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In questa sezione in inglese della Biblioteca sono indicate segnalazioni di libri, musica e cinema, sistemate in ordine alfabetico e per tema. Questa bibliografia è in costruzione.
In this section of our Library you will find various recommendations on books, music and movies, arranged in alphabetical order and also according to themes and astrological correspondences. Such indications do not constitute a complete survey and are only meant to provide some examples.
Abbott, Edwin A., Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, 1884.
Achterberg, Jeanne, Imagery in Healing: Shamanism and Modern Medicine, New Science Library, Boston, MA, 1985.
A classic in the field of alternative medicine, showing how throughout the history of medicine, including the shamanic healing traditions, the Greek tradition of Asclepius, Aristotle and Hippocrates, and the folk and religious healers, the imagination has always been the most powerful healing resource. Unlike the more recent notions, “in shamanic society health is not the absence of feeling; no more so is it the absence of pain. Health is seeking out all of the experiences of Creation and turning them over and over, feeling their texture and multiple meanings. Health is expanding beyond one’s singular state of consciousness to experience the ripples and waves of the universe.” Jeanne Achterberg (1940-2012).
Woman as Healer, Shambhala Publications, 2013.
Allen, Marcus, Astrology for the New Age: An Intuitive Approach, CRCS Publications, Sebastopol, CA, 1979.
Andrews, Ted, Magickal Dance: Your Body as an Instrument of Power, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1993.
Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1995.
How to Meet and Work with Spirit Guides, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 2006.
Apuleius, Metamorphoses.
or The Golden Ass (Asinus aureus). The protagonist (Lucius) is drawn to practice magic and while performing a spell to shapeshift into a bird he accidentally turns into an ass. As a result a long lourney develops till he finally calls upon Isis for help, who provides the way out of the problem.
Arrien, Angeles, The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary, Harper, San Francisco, CA, 1993.
“Many native cultures believe that the heart is the bridge between Father Sky and Mother Earth. For these traditions, the four-chambered heart, the source for sustaining emotional and spiritual health, is described as being full, open, clear, and strong. These traditions feel that it is important to check the condition of the four-chambered heart daily, asking: Am I full-hearted, open-hearted, clear-hearted, and strong-hearted?” Angeles Arrien, PhD (1940 – 2014) cultural anthropologist, educator, award-winning author, and consultant, unveils the four archetypal principles of the Native American medicine wheel (Warrior, Teacher, Healer, and Visionary) and the related meditations. “Four Rules For Life: Show up. Pay attention. Tell the truth. Don’t be attached to the results.”
Arroyo, Stephen, Astrology, Karma and Transformation: the Inner Dimensions of the Birth Chart, CRCS, Sebastopol, CA, 1992.
A classic in modern deep and spiritual astrology by astrologer, Stephen Arroyo, born on 6 October 1946, Sun in Libra, Moon in Aquarius, Ascendant in Aries.
Astrology, Psychology and the Four Elements: An Energy Approach to Astrology and Its Use in the Counselling Arts, CRCS, Sebastopol, CA, 1975.
Stephen Arroyo’s Chart Interpretation Handbook: Guidelines for Understanding the Essentials of the Birth Chart, CRCS, Sebastopol, CA, 1990.
Person-to-Person Astrology: Energy Factors in Love, Sex and Compatibility, Frog Ltd, 2008.
Ashcroft-Novicki, Dolores, The Ritual Magic Workbook: A Practical Course of Self-Initiation, The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1986.
Baldwin, Christina. Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture, Bantam Books, New York, NY, 1998.
The Circle Way: A Leader in Every Chair, Berrett-Koehler, 2010.
The Seven Whispers: Listening to the Voice of Spirit, New World Library, 2010.
Belloni, Alessandra, Rhythm is The Cure, 2015.
Belloni, Alessandra, Healing Journeys with the Black Madonna: Chants, Music, and Sacred Practices of the Great Goddess, Bear & Company, 2019, foreword by Matthew Fox
Boncompagni, Solas, Il mondo dei simboli: numeri, lettere e figure geometriche, Ed. Mediterranee, Roma, 1984.
Bragdon, Emma, A Sourcebook for Helping People with Spiritual Emergency, Lightening Up Press, Los Altos, CA, 1988. In ebook as A Sourcebook for Helping People With Spiritual Problems, 2012.
The Call of Spiritual Emergency: From Personal Crisis to Personal Transformation, Ebookit.com, 2013.
Resources for Extraordinary Healing: Schizophrenia, Bipolar and Other Serious Mental Illnesses, Lightening Up Press, 2011.
(editor) Spiritism and Mental Health: Practices from Spiritist Centers and Spiritist Psychiatric Hospitals in Brazil, Singing Dragon, 2011.
Bryant, Page, Starwalking: Shamanic Practices for Traveling into the Night Sky, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM, 1997.
Caddy, Eileen, God Spoke to Me, Findhorn Press, Findhorn, 1971.
The Spirit of Findhorn, Findhorn Press, Findhorn, 1977.
Flight into Freedom and Beyond: The autobiography of the co-founder of the Findhorn Community, Element, Shaftesbury, 1988.
Opening Doors Within, Findhorn Press, 2012.
Cahill, Sedona; Halpern, Joshua, The Ceremonial Circle: Practice, Ritual, and Renewal for Personal and Community Healing, Harper, San Francisco, CA, 1992.
Castaneda, Carlos, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1968.
A Separate Reality, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1971.
Tales of Power, Simon and Schuster, New York, NY, 1974.
Magical Passes: The Practical Wisdom of the Shamans of Ancient Mexico, HarperCollins, London, 1998.
Cavendish, Richard, The Black Arts, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1967.
Cerchio, Bruno, Simbologia astrologica, Ed. Mediterranee, Roma, 1981.
Clifton, Chas S., Witchcraft Today: Book Three, Witchcraft and Shamanism, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1994.
Clow, Barbara Hand, Liquid Light of Sex: Understanding Your Key Life Passages, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM, 1991. Updated edition: Astrology and the Rising of Kundalini: The Transformative Power of Saturn, Chiron, and Uranus, Bear & Company, 2013.
Chiron: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner & Outer Planets: Rainbow Bridge Between the Inner and Outer Planets, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1993.
The Pleiadian Agenda: A New Cosmology for the Age of Light, Bear & Company, 1995.
Awakening the Planetary Mind: Beyond the Trauma of the Past to a New Era of Creativity, Bear & Company, 2011.
Cook, Angelique S.; Hawk, G.A., Shamanism and the Esoteric Tradition, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1992.
Cornelius, Geoffrey, The Starlore Handbook, Duncan Baird Publishers, London, 1997.
Cunningham, Donna, An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness, CRCS Publications, Sebastopol, CA, 1978.
Astrology and Spiritual Development, Cassandra Press, San Rafael, CA, 1989.
Astrology and Vibrational Healing, Cassandra Press, San Rafeal, CA, 1988.
Being a Lunar Type in a Solar World, Samuel Weiser, York Beach, ME, 1982.
Healing Pluto Problems, Samuel Weiser, York Beach, ME, 1986.
Moon Signs: The Key to Your Life, Ballantine, New York, NY, 1988.
Darlison, Bill, Gospel and the Zodiac: The Secret Truth about Jesus, Overlook Books, 2008.
Davis, Martin, Astrolocality Astrology, The Wessex Astrologer, Bournemouth, 1999.
Davis-Wolfe, Mattie; Thomson, David, Walking the Sacred Wheel: A Year’s Journey of Initiation around the Sacred Wheel, Sacred Circles Institute, Mukilteo, WA, 1995.
De Solange, Mailly Nesle, Astrology: History, Symbols and Signs, Inner Traditions International, New York, NY, 1985.
Dobyns, Zipporah Pottenger, Expanding Astrology’s Universe, ACS Publications, San Diego, CA, 1983.
Finding the Person in the Horoscope, TIA Publications, Los Angeles, CA, 1973.
Drake, Michael, The Shamanic Drum: A Guide to Sacred Drumming, Talking Drum Publications, Goldendale, WA, 1991.
Drury, Nevill, The Elements of Shamanism, Longmead, Shaftesbury, 1982. The Shaman and the Magician, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1978.
Eliade, Mircea, Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, Pantheon, New York, NY, 1964.
Yoga: Immortality and Freedom, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ,1970.
Farioli, Marcella, Le religioni misteriche, Xenia, Milano, 1998.
Foundation for Inner Peace, A Course in Miracles, Foundation for Inner Peace, Glen Ellen, CA, 1992.
Psychotherapy; Purpose, Process, and Practice: An Extension of the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Foundation for Inner Peace, Mill Valley, CA, 1976.
Frances, Lynn; Bryant-Jefferies, Richard, The Sevenfold Circle: Selfawareness in Dance, Findhorn Press, Findhorn, 1998.
Giamario, Daniel; Brent, Carolyn, The Shamanic Astrology Handbook, JCAU Publications, Tucson, AZ, 2002.
Gilchrist, Cherry, Planetary Symbolism in Astrology, Saros Fundation, 1980.
Ginzburg, Carlo, The Night Battles: Witchcraft and Agrarian Cults in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 1983.
Goodman, Felicitas D., Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1990.
Speaking in Tongues: A Cross-Cultural Study of Glossolalia, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1972.
Gore, Belinda, Ecstatic Body Postures: An Alternate Reality Workbook, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM, 1995.
Grof, Christina; Grof, Stanislav, The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth through Transformational Crisis, Jeremy Tracher, New York, NY, 1990.
Guttman, Ariel; Johnson, Kenneth, Mythic Astrology: Archetypal Powers in the Horoscope, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1996.
Halifax, Joan, Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives, E.P. Dutton, New York, NY; 1979.
Hand, Robert, Planets in Transits, Para Research, Rockport, MA, 1976.
Haram, Manuale laico di astrologia, Savelli, Milano, 1979.
Harding, M. Esther, Women’s Mysteries: Ancient and Modern, Rider & Co., London, 1935.
Harner, Michael, The Way of the Shaman, Harper, San Francisco, CA,1990.
Hess, Helene, The Zodiac Explorer’s Handbook: A Unique Guide to Using Your Birth Chart for Inner Exploration, The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1986.
Hoffman, Kay, The Trance Workbook: Understanding and Using the Power of Altered States, Sterling Publishing, New York, NY, 1998.
Hoffman, Mary, Stravaganza, Bllomsbury, London, 2002-2012
Hoeller, Stephan A., Gnosticism: New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing, Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, IL, 2002.
Horn, Arthur David, (with Lynette Anne Mallory-Horn), Humanity’s Extraterrestrial Origins: ET Influences on Humankind’s Biological and Cultural Evolution, Silberschnur, Lake Montezuma, AZ, 1994.
Ingerman, Sandra, Soul Retrieval: Mending the Fragmented Self, Harper, San Francisco, CA, 1991.
Jenkins, Palden, Living in Time: Learning to Experience Astrology in Your Life, Gateway Books, Bath, 1987.
Jones, Prudence (ed.), Creative Astrology: Experiential Understanding of the Horoscope, The Aquarian Press, London, 1991.
Jordan, Michael, Encyclopedia of Gods: Over 2500 Deities of the World, Kyle Cathie Ltd, London, 1992.
Judith, Anodea, Wheels of Life: A User’s Guide to the Chakra System, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1987.
Jung, Carl Gustav, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, Fontana Press, London, 1995.
Collected Works of C.G. Jung: Vol. 13, Alchemical Studies, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1967.
Kaku, Michio, Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyessy Through the 10th Dimension, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994.
Keeney, Bradford, Shamanic Christianity: The Direct Experience of Mystical Communion, Destiny Books, 2006.
Lam Kam Chuen, Master, Chi Kung: The Way of Healing, Broadway Books, New York, 1999. Stand Still, Be Fit: The Way of Energy, Gaia Books, London, 1995.
Lamparelli, Claudio, Tecniche della meditazione orientale, Mondadori, Milano, 1985.
Lapassade, Georges, Dallo sciamano al raver: saggio sulla transe, Urra, Milano, 1997.
Lemesurier, Peter, The Healing of the Gods: The Magic of Symbols and the Practice of Theotherapy, Element Books, Longmead, 1988.
