by Sam Juliano
Seven completed ballots have been received for the mid June launching of the Science Fiction Countdown. With a deadline of June 15th, it is certain many more will be forwarded in what is fast becoming another exciting venture at Wonders in the Dark after a slow build up. After the ballots are compiled by Voting Tabulator Extraordinaire Angelo A. D’Arminio Jr. a Top 50 countdown will commence for ten weeks up until the beginning of September.
Over the past week I have watched a bunch of older films, several Czechoslovakian masterpieces. Lucille and I did see one new release in the theaters and on Thursday night the Lincoln Center production of Rogers and Hammersteins’ The King and I at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. A sylish production with some spectacular sets and spirited singing, the production was a fine follow-up to the same company’s staging of South Pacific a few years back.
We saw:
The Lobster **** (Saturday night) Angelika Film Center
At home on DVD:
The Ninth Circle ***** (Yugoslavia; 1960)
Higher Principle ***** (Czechoslovakia; 1960)
All My Good Countrymen ***** (Czechoslovakia; 1968)
Birds, Orphans & Fools **** (Czechoslovakia; 1969)
Dragon’s Return **** 1/2 (Czechoslovakia; 1967)
Arrebato **** 1/2 (Spain; 1980)
Looking forward to the sci-fi series.
I just recently watched The Lobster and found it both charming and confounding, but as it sat with me, I’ve come around to it being a profound and creative portrait of modern relationships.
Great to hear that Aaron!
I also found THE LOBSTER somewhat confounding, though also charming as you note. I’ll have to give this another whirl! Your observations seem excellent my friend!
I am almost done with my own ballot. I definitely feel the excitement building.
Thanks Frank! Looking forward to seeing it!
Sam — I love The King and I. No matter how you slice it, I simply LOVE it!
Laurie, thank you! I am with you lock, stock and barrel on THE KING AND I! 🙂
Hey Sam hope all is well. That line-up of Czech films looks fabulous and those are many releases I still need to see. It reminds me of how film viewing is really a life’s journey and one will never come to the end of finding more and more great films to see. I’ve been so busy with family stuff and outdoors projects that it’s left little time for taking in any of the sci-fi films I’d planned to catch up on prior to the countdown. I’m strongly considering not submitting a ballot this time out of principle. I stated months ago that I have too many blindspots in the world of sci-fi. I’ve seen all the low-hanging fruit and could easily put together a top 50, but I’m missing some important but lesser known titles and I don’t think it’s fair to submit a ballot when I clearly know I’m potentially leaving off some important works. Most of my favorite works it looks will be at the top already, so I don’t think i’ll be adding to anything, but only potentially taking away from things like The Face of Another or Ikarie-Xb which I haven’t seen. I don’t want you to think I’m not supportive of the efforts, but maybe I’ll consider this more my chance to sit back and learn about some of these films that I haven’t seen. If you do need someone to fill in on essay writing I might be willing to consider helping. I wrote a piece on Blade Runner a few years ago that I’m pretty happy with for instance. Forbidden Planet is another personal fave, but I’m sure others will take those and be more deserving of writing on them. Anyways just wanted to check in. Hope all is well!
Jon, I really do completely understand what you are saying here. You’ve been amazing with every countdown to this point, and I well know this one for many is a specialty that requires a certain amount of viewing over a lengthy period of time. Hence not easy to catch up overnight. When the choices are revealed you can then decide if you want to write. You have done so much my friend, i fully understand.
Sam, I will try to do a ballot, but it won’t be easy. I fear I haven’t seen enough science fiction cinema.
Ricky, see what you can do. If you don’t feel you can make a stab I completely understand my friend.
Sam, hope you are doing great.
Been a bit off a whirlwind of late. Seeing your post reminded me that I really need to bolster my knowledge of Czech cinema at some point. At present, it is embarrassingly paltry.
A little quieter than I would like. But I did manage finally to catch up on the entirety of the first two seasons of Twin Peaks. As a fan of Lynch, I wanted to do so in preparation for the new episodes next year.