Lang's and Debra's Indian Tomb

There are two exciting movies directed by Fritz Lang that I loved as a kid. The first was the "Indian Tomb" or "Journey to the Lost City" (Das indische Grabmal). It was a 1959 German-French-Italian adventure drama film directed by Fritz Lang. The other is "The Tiger of Eschnapur" (Der Tiger von Eschnapur). Besides being exotic and thrilling, the top spot in the films was the marvelous dance performed by petite Debra Paget, of course. The lousy made fake cobra she has been dancing with in "Indian tomb" was sufficiently believable for the undemanding audience of the time, which was mesmerised by Debra's bold outfit and dancing moves, anyway.

 

 

Here Fritz Lang discusses the scene with Debra Paget.

Some of my book cover illustrations

Here are some of my book cover illustrations. Some are also my design. From top to bottom:
Tyrannosaurus rex vs. Triceratops horridus - Vijesti Hrvatskog geološkog društva ( Croatian geological survey's news magazine)
A pliosaur Liopleurodon on the cover of my book that hasn't been realised (yet), but the illustration was published in a National Geographic magazine.
"Power bites", a dinosaur poster published in 1993 by Scholastic.
"The Pirates": a self-promotional experimental cover.

 

 

 

 

Solaris

The film based on the novel by Stanislaw Lem (1961) could have been great. However, the version by Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) had a painfully slow pace for my taste, while the last version from 2002 was a bit better.
My book cover illustration (below) was published in Sci-Fi Art Now (2010)

My interview

Alien inspiration

When I first saw the film "Alien" I was thrilled. It really blew me off. However, a couple of decades later, I have found a movie that had a strong (mildly said) influence on Ridley Scott and Giger:
"Planet of the vampires". Although the acting is rather poor, the film is filled with cool visual effects, design and sound.

Art deco in vintage sci fi films

Although, heavily influenced by the prevailing art style of the respectful decades of their production, these movies are still incredible, when measured by the imagination and craftsmanship of their creators: German "Meropolis"(1927), Russian "Aelita:Queen of Mars"(1927) and British "The shape of things to come"(1936).

Other old sci fi films

These vintage sci fi movies are not on my "A" list, but in general, they were produced rather good for their time. One is a Russian "Planeta burg" from 1965, with some nice footage, cool robot (influenced by Robby the robot from Forbidden planet) and hardware designed, but also with some poor dinosaurs (people in rubber suits).
The other is "The first men in the Moon" after the novel by H.G.Wells. Some nice scenes and design, but something was missing to make this a great movie.
At last, there's also one film after the Wells's novel: "War of the worlds". In order to update it to the present time, the movie makers eliminated the Victorian feeling and the atmosphere that the original novel had. Spielberg tried to fix that flaw it in his remake, but rather unsuccessfully.

 

In 1968 "Planeta Burg"was butchered, by the new editing, adding some illogical scenes of some hippy-looking women standing beside the sea of the Venus. Supposedly they were the inhabitants of the planet. The movie as such, was "prepared" for the American audience and renamed into Voyage to the "Planet of Prehistoric Women". If you are intrigued, you can see the rubbish here.

Sci Fi trash movies

After seeing Forbidden planet I was hungry for more good sci fi. But good sci fi films were scarce at the time. They were creeping into the theatres in Zagreb at a painfully slow pace for my taste. So, I went to see whatever was showing.
Among the trashy stuff a couple of films stood out because of design and the special effects, which were rather good:
"First Spaceship on Venus" (German: "Der schweigende Stern") was an East German/Polish science fiction film directed by Kurt Maetzig in 1960 and loosely based on the "The Astronauts" by Stanislaw Lem. Supposedly Stanislaw hated the movie.
Japanese "The Mysterians" from 1957 had an interesting giant destroyer robot and some space crafts designed after the rocket ships from Dan Dare comic.

Is it me or the famous R2D2 looks a bit like the robot from "First spaceship on Venus"?

"First Spaceship on Venus" (German: "Der schweigende Stern", Polish: "Milcząca Gwiazda") is a 1960 East German/Polish science fiction film directed by Kurt Maetzig and based on the "The Astronauts" by Stanisła
Read more at http://stuffpoint.com/science-fiction/image/421044/first-spaceship-on-venus-poster-wallpaper/#dm02g7gY0uT7SgyY.99

Sci Fi milestones of the late 60's

The late 60's, to be precise the year 1968, gave us the two very important movies in the science fiction genre: The planet of apes and 2001: Space Odyssey.
I must admit I was a bit annoyed by the rather crude, inflexible ape masks in Planet of apes and an introductory part of 2001: Space Odyssey, playing with some highly dubious scientific premises (the pre-human hominids looking unconvincingly and living in the barren desert, hunting South American rain forest tapirs).
However, when I put aside these rather technical, minor flaws, the movies were spectacular and left a lasting impression on me.

 

Time Machine

The next couple of films which I loved as a kid were the Time machine and Journey to the centre of the earth. No need to say that I love watching them from time to time.

Although, the special effects are today light years away from the ones used in this film, they still look believable and the fact that the story and good acting are much more important than the effects themselves is very obvious in this case.

Forbidden Planet

This is one movie that blew me off when I was 6. I still love watching it. This Sci Fi film was way ahead of its time (filmed in 1956) and I still consider it to be the best Sci Fi movie of the previous century. I still haven't decided which one is the best in this century.