More than science fiction: society's deepest fears in film
Jochen Kürten eg
February 17, 2017
The Retrospective section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival is dedicated to one of the most visually stunning genres: science fiction, with films showcasing imaginary worlds in an imperfect future.
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Berlinale retrospective 2017: 'Future Imperfect'
The Retrospective section of the 67th Berlin International Film Festival is dedicated to one of the most visually stunning genres: science fiction, with films showcasing imaginary worlds in an imperfect future.
Image: 1997 Gaumont / Collection Musée Gaumont / Jack English
'The Fifth Element'
"If Hollywood can do it, then why can't I?" thought French filmmaker Luc Besson. His 1997 movie "The Fifth Element" is set in the 23rd century. In it, an attractive alien, Leeloo (Milla Jovovich), is sent to Earth to save the planet. The film's perfect effects, visually inventive artistic direction and costumes by Jean-Paul Gaultier turned it into a cult blockbuster.
Image: 1997 Gaumont / Collection Musée Gaumont / Jack English
'Dark City'
As in the "The Fifth Element," the American-Australian production "Dark City" (1998) includes references to the German silent movie "Metropolis." Director Alex Proyas depicts a dark vision of the future - a world threatened by extraterrestrial parasites who use human minds as their hosts.
Image: New Line Productions
'Warning from Space'
In the 1950s, science fiction boomed in Hollywood and worldwide. Aliens fascinated people in Japan, too, where Koji Shima filmed "Warning from Space." The extraterrestrials in this film come with good intentions, but humans see them as menacing. Perceiving the Other as a threat is a theme relevant to our own times.
Image: KADOKAWA CORPORATION 1956
'The War of the Worlds'
Several films produced throughout that decade depicted extraterrestrials with evil intentions. A classic among them was the adaptation of H.G. Wells' famous 1897 novel "The War of the Worlds" (1953). Films like this also reflected the world's growing fear of an atomic apocalypse.
Image: Courtesy of Park Circus/Paramount
'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'
Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) was a powerful film that revitalized the genre, along with George Lucas' "Star Wars," released the same year. By portraying friendly aliens, Spielberg added a human touch to sci-fi movies.
Image: Courtesy of Park Circus/Sony
'Eolomea'
The Berlinale retrospective astonishes visitors with some rarely shown works. Who knew that science fiction films had also been produced in East Germany? Hermann Zschoche's "Eolomea" (1972) is set near the space station Margot, offering a "tapestry of new beginning fantasies and psychedelic colors set to easy-listening sounds," wrote the organizers of the retrospective.
Image: DEFA-Stiftung/Alexander Kühn
'Seconds'
Filmmaker John Frankenheimer and cinematographer James Wong Howe made extensive use of wide-angle and fish-eye lenses in "Seconds" (1966). The film tells the story of a bank clerk who obtains a new identity through plastic surgery. However, he discovers that the transformation involves unsettling dimensions. The story is still relevant.
Image: Courtesy of Park Circus/Paramount
'Ikarie XB 1'
The Czech film "Ikarie XB 1" by Jindrich Polák (1963) is probably not as renowned as its imagery: It inspired Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey."
Image: National Film Archive, Czech Republic
'Blade Runner'
Along with rarities from eastern Europe and rarely shown gems from Hollywood and Japan, the Berlinale retrospective also features some of the best-known classics of the genre. Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" from 1982 remains cult for any science-fiction fan and deserves to be seen on the big screen again.
Image: 2007 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
'Alien'
Ditto for "Alien" (1979), which had the same director. New editions of "Blade Runner" and "Alien" will be soon be re-released in theaters - so the "Future Imperfect" retrospective of the 67th Berlinale is setting the tone for the upcoming season of movies.
Image: Courtesy of Park Circus / Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
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"For a storyteller, a perfect future is the most boring thing one could imagine," says Reiner Rother, director of the Berliner Kinemathek. That's why the films shown at the Berlinale retrospective portray dark visions of the future.
Inspired by threats of destruction and catastrophes as well as by social misconceptions, science fiction is a film genre that's not only for dreamers and people who refuse to grow up, believes Rother. Through these utopian and dystopian stories, the best science fiction films also reveal a given society's visions and fears.
The current wave of nationalism and populism put George Orwell's novel "1984" back on bestseller lists; Michael Anderson's 1956 movie adaptation is being shown at the Berlinale retrospective.
Showing 27 works of science fiction, the Retrospective combines classics with obscure films from all over the world. Click through the gallery above to find out more about the films in the program.
Complementing the Retrospective until April 23 is "Things to Come. Science. Fiction. Film," an exhibition at the Deutsche Kinemathek. The Museum of Modern Art in New York, a partner of the Berlinale Retrospective since 2011, will also will present a related and extended exhibition of science fiction films in the summer of 2017.