Marciniak, Barbara, Bringers of the Dawn: Teachings from the Pleiadans, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, 1992. Family of Light, Bear & Company, Santa Fe, NM, 1998.
Matthews, John, The Celtic Shaman: A Handbook, Element, Rockport, MA, 1992.
Matthews, Caitlin; Matthews, John, The Western Way: A Practical Guide to the Western Mystery Tradition, Arkana, London, 1985.
Mayo, Jeff, The Planets and Human Behavior, CRCS Publications, Sebastopol, CA, 1985.
McKenna, Terence, Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge, Rider, London, 1992.
McEvers, Joan (ed.), Spiritual, Metaphysical and New Trends in Modern Astrology, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1988.
Meadows, Kenneth, Earth Medicine: A Shamanic Way to Self Discovery, Element, Shaftesbury, Dorset, 1991.
Merriman, Raymond, Evolutionary Astrology: The Journey of the Soul Through States of Consciousness, Seek-It Publications, Bloomfield, MI, 1991.
Mindell, Arnold, The Shaman’s Body: A New Shamanism for Transforming Health, Relationships, and the Community, Harper, San Francisco, CA, 1993.
Mundy, John, Listening to Your Inner Guide, Crossroad, New York, NY, 1995.
Myers, Robert <Buz>, The Moon as a Trigger for Transformation, RKM (audiocassette).
Nevin, Bruce, Astrology Inside Out: A New Approach to Astrology, Para Research, Rockport, MA, 1982.
Nicholson, Shirley (ed.), Shamanism: an Expanded View of Reality, Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, IL, 1987.
Osho, Hidden Mysteries, Rebel Publishing House, Cologne, 1997.
Meditation: The First and Last Freedom, St. Martin’s Press, New York, NY, 1996.
Tantra, Spirituality and Sex, Rebel Publishing House, Cologne, 1994.
Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, The Book of Secrets: A New Commentary, Rebel Publishing House, Cologne, 1991.
Picard, Eudes, Astrologie Judiciare, Leymarié, Paris, 1936.
Pierpaoli, Paola, Iniziazione al contatto con lo spirito guida, Ed. Mediterranee, Roma, 2003.
Voices of the Spirits of Nature, 2015.
Pottenger, Maritha, Astro Essentials: Planets in Signs, Houses & Aspects, ACS Publications, San Diego, CA, 1991.
Encounter Astrology, TIA Publications, Los Angeles, CA, 1978.
Healing with the Horoscope: A Guide to Counselling, ACS Publications, San Diego, CA, 1982.
Pratesi, Aniela, Iniziazione all’astrologia evolutiva: il cammino dell’anima attraverso la carta natale, Ed. Mediterranee, Roma, 2002.
Reinhart, Melanie, Chiron and the Healing Journey: An Astrological and Psychological Perspective, Penguin, London, 1989.
Ridall, Kathryin, Channeling: How To Reach Out To Your Spirit Guide, Bantam, New York, NY, 1990.
River, Lindsay; Gillespie, Sally, The Knot of Time: Astrology and Female Experience, The Women’s Press, London, 1987.
Rose, Christina, Astrological Counselling: A Basic Guide to Astrological Themes in Person to Person Relationships, The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1982.
Roth, Gabrielle, Maps to Ecstasy: Teachings of an Urban Shaman, Mandala, London, 1990.
Rudhyar, Dane, Astrology and the Modern Psyche: An Astrologer looks at Depth-Psychology, CRCS, Sebastopol, CA, 1976.
Rutherford, Leo, The Book of Games and Warm Ups for Group Leaders, Gale Centre, Loughton, 1994.
Principles of Shamanism, Thorsons, London, 1996.
Ryan, Christopher; Jetha, Cacilda, Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships, Harper, 2012.
Sanchez, Victor, The Teachings of Don Carlos: Practical Applications of the Works of Carlos Castaneda, Bear and Co., Santa Fe, NM, 1995.
Sargent, Denny, Global Ritualism: Myth & Magic Around The World, Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN, 1994.
Santoro, Franco, Astroshamanism: A Journey into the Inner Universe, Findhorn Press, 2003.
Astroshamanism: The Voyage through the Zodiac, Findhorn Press, 2003.
Iniziazione all’astrosciamanesimo: la via zodiacale alla Guida Interiore, Edizioni Mediterranee, Roma, 2000.
A Provisional Guide Book to the First Level of the Operative Training in Astroshamanism, Sacred Cone Press, Forres, 2001.
Provisoria, Forlorn Press, Bologna, 1984.
(ed.) ProvOrdo Etnai Sagdhanatabe, Anaghaseva, Bologna, 1988.
Introduzione agli aforismi provvisori della rete binaria del Sacro Cono, Sacred Cone Press, Forres, 2000.
Concisa Epitome del Compendio dell’Epica del Sacro Cono, EdizioniSì, 2012.
Schermer, Barbara, Astrology Alive!; Experiential Astrology, Astrodrama and the Healing Arts, The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough, 1989.
Schneider, Marius, La danza delle spade e la tarantella, Argo, Lecce, 1999.
Sicuteri, Roberto, Astrologia e mito: simboli e miti dello Zodiaco nella Psicologia del Profondo, Astrolabio, Roma, 1978.
Smoley, Richard, Inner Christianity: A Guide to the Esoteric Tradition, Shambhala, 2002.
Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions, Quest Books, 2006.
Forbidden Faith: The Secret History of Gnosticism, Harper Collins, 2007.
Supernatural: Writings on an Unknown History, Tarcher, 2013.
Somé, Malidoma Patrice, Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman, Penguin, New York, NY, 1994.
Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, Harper, San Francisco, CA, 1989.
Steinbrecher, Edwin C., The Inner Guide Meditation: A Spiritual Technology for the 21st Century, Samuel Weiser, York Beach, ME, 1988.
Sun Bear; Wabun Wind; Mulligan, Crysalis, Dancing With The Wheel: The Medicine Wheel Workbook, Simon & Schuster, London, 1991.
Szanto, Gregory, Astrotherapy: Astrology and the Realization of the Self, Arkana, London, 1987.
Vega, Anthony, Sex Dreaming: Esoteric Sexuality Revealed. (In the Toltec tradition of don Juan Matus & Carlos Castaneda), 2014.
Vitebsky, Piers, The Shaman: Voyages of the Soul, Trance, Ecstasy and Healing from Siberia to the Amazon, DBP, London, 1995,
Volguine, Alexandre, L’esoterismo dell’astrologia, Xenia, Milano, 1996.
Wade, Jenny, Transcendent Sex: When Lovemaking Opens the Veil, Gallery, New York, 2004.
Wapnick, Gloria; Wapnick, Kenneth, The Most Commonly Asked Questions About A Course in Miracles, Foundation for A Course in Miracles, Roscoe, New York, NY, 1995.
Wapnick, Kenneth, Forgiveness and Jesus: The Meeting Place of A Course in Miracles and Christianity, Foundation for A Course in Miracles, Roscoe, New York, NY, 1983.
Glossary-Index for A Course in Miracles, Foundation for A Course in Miracles, Roscoe, New York, NY, 1982.
Williamson, Marianne, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, HarperCollins, New York, NY, 1996.
Enchanted Love: The Mystical Power of Intimate Relationships, Rider, 1999
Zimmerman, Jack; in collaboration with Virginia Coyle, The Way of Council, Bramble Books, Las Vegas, NV, 1996.
Zuromski, Paul, ed. The New Age Almanac, Doubleday, New York, 1988.
Questa bibliografia in costruzione contiene i riferimenti delle opere e scritti sui temi dell’Istituto. Tranne i casi in cui indicato diversamente, l’autore di tutto il materiale riportato è Franco Santoro.
Iniziazione all’Astrosciamanesimo: la via astrologica alla Guida Interiore, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2000;
Astroshamanism: A Journey Into the Inner Universe, Findhorn Press, 2003.
Astroshamanism: The Voyage Through the Zodiac, Findhorn Press, 2003.
Concisa epitome del compendio dell’Epica del Sacro Cono, Ed.Sì, 2012.
Astrosciamanesimo: Un viaggio nell’universo interiore, Amazon Kindle, 2013.
MaryCatherine Burgess, A New Paradigm of Spirituality and Religion: Contemporary Shamanic Practice in Scotland (Continuum Advances in Religious Studies), contiene una ricerca antropologica dell’Università di Edimburgo con un capitolo dedicato all’astrosciamanesimo. Clicca qui per informazioni.
circa 2000 articoli su le e-zine “PAN International” (2004-2011), “Il PAN Italico” (2005-2011), il “PAN Hispano” 2007-2011; sui siti www.astroshamans.com, astrosciamanesimo.blogspot.com, panissue.blogspot.com e altri.
Conato Realitativo Unimentale, Bologna, 1980
Provisoria, Forlorn Press, Bologna, 1984
cur. ProvOrdo Etnai Sagdhanatabe, Anaghaseva, Bologna, 1988
cur. The Sacred Cone’s Initiation Programme, Sacred Cone Press, Bologna, 1996
Breve antologia del canti del Sacro Cerchio, Sacred Cone Press, Bologna, 1998
cur. Introduzione agli aforismi provvisori della rete binaria del Sacro Cono, Sacred Cone Press, Forres, 2000
A Provisional Guide Book to the First Level of the Operative Training in Astroshamanism, Sacred Cone Press, Forres, 2007
Testo Guida Provvisorio in Lingua Italiana per il Primo Livello della Formazione Operativa in Astrosciamanesimo, Sacred Cone Press, Forres, 2007
The Astroshamanic Binary System, 1999-2018
cur. The Provisional Territorial Units: An Encyclopaedic Guide to Sacred Cone Geography, Sacred Cone Press, Forres, 2009
cur. A Provisional Atlas of the Handorian States System, Sacred Cone Press, 2010.
The Astroshamanic Binary System: Provisional Emanation of the Compendium of the Paheka Rubhe Tabe, Lectionary 3, Provordo, 2012
“Encountering Astroshamanism“, “Journeying through the unseen“, NewStatesman, 11 March 2008
This is what shamanism can teach us about ourselves and our future, interview with Franco Santoro by Gilbert Ross
“Astrologia esperienziale” in Alpha Dimensione Vita, Anno II, N.8, Editrice L’Entronauta, 1996
“Un Corso in Miracoli” in Alpha Dimensione Vita, Anno II, N.11, Editrice L’Entronauta, 1996
“Le posture estatiche di trance sciamanica” in Alpha Dimensione Vita, Anno III, N.18, Editrice L’Entronauta, 1997
Introduzione alle pratiche di consiglio del Sacro Cerchio, Sacred Cone Press, 1999
“Astrosciamanesimo: viaggio nell’universo interiore” in Paola Giovetti (a cura di), L’Uomo e il Mistero/10, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2002
“Trance e stati sciamanici di coscienza” in Salute è, N.7, marzo 2003, supplemento di AAM Terra Nuova, 2002
“I canti astrosciamanici” in Linguaggio Astrale, Anno XIV, N.4, Centro Italiano di Astrologia, 2002
“Il mondo dell’alto” in Linguaggio Astrale, Anno XIV, N.5, Centro Italiano di Astrologia, 2002
“La guarigione astrosciamanica” in Paola Giovetti (ed.), L’Uomo e il Mistero/13, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2005
“La danza e il suono nelle pratiche di guarigione sciamanica” in Paola Giovetti (ed.), L’Uomo e il Mistero/14, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2006
Viaggio astrosciamanico nei tarocchi, 2008, disponibile parzialmente online.
Prefazione in Paola Pierpaoli, Iniziazione allo spirito guida, Edizioni Mediterranee, 2004
Prefazione in Nicoletta Ferroni, Morti straordinarie, Edizioni Più, 2013
Prefazione in Leonardo Alfonsi, Bananananda, L’Ottava, 1989
Opere musicali:
Drumming for the Astroshamanic Voyage, 2002 (CD)
The Breath of Emuria: Astroshamanic Healing Trance Dance, (con Shaun Foyle), 2004 (CD)
Mediterranean Shamanic Drumming, 2005 (CD)
Italian Tambourine and Jew’s Harp for the Astroshamanic Trance, 2005 (CD)
Astroshamanic Basic Ritual, (con Max Mattoni), 2009 (CD)
Zodiac Navigator, (con Max Mattoni), 2012, Kyosaku Records
In this section of our Library you will find various recommendations on movies and TV series, arranged in alphabetical order and also according to themes and astrological correspondences. Such indications do not constitute a complete survey and are only meant to provide some examples. This filmography contains a list of recommended films and TV series which can promote holistic awareness, multidimensional awareness, expanded states of consciousness, spiritual guidance and insights related to the themes of our website.
