Catherine Bray

O potencial cinematográfico (e não só) da ficção científica é quase infinito. É nestes filmes que os nossos maiores pesadelos podem tornar-se realidade e os nossos sonhos concretizar-se, ao mesmo tempo que é dito e posto em causa algo sobre o nosso presente. E o género sempre fez as delícias do público, desde o tempo dos efeitos especiais básicos e rudimentares dos filmes mudos ao excesso digital dos blockbusters contemporâneos. Hoje, no entanto, é a própria crítica quem aplaude e celebra muitos destes filmes, tal como acontece com os super-heróis e o terror. A pensar nisso, elegemos os 100 melhores filmes de ficção científica de sempre. Recomendado: Filmes em cartaz esta semana

Adèle Exarchopoulos adını bir kenara yazın. Bu yetenekli Fransız aktrisin çıkış rolü şimdiden Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve veya Jeanne Moreau gibi Fransız sineması ikonlarının benzer yaşlardaki başarılarını gölgede bıraktı. Mübalağa etmiyoruz, zira bu isimler 19 yaşındayken ancak biraz tiyatro, birkaç başarısız film ve bikinili pozlarla gündeme gelebiliyordu. ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ gibi Altın Palmiye kazanmış filmlerde rol almamışlardı. Mayıs’ta Cannes Film Festivali’nin jüri başkanı Steven Spielberg, Palmiye’yi filmin yönetmeni Abdellatif Kechiche’in yanı sıra Exarchopoulos ve beyazperdedeki sevgilisi Léa Seydoux’ya da vererek üçe bölmeyi tercih etti.   Seydoux ve Exarchopoulos açık seks sahnelerinin haftalar süren çekimleri boyunca istismar edildiklerini öne sürünce tartışma çıktı. Yönetmen ‘küçük düşürüldüğünü’ söyleyerek tepki verdi. Yetmezmiş gibi, filmin temel aldığı çizgi romanın yazarı Julie Maloh, üç ismi birden lezbiyen seksinin heteroseksüel bir fantezisini yaratmakla suçladı… Exarchopoulos’u Paris’te yakalayıp, genç yaşta böylesine fırtınalı bir tartışmanın ortasında kalmanın nasıl bir şey olduğunu sordum.   ‘Blue is the Warmest Color’daki seks sahnelerini çekmeden önce Léa Seydoux’yla tanışma şansınız oldu mu?Çekimden önce iki kere buluştuk, ama çok kısa sürdü. İlk çektiğimiz bir seks sahnesiydi. Yani tanışmamız “Selam! Sen çıplaksın, ben de çıplağım! Biraz tuhaf.” şeklinde oldu. Ama biraz da oyun gibiydi, arkadaşça vuruldum ona. Güçlü bir ilişkimiz va

It’s become something of a cliché to hear people moaning about the gulf between science fiction and science fact. It’s the twenty-first century, they cry, and we still don’t live on the moon, most of us aren’t subsisting on a diet of mysterious soya proteins, and we can’t jetpack to work. We have to make do with smartphones, the internet and not dying of polio. Boo-hoo. But, while we’re not expecting to be able to take a holiday on Mars any time soon, there are a few sci-fi inventions that we reckon would create an immediate and lasting improvement in our lives. So if you’ve ever wondered what your dog was thinking or felt the need for a little hands-free pleasure, read on… RECOMMENDED: The 100 best sci-fi movies

Al inicio de Elle: abuso y seducción, el último crédito en aparecer en la oscuridad (mientras de fondo se escuchan personas teniendo sexo) nos dice que estamos a punto de ver una películas de Paul Verhoeven. ¿No, en serio? Llámalo una deliciosa redundancia. Elle podría ser el mejor filme de Verhoeveny hasta ahora, gracias a su disposición de apretar botones, explorar territorio transgresivo y tomar el placer para aventurarse a un territorio que la mayoría de los cineastas temerían pisar si quiera ligeramente. Después de todo, se trata del hombre que nos dio Bajos instintos (1992) y Showgirls (1995). Adaptada por David Birke de la novela de Philippe Djian, Elle tiene un as bajo la manga en forma de Isabelle Huppert, quien da una actuación feroz (e impecablemente vestida) como Michele, la fundadora de una compañía de videojuegos que vive en París. ¿Y esos gemidos que escuchamos al inicio? Michele es violada en su sala por un asaltante enmascarado... como si su vida no hubiera sido lo suficientemente dura: es hija de un muy señalado asesino serial. Quizá por haber crecido con el desprecio de los medios de comunicación y el público es la razón por la que ella no responde de una forma convencional a la agresión que sufrió pero empieza a buscarlo, y comienza así una historia desafiante que seguramente inquietará y hasta molestará a algunos (no a los seguidores de Verhoeven). Elle es al menos tres películas en una: la primera, es una comedia situacional que involucra al hijo adulto

