Section: Retro Best Off

TIME AFTER TIME

London 1893, the young and enthusiastic H.G. Wells, writer, inventor and prophet, is going to reveal his newest creation for his friends: a time machine. What Wells doesn’t know, is that one of his friends is Jack The Ripper. The deception is revealed and Jack escapes with the timemachine to 1979 San Francisco. Wells pursues… Continue reading TIME AFTER TIME

SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5

Based on the novel by Kurt VONNEGUT jr. , Slaughterhouse 5 tells the story of a soldier who survived the firebombing of Dresden and is now a respected member of American society. Surrounded by forces he can’t comprehend, the soldier loses his grip on those forces. He sees himself being reborn and die time and… Continue reading SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5

THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT

The Saragossa Manuscript, based on the picaresque novel by count Jean Potocki (aristocrat and adventurer) is directly inspired by historic events in Saragossa. It is a very unusual and enigmatic film with stories within stories. The action is situated in Spain at the beginning of the 19th century, a time that was very fertile for… Continue reading THE SARAGOSSA MANUSCRIPT

THE EXORCIST

Washington, the present. A little girl is possessed by the devil….. William Peter Blatty, who adapted his own novel, and director William Friedkin have released hallucinations and nightmares upon their public. As a result, there is a renewed interest in horror movies by the producers. On the basis of that and the amount of success… Continue reading THE EXORCIST

2001 : A SPACE ODYSSEY

During the communist witch hunts in Hollywood, there is a young, hotheaded director who openly pleads for antimilitarism and dismisses American fascism with an irony that’s much sharper than the majority of films that were censored at the time. The name of that director is Stanley Kubrick. Kubrick quickly feels the need to express himself… Continue reading 2001 : A SPACE ODYSSEY

THE EYES OF THE MUMMY

The Eyes of the Mummy is the beginning of the collaboration of a legendary trio, Lubitsch, Negri and Janning. It was Pola who explicitly asked to be directed by Lubitsch. This first real drama by Lubitsch has Pola Negri, Emil Jannings and Harry Liedtke as the leads. A German painter falls in love with a… Continue reading THE EYES OF THE MUMMY

ROLLERBALL

Rollerball by Norman Jewison shows us a futuristic society without nations and without war where a new game is popular, Rollerball: a mixture of skating, American football and hockey. The game has a real cultstatus in a society where three days of work is enough and where everybody can enjoy his passions. Opposite this symbolic… Continue reading ROLLERBALL

PLANET OF THE APES

Writers often enjoy worldwide fame because of the movie adaptations of their work. Authors such as Boileau- Narcejac, Manchette, Shelley, Stoker, Leroux and even E.A. Poe are good examples. Even if Planet of the Apes isn’t as strong as the novel by Pierre Boule, the result made a huge impact on the scifi movie scene.… Continue reading PLANET OF THE APES

HECTOR SERVADAC’S ARK

You could say that Karel Zeman was able to accomplish what Méliès couldn’t realise. On the Comet is an intricate little juwel of animation, a wonderful movie adventure. The director is only interested in fiction, in the fantastical. Characters escape from their painted sets. The frame goes from black to white and then to color.… Continue reading HECTOR SERVADAC’S ARK

WESTWORLD

Westworld is a film that takes place in an artificial world, where rich customers can go on a vacation ‘like everybody else’ and live in locations of the past. Westworld, Romanworld, Medievalworld….all these places are populated by smart robots, programmed to carry out a specific role (gangsters who fight out duels, bartenders, hookers, etc…). The… Continue reading WESTWORLD

THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE

Based on the novel Hell House, written by American fantasy writer Richard Matheson (Duel, Someone is Bleeding). The film tells the story of a house where the owner, a tormented aristocrat, still haunts the property. A group of scientists are invited by a billionaire to find out if there’s life after death and to cast… Continue reading THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE

THE MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN

Imagine that all the conditions for an international success are guaranteed, can you then question the quality of the adaptation of the bestseller of Nobel winner Isaac B. Singer? Or is the result contrary to what we can imagine? This wonderful film, which offers a new perspective on Israeli cinema, is proof of the knowhow… Continue reading THE MAGICIAN OF LUBLIN

ZARDOZ

In 2293, the world is divided between the immortal ‘Eternals’ and the mortal ‘Brutes’. The Brutes serve the Eternals. Cracks are appearing in the system when Zed, a brute, turns against his masters. Zardoz, a film from 1973 by John Boorman, is considered one of the strangest of the genre. We are far away from… Continue reading ZARDOZ

