American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 41

beautiful La Jetee (12/18 and 12/19,

city Alpha 60, a place as overtly sterile
and oppressive as Paris in 1965, because

with

Alphaville) is an experiment in form
composed of still photographs that
poetically examines the very nature of
film. This type of meta-cinema illustrates
the static qualities of a humanity
deprived of memories - it can have no
past and no future. In Truffaut's

it is Paris in 1965. William Cameron

Menzies' 1936

epic Things to Come (1/2)
features a Londonesque Everytown that
has been bombed into the Stone Age and
resurrected as a shiny technological
marvel that is considered more important
than the needs of individual citizens.

Fahrenheit 451 (12/19), an oppressor
reevaluates his moral

Away

from the menacing
architecture of the city, the highways of
the next century, where 1970s-style hot¬
rods are the last vestige of civilization,
are no place for a family road trip. Two
films screening on 1/1 illustrate this
point: the ultra-violent and delightfully
campy Death Race 2000 offers a
sneering commentary on celebrity status,
while Mad Max conveys a future where
sheer physical force and a well-built
muscle-car are the route to power in the
post-apocalyptic Australian outback.
Chris Marker and Frangois
Truffaut both consciously look outside
the cinema to investigate the hyperauthoritative future. Marker's stunningly

discovers
age

position, and

a cryogenic
sleep in 2173, where he confronts a

Brave New World that can't make heads
tails of his

20th-century neuroses.
really be so bad?
We're only days away from finding out.
For complete screening details, contact
the American Museum of the Moving
Image at (718) 784-0077; website:
http://www.ammi.org.
■
or

Will the future

world outside the modern

the world of literature.

Of course, dark and portentous
future scenarios have also been mined

for their

freak who awakens from

satiric

possibilities. Terry

Gilliam's Brazil (12/11 and 12/12) is a
willfully absurd variation on the theme,
with faulty plumbing at its neurotic heart.
The future feels like an antiquated past
in which technology looks expensive, but
is mostly just quaint and naive. In
Demolition
Man
(1/2), political
correctness poses a greater threat to
humanity than out-of-control technology.
And Woody Allen's Sleeper (12/26) is a
delightfully paranoid farce about a health

Submissions for "Production Slate" may
be sent to the attention of Editorial
Assistant

Doug Bankston at 1782 N.
Orange Dr., Hollywood, California,

90028.

Please include full contact

information.

Images may be sent as
prints, or digital files (Mac
Photoshop TIFF format, 300dpi, on Zip or
Jaz drives). Information may also be emailed to doug_bankston @cinem
atographer.com. Materials will not be
color slides,

returned without

□2™ (24 plus 2 bonus issues) for $59.95 - $2.31
D1 YEAR (12 issues) for $29.95 -$2.50 per copy!
Gift Recipient:

self-addressed,

stamped envelope.

per

This Gift is From:

Name

(Please print)

Address

(Please print)

Address

City

State

City

Zip

Country

State

Country

Payment Method
□

Charge

Check enclosed

DVISA

my:

DM/C

DAmEx

Card#

Exp

Signature

(required)

Phone (

copy!

)

Fax (

)

*Canada/Mexico: One year (12 monthly issues) $49.95 * Two years (24 plus 2 bonus issues) $89.95
*AII Other Countries: One year

^Payment must

accompany

Mail to: American

(12 monthly issues) $69.95 * Two
order in U.S. currency only.

years

(24 plus 2 bonus issues) $129.95

Cinematographer * P.0. Box 2230 * Hollywood, CA 90099-5294

(888) 440-9633 (U.S. Only) * (323) 969-4344 (All Areas) * Fax Orders: (323) 876-4973 * www.cinematographer.com

Zip

American Cinematographer - December 1999

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 1999