FAVOURITE FILMS 9- Alien (1979)

DIRECTED BY: Ridley Scott
WRITTEN BY: Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett
RELEASED: 1979

I'm sure it is no surprise to anyone that Alien is one of my favourite movies. The haunted house in space was written by Dan O'Bannon with the help of his friend Ronald Shusett. The writing  was postponed whilst O'Bannon went to work on Alejandro Jodorowsky's failed Dune adaptation in 1975. The screenwriters were stuck though. How does the Alien get on board the galactic mining rig? That was when Shusett came up with the idea that the Alien "screws" one of the crew and impregnates him. It was the birth (no pun) of one the scariest sci-fi moments of all time. If Jaws (1975) made everyone scared to go back into the water, then Alien made the audience shit-spooked of the dinner table. The scene with John "best actor ever" Hurt writhing in pain across the table, as the chestburster... bursts out of his chest, is the film's most famous scene and was hilariously parodied in Mel Brooks' Spaceballs (1987). 

I love the film. The gothic cathedral design of the Nostromo, the design of the creature (courtesy of H. R. Giger), Jerry Goldsmith's score and by god those opening titles! If you haven't seen it by now, then where the Martin Van Buren have you been! Go see it and watch the trailer too. 

My poster contains parts that stand out in my mind. 

• We have warrant officer Ellen Ripley (which introduced us to Sigourney Weaver), in the spacesuit.
• I placed MU/TH/UR, the ship's computer amongst the stars, because that's what it always reminded me off.
• We had to have the title and the most memorable tag-line of all time: In space no one can hear you scream. True story, when we did Space in Physics (circa Year 9), our teacher brought up this awesome quote and some know-it-all at the back complained that it was too cheesy. What an idiot!
• I had to include the egg from the poster, different to the one in the film, with the green glow emitting from it. 
• I also added the Alien. Where? Oh it's in there. Like in the film, the creature is hidden in the shadows.

I suppose I should talk about the other films.

Aliens (1986) I love. Its as good as the first one, buuuuuut I like the first film just a little more. I like the fact that Cameron didn't make a carbon copy of the first film. It' s an action film with some real scary moments, especially the scene where Ripley and Newt are locked in the Facehugger room. The reason it isn't on the list is because it didn't seem right putting two films of the same franchise on it. Let's say this spot goes to both. It should have stopped here.

Alien 3 (1992) was a decent film. I don't remember it being dreadful (they saved the best till last). However it did ruin the evolution of the Alien. It shouldn't be that it takes after whatever animal it impregnates. There was no indication of this in any of the other films. However, I liked the cinematography and idea of the prison planet. It managed to create an atmosphere similar to the original film. I never liked the Newt/ Hicks death, but -sigh- it's too late now. 

Alien Resurrection (1997) was awful, a truly terrible movie that just killed the the idea of any other good Alien films. It turned what was once a serious franchise into a comic book movie. I can't talk about it now- one day though!

Alien VS Predator (2004)... Oh go SO to hell!

FAVOURITE FILMS 10- Metropolis (1927)

DIRECTED BY: Fritz Lang
WRITTEN BY: Thea Von Harbou
RELEASED: 1927

Metropolis was the brainchild of Fritz Lang and his (then) wife, Thea Von Harbou. The film was released in 1927 and has become a must- see in science fiction. 

Why do I like it? Because of the scope. This is an epic film, a cast of thousands, terrific sets and a story of class division, an evil scientist and not to mention one of the greatest robots ever designed. I'm also a slave to art deco futures. I love reading old Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers comics and seeing the designs of futuristic cities, as if the 1933 World's Fair continued. The Special effects were amazing for its day, combining miniatures, stop motion and inventing the Schüfftan process, I'll explain:

A mirror is a placed at a 45 degree angle, between the camera and the actors on set. The set is only partly built. The mirror is only reflective on the top half and this reflects a scale model/ matte painting of the rest of the set. The result is what you finally see on screen.

As you can see the design didn't change much. The only difference is the robot, where originally I had those awesome charging beams, replaced in the final with the pentagram and wires. This takes up less room.

My poster includes things that stand out to me, Evil Maria's wild dance, Rotwang the mad scientist, the ten hour clock, the MOLOCH dream, the best title screen in cinema and the Robot, with that odd Pentagram (upside-down) behind.

Separating the elements by colour was an interesting idea. The seductive Evil Maria is a cool blue to represent the night life popular in 1920s Germany. The Robot is gold because the classic Poster (plus it was the visual inspiration for C-3PO). The clock is a steel blue found in industrial settings. Rotwang, the mad scientist, is green indicating a venomous quality to him. Finally Freder is red, for his noble attitude, and wealth. I feel the background had to be black to make it stand out. I'm not really sure if I cracked Freder and Rotwang, but I think you know who they are. My favourite is the dancing Maria. As soon as I started drawing her I thought "Hmmm... She's got to be blue!". It's a black and white film so I can do what I want. 
That title really f****ing p**sed me off, especially  in the colouring.