MAIN FILMOGRAPHY on MULTIDIMENSIONAL AWARENESS
Click here for our article Books, Videos, Media: Shapers of Reality
THEMES
Angels & Spirits
Forgiveness & Release
Healing & Miracles
Intentional & Alternative Communities
Multidimensional Sexuality
Movies associated with:
In this section of our filmography you will find various works arranged in alphabetical order, which can promote holistic & multidimensional awareness, expanded and shamanic states of consciousness, parallel universes, Gnostic themes, spiritual guidance, shadow-work, and other insights related to astroshamanism. This does not necessarily mean that all listed works are of good quality or are endorsed by this website.
These works provide a large variety of direct or indirect messages, which include the following: “the objective physical world we believe to live in is a bogus, illusive, simulated or separated reality”; “time, death and the conflict between polarities, or good and evil, are deceptive and virtual features of this separated reality, and do not truly exist”; “everything and everyone is part of the same whole”; “our true nature is multidimensional”; “you are the creator of your own reality”, “we simultaneously exist in infinite universes”; “you are whole only when you embrace your shadow”.
The term multidimensional (from Latin multus – many, and dimensio, from dimetri – to measure out) describes the presence of several dimensions or aspects of reality. In ordinary language the term dimension usually refers to the measurements that define the shape and size of a physical object.
For the main page of our filmography containing the general index of themes please click here.
Movies or TV series in blu are particularly recommended.
List of movies and TV series with Multidimensional & Holistic Awareness elements:
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, 1988, adventure fantasy film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam, based on the tall tales about the 18th-century German nobleman Baron Munchausen and his wartime exploits against the Ottoman Empire.
A for Andromeda, 1961, British television science fiction drama serial first made and broadcast by the BBC, written by cosmologist Fred Hoyle (4.8), with John Elliot, starring Julie Christie (1.8.4, PlutoInstr.), about a group of scientists who detect a radio signal from another galaxy that contains instructions for the design of an advanced computer. When the computer is built, it gives the scientists instructions for the creation of a living organism named Andromeda, but one of the scientists fears that Andromeda’s purpose is to subjugate humanity. The Italian remake (A come Andromeda, 1972) directed by Vittorio Cottafavi (11.12, UranusPower), with Luigi Vannucchi, Paola Pitagora (6.6), Nicoletta Rizzi, Tino Carraro, set in Britain yet filmed at Italian locations, was the first Italian science fiction TV-series and was very successful. ***
A.I. Artificial Intelligence, 2001, USA, science fiction drama film directed and written by Steven Spielberg (9.8.4), loosely based on the 1969 short story “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss (5.5). It stars Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O’Connor, Brendan Gleeson and William Hurt. Set in a futuristic post-climate change society, A.I. tells the story of a childlike android uniquely programmed with the ability to love. Inspiring movie promoting the power of imagination and acceptance of one’s unique talents. ****
The Adjustment Bureau: 2011, USA, film written and directed by George Nolfi (3.10), based on the Philip K. Dick (9.11.1, UranusInstr., SaturnPower) short story “Adjustment Team”, starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt, Anthony Mackie, John Slattery and Terence Stamp. A young man discovers that what appear to be chance events in his life are controlled by a technologically advanced intelligence network. After an event not planned by these controllers occurs (a romantic encounter with a young dancer) he struggles against their manipulation despite their promise of a great future for him. *****
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, 1984, USA, science fiction action/adventure film produced and directed by W. D. Richter (9.10) and written by Earl Mac Rauch, about the efforts of a physicist, neurosurgeon, test pilot, and rock musician, to save the world by defeating a band of inter-dimensional aliens called Red Lectroids from Planet 10. ***
After Earth, 2013, USA, post-apocalyptic science fiction action film directed by M. Night Shyamalan (5.6), who co-wrote it with Gary Whitta, based on an original story idea by Will Smith. The film takes place in the 31st century, when the Earth has long been abandoned and humans have been in conflict with a mysterious alien race. It tells the story of a high-ranking general in the peacekeeping organization Ranger Corps, and his son, who, after an incident during a spaceflight, find themselves fighting for survival on a hostile planet (which is Earth itself). **
After Life: 1998, Japan, film directed by Hirokazu Koreeda (3.4), set in a small social-service-style office, acting as a waystation, where the souls of the recently deceased are processed before entering heaven. “Heaven,” for the film, is a single happy memory from one’s life, re-experienced for eternity, which each of the deceased must choose within their seven days at the waystation. Every Monday, a new group of recently deceased people check in, and the “social workers” in the lodge explain to each guest their situation. The newly-dead have until Wednesday to identify the single happiest memory. For the rest of the week, the workers at the institution work to design and replicate each person’s chosen memory, which is staged and filmed. At the end of the week, the recently deceased watch the films of their recreated happiest memories in a screening room. As soon as each person sees his or her own memory, he or she vanishes to whatever unknown state of existence lies beyond and takes only that single memory with them. *****
L’Age d’Or, 1930, France, film directed by Luis Buñuel (12.9.3, NeptuneInstr.). Surrealist satirical comedy screenplayed by Salvador Dalí (2.1.4) and Luis Buñuel about the sexual hypocrisy of consensus reality and the Roman Catholic Church. The first scene deals with scorpions, then there are a series of sequences of a couple regularly thwarted in their attempt to have sex. ***
Agora: 2009, Spanish English-language historical drama film directed by Alejandro Amenábar (2.8) and written by Amenábar and Mateo Gil. The biopic stars Rachel Weisz as Hypatia, a female mathematician, philosopher and astronomer in late 4th-century Roman Egypt, who investigates the flaws of the geocentric Ptolemaic system and the heliocentric model that challenges it. *****
Alien Exorcism (6 Giorni sulla Terra) 2011, Italy, science fiction film directed by Varo Venturi (5.6), starring Massimo Poggio, Laura Glavan and Marina Kazankova. A scientist specialised in alien abductions decides to help a seductive teenager that believes herself to be an alien abductee and shows a clear attraction for him. Once hypnotised, the girl cannot leave the trance condition anymore, hence giving manifestation to an alien entity coming from Mesopotamian ages, who considers himself a demi-god and wants to exploit a special human energy: the soul. **
Alphaville: A Strange Adventure of Lemmy Caution (Alphaville: une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution), 1965, France, New Wave science fiction noir film directed by Jean-Luc Godard (9.2.7), starring Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Howard Vernon and Akim Tamiroff. Lemmy Caution is a secret agent with the code number of 003 from “the Outlands”. He wears a tan overcoat that stores various items. He searches for a missing agent then he is to capture or kill the creator of Alphaville, and lastly, his aim is to destroy Alphaville and its dictatorial computer, Alpha 60, which is in complete control of all of Alphaville. ***
All about nothing, Dutch movie which invites you to transcend the daily rat race by taking a radically different view on life based on non-duality. ***
Allegiant: 2016, USA, film directed by Robert Schwentke, with a screenplay by Bill Collage, Adam Cooper, and Noah Oppenheim., the third installment in The Divergent Series, based on the novel Allegiant, the final book in the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. The protagonists finally discoverz the shocking truth of the world around them. ***
Altered States, 1980, USA, science-fiction horror film directed by Ken Russell based on the novel of the same name by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, adapted from Chayefsky’s only novel and is his final screenplay. Both the novel and the film are based on John C. Lilly’s sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks under the influence of psychoactive drugs like mescaline, ketamine, and LSD. ***
Always, 1989, USA, romantic comedy-drama film directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter, John Goodman, Brad Johnson and Audrey Hepburn in her final film role. The spirit of a recently dead expert pilot mentors a newer pilot, while watching him fall in love with the girlfriend he left behind. ***
Amélie: 2001, France, romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant. It tells the story of a shy waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better while struggling with her own isolation. One of the biggest international successes for a French movie. *****
American Beauty, 1999, USA, drama film written by Alan Ball and directed by Sam Mendes. Kevin Spacey stars as Lester Burnham, a 42-year-old advertising executive who has a midlife crisis when he becomes infatuated with his teenage daughter’s best friend. *****
American Gods, 2017, USA, American fantasy drama television series based on Neil Gaiman’s novel of the same name and developed by Bryan Fuller and Michael Green. The protagonist becomes embroiled in a large-scale conflict between the Old Gods and the New Gods, who grow stronger each day. ***
Andrei Rublev (Андрей Рублёв) 1969, Soviet biographical historical drama film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and co-written with Andrei Konchalovsky, remade and re-edited from the 1966 film titled The Passion According to Andrei by Tarkovsky which was censored in the Soviet Union. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the 15th-century Russian icon painter. The film features Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Sergeyev, Nikolai Burlyayev and Tarkovsky’s wife Irma Raush. Regarded as one of the greatest films of all time. ****
The Andromeda Strain, 1971, USA, science fiction thriller film produced and directed by Robert Wise, based on Michael Crichton’s 1969 novel of the same name and adapted by Nelson Gidding, starring Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne as a team of scientists who investigate a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin. The film is notable for its use of split screen in certain scenes. ***
Angel-A: 2005, France, fantasy and romantic drama directed by Luc Besson, featuring Jamel Debbouze and Rie Rasmussen. A scam artist decides to kill himself by jumping off a bridge into the Seine, but first he notices a beautiful young woman who is also standing over the railing. The woman jumps off the bridge, and he jumps in after her, dragging her to safety. The woman states her name is Angela, and that she jumped because she had the same problems as the man. In order to thank him for saving her, Angela pledges her life to him, stating she will do everything she can to help. ****
Angel Heart, 1987, USA, neo-noir psychological horror film written and directed by Alan Parker, adaptation of William Hjortsberg’s 1978 novel Falling Angel, starring Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet. The story follows a New York City private investigator hired to solve the disappearance of a powerful magician who sold his soul to Satan in exchange for stardom, but then sought to renege on the bargain. ****
Anon, 2018, UK, science fiction thriller film directed and written by Andrew Niccol. Set in a futuristic world where privacy and anonymity no longer exist, the plot follows a detective who comes across a young woman who has evaded the government’s transparency system. ****
Another Earth: 2011, USA, indie science fiction-drama film directed by Mike Cahill, starring Brit Marling, William Mapother, and Robin Lord Taylor. On the night of the discovery of a duplicate Earth in the Solar system, a young student and an accomplished composer cross paths in a tragic accident. *****
Apocalypto: 2006, USA, epic adventure film co-produced, co-written and directed by Mel Gibson, spoken in the Indigenous Yucatec Maya language is spoken, with subtitles. It portrays the hero’s journey of an early Mesoamerican hunter and his fellow tribesmen who are captured by an invading force after the devastation of their village and brought on a perilous journey to a Mayan city for human sacrifice at a time when the Maya civilization is in decline. ****
ARQ, 2016, film directed by Tony Elliott. An engineer whose invention causes time to loop during a home invasion. He attempts to save his former lover, while learning who has targeted him and why. ***
Arrival, 2016 American science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer, based on the 1998 short story “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang. Linguistics professor Louise Banks (Amy Adams) leads an elite team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down in 12 locations around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must race against time to find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial visitors. Hoping to unravel the mystery, she takes a chance that could threaten her life and quite possibly all of mankind. ***
Asiris nuna (Азирис Нуна), 2006, Russia, children’s science fiction film directed by Oleg Kompasov, produced by Vladimir Khrapunov, Aleksei Kuznetsov and Sergey Chernyakov, based on a Yuli Burkin and Sergei Lukyanenko novel Today, mom!, the first part of Island Rus trilogy, adapted by Ramil Farzutdinov and Oleg Kompasov.
