11th May (7pm) - Essentials: The Secret Masterpieces of Cinema 2
11th May (7pm) - Essentials: The Secret Masterpieces of Cinema 2 (£5.00)
The Wild Blue Yonder (Werner Herzog / USA / Germany / 2007 / 81 mins)
‘One of the most fantastic works of the imagination to grace our screens for years…essential to experience on the big screen.’ Jennie Kermode, Eye for an Eye
German director Werner Herzog continues to defy expectations with this visionary and wholly unconventional sci-fi. The plot is deceptively simple; Alien Brad Doriff has left behind a dying planet and travelled the universe in a failed attempt to establish a new civilization on Earth – but is he simply a delusional human…and what’s happened to the Earth? Instead of Hollywood effects wizardry, Herzog opts for a mix of stunning ‘found’ footage captured from the likes of shuttle missions and amateur film shot deep below the Antarctic ice flow. The results, played out against Dorriff’s dry, embittered humour, are awe-inspiring and evocative.
‘In an age of mainstreaming and moderation, one filmmaker is still fond of pushing the limits of the artform’ Bill Gibron, Film Talk.
+ La Jettee (Chris Marker / France / 1962 / Subtitles / 25 mins)
Famously the inspiration for Terry Gilliam’s ‘Twelve Monkeys’, Marker’s unique short is composed of a series of unmoving photographs, beautifully edited together to tell a mind-bending story of time travel that doubles as a melancholy fable about memory, loss, childhood, and destiny. Only for a moment is there any action on screen and that motion is one of the cinema’s most profound.
For more information visit: www.icoessentials.org.uk
Tickets: £5.00 / Concs £4.00