TERRA INCOGNITA

 

A photographic still featuring Michael Lonsdale as the merchant, from Terra Incognita (© Olivier Cotte/Canal+/Ex Machina/Pascavision – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

One fateful late afternoon/early evening over 20 years ago, back in the good old days of video tapes and VCRs (videocassette recorders), I turned on my TV here in England and serendipitously came upon the beginning of what promised to be – and indeed proved to be – an English-language version of a fairly short but extremely interesting and exceedingly unusual French fantasy featurette that deftly combined animation with live action to create a totally unique, spectacular cinematic production. As my VCR was always kept with a recordable video tape inserted in it, I pressed RECORD straight away, and successfully recorded all but this stunning featurette's opening title and principal credits.

Unfortunately, however, by not having recorded that vital segment I had no idea what the featurette was called. Happily, thanks to some diligent online detective work a few years back, I finally discovered that it was entitled Terra Incognita, and it has remained one of my all-time favourite examples from the genre of animation shorts.

Directed, conceived, and written by celebrated French movie director, graphic novel artist/illustrator, and animation historian Olivier Cotte, originally released in French in 1995, and with a total running time of 12 minutes, Terra Incognita ('Unknown Land') presents the engrossing story of a merchant from long ago who purchases a mysterious living map that guides him on an exciting seaborne journey to exotic and sometimes very dangerous locations far away from his homeland, before he eventually becomes its guardian in an entire library of these enchanted charts, where he makes an incredible discovery concerning them.

This fascinating featurette is narrated in both the original French and the English versions by the French/English bilingual actor Michael (aka Michel) Lonsdale, who also stars in it as the merchant. The mash-up of animation and live action is extremely distinctive and elegant in style, in places very reminiscent of a medieval work of art coming to life, and therefore portraying most effectively the concept of a living, sentient cartographical parchment.

Art historians and aficionados will also note various illustrative homages within this featurette to certain genuine artworks dating from the Middle Ages. These include engravings of monstrous entities once believed by bestiary compilers to be real, as well as respectful nods to Hieronymus Bosch's famous triptych oil painting 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' (1490-1510), and also the second, smaller of Pieter Bruegel the Elder's two equally memorable paintings (both c.1563) depicting the biblical Tower of Babel.

Nominated for the Best Short Film Award at the Catalonian International Film Festival in 1996, and winner of the Audience Award at the Corto Imola Festival in 1997, Terra Incognita is without a doubt one of the most original, unusual, and thoroughly mesmerising animated/live-action productions that I have ever seen. It successfully marries exquisite artistry with awe-inspiring music (especially during the closing scene in which the merchant reveals his suspicions concerning the true nature and actions of the sentient charts), and Lonsdale's seductive, French-accented narration is absolutely spellbinding. In short, a truly wonderful, effortlessly triumphant cinematic creation throughout – an absolute joy to behold!

The original French-language version of Terra Incognita can currently be watched here and also here on YouTube, and the very rarely seen English-language version here.

If you enjoy thoughtful, beautifully-presented animated fantasy, I heartily recommend that you devote 12 minutes of your time to view Terra Incognita – I guarantee that it will be time very well spent!

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 'Little' Tower of Babel painting (so-called because it is only roughly half the size of his other Tower of Babel painting; both were produced by him in or around 1563) (public domain)

 

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

 

My official DVD of Midnight In Paris (© Woody Allen/Gravier Productions/Mediapro/Televisió de Catalunya (TV3)/ Versátil Cinema/Sony Pictures Classics – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 25 July 2021, I watched a thoroughly charming fantasy/comedy/romance movie that was hitherto unknown to me but whose DVD I had purchased entirely on spec a few days earlier for just 20p (in a 5 for £1 offer) from a local market stall.

Entitled Midnight in Paris, and released by Sony Pictures Classics in 2011, it stars Owen Wilson as successful but bored American screenwriter Gil who wants to break away from Hollywood and write novels instead, much to the disapproval of his irascible fiancée Inez (Rachel McAdams). Indeed, as the movie progresses, we see that she is unfairly critical and incredibly unsupportive of him in every way, except of course for his earning plenty of money at screenwriting, even though his heart and passion are not in it any more.

They are currently in Paris (the movie was filmed entirely on location there), where Gil hopes to draw inspiration for his debut novel, much to Inez's disgust. She prefers partying with friends (especially the thoroughly obnoxious pseudo-intellectual Paul – played to supercilious perfection by Michael Sheen) and her parents, and duly does so, virtually abandoning Gil.

One night, while walking alone back to their hotel as the clocks are striking midnight, Gil is hailed from an approaching 1920s-style car – he steps inside, and finds himself transported back in time to 1920s Paris. Here, to his astonishment but delight, he is able to socialise freely with such icons and glitterati as Ernest Hemingway, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald (Scott played by Tom Hiddleston), T.S. Eliot, Josephine Baker, Cole Porter, Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Gertrude Stein (Kathy Bates), and many others, before returning to his own time at the break of dawn.

