The Top 10 Thought-Provoking Science Fiction Films
Serious science fiction often takes a backseat to the more pulpy, crowdpleasing genre entries. Here are 10 titles far better than any "dogfight in space" adventure.
fritz lang
32 Films That Begin With Leaving a Mental Institution
"Crazy" movies for crazy times. These 32 films make the case for the recently-escaped-or-released-mental-patient narrative as its own subgenre, replete with a language of recurring themes, plot devices, and character archetypes.
Oh, That Tiger!: Fritz Lang’s Indian Epics
Fritz Lang's The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb are hothouse flowers of cinema with gyrating dancers, man-eating tigers, pagan magic, groaning lepers, and mythic moments. Has Lang ever come up with more desperate, mad, or heroic symbols of futile struggle?
Sci-Fi Goes Hi-Fi: 10 Artists’ Foray into Hip-Hop Futurism
A host of artists have carved out a niche in the interplanetary margins that now rest in hip-hop culture. Some call it an expansion on Afrofuturist philosophies; others simply a long-time propensity for the science-fiction genre.
I See Music: How Oskar Fischinger Influenced Disney
Remember the pre-CGI visual beauty of Fantasia? Fischinger, who also worked with Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, among others, invented the "lumigraph" (a machine for "playing" colors on screen). This guy should be put on a stamp.
Fritz Lang Shows His Hand With ‘The Spiders’ and ‘Destiny’
From playing with Death to finding a lost Incan civilisation, these two silents are bursting with adventure and intrigue.
‘Gold’ Shivers Rather Than Glitters
'Gold' sees Hitler's Germany working out the psychology of power within a bland sci-fi narrative weighed down by leaden acting -- and an excess of feathers.
Cultural Critique, Silent Film Style
These five silent films reveal details about life in America, Germany and France between one colossal war and another.