SCI-FI! --- scfz genre poll

[flip]

A poll to determine SCFZ's favourite sci-fi films

The rules:

-- Ballots can include up to 100 films

-- You can freely decide what qualifies as "sci-fi"

-- Partly-ranked ballots make for better polls. If you want to partly rank your ballot (strongly encouraged!), divide it into 'tiers' or 'blocks' of equal size. You can use two, three, four or five (recommended!) tiers. So if you post a ballot of 60 films, you could divide it into five tiers, 12/12/12/12/12 films each, four tiers, 15/15/15/15 films each, or three tiers, 20/20/20, or two tiers, 30/30, or leave it unranked.

-- Scoring system is the same as for earlier genre polls, each ballot awards an average of 3 points per film, for 5-tier ballots 5/4/3/2/1, for 4-tier ballots the scoring is 5/3.5/2.5/1, for three-tier ballots 5/3/1, for two-tier ballots 4/2, for one-tier, 3 points to everything.

-- There's no expectation that many people will post a 100-film ballot, so don't feel obligated to vote for films you don't like just to make your ballot longer. But to ensure that short ballots don't unduly influence the results, ballots with fewer than 30 films in total will award fewer points per film than longer ballots.

Deadline: not sure yet, when everyone who wants to participate has had a chance

If you'd like to save me time, it is most helpful if films are listed in exactly this format:

Title (Director's full name, year)

i.e. like this:

Ghostwatch (Lesley Manning, 1992)

This is extremely helpful to me, so I'd be grateful if people can format their ballots as above. And for world film, please use a film's title most commonly used in English discussion, even if that is not the film's original title.

[sally]

wooohooo!

i have approx 30 films lined up to watch but i'd like suggestions, if not here, then in another thread?

also. along with citizen kane, i've never actually seen 2001, and not going to now. hope this does not invalidate my future ballot!

[brian d]

just a starter list here, will clean up later and add things as i think of them.all set:

Tier 1:
L'Atlantide (Jacques Feyder, 1921)
L'Inhumaine (Marcel l'Herbier, 1924)
Ajantrik (Ritwik Ghatak, 1958)
Les Creatures (Agnes Varda, 1966)
Je t'aime, je t'aime (Alain Resnais, 1968)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Black Moon (Louis Malle, 1975)
On the Silver Globe (Andrzej Zulawski, 1988)
Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin, 2006)

Tier 2:
The Island of Lost Souls (Erle Kenton, 1932)
Krakatit (Otakar Vavra, 1948)
Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century (Chuck Jones, 1952)
Late August at the Hotel Ozone (Jan Schmidt, 1967)
Invasion (Hugo Santiago, 1969)
Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974)
Anti-Cock (Jane Arden/Jack Bond, 1979)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
The Abyss (James Cameron, 1986)

Tier 3:
The Golem (Paul Wegener, 1920)
The Woman on the Moon (Fritz Lang, 1929)
Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
The Strange Case of Doctor Faustus (Gonzalo Suárez, 1969)
Euridice BA 2037 (Nikos Nikolaidis, 1975)
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)

Tier 4:
Deluge (Felix E. Feist, 1933)
Ikarie XB-1 (Jindrich Polak, 1963)
Liberxina 90 (Carlos Durán, 1970)
Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983)
Sexmission (Juliusz Machulski, 1984)
Solaris (Steven Soderbergh, 2002)
The Host (Bong Joon-Ho, 2006)
Ex-Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
Evolution (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2015)

didn't remember to see:
The New Moscow (Aleksandr Medvedkin, 1938)
Murder in a Blue World (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1973)

[greennui]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)
World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973)
In the Shadow of the Blue Rascal (Pierre Clémenti, 1986)
Fantastic Planet (René Laloux, 1973)
Shivers (David Cronenberg, 1975)
Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman, 1982)

ExiStenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
Island of Lost Souls (Eric C. Kenton, 1932)
The End of Evangelion (Hideaki Anno, 1997)
Angel's Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1988)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
Days of Eclipse (Aleksandr Sokurov, 1988)
Morning Patrol (Nikos Nikolaidis, 1987)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang. 1927)
Woman in the Moon (Fritz Lang, 1929)

Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 1997)
Time Masters (René Laloux, 1982)
Gandahar (René Laloux, 1987)
Space is The Place (John Coney, 1974)
La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
Strange Days (Katheryn Bigelow, 1995)
The Brother From Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984)
4:44 Last Day on Earth (Abel Ferrara, 2011)

Wax, or: The Discovery of Television Among the Bees (David Blair, 1991)
Phase IV (Saul Bass, 1974)
Teenage Hooker Became Killing Machine in Daehakroh (Nam Gee-woong, 2000)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
Moonland (William A. O’Connor. 1926)
Altered States (Ken Russell 1980)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)
Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983)
Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2014)
Dark Star (John Carpenter, 1974)

