Tag: science fiction
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A rogue performer: Bowie on film
Turning on the radio on Monday morning and hearing about David Bowie’s death was probably the first time I have been truly upset to hear about the death of a public figure. I have been listening to his music since I bought a cassette of Let’s Dance when I was 13, and his importance to me and to others was that…
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Another way of seeing, another way of being: Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976)
Introduction to Nicolas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) Bruce Bennett (Lancaster University) Dukes Cinema 5th Jan, 2015. (This is the introductory public talk I gave for a screening of this film as part of the current season of SF films distributed by the BFI, ‘Days of Fear and Wonder’). The Man Who Fell…
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Semiotic ghosts: Dubai’s architectural hallucinations
Travelling from the UK to New Zealand recently we stopped for two days in Dubai in order to make the long journey more manageable. Even allowing for the dislocating effect of flying across time zones and two sleepless nights since the hotel we were staying in was packed with raucous teams competing in the international…
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Irrational beauty: Park’s I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK
Introduction to I’m a Cyborg, But That’s OK (Park, 2006) – Dukes cinema, Lancaster, 7th July 2008 This is the introductory public talk I gave for a screening of a print of this film Park Chan-wook is undoubtedly the most famous Korean film director, both inside and outside South Korea although his status within South Korea is rather…
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Industrial futures: Lang’s Metropolis
Introduction to Metropolis (Lang, 1927) – Dukes cinema, Lancaster, 16 Jan 2010 This is the introductory public talk I gave for a screening of a print of the definitive 2010 restoration of this film Premiered in Berlin on January 10th, 1927, Metropolis was the most expensive film produced in Germany up until that point. With 36,000 extras,…
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Second-hand worlds: science fiction book covers
Most of the SF novels I’ve read have been battered copies borrowed from libraries or bought from second-hand book-shops and charity shops and there is something especially appropriate about this temporal contradiction. These novels, that are frequently imaginings of possible anachronistic futures, belong to the past – scuffed, yellowed, foxed relics that sit in a…
Bruce Bennett 