As It Is in Heaven (Så som i himmelen) 2004, Swedish film directed by Kay Pollak and starring Michael Nyqvist and Frida Hallgren. It was a box office hit in Sweden and several other countries. A successful international conductor suddenly interrupts his career and returns alone to his childhood village in the far north of Sweden. It doesn’t take long before he is asked to come and listen to the fragment of a church choir, which practises in the parish hall. He can’t say no, and from that moment, nothing in the village is the same again. ***
Astral City: A Spiritual Journey (Nosso Lar), Brazil, 2010, directed by Wagner de Assis, adaptation of the 1944 book of the same name, said to be dictated by the spirit Andre Luiz and psychographed by Chico Xavier, Brazil’s best-known and respected medium, a great classic of spiritist literature, it delivers impressions of the spirit world after death. ****
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner, 2001 Canada, epic film directed by Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk. Set in the ancient past, the film retells an Inuit legend passed down through centuries of oral tradition. It revolves around the title character, whose marriage with his two wives earns him the animosity of the son of the band leader, who kills Atanarjuat’s brother and forces Atanarjuat to flee by foot. ***
Avatar: 2009, USA, epic science fiction film directed and written by James Cameron, starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver. Set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the mineral unobtanium. The expansion of the mining threatens the existence of a local tribe. *****
Awake, 2012, television police procedural fantasy drama created by Kyle Killen, about a detective who lives in two separate realities after a car accident. In one reality his wife Hannah survives the accident; in the other reality his son survives. At work, his erratic behavior triggers clashes with his team, since they do not know about his ability to solve crimes using details from both realities. ***
Bab’Aziz: Le prince qui contemplait son âme (The prince who contemplated his soul) 2005 film by Tunisian writer and director Nacer Khemir, filmed in Iran and Tunisia. The film’s complex and nonlinear narrative chiefly centers around the journey of a blind dervish, Bab’Aziz and his granddaughter who — while traveling across the desert towards an immense Sufi gathering — encounter several strangers who relate the stories of their own mysterious and spiritual quests. ***
Babette’s Feast (Babettes gæstebud), 1987, Danish drama film directed and written by Gabriel Axel, based on the story by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen). During the late 19th century, a strict religious community in a Danish village takes in a French refugee from the Franco-Prussian War as a servant. *****
Back to the Future, 1985, USA, science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox as teenager Marty McFly, who accidentally travels back in time to 1955, where he meets his future parents and becomes his mother’s romantic interest. Christopher Lloyd portrays the eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown, inventor of the time-traveling DeLorean, who helps Marty repair history and return to 1985. ****
A Beautiful Mind, 2001 USA, biographical drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, directed by Ron Howard, from a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman, inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. The film stars Russell Crowe. The story begins in Nash’s days as a graduate student at Princeton University. Early in the film, Nash begins to develop paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while watching the burden his condition brings on wife Alicia and friends. *****
Les Belles de nuit (Beauties of the Night), 1952, France, motion picture fantasy directed and written by René Clair, starring Gérard Philipe, Martine Carol, Gina Lollobrigida. Impoverished piano teacher and composer Claude (Gérard Philipe) fantasizes about seducing beautiful rich women. One night a promising dream turns into a nightmare in which he’s chased by the violent husbands and brothers of his lovers. He gets up and tries to stay awake for fear of feeling haunted again. Then he meets his neighbour who resembles a woman from his dream. ***
Being John Malkovich, 1999, USA, fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Spike Jonze and written by Charlie Kaufman, starring John Cusack, Cameron Diaz, and Catherine Keener, with John Malkovich and Charlie Sheen as themselves. The film follows a puppeteer who finds a portal that leads into Malkovich’s mind. ****
Being There, 1979, USA, comedy-drama film directed by Hal Ashby, based on the 1970 novel of the same name by Jerzy Kosiński, adapted for the screen by Kosiński and the uncredited Robert C. Jones. The film stars Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine, and features Jack Warden, Melvyn Douglas, Richard Dysart, and Richard Basehart. A simple, sheltered gardener becomes an unlikely trusted advisor to a powerful businessman and an insider in Washington politics. *****
La belle Verte (The Green Beautiful) 1996, France, film written and directed by Coline Serreau and starring Serreau, Vincent Lindon, Marion Cotillard and Yolande Moreau. In the Green Beautiful, a utopian planet much smaller than Earth, during the yearly planetary meeting, Mila, volunteers to go as a messenger to planet Earth. ***
Big Fish, 2003, USA, fantasy comedy-drama film based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Daniel Wallace, directed by Tim Burton and starring Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange, and Marion Cotillard. A former traveling salesman with a gift for storytelling, is now confined to his deathbed. Will (Crudup), his estranged son, attempts to mend their relationship as Bloom relates tall tales of his eventful life as a young adult (portrayed by McGregor in the flashback scenes). ***
Birdy, 1984, USA, drama film directed by Alan Parker, based on William Wharton’s 1978 novel of the same name, starring Matthew Modine and Nicolas Cage. The film focuses on the friendship between two teenage boys living in a working-class neighborhood in 1960s Philadelphia. The story is presented in flashbacks, with a frame narrative depicting Birdy and Al’s traumatic experiences upon serving in the Vietnam War. ***
Black Moon, 1975 French-West German avant-garde film directed by Louis Malle and starring Cathryn Harrison, Joe Dallesandro, Therese Giehse, and Alexandra Stewart. A confused teenager witnesses a war between the sexes and finds herself involved in numerous dream-like situations at a country estate. ***
Bless Me, Ultima, 2013 film directed by Carl Franklin, adaptation of the 1972 novel of the same name by Rudolfo Anaya. A drama set in New Mexico during World War II, centered on the relationship between a young man and an elderly medicine woman who helps him contend with the battle between good and evil that rages in his village. ***
Blowup, 1966, mystery thriller film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. It follows a London fashion photographer, played by David Hemmings, who believes he has unwittingly captured a murder on film. The film also stars Vanessa Redgrave, Sarah Miles, John Castle, Jane Birkin, Tsai Chin, Peter Bowles, and Gillian Hills, as well as 1960s model Veruschka. The screenplay was by Antonioni and Tonino Guerra, with English dialogue by British playwright Edward Bond. ***
Blueberry: Blueberry: L’expérience secrète, 2004, France, acid western film directed by Jan Kounen, adaptation of the Franco-Belgian comic book series Blueberry. U.S. Marshal Mike Donovan (Vincent Cassel) has dark memories of the death of his first love, as he keeps peace between the Americans and the natives. The evil actions of a “white sorcerer” lead him to confront the villain and, through shamanic rituals involving a native entheogenic brew, conquer his fears and uncover a suppressed memory he would much rather deny. ****
Blue Velvet, 1986, USA, neo-noir mystery film written and directed by David Lynch. Blending psychological horror with film noir, the film stars Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, Dennis Hopper, and Laura Dern, and is named after Tony Bennett’s 1951 song of the same name. The film concerns a young college student who, returning home to visit his ill father, discovers a severed human ear in a field that leads to his uncovering a vast criminal conspiracy and entering a romantic relationship with a troubled lounge singer. ***
The BFG, 2016, USA, fantasy adventure film directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and based on the 1982 novel of the same name by Dahl.
The Bothersome Man, 2007, Norway, film directed by Jens Lien, after a script by Per H. V. Schreiner. The story is about a man suddenly finding himself in an outwardly perfect, yet essentially soulless dystopia, and his attempt to escape. ****
The Boys, 2019, USA, superhero black comedy web television series based on the comic book of the same name, developed by Eric Kripke. Set in a world where super-powered “heroes” have major shadow and archon-like features behind a heroic public appearancea, and are marketed by a business company. ***
Branded, 2012, Russian–American dark fantasy science fiction film written and directed by Jamie Bradshaw and Aleksandr Dulerayn. In future Moscow, where corporate brands have created a disillusioned population, one man’s effort to unlock the truth behind the conspiracy will lead to an epic battle with hidden forces that control the world. ***
Brave New World: 1980, USA, television film, adaptation of the novel with the same name by Aldous Huxley, directed by Burt Brinckerhoff. *****
Brazil, 1985, British-American dystopian science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard. The film stars Jonathan Pryce and features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins and Ian Holm. The film centres on a man trying to find a woman who appears in his dreams while he is working in a mind-numbing job and living in a small apartment, set in a consumer-driven dystopian world in which there is an over-reliance on poorly maintained (and rather whimsical) machines. Brazil’s satire of bureaucratic, totalitarian government is reminiscent of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. ***
Bridge to Terabithia, 2007, USA, coming-of-age fantasy adventure film directed by Gábor Csupó and adapted for film by David L. Paterson and Jeff Stockwell, based on Katherine Paterson’s 1977 novel of the same name.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 2007-2011, USA, supernatural drama television series based on the 1992 film of the same name, created by Joss Whedon. Buffy Summers is the “Slayer”, one in a long line of young women chosen by fate to battle evil forces. She has returned from death twice and is known as a reluctant hero who wants to live a normal life. She experienced a Parallel universe where she was a mental patient in Normal Again. In the end, she has to choose between a universe where her mother and father are together and alive or one with her friends and sister in it where she has to fight for her life daily. ***
The Butterfly Effect, 2004, USA, science fiction thriller film written and directed by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber, starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart. A college student finds he has the ability to travel back in time to inhabit his former self and to change the present by changing his past behaviors. ***
Charlie Jade, 2005, South Africa, science fiction TV series created by Chris Roland and Robert Wertheimer, starring Jeffrey Pierce, as a detective from a parallel universe who finds himself trapped in our universe. ***
Charmed, 1998-2006, USA, fantasy drama television series created by Constance M. Burge. It follows a trio of sisters, known as The Charmed Ones, the most powerful good witches of all time, who use their combined “Power of Three” to protect innocent lives from evil beings such as demons and warlocks. Keeping their supernatural identities separate and secret from their ordinary lives often becomes a challenge for them, with the exposure of magic having far-reaching consequences on their various relationships. **
Charmed, 2018, USA fantasy drama television series developed by Jennie Snyder Urman, Jessica O’Toole, and Amy Rardin, a reboot of the series of the same name. **
Chemical Wedding, 2008, British supernatural science fiction horror film directed by Julian Doyle. The story is based on an original screenplay by Bruce Dickinson, frontman of heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Upon entering a VR machine, a modern Cambridge scholar, becomes possessed by the spirit of the infamous occultist Aleister Crowley, as the machine’s program has been corrupted by a former follower of Crowley. Resurrected 50 years after his death, Crowley begins his occult practices anew, seeking a new “scarlet bride” whom he can marry in an occult ceremony which will increase his power. ***
Chronicle, 2012, USA, superhero science-fiction thriller film directed by Josh Trank and written by Max Landis based on a story by both. It follows three Seattle high school seniors who form a bond after gaining telekinetic powers from an unknown crystalline object found underground. ***
The Chronicles of Narnia, a series of films – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Prince Caspian (2008) and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) – based on a series of novels by C. S. Lewis. The series revolves around the adventures of children in the world of Narnia, guided by Aslan, a wise and powerful lion that can speak and is the true king of Narnia. The children heavily featured in the films are the Pevensie siblings, and a prominent antagonist is the White Witch (also known as Jadis). ****
Circle, 2015, USA, psychological thriller film written and directed by Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione. 50 people wake up in a darkened room, finding out that one of them is killed every two minutes or when they attempt to leave. **
The City and the City: 2018, UK, science-fiction/crime drama television serial, scripted by Tony Grisoni and directed by Tom Shankland, based on the novel of the same name by China Miéville. The story follows the investigation of a young woman’s murder in the unusual twin cities of Besźel and Ul Qoma. ***
City of Ember, 2008, USA, film directed by Gil Kenan, based on the 2003 novel The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau, starring Saoirse Ronan, Harry Treadaway, Bill Murray, Mackenzie Crook. As a global catastrophe looms, an underground city known as Ember is constructed to shelter a large group of survivors, while a small metal box intended for future generations is timed to open after 200 years. ***
The City of Lost Children: La Cité Des Enfants Perdus, 1995, film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro. A highly intelligent but malicious being created by a vanished scientist, is unable to dream, which causes him to age prematurely. He uses a dream-extracting machine to steal dreams from kidnapped children.