Anti-Clock (Jane Arden, 1979)
Starman (John Carpenter, 1984)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Zoo zéro (Alan Fleischer, 1978)
The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979)
Mad Max 2 (George Miller, 1981)
Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller, 2015)
Neo Tokyo (Various, 1987)
Robot Carnival (Various, 1987)
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)

https://letterboxd.com/greennui/list/scfzscifiscifzi/

[grabmymask]

Not a huge fan of the genre (as evidenced by my selected films, perhaps), but what the heck I like making ballots!
40 films, 4 tiers

2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)
Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1954)
The Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
Vanilla Sky (Cameron Crowe, 2001)
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
Jurassic Park (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)

Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos, 2010)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984)
Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
The Invisible Man (James Whale, 1933)
The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
I Married a Monster from Outer Space (Gene Fowler Jr., 1958)
Born in Flames (Lizzie Borden, 1983)

They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
eXistenZ (David Cronenberg, 1999)
Nemesis (Albert Pyun, 1992)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Event Horizon (Paul W.S. Anderson, 1997)
Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968)
The Day the Earth Caught Fire (Val Guest, 1961)
RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)

A Trip to the Moon (Georges Melies, 1902)
Alien (1979, Ridley Scott)
Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1932)
Liquid Sky (Slava Tsukerman, 1982)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)
Scanners (David Cronenberg, 1981)
The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979)
The Blob (Irvin S. Yeaworth, 19658)
Hardware (Richard Stanley, 1990)

[Silga]

Upstream Color (Noah Baumbach, 2013)

I think you meant director Shane Carruth.

[flip]

hope this does not invalidate my future ballot!

totally fine to use this thread for discussion too, and totally fine to post partial ballots now and edit later, i'll give people warning when i'm going to close the poll to edits.

[grabmymask]

Upstream Color (Noah Baumbach, 2013)

I think you meant director Shane Carruth.

Hahaha wow , thanks for catching that--I have no idea why I typed Noah Baumbach?? It is fixed now though

[rischka]

i will need to do some research but will definitely include:

invasion of the body snatchers (don siegel, 1956)
them! (gordon douglas, 1954)
woman in the moon (fritz lang, 1929)
aelita queen of mars (yakov protazanov, 1924)
august in the water (sogo ishii, 1995)
world on a wire (rainer werner fassbinder, 1973)
dead man's letters (konstantin lopushansky, 1986)
the falls (peter greenaway, 1980)
alien (ridley scott, 1979)
the red spectacles (mamoru oshii, 1987)
amphibian man (vladimir chebotaryov, 1961)
creation of the humanoids (wesley berry, 1962)
krakatit (otakar vavra, 1948)
l'atlantide (jacques feyder, 1921)
la jetee (chris marker, 1962)
planet of the vampires (mario bava, 1965)
the fabulous world of jules verne (karel zeman, 1958)
love in the time of twilight (hark tsui, 1995)
the terminator (james cameron, 1984)
children of men (alfonso cuaron, 2006)
x: the man with xray eyes (roger corman, 1963)
bride of frankenstein (james whale, 1935)
starship troopers (paul verhoeven, 1997)
mothra (ishiro honda, 1961)



QUEEN

[arkheia]

I'll go with 50 favorites, ranked in 5 tiers. Probably gonna shuffle things around a bit but this is a good start.

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Robert Mamoulian, 1931)
Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)
The Fly (David Cronenberg, 1986)
Predator (John McTiernan, 1987)
Starman (John Carpenter, 1984)
The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, 1963)
August in the Water (Gakuryuu Ishii, 1995)
Deja Vu (Tony Scott, 2006)
Bride of Frankenstein (James Whale, 1935)
Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)

Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
The Happening (M. Night Shyamalan, 2008)
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
La jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
New Rose Hotel (Abel Ferrara, 1988)
Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 1997)
Small Soldiers (Joe Dante, 1988)
Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1932)

Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
Speed Racer (Lilly Wachowski / Lana Wachowski, 2008)
Ghosts of Mars (John Carpenter, 2001)
Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2012)
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (Yasuhiro Takemoto/ Tatsuya Ishihara, 2010)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams, 2012)
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)

The Tingler (William Castle, 1959)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda, 2006)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)
Ascension of the Demonoids (George Kuchar, 1985)
The Inhuman Woman (Marcel L’Herbier, 1924)
Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016)
King Kong (Merian C. Cooper / Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)

Godzilla (Ishiro Honda, 1954)
Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
The Thing From Another World (Christian Nyby, 1951)
Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)
Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)
The Matrix (Lilly Wachowski / Lana Wachowski, 1999)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2004)
Re-Animator (Stuart Gordon, 1985)

[flip]

first draft of a ballot, 50 films, will probably extend it later

Perchance to Dream (Robert Florey, 1959)
Non-Stop New York (Robert Stevenson, 1937)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
Possible Worlds (Robert Lepage, 2000)
The Hole (Tsai Ming-liang, 1998)
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (Robert Enrico, 1964)
Je t'aime, Je t'aime (Alain Resnais, 1968)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself With Tea (Jindrich Polak, 1977)
Das Millionenspiel (Tom Toelle, 1970)

Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (Grigori Kromanov, 1979)
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)
Evolution (Lucile Hadzihalilovic, 2015)
Taxandria (Raoul Servais, 1994)
Small Soldiers (Joe Dante, 1998)
Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974)
Threads (Mick Jackson, 1984)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
Barbarella (Roger Vadim, 1968)

Les Astronautes (Chris Marker/Walerian Borowczyk, 1959)
The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise, 1951)
Pulse (Kiyoshi Kurosawa, 2001)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
The Impossible Voyage (Georges Melies, 1904)
Cloverfield (Matt Reeves, 2008)
Ex Machina (Alex Garland, 2015)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
How I Live Now (Kevin Macdonald, 2013)
Electric Dragon 80,000 V (Sogo Ishii, 2001)

The Man in the White Suit (Alexander Mackendrick, 1951)
A Trip to Mars (Ashley Miller, 1910)
Steak (Quentin Dupieux, 2007)
Paris Qui Dort (Rene Clair, 1925)
Strange Days (Kathryn Bigelow, 1995)
The Brother From Another Planet (John Sayles, 1984)
Quintet (Robert Altman, 1979)
The Falls (Peter Greenaway, 1980)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
Charleston Parade (Jean Renoir, 1927)

The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise, 1971)
The Moon at One Meter (Georges Melies, 1898)
La Mort en Direct (Bertrand Tavernier, 1980)
The '?' Motorist (Walter Booth, 1906)
Zebraman (Takashi Miike, 2004)
The Absent-Minded Professor (Robert Stevenson, 1961)
2001 (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
District B13 (Pierre Morel, 2004)
The Boys from Brazil (Franklin Schaffner, 1978)

[Curtis, baby]

Gave 35 sci-fi films 4/5 or higher. Sounds good to me. Final ballot:

Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Stephen Herek, 1989)
La jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
Akira (Katsuhiro Ôtomo, 1988)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
The Atomic Submarine (Spencer Gordon Bennet, 1959)

Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)
Colossus: The Forbin Project (Joseph Sargent, 1970)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)
Electric Dragon 80.000 V (Sogo Ishii, 2001)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Predator (John McTiernan, 1987)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)
The Lost World (Harry O. Hoyt, 1925)
World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973)
Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956)

Starman (John Carpenter, 1984)
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)
The Creation of the Humanoids (Wesley Barry, 1962)
Ikarie XB 1 (Jindřich Polák, 1963)
It Happened Tomorrow (René Clair, 1944)
The Nutty Professor (Jerry Lewis, 1963)

Her (Spike Jonze, 2013)
Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Fantastic Planet (René Laloux, 1973)
A Trip to the Moon (Georges Méliès, 1902)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
End of Animal (Jo Sung-hee, 2010)

[Curtis, baby]

I'll go with 50 favorites, ranked in 5 tiers. Probably gonna shuffle things around a bit but this is a good start.

Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
Speed Racer (Lilly Wachowski / Lana Wachowski, 2008)
Ghosts of Mars (John Carpenter, 2001)
Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2012)
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (Yasuhiro Takemoto/ Tatsuya Ishihara, 2010)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams, 2012)
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)

The Tingler (William Castle, 1959)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda, 2006)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)
Ascension of the Demonoids (George Kuchar, 1985)
The Inhuman Woman (Marcel L’Herbier, 1924)
Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)

you have They Live twice!

[...]

What are you looking at for the closing date for this poll? Thanks to magpies "liking it" I refound a list of Soviet sci-fi films I've been meaning to watch and many of them are online, so lots of new viewing ahead!

I started with Medvedkin's 1938 film The New Moscow and so far it's pretty great. Already a few laugh out loud moments, or LOLs as I guess you youngsters call them. I'm hoping it'll make the list and some of the others look promising too.

[wba]

What a coincidence! I was just researching and compiling a list of 100 from my favorite films which fit the sci-fi genre on letterboxd the last few days!

I've come up with 96 titles so far. Guess I'll post a Top 100 here soon.

PS: I'm not a Sci-Fi fan at all! So I was very suprised to find out I have actually around 100 favorite films which fit this genre. Film history is full of wonders...

