The Big Picture Magazine - Issue 3, Film
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
SEXUAL POLITICS
AND SOCIAL
ALIENATION:
DISCOVER
THE UNSEEN
BRITISH CINEMA
OF JANE ARDEN
AND JACK BOND.
contents
Issue Three. July/August
BELOW
OPEN ROAD ROOFTOP, MANHATTAN (PHOTO BY SARAH PALMER)
Welcome
The Big Picture
is a
magazine in love with
the movies. Each
issue we take you on
a visual tour through
the history of film
to reveal universal
themes, recurring
ideas, moments of
significant change and
ways in which film
influences a great deal
of our culture beyond
the screen. So whether
you’re a film buff or
relative big screen
novice, we hope you
find something in the
following pages to both
inspire and entertain.
Gabriel Solomons
AND
FOUND
24
Feature
Feature
Regulars
04 / Reel World
Celebration, Florid
a
06
06 / Spotlight
When Tomorow
Comes: Future
Visions in Movies
14 / Art & Film
Being There:
Pieter Dirkx
18 / One Sheet
Fritz Lang’s
Metrop
olis
Feature
30 / 1000 Words
The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari
34 / On Location
Tokyo, Japan
Feature
24 / Widescreen
Higher Ground
38 / Screengems
The Hoverboard
42 / Parting Shot
Safety Last!
DVD & Blu-ray 13 July
The Big Picture
ISSN 1759-0922 © 2009 intellect Ltd.
Published by Intellect Ltd. The Mill, Parnall Road. Bristol BS16 3JG / www.intellectbooks.com
Editorial o�ce
Tel. 0117 9589910 / E: info@thebigpicturemagazine.com
Publisher
Masoud Yazdani
Editor / Art Direction
Gabriel Solomons
Contributors
Gail Tolley,
Nicholas Page, Scott Jordan Harris, Jez Conolly, Joanna Beard, John Berra, Tony Nourmand, Jelena Stanovnik
Special thanks to
Gabriel Swartland at City Screen, Zoe Naylor
at the Independent Cinema O�ce and Caroline Haywood at The Picture Desk /
info@thebigpicturemagazine.com / www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
intellect
books & journals
Also screening at the BFI Southbank, 14 - 17 July and at The Cube Microplex, Bristol, 20 - 22 July
Available at
Published by
To fi nd out more visit
www.bfi.org.uk/ardenbond
july/august
2009
3
LOST
reel
world
L
ocated just
a few
As an experiment on new urbanism, the Walt Disney
inspired town of
Celebration, Florida
may not be
everyone’s first choice for a relocation. But if the clean,
wholesome lifestyle perpetuated by many of Disney’s
movies sounds appealing, it’s definitely worth a visit.
Joey Beard
takes a look at the town that Walt built.
➜
Park
miles south of the
Magic Kingdom in
Orlando, Florida
lies the town of
Celebration. This town,
like no other, was carefully
constructed by the Disney
Corporation and opened in
1996 – thirty years after the
death of Walt himself. The
project emerged in response to
Walt Disney’s ultimate dream
which he discussed avidly
in his dying years. This was
Epcot − the Experimental
Prototype City of Tomorrow.
Following Walt’s death, The
Walt Disney Company decided
that it did not want to be in
the business of running a
town and, although the model
community of Celebration,
Florida has been mentioned
as a realization of Disney’s
original vision, the town is
based on concepts of new
urbanism which is radically
different from Disney’s
modernist and futurist visions.
The original idea developed
from a yearning for a
sense of community and
neighbourhood friendliness
which (in Walt’s view) was
becoming increasingly hard
to find. Celebration has
attempted to recapture this
small town co-existence,
deliberately bringing its
inhabitants closer together
to encourage conversation
and interaction. The hospital
treats illness, but more
importantly, promotes
wellness. Very Disney.
Alongside this socially driven
‘incentive scheme’ is the
carefully laid out architecture
and horticulture, scripted as
if directly from a film with no
mistaking who the film is by.
The essential conceit though
is that Celebration proposes
residents buy into a past that
has only really existed in the
movies, evidence – if any were
needed – that nostalgia has
a wonderful way of making
you see the past through rose
tinted (or perhaps Mickey
Mouse shaped) glasses.
FIND
OUT
MORE
:
www.celebration.fl.us/
City
OPPOSITE
A NICE PLACE TO RAISE YOUR KIDS
/ BELOW
A TYPICALLY AMERICAN VIEW OF UTOPIA
4
www.
thebigpicturemagazine
.com
july/august
2009
5
spotlight
When
1936
2036
Scripted by H.G. Wells and based on his own novel,
Things to Come
examines the nature of progress
as it spans an entire apocalyptic century and three
generations, ending in 2036 with a rocket to the
moon. In its vast scope and visualizations of a war-
ravaged world saved by science and scientists, it’s
an epic on a Cecil B. DeMille bible movie scale. The
film accurately ‘predicts’ television, jet planes, and
evil dictators and – as a visionary work that aims
to honestly tackle the devastating consequences
of international warfare – is one of the few science
fiction films that’s
about
something.
Tomorrow
Things To Come (1936)
Dir. William C. Menzies
Comes
Future visions in movies are almost always a
product of their own time which have a habit of
ageing disgracefully. Occasionally though they open
up a window to a future that not only feels somehow
relevant but plausible too. Here we take a look at
some prime examples.
Words by Gabriel Solomons
CINEMATIC VISIONS OF THE FUTURE
➜
6
www.thebigpicturemagazine.com
july/august 2009
7
spotlight
Future
Blade Runner
remains the
benchmark
for our most
pessimistic (and
plausible) vision
of the future.
LEFT
THE NIGHT SKY IN BLADE RUNNER
1982
2019
Blade Runner (1982)
Dir. Ridley Scott
2004
2027
�e themes of
nationalism
and xenophobia
coarsing
through the
narrative
should act as a
warning...
Children of Men (2004)
Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Although 2019 is now not
such a distant future as that
imagined 27 years ago, Ridley
Scott’s influential sci-fi noir
remains the benchmark for
our most pessimistic (and
plausible) vision of the future.
Replicants and flying cars
aside,
Blade Runner
posits
a future global community
struggling with ecological and
social meltdown that today
doesn’t seem too far fetched.
As a commentary on our
incessant appetite for genetic
‘betterment’, movies don’t
come much better than this.
With films like
Children
of Men
, we’re faced with
yet more gruff cynicism
as our futuristic society
faces extinction when no
children are born and the
human race has lost the
ability to reproduce. There
is a redemptive, hopeful
end in sight (phew!), but
the themes of nationalism
and xenophobia coarsing
through the narrative act as
a warning and go some way
in highlighting a few very
current attitudes adopted by
today’s governments.
A bleak gangster tale in which
suave but ruthless Londoner
Jack Carter sets out to exact
revenge for his brother’s
suspected murder. Caine’s
smug, impassive face remains
emotionless throughout as he
punches, shoots and screws
his way through a complex
trail of lies, deceit, cover-
ups and backhanders among
Newcastle’s underworld.
A lean, efficient slice of 70s
cinema that set a precedent
for retribution films to come.
LEFT
CLIVE OWEN IN CHILDREN OF MEN
8
www.
thebigpicturemagazine
.com
july/august
2009
9
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]