Click, 2006, USA, fantasy comedy film directed by Frank Coraci, written by Steve Koren and Mark O’Keefe, and produced by Adam Sandler, who also starred in the lead role. aAn overworked architect who neglects his family acquires a universal remote that enables him to “fast forward” through unpleasant or outright dull parts of his life. He soon learns that those seemingly bad moments that he skips over contained valuable time with his family and important life lessons. Throughout the story, a man named Morty explains how the remote works and issues warnings.
A Clockwork Orange: 1971, UK, dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess’s 1962 novel of the same name. The central character, is a charismatic, antisocial delinquent, leading a small gang of thugs. He is captured and rehabilitated via an experimental psychological conditioning technique promoted by the Minister of the Interior. ***
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977, USA, science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, and starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story of Roy Neary, an everyday blue-collar worker in Indiana, whose life changes after an encounter with an unidentified flying object (UFO). *****
Cloud Atlas, 2012, film directed by Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, adapted from the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell, starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, and Jim Broadbent. The film has multiple plots occurring during six different eras in time, and explores of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future.
Cocoon, 1985, USA, cience-fiction fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Ron Howard about a group of elderly people rejuvenated by aliens. The movie stars Don Ameche, Wilford Brimley, Hume Cronyn, Brian Dennehy.
Coherence: 2013, USA/UK, science fiction thriller film directed by James Ward Byrkit. A woman must deal with strange occurrences following a comet sighting.
Communion, 1989 drama horror film based on the book of the same name by Whitley Strieber, starring Christopher Walken and Frances Sternhagen, it tells a story of a family that experiences an extraterrestrial phenomenon while on vacation at a remote home in the wilderness during which the father is abducted and all of their lives change. According to Strieber, the story is a real-life account of his own encounter with “visitors”, with Walken playing the role of the author.
Conspirators of Pleasure: Spiklenci slasti, 1996, Czech R, black comedy film by Jan Švankmajer. Six people unknowingly form a cycle of masturbation as they each cause others to privately indulge in their fetishes.
Constantine, 2005, USA, occult detective film directed by Francis Lawrence, and starring Keanu Reeves as John Constantine. Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, with a screenplay by Kevin Brodbin and Frank Cappello, based on DC Comics’ Hellblazer comic book. The film portrays John Constantine as a cynic with the ability to perceive and communicate with half-angels and half-demons in their true form. He seeks salvation from eternal damnation in Hell for a suicide attempt in his youth. Constantine exorcises demons back to Hell to earn favor with Heaven but has become weary over time. ****
Contact, 1997, USA, science fiction drama film directed by Robert Zemeckis, adaptation of Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel of the same name. Jodie Foster portrays the film’s protagonist, Dr. Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway, a SETI scientist who finds strong evidence of extraterrestrial life and is chosen to make first contact. *****
Coraline, 2009, USA, 3D stop-motiontuos animated dark fantasy comedy horror film directed by Henry Selick and based on Neil Gaiman’s novel. Coraline finds an idealized parallel world behind a secret door in her new home, unaware that the alternative world contains a dark and sinister secret.
Cosmopolis, 2012, USA, drama-thriller film directed, written, produced by David Cronenberg, starring Robert Pattinson, based on the novel of the same name by Don DeLillo. Riding across Manhattan in a stretch limo in order to get a haircut, a 28-year-old billionaire asset manager’s day devolves into an odyssey with a cast of characters that start to tear his world apart.
Counterpart, 2017, USA, television series created by Justin Marks. A hapless UN employee discovers the agency he works for is hiding a gateway to a parallel dimension that’s in Cold War with our own, and where his other self is a top spy. The war slowly heats up thanks to spies from both sides.
Crossworlds: 1996, USA, science fiction film directed by Krishna Rao, starring Rutger Hauer, Josh Charles, Andrea Roth. A college student is drawn into a battle to save the world from arch-enemy Ferris.
The Dance of Reality: La danza de la realidad, 2013 Chile/France, musical fantasy drama film written, produced, and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. In a Chilean little town, the son of an uprooted couple, formed by a rigorous communist father and a loving but weak mother, tries to pave his own path in a society that does not understand their Jewish-Ukrainian origins.
Dances with Wolves, 1990, USA, epic Western film starring, directed and produced by Kevin Costner, adaptation of the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake that tells the story of Union Army lieutenant John J. Dunbar (Costner) who travels to the American frontier to find a military post and of his dealings with a group of Lakota Indians. *****
Dark City: 1998, USA/Australia, film directed by Alex Proyas, written by Proyas, Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer, starring Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly, and William Hurt. An amnesiac man finds himself suspected of murder. He attempts to discover his true identity and clear his name while on the run from the police and a mysterious group known only as the “Strangers”. He explores the anachronistic city, where nobody seems to realize it is always night. At midnight, he watches as everyone except himself falls asleep as the Strangers physically rearrange the city as well as changing people’s identities and memories. *****
Dark Shadows: 1966-1971, USA, Gothic soap opera on the lives, loves, trials and tribulations of the wealthy Collins family of Collinsport, Maine, where a number of supernatural occurrences take place.
Dark Star, 1974, USA, science fiction comedy film directed by John Carpenter and co-written with Dan O’Bannon. It follows the crew of the deteriorating starship Dark Star, twenty years into their mission to destroy unstable planets that might threaten future colonization of other planets. “Daryl” is an experiment in artificial intelligence, created by a government company. Although physically indistinguishable from an ordinary ten-year-old boy, his brain is actually a super-sophisticated microcomputer with several unique capabilities. These include exceptional reflexes, superhuman multitasking ability, and the ability to “hack” other computer systems.
D.A.R.Y.L., 1985, USA, science fiction film written by David Ambrose, Allan Scott and Jeffrey Ellis. It was directed by Simon Wincer and stars Barret Oliver, Mary Beth Hurt, Michael McKean.
Day Watch, Дневной Дозор, 2006, Russia fantasy film written and directed by Timur Bekmambetov, sequel to the 2004 film Night Watch, based on the second and the third part of Sergey Lukyanenko’s novel The Night Watch rather than its follow-up novel Day Watch.
Dead Man, 1995, USA, Western film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop and Robert Mitchum. Dubbed a “Psychedelic Western” by its director, includes twisted and surreal elements of the Western genre. On the run after murdering a man, an accountant encounters a strange man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.
Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia) 1971, Italian-French drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Dirk Bogarde and Björn Andrésen. It is based on the novella Death in Venice, first published in 1912 as Der Tod in Venedig by the German author Thomas Mann. The protagonist travels to Venice for health reasons. There, he becomes obsessed with the stunning beauty of an adolescent Polish boy.
Defending Your Life: 1991, USA, romantic comedy-fantasy film directed and written by Albert Brooks, starring Albert Brooks, Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Lee Grant and Buck Henry. A man dies and arrives in the afterlife only to find that he must stand trial and justify his lifelong fears in order to advance to the next phase of existence; or be sent back to earth to do it again. ******
Déjà Vu, 2006, USA, cience fiction action film directed by Tony Scott, written by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio, starring Denzel Washington and Paula Patton. It involves an ATF agent who travels back in time in attempts to prevent a domestic terrorist attack that takes place in New Orleans and to save a woman with whom he falls in love.
Departures, 2008, Japan, drama film directed by Yōjirō Takita, loosely based on Coffinman, a memoir by Shinmon Aoki, the film follows a young man who returns to his hometown after a failed career as a cellist and stumbles across work as a nōkanshi, a traditional Japanese ritual mortician.
The Desert of the Tartars (Il deserto dei Tartari), 1976, Italy, film by director Valerio Zurlini, based on Dino Buzzati’s novel. It tells the story of a young officer and the time that he spent guarding the Bastiani Fortress, an old, unmaintained border fortress. The film’s visual style was influenced by the work of Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico.
The Discovery, 2017 British-American romantic science fiction film, directed by Charlie McDowell, screenplay by Justin Lader and Charlie McDowell. A man scientifically proves the existence of an afterlife, a discovery that has led to an extremely high suicide rate.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie: Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie, 1972, France, surrealist film directed by Luis Buñuel and written by Jean-Claude Carrière in collaboration with the director. The narrative concerns a group of upper middle class people attemptin, despite continual interruptions, to dine together. ****
Donnie Darko, 2001, USA, science fiction film directed and written by Richard Kelly, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jena Malone, Drew Barrymore. The film follows the adventures of the troubled title character as he seeks the meaning behind his doomsday-related visions.
Doodlebug, 1997, USA, short film directed by Christopher Nolan. A dishevelled man in a filthy apartment, trying to kill a small bug-like creature that is scurrying on the floor, who resembles a miniature version of himself.
Doppelgänger, 1969, UK, science-fiction film, directed by Robert Parrish and starring Roy Thinnes, Ian Hendry. Also known as Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. A joint European-NASA mission investigating a planet in a position parallel to Earth, behind the Sun, ends in disaster with the death of one of the astronauts. His colleague discovers that the planet is a mirror image of Earth.
Dr. Jin, 2012, South Korea, historical television drama series, starring Song Seung-heon, based on the Japanese manga series Jin written by Motoka Murakami. A mysterious power causes a successful surgeon to travel 150 years back in time to the year 1860 during the Joseon Dynasty, when medical technology was still in its infant stages. He begins treating people of the era, but the lack of necessary implements and rudimentary medical knowledge of the period forces him to develop medical devices and medicine by himself, and seek new ways to aid the sick.
Doctor Who, UK, science fiction television programme produced by the BBC since 1963. The protagonist explores the universe in a time-travelling space ship called the TARDIS, accompanied by a number of companions.
Dragonfly, 2002 supernatural fantasy film directed by Tom Shadyac and starring Kevin Costner. The story is about a grieving doctor being contacted by his late wife through his patients’ near-death experience.
Dreams, 1990 Japanese-American magical realism film of eight vignettes written and directed by Akira Kurosawa, inspired by actual dreams that Kurosawa claimed to have had repeatedly.
Dreams That Money Can Buy, 1947, experimental feature color film written, produced, and directed by surrealist artist and dada film-theorist Hans Richter. An ordinary man who has recently signed a complicated lease on a room, wonders how to pay the rent, he discovers that he can see the contents of his mind unfolding whilst looking into his eyes in the mirror. He realises that he can apply his gift to others and sets up a business in his room, selling tailor-made dreams to a variety of frustrated and neurotic clients.
Dune, 1984, USA, epic science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch and based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan and includes a soundtrack by the rock band Toto, as well as Brian Eno. Set in the distant future, the film chronicles the conflict between rival noble families as they battle for control of the extremely harsh desert planet Arrakis, also known as “Dune”. The planet is the only source of the drug melange which allows prescience and is vital to space travel, making it the most essential and valuable commodity in the universe.
Edge of Tomorrow, 2014, USA, film directed by Doug Liman, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, from the 2004 Japanese light novel All You Need Is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. The film takes place in a future where most of Europe is invaded by an alien race.
El Topo, 1970, Mexico, acd western film written and directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky, haracterized by its bizarre characters and occurrences, use of maimed and dwarf performers, and heavy doses of Christian symbolism and Eastern philosophy, the film is about the quest for enlightenment. ****
Embrace of the Serpent: El Abrazo de la Serpiente, 2015, film directed by Ciro Guerra and written by Guerra and Jacques Toulemonde Vidal. It follows two journeys made thirty years apart by the indigenous shaman Karamakate in the Colombian Amazonian jungle, one with Theo, a German ethnographer, and the other with Evan, an American botanist, both of whom are searching for the rare plant yakruna.
The End Is My Beginning (La fine è il mio inizio) 2010, German-Italian biographical drama film directed by Jo Baier. It is based on the posthumous autobiographical best-seller with the same name written by Tiziano Terzani.
The Endless, 2017, USA, science fiction horror film directed by Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, the story of two brothers who visit an alleged cult they formerly belonged to.
Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed), 2000, Germany, film directed by Doris Dörrie about two brothers, Uwe (Uwe Ochsenknecht) and Gustav (Gustav-Peter Wöhler), who travel to Japan to sort out the mess of their lives. Their plan is to visit the Sojiji Monastery in Monzen, near Tokyo. On their way there, in a rather literal Buddhist moment, they lose all of their belongings. When they at last make it to the monastery, they find that even there, enlightenment can be elusive.
Eraserhead, 1977, USA, experimental body horror film written, produced, and directed by David Lynch. It tells the story of Henry Spencer, who is left to care for his grossly deformed child in a desolate industrial landscape. ***
Equilibrium, 2002, USA; dystopian science fiction action film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, and starring Christian Bale, Emily Watson, and Taye Diggs. The film follows an enforcement officer in a future in which both feelings and artistic expression are outlawed and citizens take daily injections of drugs to suppress their emotions. After accidentally missing a dose, he begins to experience emotions, which makes him question his own morality and moderate his actions while attempting to remain undetected by the suspicious society in which he lives. ***
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2004, romantic science fiction comedy-drama film directed by Michel Gondry. It follows an estranged couple who have erased each other from their memories, then re-met and started dating again. The title is a quotation from the 1717 poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope. ****
Excalibur, 1981, USA, epic historical fantasy film directed, produced, and co-written by John Boorman that retells the legend of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table, based on the 15th-century Arthurian romance Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory. It stars Nigel Terry as Arthur, Nicol Williamson as Merlin, Nicholas Clay as Lancelot, Cherie Lunghi as Guenevere. The film is named after the legendary sword of King Arthur that features prominently in Arthurian literature.
eXistenZ: 1999, USA, science fiction body horror film produced, written and directed by David Cronenberg, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law. A game designer on the run from assassins must play her latest virtual reality creation with a marketing trainee to determine if the game has been damaged. ****
The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec (Les Aventures extraordinaires d’Adèle Blanc-Sec), 2010, France, fantasy adventure feature film written and directed by Luc Besson, loosely based on the comic book series The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec by Jacques Tardi, revolving around parapsychology and ultra-advanced Ancient Egyptian technology.
Eyes Wide Shut, 1999, erotic mystery psychological drama film directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, based on Arthur Schnitzler’s 1926 novella Traumnovelle (Dream Story). The film follows the sexually charged adventures of Dr. Bill Harford, who is shocked when his wife, Alice, reveals that she had contemplated having an affair a year earlier. He embarks on a night-long adventure, during which he infiltrates a massive masked orgy of an unnamed secret society. ****
The Family Man: 2000, USA, romantic comedy-drama film directed by Brett Ratner, written by David Diamond and David Weissman, and starring Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni. The film centers on a man who experiences what his life might have been if he had made a different decision earlier in his life; is he just dreaming or is there a deeper explanation?
The Famous and the Dead: Os Famosos e os Duendes da Morte, 2009, Brazil, film directed by Esmir Filho. A Bob Dylan fan who goes by the name Mr. Tambourine passes his time in the Brazilian countryside by looking at photographs and movies on the Internet that seem to feature the same mysterious woman.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, 2016, USA/GB, fantasy film directed by David Yates, spin-off of and prequel to the Harry Potter film series, produced and written by J. K. Rowling inspired by her 2001 “guide book” of the same name.
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, 2018, USA/GB, fantasy film directed by David Yates and written by J. K. Rowling, the sequel to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the second instalment in the Fantastic Beasts film series and the tenth overall in the Wizarding World franchise.
The Fantastic Journey: 1977, USA, American science fiction television series. Several travellers lost in the Bermuda Triangle find themselves shipwrecked on a mysterious uncharted island from which they are unable to escape, a space/time continuum where people from the past, present, future and from other worlds are trapped, co-existing on the island in a series of “Time Zones”.
Fantastic Planet: La Planète sauvage, 1973, France/CS, directed by René Laloux and written by Laloux and Roland Topor. On a faraway planet where blue giants rule, oppressed humanoids rebel against their machine-like leaders.
Fatherland: 1994 TV film adaptation of the book of the same name by Robert Harris, starrung Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson. More than 20 years after the Nazis won World War II, an SS officer uncovers a plot to eliminate the attendees of the Wannsee Conference so that Germany can establish better relations with the US.
The Fifth Element (Le Cinquième Élément), 1997, France, science-fiction action film directed and co-written by Luc Besson, starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman and Milla Jovovich. Primarily set in the 23rd century, the film’s central plot involves the survival of planet Earth, which becomes the responsibility of Korben Dallas (Willis), a taxicab driver and former special forces major, after a young woman (Jovovich) falls into his cab. To accomplish this, Dallas joins forces with her to recover four mystical stones essential for the defense of Earth against the impending attack of a malevolent cosmic entity.
Fight Club, 1999 film based on the 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk, directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton plays the unnamed narrator, who is discontent with his white-collar job. He forms a “fight club” with soap salesman Tyler Durden (Pitt), and becomes embroiled in a relationship with him and a destitute woman.
The Flash, 2014, superhero television series developed by Greg Berlanti, Andrew Kreisberg, and Geoff Johns, based on the DC Comics character Barry Allen / Flash, a costumed superhero crime-fighter with the power to move at superhuman speeds, travels to multiple parallel universes in the multiverse.
Flatland, 2007, computer-animated film based on the 1884 novella Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott Abbott. The film was directed and animated by Ladd Ehlinger Jr. in Lightwave 3D. The screenplay was written by author Tom Whalen. The music was composed by Mark Slater.
Forbidden Planet, 1956, film directed by Fred McLeod Wilcox. A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet’s colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret that one of them has.
Forrest Gump, 1994, American epic comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Eric Roth. The film stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, and Sally Field. The story depicts several decades in the life of Forrest Gump (Hanks), a slow-witted but kind-hearted man from Alabama who witnesses and, unwittingly, influences several defining historical events in the 20th century in the United States. *****
The Fountain, 2006, American epic magical realism romantic drama film that blends elements of fantasy, history, spirituality, and science fiction. It is directed by Darren Aronofsky, and stars Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. The film consists of three storylines involving immortality and the resulting loves lost, and one man’s pursuit of avoiding this fate in this life or beyond it. Jackman and Weisz play sets of characters bonded by love across time and space: a conquistador and his ill-fated queen, a modern-day scientist and his cancer-stricken wife, and a traveler immersed in a universal journey alongside aspects of his lost love. The storylines reflect the themes and interplay of love and mortality.
Fringe: 2008-2013, USA, TV series created by J. J. Abrams, Alex Kurtzman, and Roberto Orci. The series follows Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), and Walter Bishop (John Noble), all members of the fictional Fringe Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The team uses fringe science and FBI investigative techniques to investigate a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences, which are related to mysteries surrounding a parallel universe. ****
From Beyond, 1986, USA, science-fiction body horror film directed by Stuart Gordon, loosely based on the short story of the same name by H. P. Lovecraft, about a pair of scientists attempting to stimulate the pineal gland with a device called the Resonator. An unforeseen result of their experiments is the ability to perceive creatures from another dimension that proceed to drag the head scientist into their world, returning him as a grotesque shape-changing monster that preys upon the others at the laboratory.
Futurama, 1999-2013, USA, animated sitcom created by Matt Groening. It follows the adventures of slacker Philip J. Fry, who is accidentally transported to the 31st century and finds work at an interplanetary delivery company. In an episode characters travel between “Universe 1” and “Universe A” via boxes containing each universe.
Gabriel, 2007, Australia, action-horror film set in purgatory. It follows the archangel Gabriel’s fight to rid purgatory of the evil fallen angels and save the souls of its inhabitants. Gabriel is the first feature directed by Shane Abbess, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Matt Hylton Todd. It stars Andy Whitfield as Gabriel.
Gattaca, 1997, USA, directed by Andrew Niccol. The film presents a biopunk vision of a future society driven by eugenics where potential children are conceived through genetic selection to ensure they possess the best hereditary traits of their parents. The film centers on Vincent Freeman, who was conceived outside the eugenics program and struggles to overcome genetic discrimination to realize his dream of going into space. ****
Get Out, 2017, USA, horror film directed by Jordan Peele, starring Daniel Kaluuya as a young black man who uncovers a disturbing secret when he meets the family of his white girlfriend.
Ghost, 1990, USA, romantic fantasy thriller film directed by Jerry Zucker, written by Bruce Joel Rubin, and starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn, and Rick Aviles. The plot centers on a young woman in jeopardy (Moore), the ghost of her murdered lover (Swayze), and a reluctant psychic (Goldberg) who assists him in saving her. *****
The Giver, 2014, USA, social science fiction dystopian flm directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Jeff Bridges, Brenton Thwaites, Odeya Rush, Meryl Streep, based on the 1993 novel of the same name by Lois Lowry. Following a calamity, referred to as The Ruin, society is reorganized into a series of communities, and all memories of the past are held by one person, the Receiver of Memory, for the purpose of shielding the rest of the community from their pain. Since the Receiver of Memory is the only individual in the community with memories from earlier times, they must advise the Chief Elder and the other Elders on decisions. The Receiver of Memory and their protégé are the only ones able to see in color, an ability otherwise eliminated from the community so as to prevent envy.
The Golden Compass, 2007, fantasy adventure film directed and written by Chris Weitz, based on Northern Lights, the first novel in Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials, starring Nicole Kidman, Dakota Blue Richards, Daniel Craig, Sam Elliott. The film depicts the adventures of Lyra Belacqua, an orphan living in a parallel universe where a dogmatic ruling power called the Magisterium opposes free inquiry. Children in that universe are being kidnapped by an unknown group called the Gobblers who are supported by the Magisterium. Lyra joins a tribe of sea-farers on a trip to the far North, the land of the armoured polar bears, in search of the missing children. *****
Good Omens, 2019. USA, television serial based on the novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, starring David Tennant, Michael Sheen, Jon Hamm, Anna Maxwell Martin, Josie Lawrence. It follows the demon Crowley (Tennant) and the angel Aziraphale (Sheen), who, being accustomed to life on Earth, seek to prevent the coming of the antichrist and with it the final battle between Heaven and Hell.
The Great Beauty (La grande bellezza) 2013, Italy, art drama film co-written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino. The film opens with a quote from Céline’s Journey to the End of the Night: “Traveling is very useful: it makes your imagination work, everything else is just disappointment and trouble. Our journey is entirely imaginary, which is its strength.” After his sixty-fifth birthday, Jep Gambardella, a journalist with a passion for parties and beautiful women, finds himself lost between the nostalgia of the past and the uncertainty of the future. Jep realizes that he has lived superficially: so begins the search for great beauty, between the declining bourgeoisie and the stereotypes of society.
Groundhog Day: 1993, USA, comedy film directed by Harold Ramis and written by Ramis and Danny Rubin. It stars Bill Murray as Phil Connors, a TV weatherman who, during an assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event, is caught in a time loop, repeatedly reliving the same day. Andie MacDowell and Chris Elliott co-star. *****
Hard to Be a God, Трудно быть богом, 2013, Russia, science fiction art film directed by Aleksei German.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002, USA, fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, based on J. K. Rowling’s 1998 novel of the same name, produced by David Heyman and written by Steve Kloves, the sequel to Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone and the second instalment in the Harry Potter film series.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010) & 2 (2011), fantasy films directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, based on J. K. Rowling’s 2007 novel of the same name and the seventh and eighth and ultimate instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman, David Barron, and Rowling and features an ensemble cast.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2005, USA, fantasy film directed by Mike Newell and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, based on J. K. Rowling’s 2000 novel of the same name, produced by David Heyman and written by Steve Kloves, the sequel to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and the fourth instalment in the Harry Potter film series.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2009, USA, fantasy film directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, based on J. K. Rowling’s 2005 novel of the same name, the sixth instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman and David Barron.
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 2001, fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus, based on J. K. Rowling’s 1997 novel of the same name. The film is the first instalment of the Harry Potter film series and was written by Steve Kloves and produced by David Heyman. Its story follows Harry Potter’s first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as he discovers that he is a famous wizard and begins his education.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004, USA; fantasy film directed by Alfonso Cuarón and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, based on J. K. Rowling’s 1999 novel of the same name, produced by Chris Columbus, David Heyman, and Mark Radcliffe and written by Steve Kloves, the sequel to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the third instalment in the Harry Potter film series.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2007, USA, fantasy film directed by David Yates and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, based on J. K. Rowling’s 2003 novel of the same name, the fifth instalment in the Harry Potter film series, written by Michael Goldenberg and produced by David Heyman and David Barron.
