Soviet Scifi Cinema: The Other Tolstoy in the Movies

in Film, Literature, Sci Fi | April 6th, 2011

Seen by over 20 mil­lion Rus­sians when it came out in 1965, The Hyper­boloid of Engi­neer Garin was a film based on a 1927 nov­el by Alek­sey Niko­layevich Tol­stoy, who is not to be con­fused with his famous rel­a­tive Leo Tol­stoy. This Tol­stoy is gen­er­al­ly thought of as the father of Russ­ian sci­ence fic­tion, and The Garin Death Ray was one of his most famous books (Vladimir Nabokov con­sid­ered it his best).

Hyper­boloid was writ­ten and direct­ed by Alek­san­dr Gintzburg, a high­ly gift­ed cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er who nev­er quite reached the career heights his tal­ent might have war­rant­ed, in part because of his Jew­ish ori­gins, and in part because of the nar­row range of artis­tic free­dom allowed direc­tors work­ing for the State-run cin­e­ma. Gintzburg stayed well with­in that range for this film, which leaves us with an odd­ly com­pelling mix of Sovi­et pro­pa­gan­da and 60’s pop-sci­fi.

As for the plot… we’d rather not give any­thing away. Just think of it as a beau­ti­ful­ly-lit pro­to-1984, with sub­ti­tles and laser beams, star­ring Big Broth­er as the good guy.

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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Everything Is Rhythm

in Film, Life, Music, Video - Arts & Culture | April 6th, 2011

“Foli” is the word used for rhythm by the Malinke tribe in West Africa. But Foli is not only found in Malinke music, but in all parts of their dai­ly lives. Direct­ed by Thomas Roe­bers, this short film por­trays the peo­ple of Baro, a small town in east­ern-cen­tral Guinea, and gives you a glimpse inside their cul­ture of rhythm. As the Malinke man says, “Tous les choses, c’est du rythme.” (“Every­thing is rhythm.”) What makes this film even more beau­ti­ful is the fact that it was edit­ed so as to reflect Malinke rhythms.

By pro­fes­sion, Matthias Rasch­er teach­es Eng­lish and His­to­ry at a High School in north­ern Bavaria, Ger­many. In his free time he scours the web for good links and posts the best finds on Twit­ter.

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Night Photography: Painting Darkness with Light

in Art | April 6th, 2011

Ter­lin­gua was once a min­ing vil­lage in Texas. Now, it’s an old ghost town where Scott Mar­tin and Lance Keimig host The Full Moon Night Pho­tog­ra­phy Work­shop, a field sem­i­nar that teach­es pho­tog­ra­phers to “see” in the dark. Need­less to say, there is an entire­ly dif­fer­ent art to cap­tur­ing images at night, a bun­dle of dif­fer­ent tech­niques and approach­es to mas­ter, includ­ing know­ing how to paint the dark­ness with light. This video runs 6:30 and gets par­tic­u­lar­ly good around the 2:50 mark…

via @MatthiasRascher

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How Venice Works: 124 Islands, 183 Canals & 438 Bridges

in Current Affairs, History | April 5th, 2011

3,000,000 tourists move through Venice each year. But when the tourists leave the city, 60,000 year-round res­i­dents stay behind, con­tin­u­ing their dai­ly lives, which requires nav­i­gat­ing an arch­i­pel­ago made up of 124 islands, 183 canals and 438 bridges. How this com­pli­cat­ed city works – how the build­ings are defend­ed from water, how the build­ings stand on unsteady ground, how the Vene­tians nav­i­gate this maze of a city – is a pret­ty fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry. These tech­niques have been worked out over Venice’s 1500 year his­to­ry, and now they’re explored in a cap­ti­vat­ing 17 minute video pro­duced by a Venet­ian gov­ern­ment agency. You can learn more about the inner life of this great city at Venice Back­stage.

via Metafil­ter

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

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The Quadrocopter Opera

in Music, Technology | April 4th, 2011

Physics gets its own lit­tle opera. And you’ll nev­er look at quadro­copters, those ball jug­gling robots, in quite the same way. Nice work “Opera­man­da”…

via @chr1sa

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The Ramones Live in 1978: 26 Songs in 54 Minutes

in Music, Video - Arts & Culture | April 4th, 2011

Princes of New York punk, kings of CBG­B’s (take vir­tu­al tour here), and the only Amer­i­cans, then or now, who could pull off skin­ny jeans with impuni­ty, The Ramones were mas­ters of the short and sweet.  Here’s a record­ing of  a live 1978 set at the Pal­la­di­um in New York City: 26 songs, 54 min­utes, all set to clips from old sci-fi movies.