Gil's nocturnal time travelling occurs every night thereafter from midnight to dawn, in a scenario not dissmilar from that of the UK TV show Goodnight Sweetheart. And just as happens in that show, he meets and falls in love with a young woman from the earlier time period, Adriana (played delightfully by Marion Cotillard, one of my all-time favourite actresses). He also meets an engaging museum tourist guide (played by France's then First Lady, Carla Bruni, married to French President Nicolas Sarkozy), with whom he once again has far more shared likes and interests than he ever does with the ineffably irritating Inez.

Needless to say, major complications soon arise, but I won't detail them here so as not to spoil the movie for those who may wish to see it after reading this present review. Suffice it to say that, as in all the best fantasies, everything is ultimately resolved for the best, even if not precisely in the manner that the viewer may be expecting.

Directed and written by Woody Allen (which I didn't even realise until the credits rolled at the end, and for whom its screenplay won an Academy Award, plus nominations for Best Director, Best Art Direction, and Best Picture), Midnight In Paris is a thoroughly charming movie, in which you are rooting every second for Wilson's affable, sweet-natured Gil to shake off the shackles of loyalty binding him to his monstrously insensitive, selfish, feckless fiancée (not to mention the abject embarrassment and public humiliation regularly heaped upon his uncomplaining shoulders by her) and discover someone who can offer him the happiness, shared interests, and returned love that he so richly deserves. But does he? Watch the movie and find out!

In short, this is an involving as well as a visually stunning movie, amply supplemented with pertinent period songs by Cole Porter and authentic Parisienne music. All in all, therefore, Midnight in Paris was 20p very well spent, that's for sure!

But don't take my word for it – click here to savour just a little of the magical mystique from Midnight In Paris via an official trailer on YouTube.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

ALMOST HUMAN (aka UNCANNY aka ANDROID)

 

My DVD of Almost Human (aka Uncanny and Android) (© Matthew Leutwyler/Accelerated Matter/RLJ Entertainment – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

My movie watch choice on 5 June 2021 was the official DVD of a very absorbing, compelling sci fi film entitled Almost Human (variously retitled as Uncanny or Android when released in some territories).

Directed by Matthew Leutwyler, released in 2015, and starring Mark Webber and David Clayton Rogers in the two intimately-linked starring roles, Almost Human concerns a robotics genius named David Kressen, who was instantly headhunted when graduating from university with multiple degrees in computing and associated subjects at the age of just 19, to work in seclusion thereafter at a secret laboratory with unlimited funding to finance every idea that he conceives.

David's work has yielded extraordinary creations and innovations, but none more so than Adam, a life-like android, who is also his only companion – until they receive a visit from a magazine article writer named Joy (Lucy Griffiths), who also has a background in robotics. She is permitted to stay for a week with David to study his work and interact with Adam, whose ability to understand and display human emotions increases profoundly during the course of her 7-day visit, although he remains much more reticent and inhibited in his manner than the far more extrovert, talkative, socially-adept David.

Before the week is over, Joy has become romantically attracted to David, whose own initial arrogance and patronising behaviour towards her swiftly disappeared as they became better acquainted, until finally on the last night of her stay they make love. Meanwhile, Adam has become unequivocally jealous of David and Joy's emotional relationship, from which he has become increasingly and deliberately excluded by them, despite his awkward, hesitant attempts to make Joy like him too.

And then of course comes the massive climactic twist in this highly unusual love triangle, one that I'd actually considered as a "what if" scenario while watching the movie's earlier portion but without realising that this indeed was exactly where its storyline was leading. But the biggest shock of all is reserved for the very end, tucked away in a brief mid-credits scene, so be sure not to skip the credits.

I won't give any more away, but I found Almost Human particularly engrossing, with both Webber and Rogers imbuing their more than typically complex characters with the essential opacity that these particular roles vitally require if this movie's intrinsic plot ploy is to succeed.

I've said before that I judge a movie very much by how often I check my watch while viewing it to see how much time is left – the more times I check, the less interesting the movie is to me. When viewing Almost Human, I never checked my watch once, which says it all as far as I'm concerned.

Under its alternative title Uncanny, Almost Human is currently available to view for free on YouTube (albeit with slightly out of sync voice/visuals) if you click here; and an official trailer for it can be viewed by clicking here.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

A BOY AND HIS DOG

 

Publicity poster for A Boy And His Dog (© L.Q. Jones/LQ-Jaf Productions – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

On 14 August 2021, 40-odd years after reading the original classic sci-fi novella 'A Boy And His Dog', written by Harlan Ellison, first published in 1969, and winner of the highly-coveted Nebula Award for Best Novella later that same year, I finally watched the movie version of this memorable story. (In 1970, it was nominated for the equally prestigious Hugo Award for Best Novella, but lost out to Fritz Leiber's 'Ship of Shadows'.)

Directed by L.Q. Jones (who also wrote its screenplay after Ellison suffered writer's block while preparing one for it), and released in 1975, A Boy And His Dog is set in the year 2024, within a barren post-apocalyptic Earth. The 'boy' is a late-teenage loner named Vic (played with great zest by a young Don Johnson). His dog is a genetically-modified, super-intelligent mutt named Blood, with whom Vic can communicate telepathically (Blood's thoughts are voiced by Tim McIntire), as they eke out a nomadic, Mad Max-like existence together in a comical love-hate relationship, foraging amid the arid desert terrain of what had once been the U.S.A., prior to the nuclear devastation wrought by World War 4, that is… (Indeed, it has been claimed that this movie was the inspiration for the Mad Max film franchise.)

