(Winch­combe 2012) Orkney’s Stone Age Temple
(Grif­fith 1909) A Cor­ner in Wheat
(Cas­tle 1963) Zotz!
(Cline 1941) Nev­er Give a Suck­er an Even Break Read more »

Raumpa­trouille – Die phan­tastis­chen Aben­teuer des Raum­schiffes Ori­on [known in Eng­lish as Space Patrol Ori­on] was a Ger­man sci­ence fic­tion series that pre­miered the same week that Star Trek did in North Amer­i­ca. It had a sim­i­lar premise — an ensem­ble dra­ma in which the crew of a space ser­vice met up with var­i­ous alien per­ils. Star Trek was not to be broad­cast in Ger­many for sev­er­al years to come, and there is no indi­ca­tion that either pro­duc­tion was aware of the oth­er, but there are a num­ber of remark­able sim­i­lar­i­ties. In both cas­es, there was an inter­na­tion­al crew and a future in which human­i­ty is polit­i­cal­ly uni­fied, at peace, and explor­ing space.  Read more »

(Malle 1971) Le souf­fle au coeur [Mur­mur of the Heart]
(Mina­han 2013) Game of Thrones: Ep.21 ― Valar Dohaeris
(Mina­han 2013) Game of Thrones: Ep.22 ― Dark Wings, Dark Words
(Benioff & Weiss 2013) Game of Thrones: Ep.23 ― Walk of Punishment
(Par­rish 1969) Jour­ney to the Far Side of the Sun Read more »

(Gar­nett 1949) A Con­necti­cut Yan­kee in King Arthur’s Court
(Comp­ton 1987) Star Trek, the Next Gen­er­a­tion: Ep.11 ― Haven
(Oda 1955) Gigan­tis, the Fire Mon­ster [vari­ant Amer­i­can ver­sion of Godzil­la Raids Again] Read more »

(Petersen 1984) The Nev­erEnd­ing Story
(Hart 1968) Doc­tor Who: Ep.238 ― The Space Pirates, Part 1 [recon­struct­ed]
(Hart 1968) Doc­tor Who: Ep.239 ― The Space Pirates, Part 2
(Hart 1968) Doc­tor Who: Ep.240 ― The Space Pirates, Part 3 [recon­struct­ed]
(Hart 1968) Doc­tor Who: Ep.241 ― The Space Pirates, Part 4 [recon­struct­ed] Read more »

(Wen­ders 1977) The Amer­i­can Friend [Der Amerikanis­che Freund]
(Mal­oney 1968) Doc­tor Who: Ep.228 ― The Kro­tons, Part 1
(Mal­oney 1968) Doc­tor Who: Ep.229 ― The Kro­tons, Part 2
(Mal­oney 1968) Doc­tor Who: Ep.230 ― The Kro­tons, Part 3
(Mal­oney 1968) Doc­tor Who: Ep.231 ― The Kro­tons, Part 4
(Marks 1960) Per­ry Mason: Ep.87 ― The Case of the Singing Skirt
(Ander­son 2012) Moon­rise Kingdom
(Thor­pe 1941) Tarzan’s Secret Treasure
(Delan­noy 1964) Les ami­tiés par­ti­c­ulières Read more »

Social real­ism can be pret­ty drab stuff. Or, like this just­ly renowned film mas­ter­piece, it can ele­vate the ordi­nary details of life into the high­est art. There is far more going on in Satya­jit Ray’s bril­liant direc­to­r­i­al debut than the mere record­ing of life. Con­sid­er­ing that he was a novice film-mak­er, the tech­ni­cal crew and actors were ama­teurs, and bud­get was 150,000 rupees (in 1955, less than a san­dal-strap bud­get), Ray was able to cre­ate scenes of aston­ish­ing lyri­cism and inten­si­ty. Among them are that were the two chil­dren, Apu and Dur­ga, chase through a field to see a pass­ing train; where Apu watch­es, won­der-eyed, a vil­lage jatra play; and the home­com­ing of the father, who learns that his daugh­ter has died. The film was based on the auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal nov­el by Bib­hutib­hushan Bandy­opad­hyay, who lived the intense pover­ty that he wrote of, and knew that the bot­tom of the social scale con­tains as many Ham­lets and Andro­mach­es as does the top. Every­thing about this film is hon­est, and the bril­liant score by Ravi Shankar gives it addi­tion­al depth. Ray went on to film two sequels. The three films are now known as the Apu Tril­o­gy — Pather Pan­chali (1955); Apara­ji­to [The Unvanquished](1956) and Apur Sansar [The World of Apu](1959). His sub­se­quent career carved out a space for Ben­gali films, usu­al­ly more seri­ous in pur­pose than the out­put of Mum­bai or Chennai.

(Juran 1964) The First Men in the Moon
(Gorst 2004) The Big Ques­tion: Ep.1 — How Did the Uni­verse Begin?
(Gorst 2004) The Big Ques­tion: Ep.3 — Why Are We Here?
(Burke 2011) Coast: Ep.48 ― The West­ern Isles and Shet­land Read more »