Post by klep on Apr 8, 2019 6:59:12 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/8: Forbidden Planet
SCIENCE FICTION WEEK!
We tend to think that we're spoiled these days. The maturation of computer generated imagery makes it easy for filmmakers and effects artists to create spectacular worlds, unbelievable vistas, and mind-blowing special effects. But the truth is we never really needed computers for that. For as long as there have been movies, filmmakers with the vision, talent, and dedication have been creating magnificent effects and worlds that stun the eye.
Forbidden Planet is a great example of the spectacle that could be created long before a visual effects artist ever sat before a computer. It marks itself immediately as classic Atomic Age science fiction with its distinctive opening credits sequence, and its downright archetypal of that pulp science fiction that comes to mind when we think of the decade when it was made. Flying saucers, ray guns, clumsy robots, unknowable alien machinery, and more make up a world so fully representative it's hard to know whether it was a product or genesis of an entire aesthetic.
Beautiful matte work and exquisite composite shots paint the film's Altair IV, and hand animation create the colorful weapons, cascading electricity, and other particle effects that today would be done in a computer. They might look more "realistic" in a modern film, but there's something about the colorful aesthetic and artisinal care at the heart of Forbidden Planet's effects that give the film such incredible character.
The film's story draws many allusions to Shakespeare's The Tempest, featuring one Doctor Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), his naive and isolated daughter Altaira (Anne Francis), and his "magical" servant Robby the Robot (voiced by Marvin Miller and piloted by Frankie Darro) are happened upon by Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and his crew. But rather than Prospero's quest to regain his noble standing, Morbius wishes to be let alone to his study of the miraculous alien devices and library hidden beneath the planet's surface.
Morbius' fatal flaw was his hubris. He believed that the accident which expanded his mind left him uniquely capable to adjudicate the use of the knowledge of the Krell. But he never understood the technology he was dealing with or what it had done to him, and the consequences are tragic. It's a classic technophobic moral for Western science fiction, but in the context of the film's effects it's worth pondering - like all technology CGI needs to be used responsibly, and sometimes perhaps it's better to use a more personal touch.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/15: It Happened One Night
1930s WEEK!
Next week we're tackling one of the classic road movies in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. This Best Picture winner is available for rent in the usual places like Amazon Video and Vudu, and if we're lucky than it'll also be on the Criterion Channel streaming service which opens today!
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 4/9: Us
Jordan Peele's latest concludes a podcast pairing about doubles. Join us Wednesday for a thread about this film from the new master of horror. Us is still in theaters.
SCIENCE FICTION WEEK!
We tend to think that we're spoiled these days. The maturation of computer generated imagery makes it easy for filmmakers and effects artists to create spectacular worlds, unbelievable vistas, and mind-blowing special effects. But the truth is we never really needed computers for that. For as long as there have been movies, filmmakers with the vision, talent, and dedication have been creating magnificent effects and worlds that stun the eye.
Forbidden Planet is a great example of the spectacle that could be created long before a visual effects artist ever sat before a computer. It marks itself immediately as classic Atomic Age science fiction with its distinctive opening credits sequence, and its downright archetypal of that pulp science fiction that comes to mind when we think of the decade when it was made. Flying saucers, ray guns, clumsy robots, unknowable alien machinery, and more make up a world so fully representative it's hard to know whether it was a product or genesis of an entire aesthetic.
Beautiful matte work and exquisite composite shots paint the film's Altair IV, and hand animation create the colorful weapons, cascading electricity, and other particle effects that today would be done in a computer. They might look more "realistic" in a modern film, but there's something about the colorful aesthetic and artisinal care at the heart of Forbidden Planet's effects that give the film such incredible character.
The film's story draws many allusions to Shakespeare's The Tempest, featuring one Doctor Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), his naive and isolated daughter Altaira (Anne Francis), and his "magical" servant Robby the Robot (voiced by Marvin Miller and piloted by Frankie Darro) are happened upon by Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and his crew. But rather than Prospero's quest to regain his noble standing, Morbius wishes to be let alone to his study of the miraculous alien devices and library hidden beneath the planet's surface.
Morbius' fatal flaw was his hubris. He believed that the accident which expanded his mind left him uniquely capable to adjudicate the use of the knowledge of the Krell. But he never understood the technology he was dealing with or what it had done to him, and the consequences are tragic. It's a classic technophobic moral for Western science fiction, but in the context of the film's effects it's worth pondering - like all technology CGI needs to be used responsibly, and sometimes perhaps it's better to use a more personal touch.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 4/15: It Happened One Night
1930s WEEK!
Next week we're tackling one of the classic road movies in Frank Capra's It Happened One Night starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. This Best Picture winner is available for rent in the usual places like Amazon Video and Vudu, and if we're lucky than it'll also be on the Criterion Channel streaming service which opens today!
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 4/9: Us
Jordan Peele's latest concludes a podcast pairing about doubles. Join us Wednesday for a thread about this film from the new master of horror. Us is still in theaters.