Vic's primary interest is finding women for sex, Blood's is finding food, so each helps the other in their respective searches, and they combine forces to steer clear of marauder gangs, slavers, deadly mutants, and other life-endangering hazards spasmodically confronted by them. Eventually they encounter and rescue from marauders and their ferocious guard dogs a passionate young woman, Quilla June (Susanne Benton). However, she ably uses her physical and emotional wiles to trick lustful, hapless Vic into deserting a now-injured Blood (after having  battled one of the guard dogs) and following her instead into a secret underground realm resembling an idealized all-American town from the 1950s but ruled by an autocratic Committee, headed by the merciless Lou Craddock (Jason Robards).

It turns out that the Committee had specifically sent Quilla into the above-ground, surface world to ensnare Vic, because their women need impregnating by a virile, fertile male from outside their inbred, self-contained society in order to become pregnant with male offspring. Inevitably, Vic is overjoyed to learn this, until he discovers that instead of performing actively as a stud as he'd expected to be doing, he is forcibly attached to a machine that, shall we say, facilitates the necessary biological extractions automatically.

Angry with Quilla for her deceptions, Vic nonetheless takes her with him when he eventually breaks free and escapes from this soulless subterranean world, re-emerging back on the surface after having spent several days beneath it. There he finds Blood, still faithfully waiting for him but gravely ill due to starvation, Blood's worsening injuries having prevented him from hunting for food during Vic's absence below-ground. Blood now faces imminent death unless he can receive sustenance swiftly, but Quilla begs Vic to depart with her in a new life together above-ground and leave Blood behind, saying that there is nothing that can be done for him.

However, even though it actually occurs off-screen, this movie version's retention of the brief yet famously shocking, wholly unexpected end scene from Ellison's original story ensures that Blood does survive, with a boy and his now well-fed dog setting forth to face new adventures together, just the two of them once again...

Interestingly, there had been plans to film a sequel movie entitled A Girl And Her Dog, in which Vic and Blood have parted ways, Blood now teaming up with a young woman instead. Tragically, however, Tiger, the dog who had played Blood in A Boy And His Dog, died shortly after the latter film had been released, so the idea for a sequel was shelved indefinitely. Also of note is that the first choice of actor to voice Blood's thoughts in A Boy And His Dog was none other than James Cagney, but he was ultimately rejected for the role on the grounds that his voice was too recognisable and would therefore detract from the character of Blood. Instead, after about 600 others had auditioned, Tim McIntire was chosen.

Although adhering to the same principal plot as Ellison's novella, this movie version does veer from it in certain key ways. Most notably, the novella is predominantly set not in empty desert terrain (much of the film was actually shot on location in California's Mojave Desert) but instead within the shattered, desolate remains of what had once been a large, thriving city. Moreover, the underground town in the novella is far less bizarre, sinister, and out-and-out grotesque than in the movie. For in the latter, the faces of all of the people are painted with clown-like 'white-face' make-up, complete with fake red-painted upturned smiles, and the Committee uses a series of murderous androids to keep the populace obedient and subservient, with anyone stepping out of line being summarily dispatched off-screen to a mysterious place named The Farm, after which they are never seen again.

Also, the extraction machine used upon Vic in the movie is not present in Ellison's novella, in which Vic is simply expected to impregnate the town's women in the traditional, natural manner (as Vic had expected to do in the movie before the machine made its unwelcome appearance!). And one aspect of the movie that apparently greatly irked Ellison at the time was that his iconic closing lines in his original story were replaced by a totally different set that in his opinion spoilt the entire end of the movie. I won't say what they were, so as not to spoil either the novella or the movie for those not currently acquainted with them, but I do agree that Ellison's lines would have yielded a far superior and much more chilling finale for the film.

Notwithstanding these changes, this movie version of A Boy And His Dog is an engrossing, semi-humorous, and highly unusual entry in the sci fi cinematic genre, and has gone on to become a cult film among the latter's aficionados. Certainly, I greatly enjoyed it – so much so, in fact, that it inspired me afterwards to dig out and re-read my copy of Ellison's original novella, as contained within a collection of his stories published in a 1979 Pan Books paperback edition entitled The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World (also the title of the first story in this collection) that I'd bought back in or around 1980. (Incidentally, the version of 'A Boy And His Dog' contained in this particular edition is an expanded one that had been prepared by Ellison for the story's first American publication.)

At the time of writing, A Boy And His Dog can be viewed for free on YouTube by clicking here, and an official trailer for it can be watched by clicking here.

To view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.

 

My copy of the 1979 Pan paperback edition of the Harlan Ellison collection of stories containing 'A Boy And His Dog' (depicted on its front cover) and entitled The Beast That Shouted Love At The Heart Of The World (© Harlan Ellison/Pan Books – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)