via NPR

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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The Shape of A Story: Writing Tips from Kurt Vonnegut

in Books, Literature, Writing | April 4th, 2011

A few years ago, Open Cul­ture read­ers list­ed Slaugh­ter­house Five as one of your top life-chang­ing books. But Kurt Von­negut was not only a great author. He was also an inspi­ra­tion for any­one who aspires to write fic­tion – see for exam­ple his 8 rules for writ­ing fic­tion, which starts with the so-obvi­ous-it’s-often-for­got­ten reminder nev­er to waste your read­er’s time.

In this video, Von­negut fol­lows his own advice and sketch­es some bril­liant blue­prints for envi­sion­ing the “shape” of a sto­ry, all in less than 4 min­utes and 37 sec­onds.

FYI. Orig­i­nal works by Von­negut appear in Free Audio Books and Free eBooks col­lec­tions.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Ray Brad­bury Gives 12 Pieces of Writ­ing Advice to Young Authors (2001)

John Steinbeck’s Six Tips for the Aspir­ing Writer and His Nobel Prize Speech

Writ­ing Tips by Hen­ry Miller, Elmore Leonard, Mar­garet Atwood, Neil Gaiman & George Orwell

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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How Walt Disney Cartoons Are Made: 1939 Documentary Gives an Inside Look

in Animation, Art, Film | April 3rd, 2011

Walt Dis­ney’s 1937 pro­duc­tion, Snow White and the Sev­en Dwarfs, broke new ground on a num­ber of fronts. It was 1) the first cel-ani­mat­ed fea­ture film ever pro­duced; 2.) the first ani­mat­ed film made in col­or — tech­ni­col­or actu­al­ly; and 3.) Dis­ney’s first ani­mat­ed film, one of many com­mer­cial and artis­tic hits to come. (Catch a quick clip here.)

Two years lat­er, Dis­ney pro­duced an in-house doc­u­men­tary, How Walt Dis­ney Car­toons Are Made, that walks you through the stages of Snow White’s devel­op­ment – the writ­ing of the first sto­ry lines, the draft­ing of the ani­ma­tion sequences, the hand paint­ing of 250,000 cel­lu­loid frames (done by “pret­ty girls,” as they say) and beyond. Back in the day, Amer­i­can film­go­ers watched this footage in the cin­e­ma, the trail­er before the main fea­ture film.

Mean­while, you can also watch online Para­moun­t’s 1939 answer to Dis­ney’s big hit — Gul­liv­er’s Trav­els, anoth­er cel-ani­mat­ed Tech­ni­col­or fea­ture film direct­ed by Dave Fleis­ch­er, who lat­er brought us an ani­mat­ed ver­sion of Super­man (1941).

If you would like to sign up for Open Culture’s free email newslet­ter, please find it here. It’s a great way to see our new posts, all bun­dled in one email, each day.

If you would like to sup­port the mis­sion of Open Cul­ture, con­sid­er mak­ing a dona­tion to our site. It’s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con­tri­bu­tions will help us con­tin­ue pro­vid­ing the best free cul­tur­al and edu­ca­tion­al mate­ri­als to learn­ers every­where. You can con­tribute through Pay­Pal, Patre­on, and Ven­mo (@openculture). Thanks!

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Don­ald Duck Wants You to Pay Your Tax­es (1943)

Disney’s Oscar-Win­ning Adven­tures in Music

Don­ald Duck Dis­cov­ers Glenn Beck: A Remix

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Inside Job, Oscar-Winning Documentary, Now Online (Free)

in Current Affairs, Economics, Film | April 1st, 2011

In late Feb­ru­ary, Charles Fer­gu­son’s film – Inside Job – won the Acad­e­my Award for Best Doc­u­men­tary. And now the film doc­u­ment­ing the caus­es of the 2008 glob­al finan­cial melt­down has made its way online. A cor­rupt finan­cial indus­try, its cor­ro­sive rela­tion­ship with politi­cians, aca­d­e­mics and reg­u­la­tors, and the tril­lions of dam­age done, it all gets doc­u­ment­ed in this film that runs a lit­tle shy of 2 hours.

Inside Job can be pur­chased on DVD at Ama­zon. We all love free, but let’s remem­ber that good projects cost real mon­ey to devel­op, and they could use real finan­cial sup­port. So please con­sid­er buy­ing a copy.