[Umbugbene]

1. Stalker (Tarkovsky)
2. Alphaville (Godard)
3. Solyaris (Tarkovsky)
4. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick)
5. Melancholia (von Trier)
6. Blade Runner (Scott)
7. The Naked Jungle (Haskin)
8. Seconds (Frankenheimer)
9. Epidemic (von Trier)
10. Les créatures (Varda)

11. World on a Wire (Fassbinder)
12. Barbarella (Vadim)
13. Zardoz (Boorman)
14. Fata Morgana (Herzog)
15. Metropolis (Lang)
16. Liquid Sky (Tsukerman)
17. Treasure of the Bitch Islands (Ossang)
18. The Truman Show (Weir)
19. Escape from Tomorrow (Moore)
20. The Falls (Greenaway)

21. The Nutty Professor (Lewis)
22. Heart of the World (Maddin)
23. The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner)
24. Hare-Way to the Stars (Jones)
25. Face of Another (Teshigahara)
26. Logan's Run (Anderson)
27. Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century (Jones)
28. Neo-Tokyo (Taro, Kawajiri, Otomo)
29. Star Wars (Lucas)
30. The Monster that Challenged the World (Laven)

31. The Damned (Losey)
32. The Golem: How He Came into the World (Wegener)
33. Voyage to the Moon (Méliès)
34. King Kong (Cooper, Schoedsack)
35. Conquest of the North Pole (Méliès)
36. Aelita: Queen of Mars (Protazanov)
37. Mon oncle (Tati)
38. Arrival (Villeneuve)
39. The Martian (Scott)
40. Get Out! (Peele)

41. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick)
42. Prometheus (Scott)
43. Morgan (L. Scott)
44. Eraserhead (Lynch)
45. Je t'aime, Je t'aime (Resnais)
46. Cremaster Cycle (Barney)
47. Black Moon (Malle)
48. Sexmission (Machulski)
49. The Rover (Michôd)
50. The Woman on the Moon (Lang)

[arkheia]

I'll go with 50 favorites, ranked in 5 tiers. Probably gonna shuffle things around a bit but this is a good start.

Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
Speed Racer (Lilly Wachowski / Lana Wachowski, 2008)
Ghosts of Mars (John Carpenter, 2001)
Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul W.S. Anderson, 2012)
The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya (Yasuhiro Takemoto/ Tatsuya Ishihara, 2010)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (John Hyams, 2012)
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)

The Tingler (William Castle, 1959)
Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (Mamoru Hosoda, 2006)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)
Ascension of the Demonoids (George Kuchar, 1985)
The Inhuman Woman (Marcel L’Herbier, 1924)
Shin Godzilla (Hideaki Anno, 2016)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)

you have They Live twice!

Ah, thanks for catching that! I've just fixed it now.

[wba]

The Head (Victor Trivas, 1959)
La Jetee (Chris Marker, 1962)
Mad Max (George Miller, 1979)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Robert Wise, 1979)
Burial Ground (Andrea Bianchi, 1981)
Outland (Peter Hyams, 1981)
Tron (Steven Lisberger, 1982)
Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis (Giorgio Moroder, 1984)
The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)
Angel’s Egg (Mamoru Oshii, 1985)
Night on the Galactic Railroad (Gisaburo Sugii, 1985)
The Red Spectacles (Mamoru Oshii, 1987)
Batman (Tim Burton, 1989)
The Master of Shiatsu (Sogo Ishii, 1989)
Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade (Hiroyuki Okiura, 1998)
Avalon (Mamoru Oshii, 2001)
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem (Kazuhisa Takenochi/Hirotoshi Rissen/Daisuke Nishio, 2003)
Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin, 2006)
The Sky Crawlers (Mamoru Oshii, 2008)


The Mysterious Island (Benjamin Christensen/Lucien Hubbard/Maurice Tourneur, 1929)
King Kong (Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968)
You Are a Widow, Sir (Vaclav Vorlicek, 1971)
Superman (Richard Donner, 1978)
Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
Moonraker (Lewis Gilbert, 1979)
Saturn 3 (Stanley Donen, 1980)
Burst City (Sogo Ishii, 1982)
Kin-dza-dza! (Georgiy Daneliya, 1986)
The Sacrifice (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1986)
Royal Space Force – The Wings Of Honneamise (Hiroyuki Yamaga, 1987)
Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis, 1989)
Cyborg (Albert Pyun, 1989)
Back to the Future Part II (Robert Zemeckis, 1990)
Neon Genesis Evangelion – Death & Rebirth (Hideaki Anno/Masayuki/Kazuya Tsurumaki, 1997)
Being John Malkovich (Spike Jonze, 1999)
Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (Takashi Miike, 2006)
Man of Steel (Zack Snyder, 2013)


The Lost World (Harry O. Hoyt, 1925)
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Rouben Mamoulian, 1931)
Alraune (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1951)
Revenge oft he Creature (Jack Arnold, 1955)
The Fly (Kurt Neumann, 1958)
Amphibian Man (Vladimir Chebotaryov/Gennadi Kazansky, 1961)
Phantasm (Don Coscarelli, 1979)
Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
Clash of the Warlords (Willy Milan, 1985)
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Hayao Miyazaki, 1984)
Captain America (Albert Pyun, 1990)
The Rocketeer (Joe Johnston, 1991)
Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1992)
August in the Water (Sogo Ishii, 1995)
Waterworld (Kevin Reynolds, 1995)
I Married a Strange Person! (Bill Plympton, 1997)
Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku, 2000)
Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan, 2000)
Superman II (Richard Donner, 2006)


Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
The Mad Scientist (Dave Fleischer, 1941)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (Jack Arnold, 1957)
Argoman the Fantastic Superman (Sergio Grieco, 1967)
The Star Wars Holiday Special (Steve Binder/David Acomba, 1978)
Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
The Brood (David Cronenberg, 1979)
Altered States (Ken Russell, 1980)
Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981)
Dallos (Mamoru Oshii, 1983)
Supergirl (Jeannot Szwarc, 1984)
Bad Blood (Leos Carax, 1986)
RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)
Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1988)
Twelve Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1996)
Contact (Robert Zemeckis, 1997)
Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998)
Signs (M. Night Shyamalan, 2002)
Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman, 2014)


X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (Roger Corman, 1963)
A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
Megaforce (Hal Needham, 1982)
The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
Predator 2 (Stephen Hopkins, 1990)
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1997)
The Postman (Kevin Costner, 1997)
Titan A.E. (Don Bluth, 2000)
Mutant Aliens (Bill Plympton, 2001)
Wonderful Days (Moon-saeng Kim, 2003)
The Door (Anno Saul, 2009)
Kaboom (Gregg Araki, 2010)
RoboCop (José Padilha, 2014)
10 Cloverfield Lane (Dan Trachtenberg, 2016)
Glass (M. Night Shyamalan, 2018)
Ad Astra (James Gray, 2019)
Domino (Brian De Palma, 2019)
Happy Death Day 2U (Christopher Landon, 2019)

[Roscoe]

1. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
2. A TRIP TO THE MOON (Georges Melies, 1902)
3. STALKER (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
4. HER (Spike Jonze, 2013)
5. CHILDREN OF MEN (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
6. METROPOLIS (Fritz Lang, 1927)
7. THE FLY (David Cronenberg, 1986)
8. A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (Spielberg, 2001)
9. DUCK DODGERS IN THE 24th 1/2 CENTURY (Chuck Jones, 1952)
10. THE THING (Hawks/Nyby, 1951)
11. THE THING (John Carpenter, 1982)
12. HARD TO BE A GOD (Aleksei German, 2013)

A SCANNER DARKLY (Richard Linklater, 2006)
ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979)
LA JETEE (Chris Marker, 1962)
THE HIDDEN (Jack Sholder, 1987)
FELLINI SATYRICON (Fellini 1969)
TWELVE MONKEYS (Terry Gilliam, 1995)
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (Michel Gondry, 2004)
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
STAR WARS (George Lucas, 1977)
THX-1138 (George Lucas, 1971)
SOLARIS (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
A, B, AND C episode of THE PRISONER (Pat Jackson, 1967)

PLANET OF THE APES (Franklin Schaffner, 1968)
QUATERMASS AND THE PIT (Roy Ward Baker, 1967)


I don't think I can include FRANKENSTEIN or BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and ISLAND OF LOST SOULS on my list, they don't seem Science Fictionish enough to me, mileage will vary, they're horror movies to me. Likewise BRAZIL and especially TIME BANDITS -- I can't categorize it that way. Interesting. Dare I include the "A, B, and C" episode of THE PRISONER? (edit: I dared)

[flip]

What are you looking at for the closing date for this poll?

maybe mid-november? any deadline i set won't be strict - anyone who wants to participate will get a chance.

[...]

That's great. I just hope I get the chance to watch a good number of the movies I'd like to see this time.

On that note, I finished The New Moscow, found it charming, more than a bit subversive, but also a bit disjointed, which may have come from trying to get approval for it to be shown, or not having a chance to fully finish it in editing or just because Medvedkin seems to be a bit cavalier about continuity. Whatever the case, it's more romance than sci-fi, with only a bracketing concept of the hero having developed a mechanism that can project images of Moscow as it was and will become that suggests the movie for the genre, and as shown, it's only a very short scene at the start that shows that process as anything much more complex than a movie would be, as the bigger final section of the machine being shown in action basically appears as if it was on a screen. It's all quite enjoyable, but not nearly in the same class as Happiness, more along the lines of other romantic comedies I've seen from the Soviet Union, but with the leads and story being a good deal less orthodox in some ways, which is to the good, but not to the authorities liking evidently as the movie wasn't granted release.

And as Youtube suggested Moscow-Cassiopeia as the next video to watch, I guess I'll try that one and maybe it's sequel next.

