Reviews of Phantastic Films

A good film can be just as englightening and thrilling as a phantastic novel. Although many readers fear that the films might alter their own imagination and of the book, different interpretations of it can actually co-exist just like different variations on the same theme. Remakes are often judged negatively in comparison to the original, while they're still good films when viewed without prejudice. Solaris, Dune and Kingdom Hospitals are examples for this. Fantasy films often suffer this misjudgement, even when director and film team cooperate closely with the author like they did when producing Harry Potter.

Anime Fairy Tales: Mamoru Oshii and Hayao Miyazaki

3 remarkable Japanese cartoon films are celebrated by a croud of millions!
But that's in Japan, in Europe unfortunately it was more like a handful of die-hard enthusiasts in the special program cinemas.
Ghost in the Shell
Princess Mononoke
Chihiro's Dream

the latter two by Hayao Miyazaki.

Not far from his anima classic Ghost in the Shell, Mamoru Oshii's film Avalon (2000) also has some reminiscence to the Matrix, Delicatessen, 1984 and old Kieslowski movies. Most of the time only in black and orange brown. Shot in old Polish ruins and factories. In the beginning, the division between reality and cyberspace seems to be clear, but is it? Although the intro and some critics invoke a connection to the Matrix, but there is little. The story is totally different, and fortunately there is no need for an enemy figure here. In a dark future world, the youth wants to overcome their inner emptiness by taking part in illegal cyberspace war games. That has often been the case, either computer games or real wars for nations and religions. But in this story of Avalon you can get the disadvantages of game and reality at the same time, because everyone who dies in the game loses his mind and has to spend the rest of his life in an asylum. That can't be enough to explain the games's fascination, and so the beautiful cyber-warrior Ash (Malgorzata Foremniak) starts her quest for the mythical otherworld of Avalon.

Delicatessen und Geister - Jeunet, Trier, Tykwer:

Before his Dogma era, Lars von Trier produced a satyric grotesque: The Kingdom. The Story ist weak, but the atmosphere is facinating. Was shown on German TV late at night, better not miss it next time ... or get the DVD. Stephen King's American adaption (Kingdom Hospital) isn't bad either, but I prefer the original version.

The Warrior and the Empress (Der Krieger und die Kaiserin) is a strange love story in the German city of Wuppertal, a sometimes depressing place because of the narrow valley it was built into with a lot of steel and industry. A film by Tom Tykwer with Franka Potente.

Delicatessen - weird film, dark humour of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

Space, Hyperspace, Space Opera:

Science-Fiction in a classical way - that's space, spaceships, colourful lights and lasers and all of that, or otherwise Armaggeddon on earth. If you're new to science fiction you can pick the best ones: Solaris (the Russian fim based on Lem's novel); Total Recall und Minority Report (Read Philip K. Dick's short storiesd and get even more inspiration about it.); 2001: A Space Odyssey; Dune (Like in most cases the book is better, but the film is still worth to be seen.); Alien 1 (it couldn't get better after part one); Soylent Green (about a technocratic society); Andromeda ; The Body Snatchers (in various versions, the one from the seventies featuring Leonard Nimoy really shocked me when I was a kid. Thrilling, but a poor story which seems to be inspired by the early Philip K Dick). Less embarrassing and a timeless classic for kids of every age: E.T., the little alien featured in one of Steven Spielberg's and Drew Barrymore's best movies yet.

Matrix, Illuminati and Stephen King: beyond the perfectly normal world:

Carrie (Back to the present or better yet into the 20th century: It starts as a harmless high school comedy, and it's one of Stephen King's best films).

Strange Days (1996) never really got the attention it deserved, even Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Lewis couldn't help it; cyberspace story that tells a lot about the nineties and consequently builds up to the final moment at 31 december 1999.

23 - Nothing is like it seems The true story about the German computer hacker Karl Koch who took the book "Illuminatus" too seriously. His hunts in the digital networks in the eighties, long before the internet boom, finally got him into the focus of the secret services. The circumstances of his death have never been solved.

Back into the realms of fiction: The Truman Show questions the reality of reality, especially when it comes to "reality TV". Not surprising, but intelligent and quite funny.

The Matrix also questions reality, in a shallow way like The Truman Show does. It comes down to a story of breaking free by fighting a known enemy. Deeper questioning of reality is left to do for scholars, monasteries and intellectually challenging novels like Stanislaw Lem's Futurulogic Congress. Nevertheless, the Matrix is of course the cyberspace film of the Nineties for its futuristic atmosphere and perfectly produced thrilling action sequences.

The Sixth Sense is another great film with thrilling images and an ending to think about. If I finally mention Fight Club and Angel Heart, we are back with both feet on the ground, but still insecure about reality, what makes films like Fight Club fascinating.

Vampires, Blood and Ghosts:

And finally we are ready for the classic ghost stories with a lot of blood and a lot of style, like the beautiful vampire film Dracula or Sleepy Hollow (vaguely adapted from the short story by Washington Irving), or the very bloody and very aesthetic film Bartholomy Night (not sure how the film is called in English, Isabelle Adjani is one of the main actors). And another one about religious wars: The King of the Last Days (Der Koenig der letzten Tage) about the historic baptist movement in Muenster.



Two good films by Quentin Tarantino: Kill Bill 1 with the aesthetically perfect fighting scenes in Japan and Jackie Brown, a criminal story told from variing perspectives in the style of the 1970s.

Finally back to Lars von Trier, who shows in Dogville that you can shoot an evil and thrilling film with no special effects. Similar things can be said about Thomas Vinterbergs Festen or Peter Jacksons Heavenly Creatures.

Soundtrack to the reading suggestions
There is no science without fiction.