SUSPIRIA

Suzy, a young American ballerina arrives in Fribourg to take lessons at the academy led by Madame Blank. Strange occurrences, cases of possession (dreams, violence) seem to indicate that some deceased people are still dancing there. One might say that Dario Argento is one of those directors who show remarkable creativity in their esthetic choices.… Continue reading SUSPIRIA

METROPOLIS

The second greatest sci-fi movie of the twenties is Metropolis by Fritz Lang. It is the archetype of the social sci-fi film. The budget was around 7.000.000 mark (The sum was so high that, although the film itself was a success, the production company went bankrupt). The shooting lasted from the 22nd of May 1925… Continue reading METROPOLIS

SLEEPER

In the year 2173, doctors Melik and Orwa fight over a sarcophagus that they have found intact and near the house of Melik in the woods. In the sarcophagus lies the frozen body of Miles Monroe, who was operated on an ulcer in 1973. The operation went wrong and the doctors decided to put Miles… Continue reading SLEEPER

SOLARIS

Inspired by the famous sci-fi novel of Stanislas Lem, Solaris provokes with different means the same kind of fascination as 2001: A Space Odyssey. The film also postulates the problem of the machine and the future of humanity. Tarkovski shot a movie about love where the theme of communication is seen from a different perspective.… Continue reading SOLARIS

COMA by Michael Crichton

Nancy Greenly is admitted to the Boston Memorial Hospital for a curettage and suddenly lapses into a coma during reanimation. Her best friend Susan Wheeler, an intern at the hospital, wants to find the cause no matter what. During her investigation, a dumbfounded Susan discovers that there are ten similar cases registered in the Boston… Continue reading COMA by Michael Crichton

ALIEN

1979, Ridley Scott shoots Alien, one of the most remarkable science fiction movies of the 80s. A crew of seven astronauts who travel with the Nostromo, a spaceship used for commercial spaceflight, return from a mission. Suddenly, an incomprehensible message appears on the screens. It is the beginning of a terrifying history. Known for the… Continue reading ALIEN

AELITA

The exceptional beauty of Yuliya Solntseva (Queen Aelita) was one of the key factors for the success of the film. Many newborn babies got the name Aelita as a result of that. It is not strange to say that the first real science fiction movie was a Sovjet one. Aelita by Yakov Protazanov was made… Continue reading AELITA

SOYLENT GREEN

The film takes place in New York in the year 2022, where the city is overrun by forty million people (half of them without a job): Society almost collapses by overpopulation, a world where mankind survives on two daily foodtablets Soylent Green. The masses eat this artificial and industrially produced food on the basis of… Continue reading SOYLENT GREEN

SCANNERS

An experiment is organised in a conference room: a ‘Scanner’ gives a lecture with the sole purpose of showing off his mental powers. A volunteer is taken to the stage to assist….The experiment begins. It goes horribly wrong: the head of the medium explodes in front of the startled crowd. A sinister organisation investigates whether… Continue reading SCANNERS

IKARIE XB I

We are in the year 2163. Since four months, a crew navigates the vast galaxy. The good mood of the crew is disturbed by an alarm signal. A strange entity appears on the screen. Is it a comet from the system Proxima? The closer they come, the more details they can distinguish. It’s a spaceship.… Continue reading IKARIE XB I

BLACULA

The imposing William Marshall is the ideal actor for Blacula, the first black Dracula. Blacula is a great film and not a condescending parody. On the contrary, it is with great respect for the myth and its conventions that director William Crain tries to bring the meaning of the story to a modern audience. The… Continue reading BLACULA

THE FOOD OF GODS

When you talk about special effects, several names instantly come to mind: Harryhausen, Danforth, O’Brien, Baker or Gordon. To get the effects he wanted for The Food of Gods, Gordon used a new invention: a unique photographic procedure called Mabex. Using a very specific kind of film with some personal adjustments, the director succeeds in… Continue reading THE FOOD OF GODS

TALL SHADOWS OF THE WIND

In the abundance of American, English, Russian or Italian movies, you should almost forget that there are also good movies from Asia and the Middle East. Their past, literature and legends offer interesting stories for screenplays. Director Farmanara, who lives in Canada for the moment, describes the life, the morals and the superstition of a… Continue reading TALL SHADOWS OF THE WIND

FAUST by Friedrich A. Murnau

After a meeting between God and Mephisto, the demon does everything to seduce Faust, to make a bargain with him and even take him under his wing. Finally, Faust travels to Europe and meets the Duchess of Parma. Faust, made in 1926, was the last film of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau in Germany. It is the… Continue reading FAUST by Friedrich A. Murnau