I are hungering for is a return to un-originality in the purist sense. Or ultimate origin-ality, however you want to look at it. There must be a mythic core surrounded by well-engineered theft and relentless delusion for a film to be truly successful / lend the feeling of exploring new territory while still feeling familiar.

B) For what it's worth I've been revisiting a lot of the Clarke / Asimov / Bradbury register of work and god is a lot of that shit pedantic and terminally dull. Gems like 2001 and Fahrenheit to be sure, but most of it reads like excruciating diatribes on the ethics of vacuum cleaners -- particularly in the case of the former two.

There is just so much work left to tap from Sci-Fi writers like Bester, Zelazny, Leguin, Strugatsky and even Dick (whose genius somehow still hasn't been done to death) that was considered unfilmable due to its originality until now. Or, god forbid someone risks something entirely new.

A) Yes, but Antman is also a Campbellian hero journey, only it's for intellectually/spiritually/morally retarded men-children that America has been producing in record numbers.

B) Probably, but it's fine by me, as I consider sci-fi tween/teen period reading, which serves as a gateway to serious literature. Good sci-fi still tackles moral problems, only with laser guns, which is much more fun.

[Arkady]

Ant-man is about as emotionally rousing to me as a bunch of gnomes running around in a field, so to each his own on that one. Man in ant costume, wizards in magical underwear -- if we're talking about being un-retarded adults I don't think preference between the two signals your place on either side of the rubicon.

Same goes for science fiction vs so-called serious literature -- a story having a futurist bent has little to do with its literary merit.

[Law]

Last night in NY, so going to see a Broadway play, The Book of Mormon.
Only decent one could get tickets to. Decent?

[Arkady]

By all accounts, fucking transcendent.

[Ahimsa]

Last night in NY, so going to see a Broadway play, The Book of Mormon.
Only decent one could get tickets to. Decent?

Quite hilarious production. As someone who can't stand musicals, I've only enjoyed that one and Spamalot.

[Law]

Quite hilarious production. As someone who can't stand musicals, I've only enjoyed that one and Spamalot.

Thanks guys, good to know. Was a bit gutted though to miss Pacino in China Doll which starts on the 27th

[deadboy]

There is just so much work left to tap from Sci-Fi writers like Bester, Zelazny, Leguin, Strugatsky and even Dick (whose genius somehow still hasn't been done to death) that was considered unfilmable due to its originality until now. Or, god forbid someone risks something entirely new.

Sort of speaking of which, has anyone seen The Man in the High Castle? Worth watching?

[t3hg0suazn]

The pilot was really good and the premise is quite original, but I've heard the rest is still good but not as amazing as it could have been given such a unique setting. I'm saving it for my next TV drought.

[Faust]

Sort of speaking of which, has anyone seen The Man in the High Castle? Worth watching?

I have no idea, but this was, hmmm...

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-34919692

[Resonkuken]

I started watching "Master of none" on Netflix. Really enjoying it. It´d been a while since I watched a comedy that felt as refreshing as this one. Anzari nails it and the rest of the cast is very good as well.
It has a few bits that are overly quirky and twee but they´re not too recurrent.

[ayra]

Currently watching Prison break season 3.