Heaven Can Wait, 1978, USA, fantasy-comedy film co-directed by Warren Beatty and Buck Henry which opens with the central story line of Joe Pendleton being mistakenly taken to heaven by his guardian angel, and the resulting complications of how this mistake can be un-done (given that Joe Pendleton’s body is no longer available) providing the basis of the film’s plot. It was the second film adaptation of Harry Segall’s play of the same name, being preceded by Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941).
Hellzapoppin’, 1941, USA, adaptation of the musical of the same name directed by H.C. Potter. Olsen and Johnson, a pair of stage comedians, try to turn their play into a movie and bring together a young couple in love, while breaking the fourth wall every step of the way. The film has a frenetic pace, and often breaks the ‘Fourth wall’, including inner ‘fourth walls’ introduced by its nonlinear, metafictional narrative. ****
Hereafter: 2010, USA, fantasy disaster drama film directed, co-produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood, written by Peter Morgan, and executive produced by Steven Spielberg. The film tells three parallel stories about three people affected by death in similar ways and able to communicate with the dead. ****
High-Rise, 2015, UK, dystopian drama directed by Ben Wheatley, starring Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, written by Amy Jump and based on the 1975 novel High-Rise by J. G. Ballard. The film is set in a luxury tower block during the 1970s. Featuring a wealth of modern conveniences, the building allows its residents to become gradually uninterested in the outside world. The infrastructure begins to fail and tensions between residents become apparent, and the building soon descends into chaos.
Holy Motors, 2012, French-German fantasy drama film written and directed by Leos Carax, starring Denis Lavant and Édith Scob. Lavant plays Mr Oscar, a man like an actor who inhabits several roles, but there are no apparent cameras filming the man’s performances.
The Holy Mountain: La montaña sagrada, 1973, Mexico, surreal-fantasy film directed, written, produced, co-scored, co-edited by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky, produced by The Beatles manager Allen Klein. A man representing The Fool tarot card lies naked in the desert and is befriended by a footless, handless dwarf representing the Five of Swords, and the pair travel into the city where they make money entertaining tourists. Because the thief resembles Jesus Christ in appearance, some locals cast an impression of his body and sell the resulting crucifixes.
The Host, 2013, USA, romantic science fiction thriller film written and directed by Andrew Niccol, adapted from Stephenie Meyer’s novel. The human race has been taken over by parasitic aliens called “Souls”, a captured young woman is infused with a soul called “Wanderer” and the alien “Soul” vie for control of her body.
The Hourglass Sanatorium: Sanatorium pod klepsydrą, 1973, Poland, film directed by Wojciech Jerzy Has, adaptation of Bruno Schulz’s story collection Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass. The story follows a young Jewish man who visits his father in a mystical sanatorium where time does not behave normally.
Humans, 2015, UK, television series written by Sam Vincent and Jonathan Brackley, based on the Swedish science fiction drama Real Humans, it explores the themes of artificial intelligence and robotics, focusing on the social, cultural, and psychological impact of the invention of anthropomorphic robots called “synths”.
The Hunger Games, 2012, USA, science fiction-adventure film directed by Gary Ross and based on Suzanne Collins’s 2008 novel of the same name. It is the first installment in The Hunger Games film series, with a screenplay by Ross, Collins, and Billy Ray. The story takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future in the nation of Panem, where a boy and a girl from each of the nation’s 12 Districts are chosen annually as “tributes” and forced to compete in The Hunger Games, an elaborate televised fight to the death. Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister’s place, and with her district’s male tribute, travels to the Capitol to train and compete in the games.
I Origins, 2014, USA, science fiction romantic drama film written and directed by Mike Cahill.
I, Robot, 2004, USA, science fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas, screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman, suggested by Isaac Asimov’s short-story collection of the same name. In 2035, humanoid robots serve humanity, which is protected by the Three Laws of Robotics. A Chicago police detective, hates and distrusts robots because he was rescued from a car crash by a robot using cold logic leaving a 12-year-old girl to drown.
If I hadn’t met you (Si no t’hagués conegut), 2018, Spain, Netflix TV series directed by Kiko Ruiz Claverol and Joan Noguera. A man who tragically loses his family journeys to alternate universes in search of a better fate.
The I-Land, 2019, USA, science fiction thriller web television miniseries created by Anthony Salter. A group of violent crime prisoners are part of a “rehabilitation simulation” to test if they’ll resume old behavioral patterns.
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, 2009, fantasy film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam and Charles McKeown. The film follows a travelling theatre troupe whose leader, having made a bet with the Devil, takes audience members through a magical mirror to explore their imaginations and present them with a choice between self-fulfilling enlightenment or gratifying ignorance.
Immortal (Immortal Ad Vitam) 2004, France, live-action and animated science fiction film directed and co-written by Enki Bilal, starring Linda Hardy, Thomas Kretschmann and Charlotte Rampling, loosely based upon Bilal’s comic book La Foire aux immortels (The Carnival of Immortals). In the distant future, Earth is occupied by ancient gods and genetically altered humans. When a god is sentenced to death he seeks a new human host and a woman to bear his child.
Inception, 2010, USA, science fiction action film directed, written, co-produced by Christopher Nolan, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by infiltrating the subconscious, and is offered a chance to have his criminal history erased as payment for the implantation of another person’s idea into a target’s subconscious. ****
The Incident: El Incidente, 2014, science fiction thriller film directed and written by Isaac Ezban. After tragedy strikes them, two different groups of people find themselves stuck in their current location, unable to escape from an infinitely repeating road and an endless staircase, respectively.
The Infinite Man, 2014, Australia, science fiction film directed by Hugh Sullivan. It stars Josh McConville as Dean, a scientist who wants to relive a romantic weekend with his girlfriend, Lana (Hannah Marshall). After they are interrupted by Lana’s ex-boyfriend, Terry (Alex Dimitriades), Dean tries to fix things by going back in time.
Inland Empire, 2006, USA, experimental thriller film written, directed and co-produced by David Lynch. It follows the fragmented and nightmarish events surrounding a Hollywood actress who begins to take on the personality of a character she plays in a film.
Inkheart, 2008, fantasy adventure film directed by Iain Softley, written by David Lindsay-Abaire, based on Cornelia Funke’s 2003 novel of the same name, about a man named Mo who is able to bring book characters out into the real world.
Inside Out, 2015, USA, 3D computer-animated comedy-drama film directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Ronnie del Carmen, with a screenplay written by Docter, Meg LeFauve and Josh Cooley, produced by Pixar Animation Studios. The film is set in the mind of a young girl, where five personified emotions (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear and Disgust) try to lead her through life.
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life, 1996, film by the Brothers Quay, produced by Keith Griffiths and Janine Marmot, based on Jakob von Gunten, a novel written by Robert Walser. A young man enters a school, which trains servants, ad finds the school to be an oppressive environment. He proceeds to challenge the teachers and attempts to shift their perspectives.
Insurgent: 2015, USA, science fiction action film directed by Robert Schwentke, based on Insurgent, the second book in the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. It is the sequel to the 2014 film Divergent. The plot continues to follow Dauntless soldier Tris Prior.
Interstellar: 2014, USA, film directed and co-written by Christopher Nolan, starring Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Michael Caine. Set in a dystopian future where humanity is struggling to survive, the film follows a group of astronauts who travel through a wormhole near Saturn in search of a new home for humanity. ****
Into the Wild, 2007, American biographical survival film written, co-produced, and directed by Sean Penn. It is an adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s 1996 nonfiction book of the same name, based on the travels of Christopher McCandless across North America and his experiences in the Alaskan wilderness in the early 1990s. The film stars Emile Hirsch as McCandless, and Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt as his parents.
Into the Woods, 2014, USA, musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall, and adapted to the screen by James Lapine from his and Stephen Sondheim’s 1986 Broadway musical of the same name.
The Island, 2005, USA, science fiction thriller film directed and co-produced by Michael Bay. It stars Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johansson, Djimon Hounsou, Sean Bean, Michael Clarke Duncan and Steve Buscemi. In the story, Lincoln Six Echo struggles to fit into the highly structured world he lives in, isolated in a compound, and the series of events that unfold when he questions how truthful that world is. After Lincoln learns the compound inhabitants are clones used for organ harvesting as well as surrogates for wealthy people in the outside world, he attempts to escape and expose the illegal cloning movement.
The Island, 2006, Russia, (Остров) directed by Pavel Lungin, about a 20th century Eastern Orthodox monk.***
Isn’t It Romantic: 2019, USA, satirical romantic comedy film directed by Todd Strauss-Schulson and written by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, and Katie Silberman. A young woman disappointed in love mysteriously finds herself trapped inside a romantic comedy.
It Happened Here, 1964, UK, World War II film written, produced and directed by Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo. It shows an alternative history where the United Kingdom has been invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany. The plot follows the experiences of an Irish nurse working in England, who encounters people who believe collaboration with the invaders is for the best whilst others are involved in the resistance movement against the occupiers and their local collaborators.
It Happened Tomorrow, 1944, USA, fantasy film directed by René Clair, starring Dick Powell, Linda Darnell and Jack Oakie. An obituary writer unhappy in his job is given by a ghostly deceased newspaper man a newspaper that has tomorrow’s news. He uses the paper to write stories and get the scoop on other reporters; but this also brings him under suspicion by a Police Inspector.
I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse: J’irai comme un cheval fou, 1973, France, surreal drama film directed by Fernando Arrabal. An epileptic boy, falsely suspected of murdering his mother, flees to the desert where he meets a hermit and brings him back to the city where the hermit becomes a circus performer.
Izo, 2004, Japan, film, directed by Takashi Miike, about Izo Okada (1832–1865), the historical samurai and assassin in 19th century Japan who was tortured and executed by beheading in Tosa.
Jacob’s Ladder, 1990, USA, psychological horror film directed by Adrian Lyne, written by Bruce Joel Rubin and starring Tim Robbins, Elizabeth Peña, and Danny Aiello. The film’s protagonist, Jacob, is a Vietnam veteran whose experiences prior to and during the war result in strange, fragmentary visions and bizarre hallucinations that continue to haunt him. As his ordeal worsens, Jacob desperately attempts to figure out the truth.
La Jetée, 1962 France, film directed by Chris Marker. Constructed almost entirely from still photos, it tells the story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel. It is 28 minutes long and shot in black and white.
John Carter, 2012, science fiction action film directed by Andrew Stanton, from a screenplay written by Stanton, Mark Andrews, and Michael Chabon, based on A Princess of Mars, the first book in the Barsoom series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. The film chronicles the first interplanetary adventure of John Carter and his attempts to mediate civil unrest amongst the warring kingdoms of Barsoom.
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen, 2006, Canadian-Danish film about the pressures on traditional Inuit shamanistic beliefs as documented by Knud Rasmussen during his travels across the Canadian Arctic in the 1920s. Produced by Isuma, the film was directed by Zacharias Kunuk.
Just Like Heaven, 2005, USA, romantic comedy fantasy film directed by Mark Waters, starring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo, and Jon Heder, based on the French novel If Only It Were True (Et si c’était vrai…) written by Marc Levy. Elizabeth, a physician, is in a serious car accident while on her way to a blind date. Three months later, David, a landscape architect recovering from the sudden death of his wife, moves into the apartment that had been Elizabeth’s. Her spirit begins to appear to David in the apartment with ghostly properties and abilities that make it clear that something is not right. She can suddenly appear and disappear, walk or move through walls and objects, and once takes over his actions. David tries to have her spirit exorcised from the apartment, but to no avail. Since only David can see and hear her, others think that he is hallucinating and talking to himself.