[sally]

well i will be watching new moscow too, hard enough to get any medvedkin, and it's been on my watchlist for ages..

i'l be watching more than that though, so flip, mid to pushing out the end of november would be great

so far my short little list (will tidy up rank & generally edit later):

final edit:
1. stalker (andrei tarkovsky, 1979)
hard to be a god (aleksei german, 2013)
morning patrol (nikos nikolaidis, 1987)
on the silver globe (Andrzej Żuławski, 1988)
death watch (bertrand tavernier, 1980)
slow action (ben rivers, 2011)
the end of august at the hotel ozone (jan schmidt, 1967)
the falls (peter greenaway, 1980)
kin dza dza! (Georgiy Daneliya, 1986)
spaceballs (mel brooks, 1987)
zardoz (john boorman, 1974)
la jetee (chris marker, 1962)
dead man's letters (Konstantin Lopushansky, 1986)
les creatures (agnès varda, 1966)
the man from planet x (edgar g ulmer, 1951)
a bomb was stolen (Ion Popescu-Gopo, 1961)
the thousand eyes of dr. mabuse (fritz lang, 1960)
onesime clockmaker (jean durand, 1912)
amphibian man (Vladimir Chebotaryov, Gennadiy Kazanskiy, 1962)
anti-clock (jane arden, jack bond, 1979)
invasion (hugo santiago, 1969)
the end of the world (august blom, 1916)
Invisible Adversaries (Valie Export 1977)
The Extraordinary Adventures of Saturino Farandola (Marcel Perez 1913)
Demon Seed (Donald Cammell 1977)
The Snails (Rene Laloux 1966)
crimes of the future (david cronenberg, 1975)

tempted just to add innerspace because martin short at the supermarket checkout is one rare bright moment of happy family hysterics

[john ryan]

I seem to have enjoyed sci-fi 2013.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)
2. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
3. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
4. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1928)
5. Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
6. The Host (Bong Joon-ho, 2006)
7. Primer (Shane Carruth, 2004)
8. The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
9. Je T'aime, Je T'aime (Alain Resnais, 1968)
10. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, 2013)

The World's End (Edgar Wright, 2013)
Brazil (Terry Gilliam, 1985)
They Live (John Carpenter, 1988)
Upstream Color (Shane Carruth, 2013)
La Jetee (Chris Marker, 1962)
World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt, 2015)
2046 (Wong Kar-Wai, 2004)
The Heart of the World (Guy Maddin, 2000)
The Falls (Peter Greenaway, 1980)
Seconds (John Frankenheimer, 1966)

Dark City (alex Proyas, 1998)
12 Monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995)
Voices of a Distant Star (Makoto Shinkai, 2002)
2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2013)
Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro, 2013)
Aliens (James Cameron, 1986)
Melancholia (Lars von Trier, 2011)
Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983)

Cloud Atlas (Wachowskis, Tom Twyker, 2012)
Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)
Coherence (James Ward Byrkit, 2013)
Solaris (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1972)
Paprika (Satoshi Kon, 2006)
A Trip to the Moon (Georges Melies, 1902)
Fantastic Planet (Rene Laloux, 1973)
A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
Serenity (Joss Whedon, 2005)

Repo Man (Alex Cox, 1984)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Nicholas Meyer, 1982)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Nicolas Roeg, 1976)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)
Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam, 1981)
Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965)
Pitch Black (David Twohy, 2000)
Solaris (Steven Soderbergh, 2002)
The Face of Another (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1966)
Starman (John Carpenter, 1984)

Star Trek: First Contact (Jonathan Frakes, 1996)
Lifeforce (Tobe Hooper, 1985)
World on a Wire (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1973)
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (W.D. Richter, 1984)
Dark Star (John Carpenter, 1974)
Island of Lost Souls (Eric C. Kenton, 1932)
Phase IV (Saul Bass, 1974)
Planet of the Vampires (Mario Bava, (1965)
Time Masters (Rene Laloux, 1982)
Demon Seed (Donald Cammell, 1977)

The Damned (Joseph Losey, 1962)
Doppelganger (Kiyoshi Kurasawa, 2003)
Treasure of the Bitch Islands (F.J. Ossang, 1990)
Love in the Time of Twilight (Hark Tsui, 1995)
On the Comet (Karel Zeman, 1970)
The Nines (John August, 2007)
Timecrimes (Nacho Vigalondo, 2007)
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (Karel Zeman, 1958)
The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007)
Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981)

[...]

Man I'm such a sucker for Soviet sci-fi and fantasy movies. I just watched three of them from the same studio, two were a connected story and the third was released shortly after the others back in '74 & '75.

The first two, Moscow-Cassiopeia and Teens in the Universe, were lots of fun, if you can get on board, so to speak, with the Soviet movie conventions. The plot is basically an anime like one, a young teen genius figures out how to make a near light speed interstellar engine and proposes a mission to Cassiopeia crewed by teenagers of his own age since the flight will take 50 years round trip, which makes 14 year olds the perfect crew to be in their prime when they reach Cassiopeia and still be able to return. That return, though, would be 500 years later earthtime due to the laws of relativity. The Soviet government, ever willing and able to recognize true genius in whatever guise, agrees to the mission as they've received radio signals from the area of Cassiopeia suggesting an advanced civilization is on one of the planets orbiting the star and that warrants investigation.

