Films set in the "future" which is now our past

[butchersapron]

I meant Marker in that quote.

By ref to obscure i was referring to epona's bizarre claim that a) it's not known by filmmakers and and b) that someone like me would never have seen such an obscure film so i were, in fact, lying - the sort of thing expressed in the quote laptop replied to above. When it's self-evidently not obscure to either filmmakers or me. I'm still trying to get my head around what provoked that.

 

[maya]

AFAIK flying cars have been technically possible for many years now, it's just that someone have decided that it wouldn't be very practical to have drunken twats joyriding all across the sky, accidentally falling out of their fancy sportscars fifty metres up in the air, etc.- not to mention the hell it would be trying to police any sorts of official traffic lanes, as it would be obviously much more practical and enjoyable just swooshing your car around from A to B wherever you want or feel like it instead of following any invisible 'roads'... Also the sheer amount of traffic would clog up people's view and all you'd see in a city would be a sky of cars above your head!

Re. the future predictions thing, it's pretty funny that nobody really saw the collapse of the Soviet union/iron curtain, the fall of the Berlin wall etc. coming, until it happened... Anthony Burgess made up the nadsat slang of Russian-influenced english for A Clockwork Orange presumably because he thought the future could hold some development where Soviet influence and power would increase. Don't remember if they use that much of it in Kubrick's film version, they use certain words here and there but not whole sentences of it, IIRC...

IMHO Blade Runner at least got something right with the portrayal of DIY low tech customisations of official technology, see also the maker movement and the people tinkering around with circuits and tech projects today... Also the selection of 'genetically superior' vs. sick individuals with hereditary diseases and so on (for the off-earth colonies, only healthy people are allowed to go) sort of echoes much of the rhetoric today with abortion screening, denial of health insurance to smokers and people with serious illnesses like cancer etc.(the discrimination has not quite reached the same levels yet, but it is a trend already happening and could get worse in the future)

 

[DotCommunist]

it also predicted see-through umbrellas and the rise of ramen eating amongst westerners lol

 

[billy_bob]

Neither I, nor Belushi as I understand his post, were talking just about language.

Oh, I take Blade Runner embarassingly seriously. If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes, etc.

 

[andysays]

Twelve Monkeys is on BBC2 tonight at 11.05 Looks like it won't be on iPlayer, so you'll have to watch it live.

And for those of you who haven't watched La Jetee, (don't pretend, we know who you are) it's available on youtube



Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a complete version with English subs*, but here's an extract dubbed into English



*on youtube at least

 

[cypher79]

Mad Max.

Not actually sure what year it was supposed to be set it, but I'm pretty sure we've past it.

 

[seventh bullet]

Twelve Monkeys is on BBC2 tonight at 11.05 Looks like it won't be on iPlayer, so you'll have to watch it live.

And for those of you who haven't watched La Jetee, (don't pretend, we know who you are) it's available on youtube



Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a complete version with English subs*, but here's an extract dubbed into English



*on youtube at least

He was an admirer of Alexander Medvedkin and his 'film-train,' wasn't he? His shelved Stalin-era comedy New Moscow featured the never finished Palace of the Soviets (construction halted by the war), complete with a colossal Lenin statue on top.

 

[Frances Lengel]

What's that one set in Glasgow (they filmed it in Glasgow coz it was the most futuristic looking city in the uk)? A 70's effort. And they end up in a bothy near a beach for a bit. Fuck knows.

It was Death Watch anyway.

 

[stuff_it]

What Rollerball, Robocop and any other dystopian film about corporate supremacy get wrong is the abolishment of "democratically elected governments" to lend a veneer of legitimacy and a shroud for their activities.

There is a lot less anti-corporate stuff in the Robocop remake...

 

[Shippou-Sensei]

Akira is 2019.

 

[8den]

Akira is 2019.

And guess who is hosting the Olympics in 2020?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/kevintang/akira-predicted-the-2020-tokyo-olympics-and-the-internet-lov

I for one am looking forward to torch lighting ceremony for that one.

 

[Idris2002]

Things to Come. 1938's vision of world war, civilizational collapse, and then the gradual rebuilding of civilization by Utopian-minded Fabian engineers:

 

[Reno]

 

[ATOMIC SUPLEX]

Strange Days. . . .which predicted the evolution of the mini disc.

 

[AverageJoe]

We're a bit early on this one as it was set in 2018, but the original Rollerball (1975) is an interesting film because a fair bit of its story, which was Science Fiction at the time, is now already Science Fact

• Corporations controlling sports teams and being more powerful than governments
• The increase in speed and violence to be used as entertainment
• Multiple camera angles and big screen replays
• Population held in check via drugs and mass media
• The use of the collective to smother the individual (which I'm sure happened back then as well to be fair)
• A single searchable database that holds all the information ever written

There's others because its actually quite a subtle film that comments on a future whereby we have no real control over our actions; only those that we are allowed to make within the confines of advertising etc.

I've even bored myself, but its well worth getting hold of a copy to watch

Fucking hell. I actually wrote that six years ago and I seemed to make sense of myself then.

No idea who I am these days, certainly not that clever, insightful thrusting young pup.

Go (the old) me!

 

[JuanTwoThree]

From what I remember Fahrenheit451 isn't very specific but the technology in tne book and in the Truffaut film seems very much in the past of now.

 

[billy_bob]

From what I remember Fahrenheit451 isn't very specific but the technology in tne book and in the Truffaut film seems very much in the past of now.

In the Coda, Bradbury says it's set in 1999 - but that wasn't added until long after he first wrote it.

 

[Yossarian]

This was made in 1982 - not sure how accurate its depiction of present-day Texas is but my guess would be about 95%.