At the start of 'Elle', the final credit to appear in the darkness (over the sounds of fucking) tells us that we’re about to watch a Paul Verhoeven film. Really? Call it a delicious redundancy. 'Elle' might just be the most Verhoeveny film yet, due to its willingness to push buttons, explore transgressive territory and take constant delight in venturing where the vast majority of filmmakers would fear to tread even lightly. This is, after all, the man who gave us 'Basic Instinct' and 'Showgirls'. Adapted by David Birke from the novel by Philippe Djian, 'Elle' has an ace up its sleeve in the form of Isabelle Huppert, who gives a fierce (and impeccably dressed) performance as Michele, a video-game–company founder living in Paris. Those midcoital moans we heard? Michele is being raped in her living room by a ski-masked assailant. Already, her life’s been hard: she’s the daughter of a notorious mass murderer. Perhaps growing up despised by the media and the public is part of why she does not respond conventionally to her attacker but begins to seek him out, in a challenging story that will surely upset a lot of people (not that Verhoeven minds). 'Elle' is really at least three films at once: First, there’s the comedy of manners involving Michele’s adult son, mother, ex-husband and their respective other halves. A dinner party plays out exquisitely, with many tiny moments to cherish, not least Michele forgetting – or bitchily pretending to forget – the name of her Liza Minnelli–es

Lorsque se met à défiler le générique final de ‘Elle’, et qu’apparaît à l’image le nom de Paul Verhoeven, on se dit qu’on vient peut-être bien de voir son film le plus fort en matière de transgression, d’excès, de dépassement des limites dont d’autres cinéastes oseraient à peine s’approcher. Venant du réalisateur de ‘Basic Instinct’ ou ‘Showgirls’, ce n’est pas rien. Adapté du roman ‘Oh…’ de Philippe Djian, le film tient un véritable joker avec son interprète principal, l’impeccable Isabelle Huppert, qui interprète ici Michelle, fondatrice parisienne d’une boîte de jeux vidéo, qui se retrouve traquée et violée par un mystérieux assaillant en combinaison de ski. Par ailleurs fille d’un célèbre tueur de masse, la personnalité complexe de l’héroïne ne cesse de relancer l’intrigue par ses réactions inattendues, qui risquent d’en déranger plus d’un – après tout, on est bien dans un Verhoeven. D’une certaine manière, ‘Elle’ semble parfois compiler trois films en un. Par moments comédie de mœurs à la française, notamment lors d’une scène de dîner particulièrement jouissive, le film évolue vers le thriller pervers et sophistiqué, dans lequel Michelle scrute chacun des hommes de son entourage, les soupçonnant tour à tour de pouvoir être son violeur sans visage. Plus ‘Elle’ avance, plus le long métrage plonge dans des eaux troubles, qui pourraient s’apparenter à une provocation dérangeante, une misogynie toxique ou au portrait psychologique complexe d’une femme singulière. En lui-même,

At what point do we stop referring to prolific Quebecois director/writer/actor Xavier Dolan as a wunderkind? He's still only 27, but with six feature films under his belt, he already feels like a veteran. But perhaps that moment comes when the wonder goes. His latest, 'It's Only The End Of The World', is unfortunately his worst by some distance, a talky unsatisfying anticlimax. It has none of the precocious daring of 'I Killed My Mother' (2009), the cutting-edge style of 'Heartbeats' (2010), the arch charm of 'Laurence Anyways' (2012), the psychosexual thrills of 'Tom at the Farm' (2013) or the considerable playfulness of 'Mommy' (2014). What is does have is a wonderful cast, sadly wasted on a screeching melodrama which sees a 34 year old who has been away for 12 years decide to pay a visit to his family, with whom he subsequently argues, and that's about it. Nathalie Baye, Vincent Cassel, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Gaspard Ulliel - any one of these actors is enough to make a film fly, but clustered together into a fractious ensemble with little to do but carp at one another, there is scant sense of who any of these people are or why it might be interesting to spend time with them. They mostly come off as terrible but tedious sorts whose problems are uninteresting. So what went wrong? With the exception of 'Tom at the Farm', Dolan's scripts have all been original works until now - here, he's adapting a play by Jean-Luc Lagarce, and its theatrical roots are visible. Dol