The first of the two movies is mostly concerned with getting permission for the flight and the preparations for it, but, like in an anime, there is also a second plot revolving around an anonymous love letter the young genius and leader of the team, Viktor, received as he tries to figure out which of his classmates and possible crew members sent it. The movie is an odd mix of goofy comedy, seriousness, and fantasy, as we are introduced to the movie by one of the characters, a mysterious figure calling himself A.S.A., As specifically appearing. He addresses us directly, saying the movie is absolutely true and is happening next summer, while also appearing in the movie to nudge events in the proper direction with some special powers he seems to have. The second movie picks up where the first left off, with the kids in space, and then shows them arriving at the planet that sent, what they find out, was a distress signal and how they deal with it.

Some of things I find enjoyable about the movies are in how they basically elide so many plot beats that one might normally expect from a US movie or Japanese one for that matter. The preparations for the mission, for example, require selecting the team of crew members and preparing them for space, which one might think would make for scenes showing the winnowing down process of potential crew members from the classmates, or the training they needed to go through, or even just how the ship itself was built, but the movie just jumps past all that and shows the crew assembled and the ship built, with only a few scenes of adjustments that needed to be made. Like a number of other Soviet films, particularly those aimed at younger audiences, the characters are assumed largely competent, minimally competitive, with some mostly intellectual disagreements, and all working towards the same end, so without much of the kinds of character conflicts so common to US movies, and which are much the point of them. In the Soviet movies, the science part is given much more emphasis, though obviously with some room for more fantastic elements to help the plot and thoughts/ideas are given more weight than emotions, again unlike the US where the emotional element usually takes the fore. That isn't to say there isn't any emotional drama, as the romance part does play in, just that the overall tone is much drier in a fascinating kind of way.

The two movies have different sorts of purposes to them, with the first being almost melancholic towards its end, while the second in dealing with the planet, gets quite weird. The inhabitants of the planet used their technology to try and bring about complete happiness for their population, but things went badly, in a vaguely Skynet-Brave New Worldish sort of way with robots basically happying the inhabitants to death. It's a very Soviet kind of message, lobbed in the general area, I think, of disagreement with western culture of the time, which leads to something like hippie/trippy robots. It's weird, but fun.

The third movie, The Big Space Journey or Big Space Travel, I liked even better. It's something like a movie that Wes Anderson wishes he could make, while looking nothing like a Wes Anderson movie. A group of three young teens are to accompany an older commander into space as training for suitability as cosmonauts. The commander takes ill and the three teens have to take over control of the journey.

The space flight elements are a bit less fanciful than in the other two movies, the mission is just to get through the journey, but the teens are treated more like teens rather than small adults for the most part, though they still show some moments of exceptional competence in their abilities, though in a strangely grounded way. I mean one big threat they face is shown being overcome by a tense scene of one of them soldering a circuit board. The competence though is matched by some really delightful scenes of kids being kids trying to be responsible adults. Like when facing a big problem, they first go get ice cream before tackling it, or, even better, when the young woman decides the best thing for the three of them to do would be to dance. The movie features several musical interludes and flashbacks that show how they came to be onboard together, how one of the boys and the girl started to date, and even provides some queerish vibes between the two boys as well, though meant to be read more as comradeship I'm sure. The energy or flow of the movie is suited to the kids and the story in that way, not fitting much of any more commercial convention and there are some twists that really take things in a different direction. And there is also a space kitty.

One other thing that really got me, was that the girl, who is really the star of the movie, is Ludmilla Berlinskaya, a famous classical pianist, in her only film role. She's really compelling in the role, with a very unusual presence that must have come from being part of a famous family and being a surprisingly accomplished artist at such a young age. She even sings a couple of the songs in the movie. The Big Space Journey is definitely going to make my list and I gotta recommend it, even though I suspect it won't be as well liked by some people as much as it was by me.

http://youtu.be/MuqiPyaMhI4

Glad we had this poll so I have reason to check out more Soviet sci-fi.

[sally]

s'funny us doing this poll now, what with the scorsese superhero palaver. we're so contrary.

i started properly with august blom's verdens undergang. the scandinavians just owned the mid 1910's. so gorgeous, and the special effects were pretty special (were they building a dam or something or did they just set fire to and flood a random village?) and the looming comet was more ominous for being almost innocuous until the sparks came. LIGHT IS CALLING!!!!!!! (thx bill morrison)

[nrh]

A group of three young teens are to accompany an older commander into space as training for suitability as cosmonauts. The commander takes ill and the three teens have to take over control of the journey.

i've always kind of wondered why, out of all the famous sci-fi novels that were never adapted for film, something as obviously commercial as heinlein's juveniles were never adapted. although i guess you can say that for a lot of the classic english language science fiction literature.

[pabs]

I like how "sci-fi" here can include so many films I probably wouldn't have even dared consider including on my list before, such as Repo Man!

Repo Man (Cox)
Solaris (Tarkovsky)
Stalker (Tarkovsky)
Les créatures (Varda)
Alien (Scott)
Frankenstein (Whale)
Bride of Frankenstein (Whale)
Brand Upon the Brain! (Maddin)
Videodrome (Cronenberg)
La Jetée (Marker)
The Man Who Fell to Earth (Roeg)
Seconds (Frankenheimer)
Star Wars (Lucas)



Hope to see:

World on a Wire

[...]

i've always kind of wondered why, out of all the famous sci-fi novels that were never adapted for film, something as obviously commercial as heinlein's juveniles were never adapted. although i guess you can say that for a lot of the classic english language science fiction literature.

