When cinema talks about tomorrow
NASA has drawn up a list of more or less plausible science fiction films. The ranking was made with the Science & Entertainment Exchange, a branch of the American Academy of Sciences that offers to help the entertainment industry with scientific realism. The ranking result is… worrying.
The most unlikely films:
2012 (2009) - VD0537
The Core (2003) - Fusion - VF7901
Armageddon (1998) - VA6399
Volcano (1997) - VV5487
Chain Reaction (1996) - Prosecution - VC2908
The 6th day (2000) - At the dawn of the 6th day - VA0118
What Do We Know? (2004)
The most credible films:
Gattaca (1997) - Welcome to Gattaca - VB2978
Metropolis (1927) - VM1969
The Earth Day Stood Still (1951) - The day the earth stopped - VJ5563
Woman In The Moon (1929)
The Thing From Another World (1951)
Jurassic Park (1993) - VJ7343
On the one hand, scientists who demand greater respect for science. NASA, beset with questions, for example felt compelled to create a site to reassure the public about the improbability of the script of the movie "2012": http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-ast ... nd-answers
On the other side, the film industry, which seeks to hit the spectators. Films often draw their strength from their link, or from the possibility of the link, with reality. They echo fears related to the political context, scientific discoveries and technological inventions peculiar to an era. Thus, the cinema has seized the various fears related to the historical context: the nuclear, the McCarthyism, the genetic manipulations, the robotization, etc. Today, what is worrying is tomorrow.
It is reassuring to see that NASA considers it unlikely that the end of the world will end in 2012, as well as the untimely stop of the rotation of the Earth's core as in the movie "The Core". But we can find less reassuring to see the film "Gattaca" to be at the top of the most credible films. When cinema imagines our future, it never portrays a pretty world of peace and prosperity. Projections are built against the backdrop of resource depletion, totalitarian society and technological drift. Nature is also often absent and cities are oppressive. It is interesting to analyze what films that imagine the future say about our concerns today. And if science fiction is right, there is something to wonder about, even worry.
The utopias of yesterday have become the counter-utopias of tomorrow. The enthusiasm of post-World War I for the progress of the industry gives way to the fear of alienation by the machine. The promise of a better future through advances in science and medicine has mutated into fear of a eugenic and totalitarian society. The imaginary images of geometric cities, as Le Corbusier could imagine, have turned into nightmarish images of prisons built on profound social inequalities. The technological invasion, the futuristic city and the perfect Man, here are some counter-utopias that have found echoes in the cinema and that NASA considers possible in the future.
In the cinema, the society of the future is often bathed in a multitude of technological inventions. This development is sometimes amusing, even useful, especially in the field of transport or communication, as in the trilogy Back from the future - Back to the future (VR1746, VR1747 and VR1748) but it sometimes reaches invasive proportions and ensures often a surveillance role that ultimately escapes human control as in the Matrix trilogy (VM0716 to VM0720). Here, as perhaps illustrated, is the transition from a utopia to a counter-utopia.
In fiction, the future is also often governed by totalitarian political regimes accompanied by a serious reduction of individual freedoms
3 movies to think about tomorrow
Here are 3 movies, produced at 3 different times, but the concerns of yesterday for tomorrow are still those of today. Here is a small selection that shows how utopias related to the progress of science and industry have become sources of concern.
Metropolis - by Fritz Lang (1926) - VM1969
The director Fritz Lang is one of the pioneers on a theme dear to science fiction: the figure of the android. Metropolis warns against the development of artificial intelligence and the loss of control of men on their technological inventions. The story takes place in 2026. Workers, numerous, weak and filthy work day and night to run machines that ensure the comfort of the richest, residing on the heights of the megalopolis. A woman, Maria, tries to lead the workers to revolt. The leader of the city then creates a woman-robot in the image of Maria to terrorize the people and maintain order establishes. The film is a real criticism of a class society. The end of the film is optimistic but does not correspond to the vision of the director, darker and more complex. Moreover, the city imagined in Metropolisquestionne also the viewer on the architecture of the future and the quality of life. The sets of the film are imbued with the strong impression made by the city of New York and its skyscrapers on the director during a visit. The film questions the future of these gourmet megacities and hectic where it is not always good life.
1984 - by Michael Radford (1984) - VM3708
1984 also speaks of the future and fears a totalitarian society. The film is the second interpretation of George Orwell's eponymous book published in 1950. Stalinism, McCarthyism and Nazism made fear the totalitarian and inquisitorial societies. The film depicts a world divided into 3: Eurasia, Estasia and Oceania who live under the reign of a master: the "Big Brother". This one is present everywhere and it even interferes in the intimacy of the hearths via telecrans. The film is a real criticism of a police regime. The world is at war, freedoms are reduced and controlled through a very intrusive and severe system of surveillance and propaganda present everywhere (via telephones, messages and posters "Big Brother is watching you"). Freedom of expression no longer exists. Even thoughts are watched. Just like in Metropolis, cities are worrying. The capital is an amalgam of apocalyptic constructions. The film denounces the cult of personality, totalitarian political systems, manipulation and misinformation.
Gattaca - Welcome to Gattaca - by Andrew Niccol (1997) - VB2978
In Welcome to Gattaca, this time it is a question of worrying about a society built on genetic selection. The title of the film is composed of the letters ACGT which are the building blocks of DNA. The film depicts a world where job candidates are selected on the basis of their genetic potential. A world that leaves no room for life and its accidents as can be witnessed by one of the central characters of the film, Jerome, a candidate for the conquest of space with the perfect genetic inheritance, but victim of a serious accident which leaves him disabled. This leaves then his place to Vincent, a natural child with imperfect genetic inheritance. What the film fears here is a future made of eugenics and genetic determinism in a cold and calculating world that values competition and individual success.
Frédérique Muller
Source: http://educationenvironnement.wordpress ... e-utopies/