Hope­ful­ly watch­ing or buy­ing this film won’t be a point­less act, even though it can right­ly feel that way. As Charles Fer­gu­son remind­ed us dur­ing his Oscar accep­tance speech, we are three years beyond the Wall Street cri­sis and tax­pay­ers (you) got fleeced for bil­lions. But still not one Wall Street exec is fac­ing crim­i­nal charges. Wel­come to your plu­toc­ra­cy…

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More than 20 Years Before “Lost” — “The New People”

in Television, Video - Arts & Culture | April 1st, 2011

There was a good deal of time-trav­el in the ABC hit series Lost, one of the more ambi­tious and pop­u­lar shows of the past decade. But nei­ther Jack, Sawyer, Hur­ley, nor any of our oth­er beloved 21st cen­tu­ry cast­aways ever went back to the year 1969. If they had, and if they’d had access to a TV, they might have found them­selves watch­ing a show about — them­selves.

Well, sort of. The New Peo­ple ran on Fri­day nights on ABC from Sep­tem­ber 1969 through Jan­u­ary 1970 (It last­ed only 17 episodes). We’ll take a shot at sum­ma­riz­ing the gen­er­al premise, which might ring a cou­ple of bells:

A plane crash­es on a remote island in the Pacif­ic, leav­ing its mot­ley group of sur­vivors strand­ed and fight­ing about what to do next.… As they explore their new home, they find an entire town, ful­ly stocked with pro­vi­sions and weapons, but creep­i­ly emp­ty. Soon the sur­vivors dis­cov­er that this island was once set up .…to be an Atom­ic Ener­gy Com­mis­sion test­ing site!

No Lost fan can live with­out a con­spir­a­cy the­o­ry, but we’re pret­ty sure there was noth­ing fishy in the com­mon­al­i­ties, and in the end, are we not all chil­dren of Gilli­gan? Fur­ther­more, there’s a good deal more to the plot, which includes racial con­flict, ado­les­cent angst (the sur­vivors are all col­lege stu­dents), and a healthy dose of Lord of the Flies-style chaos. Full episodes are not online, but at TVob­scu­ri­ties you can find a wealth of relat­ed con­tent, clips, links to reviews, and even the theme song, with lyrics.

Also, be sure to check out the episode guide, which real­ly does intrigue. Num­ber 12, for exam­ple:

The Pied Piper of Pot. Step­pen­wolf  thinks his fel­low islanders are too uptight, so he grows potent mar­i­jua­na that threat­ens to send the stu­dents into a har­row­ing, one-way trip.

The New Peo­ple was pro­duced by Aaron Spelling, who went on to bring us Char­lie’s Angels, The Love Boat, Hart to Hart, and Bev­er­ly Hills 90210, among many, many oth­ers. But we’re not sure if he ever did come up with anoth­er char­ac­ter as com­pelling as Step­pen­wolf.

(Thanks to Bryan Thomas)

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.


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Father and Daughter: An Oscar-Winning Animated Short Film

in Film, Video - Arts & Culture | March 31st, 2011

Dear Daniel B.,

Thank you for bring­ing the 2000 Michaël Dudok De Wit short, Father and Daugh­ter, to our atten­tion. We always appre­ci­ate read­er sug­ges­tions.

We must take issue, how­ev­er, with your warn­ing: “Be advised, it will indeed break your heart.” At Open Cul­ture we  approach the arts with a dis­cern­ing, engaged and unsen­ti­men­tal eye — our heart does not break, it blogs.

It will there­fore take much more than an 8‑minute car­toon, no mat­ter how art­ful­ly ren­dered, under­stat­ed, crit­i­cal­ly laud­ed, or Dutch, to move us. Please keep this in mind for the future.

All best,

Open Cul­ture.

P.S. OK, fine you win. This post was typed from the floor, drown­ing in the pud­dle we’d been reduced to by the 6 minute mark. And yes, bawl­ing like babies.

P.P.S. Per your sug­ges­tion, we’ve added it to our col­lec­tion, 4,000+ Free Movies Online: Great Clas­sics, Indies, Noir, West­erns, Doc­u­men­taries & More. Thanks again.

Sheer­ly Avni is a San Fran­cis­co-based arts and cul­ture writer. Her work has appeared in Salon, LA Week­ly, Moth­er Jones, and many oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. You can fol­low her on twit­ter at @sheerly.

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