US cinema, in a general sense, really isn't fit well to science fiction in its "harder" sense. Hollywood prefers science fiction as fantasy, good vs evil but with aliens and space ships or whatnot, and science fiction as horror, dysptopias and monster kind of stuff. The main reason for that, I think, comes from Hollywood's main story being of, in pop psych terms, individual actualization, where the stories are filtered around a central figure who learns how to be the best they can be, by some narrow measure, or in coming to understand the value of others by dint of their sacrifice for the protagonist. Like the Disney version of that is constantly revolving around the importance of friends, as if that is the signal feature that differentiates good from bad. It's a very adolescent world view that places the individual "hero" at the center of its universe, even when they do have "friends" as that friendship is generally shown as unequal in effect because the stories are so often based around "the one", which is who the audience is expected to "identify" with.

Other national cinemas follow somewhat different patterns and science fiction can find wider or at least different purpose in those other nations. One of the key differences is often in the value placed on the group or society as a whole versus "the one" or individual perspective. In Soviet films, for example, there is a much greater emphasis placed on ego sublimation, where the group of "heroes" act without concern for individual interests, placing the larger group or national interests first. That better suits some forms of "hard " sci-fi because the questions or issues raised are not as effectively understood on an individual level as they are a wider one of societal effect. The nature of science fiction points more towards that model, which works well enough in the US for dystopias that threaten what are seen as individual rights as the big picture can be understood through the small, but it doesn't work as well for the kind of emotionally centered story telling Hollywood likes when the issues have reach beyond any one person or small group. Both approached have their own problems, the Soviet version is the more authoritarian, but also fits some more idealistic concepts that Hollywood finds difficult to adapt.

It isn't that there hasn't been any "hard" science fiction movies in the US of course, and in recent years there seems to be an increasing amount of them, both in theaters and on TV, the conventions of the latter of which being much better suited to showing larger scale effect to some degree, but it isn't anything like a dominant form of the genre here and the movies that do get made are often smaller scale and likewise find smaller audiences that like those movies as they don't fit conventions well enough for mass audiences, but tend to often have a longer than normal shelf life for the audience they do find. As I say though, that is generalizing things, but seems to be at least somewhat the case judging from what I've seen.

[nrh]

The main reason for that, I think, comes from Hollywood's main story being of, in pop psych terms, individual actualization, where the stories are filtered around a central figure who learns how to be the best they can be, by some narrow measure, or in coming to understand the value of others by dint of their sacrifice for the protagonist.

this always makes me think of the famous stanislaw lem quote regarding the two adaptations of solaris -

"Summing up, as Solaris‘ author I shall allow myself to repeat that I only wanted to create a vision of a human encounter with something that certainly exists, in a mighty manner perhaps, but cannot be reduced to human concepts, ideas or images. This is why the book was entitled “Solaris” and not Love in Outer Space.”

but i think it goes beyond a us aversion to 'hard' science fiction; you don't have any representation of the sort of post '60s, post new worlds generation either. even something as massively popular as delaney's nova or leguin's left hand of darkness is simply unthinkable in us cinema, let alone a john crowley engine summer or an m. john harrison light. whereas with say crime fiction most if not all the major authors and movements are at least accounted for in one way or another.

watched richard kelly's box this week, which i had somehow missed on its original release. it is both very good with matheson paranoia and with creating the kind of fiction that once used to dominate the "slick magazines" and anthology shows in the 50s and 60s, updated through '70s paranoia movies and a weird recreation of childhood trauma of parental failing. as usual kelly kind of over-explains everything, but what's really of interest is a kind of internal emotional texture so the over explanation hardly matters.

[...]

Well, some reticence in taking bigger risks probably has some financial considerations baked in, where the props, setting, effects and all the associated elements needed to make a world look believable and yet different than our own adds a greater element of risk in needing a larger audience to profit. Given the mixed reaction people have had to some of the more recent science fiction films, like Arrival, Annihilation, or even more conventional stuff like Mortal Engines or Valaerian, I suspect there is a limit to how much they are willing to invest in properties that often seem to leave mass audiences cold or confused, while at the same time Hollywood is so convention driven in a narrow way, that it's only recently that they started to get past the white and male uniformity of Hollywood storytelling. They've trained audiences so well in what to expect that challenging that training is risky as a good chunk of the audience won't know how to react left without their conventions.

That's why I think TV is a better match, if some of these stories can be fit into reasonable budgets. The expectations around TV are less spectacle driven and allow for more room for writers to work and room for more character development as well which a lot of science fiction really needs. Still, I have to be somewhat pleased that movies like Arrival, Annihilation, Under the Skin and so on are getting a chance as it's something of a step in the right direction.