Kiss Me First, 2018, UK, cyber-thirlle drama TV series created by Bryan Elsley. A lonely 17-year-old girl is addicted to a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game. While playing it, she meets a cool and confident party girl who harbours a dark secret. In the real world, the two girls become friends, but when her friend disappears she is quickly drawn into unravelling the mystery behind her disappearance
Kyle XY: 2006-2009, USA, TV series created by Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber. The central character is a teenage boy who awakens naked in a forest outside Seattle, with no more knowledge or abilities than a newborn and no belly button. He is taken in by a family and given the name Kyle. The series follows Kyle as he tries to solve the puzzles of who he is and why he has no memory before that day. ****
Labyrinth, 1986, USA, film directed by Jim Henson. The film revolves around 15-year-old Sarah’s (Jennifer Connelly) quest to reach the center of an enormous otherworldly maze to rescue her infant brother Toby, whom Sarah wished away to Jareth, the Goblin King (David Bowie). With the exception of Connelly and Bowie, most of the film’s significant characters are played by puppets produced by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop.
The Lake: 1998, TV movie, science fiction thriller directed by David Jackson. A nurse who returns home to her small town finds that her friends and family have taken on bizarrely different personalities. Jackie notices that everyone who goes into the town’s lake come out different.
The Lake House, 2006, USA, romantic drama film directed by Alejandro Agresti, starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock and Christopher Plummer, written by David Auburn, a remake of the South Korean motion picture Il Mare (2000). The story centers on an architect living in 2004 and a doctor living in 2006. The two meet via letters left in a mailbox at the lake house they have both lived in at separate points in time; they carry on correspondence over two years, remaining separated by their original difference of two years.
Last Love (Последняя любовь) 2017, Russia, independent film directed by Dmitrii Frolov, based on Fyodor Tyutchev poetry.
The Lathe of Heaven, 1980, TV series created by Fred Barzyk, David Loxton, adaptation of the 1971 science fiction novel The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. George Orr, a man whose dreams can change waking reality, tries to suppress this unpredictable gift with drugs. Dr. Haber, an assigned psychiatrist, discovers the gift to be real and hypnotically induces Mr. Orr to change reality for the benefit of mankind. ****
The Lawnmower Man, 1992 science-fiction action-horror film directed by Brett Leonard and written by Leonard and Gimel Everett, starring Jeff Fahey and Pierce Brosnan. A simple man is turned into a genius through the application of computer science.
The Leftovers, 2014-2017, USA, supernatural mystery drama television series created by Damon Lindelof and Tom Perrotta, based on Perrotta’s novel of the same name. It begins three years after the “Sudden Departure”, a global event that resulted in 2% of the world’s population disappearing, and follows the lives of those who were left behind. Mainstream religions declined, and a number of cults emerged, most notably the Guilty Remnant, a group of white-clothed, chain-smoking nihilists, and a cult led by a man who views himself as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
Life of Pi, 2012, survival drama film based on Yann Martel’s 2001 novel of the same name, directed by Ang Lee, written by David Magee, and starring Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Rafe Spall, Tabu Hashmi, Adil Hussain, and Gérard Depardieu. The storyline revolves around an Indian man named “Pi” Patel, telling a novelist about his life story, and how at 16 he survives a shipwreck and is adrift in the Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger.
Little Otik: (Otesánek), 2000, Czech R., film by Jan Švankmajer and Eva Švankmajerová. When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife’s pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her baby and starts to pretend that it is real.
Logan’s Run, 1976, USAm science fiction film, directed by Michael Anderson and starring Michael York, Jenny Agutter, Richard Jordan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Farrah Fawcett, and Peter Ustinov. The screenplay by David Zelag Goodman is based on the book Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson. It depicts a utopian future society on the surface, revealed as a dystopia where the population and the consumption of resources are maintained in equilibrium by killing everyone who reaches the age of thirty.
Lost Highway,1997, USA, neo-noir film directed by David Lynch and co-written by Lynch and Barry Gifford. After a bizarre encounter at a party, a jazz saxophonist is framed for the murder of his wife and sent to prison, where he inexplicably morphs into a young mechanic and begins leading a new life.
Lost in Austen, 2008, UK, television series written by Guy Andrews. Amanda, an ardent Jane Austen fan, lives in present day London with her boyfriend Michael, until she finds she’s swapped places with Austen’s fictional creation Elizabeth Bennet.
Lost River, 2014, film directed by Ryan Gosling. A single mother is swept into a dark underworld, while her teenage son discovers a road that leads him to a secret underwater town.
The Lost Room, 2006, USA, drama mystery television miniseries. The series revolves around the titular room and some of the everyday items from that room which possess unusual powers. The show’s protagonist, Joe Miller, is searching for these objects to rescue his daughter, Anna, who has disappeared inside the Room. Once a typical room at a 1960s motel along U.S. Route 66, the Lost Room has existed outside of normal time and space since 1961, when what is referred to only as “the Event” took place.
Lucifer, 2016, USA, urban fantasy police procedural comedy-drama television series developed by Tom Kapinos based on the DC Comics character created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, and Mike Dringenberg taken from the comic book series The Sandman.
Lucy, 2014, French science fiction action film written and directed by Luc Besson. A woman gains psychokinetic abilities when a nootropic drug is absorbed into her bloodstream.
Made in Heaven, 1987, fantasy-comedy film directed by Alan Rudolph, script from Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, and produced by Lorimar Productions. The film stars Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis. Made in Heaven concerns two souls who cross paths in Heaven and then attempt to reconnect once they are reborn on Earth.
Making Mr. Right, 1987, USA, science fiction romantic comedy film directed by Susan Seidelman; starring John Malkovich as Jeff Peters/Ulysses and Ann Magnuson as Frankie Stone. Jeff Peters is an emotionally repressed scientist who cannot stand others because of their intellectual inferiority. He dreams of deep space exploration, which would be difficult because of the lack of human contact for long periods of time. He develops the Ulysses android (which looks exactly like him) for the purpose of space exploration, since an android would not be affected by the isolation.
Maleficent, 2014, USA, fantasy film directed by Robert Stromberg from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton, loosely inspired by Charles Perrault’s original fairy tale.
Man Facing Southeast: Hombre mirando al sudeste, 1986, Argentina, film written and directed by Eliseo Subiela. The 2001 American film K-PAX in an uncredited remake. A patient in a mental hospital claims to be an extraterrestial. Could he be right? *****
The Man Who Fell to Earth, 1976, UK, science fiction film directed by Nicolas Roeg and written by Paul Mayersberg, based on Walter Tevis’s 1963 novel of the same name, about an extraterrestrial who crash lands on Earth seeking a way to ship water to his planet, which is suffering from a severe drought. The film retains a following for its use of surreal imagery and the performance by David Bowie as the alien.
Mandorla, 2015, drama fantasy film directed by Roberto Miller. The only journey is the one within. Mandorla explores a man’s search for a meaningful life despite conflicts between his inner and outer worlds. Ernesto is a visual artist and seeker stuck in a corporate job, who is drawn by dark magical visions to a medieval French city. There he seeks an elusive banker to help him unlock an obscure dream that threatens his job, family, and sanity.
Mary Poppins, 1964, USA, musical fantasy film directed by Robert Stevenson and produced by Walt Disney, with songs written and composed by the Sherman Brothers, screenplay is by Bill Walsh and Don DaGradi, based on P. L. Travers’s book series Mary Poppins.
Mary Poppins Returns, 2018, musical fantasy film directed by Rob Marshall, with a screenplay written by David Magee and a story by Magee, Marshall, and John DeLuca, loosely based on the book series Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers, a sequel to the 1964 film Mary Poppins.
The Mask, 1994, USA, superhero comedy film directed by Charles Russell, produced by Bob Engelman, and written by Mike Werb, based on the comic series of the same name. The film stars Jim Carrey, Peter Greene, Amy Yasbeck, Peter Riegert and revolves around an unfortunate bank clerk who finds a magical mask that transforms him into a mischievous zoot-suited gangster.
Matilda, 1996, USA, fantasy comedy film co-produced and directed by Danny DeVito, from a screenplay written by Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord, based on Roald Dahl’s 1988 novel of the same name.
The Matrix, 1999, USA/Australia, film written and directed by The Wachowskis. A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers. *****
Matrix Reloaded, 2003, USA/Australia, film written and directed by The Wachowskis. Following the events of Matrix (1999), Neo and the rebel leaders estimate they have 72 hours until 250,000 probes discover Zion and destroy it and its inhabitants. Neo must decide how he can save Trinity from a dark fate in his dreams. *****
Matrix Revolution, 2003, USA/Australia, film written and directed by The Wachowskis. The human city of Zion defends itself against the massive invasion of the machines as Neo fights to end the war at another front while also opposing the rogue Agent Smith. *****
Maximum Shame, 2010, UK/Spain, film written and directed by Carlos Atanes. As the end of the world is imminent, a man goes into a parallel dimension, a limbo between reality and fantasy where the normal rules of time and space have ceased to apply.
Maze Runner, 2014, film directed by Wes Ball. Young hero Thomas embarks on a mission to find a cure for a deadly disease known as “The Flare”.
Meet Joe Black, 1998, USA, romantic fantasy film directed and produced by Martin Brest, and starring Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Claire Forlanim screenplay by Bo Goldman, Kevin Wade, Ron Osborn and Jeff Reno loosely based on the 1934 film Death Takes a Holiday.*****
Meetings with Remarkable Men, 1979, British film directed by Peter Brook and based on the book of the same name by Greek-Armenian mystic, G. I. Gurdjieff, first published in English in 1963. Shot on location in Afghanistan, it starred Terence Stamp, and Dragan Maksimović as the adult Gurdjieff. *****
Memento, 2000, film directed by Christopher Nolan. A man with short-term memory loss attempts to track down his wife’s murderer.
Memory Run, 1995 action film set in the year 2015, starring Karen Duffy, based on the novel Season of the Witch (1968). The year is 2015 and Big Brother is everywhere. The search for immortality is over. Science has finally achieved the impossible, undermining that most basic aspect of life: Mind, Body and Soul must be united. Those who benefit from this new technology will wake up to a new and youthful beginning – the rest of humankind must live a bad dream and wake up to a living nightmare that goes beyond life, beyond death, and beyond redemption.
Metropia: 2009, Sweden, film directed by Tarik Saleh. A complex story of a misaligned man, though good intent, creating a nightmarish Dystopian existence.
Midnight Special, 2016, USA, science fiction film written and directed by Jeff Nichols, starring Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst, Adam Driver. The story revolves around Roy Tomlin and his biological son, Alton Meyer, escaping from both the government and a cult, after discovering that Alton has special powers.
Milarepa, 2006, Tibetan-language film about the life of the most famous Tibetan tantric yogi, eponymous Milarepa, directed by Neten Chokling, a Lama from Western Bhutan, the film is the first part about the adventurous formative years of the legendary buddhist mystic, Milarepa (1052-1135) who is one of the most widely known Tibetan Saints.
The Milky Way: La Voie lactée, 1969, France, surrealist film directed by Luis Buñuel. Two drifters go on a pilgrimage from France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Along the way, they hitchhike, beg for food, and face the Christian dogmas and heresies from different Ages.
Mirage (Durante la tormenta), 2018, Spain, film directed by Oriol Paulo. Two storms separated by 25 years. A woman murdered. A daughter missed. Only 72 hours to discover the truth.
Mirrormask, 2005, USA, fantasy film designed and directed by Dave McKean and written by Neil Gaiman. In a fantasy world of opposing kingdoms, a fifteen-year-old girl must find the fabled MirrorMask in order to save the kingdom and get home.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, 2016, fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and written by Jane Goldman, based on the 2011 novel of the same name by Ransom Riggs.
The Monk and the Demon, 2016, Russia (Монах и бес) comedy film directed by Nikolay Dostal, inspired by the life of Ilya, Archbishop of Novgorod. Amazing story set mainly in a monastery about a demon and a monk/saint miracle maker. The stronger the temptation, the stronger the spiritual strength of the monk. *****
Mr Nobody, 2009, Belgium, film written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael. A boy stands on a station platform as a train is about to leave. Should he go with his mother or stay with his father? Infinite possibilities arise from this decision. As long as he doesn’t choose, anything is possible. *****
The Miracle (Чудo), 2009, Russia, drama film directed by Aleksandr Proshkin.
The Mist: 2007, USA, science-fiction horror film written and directed by Frank Darabont, based on the 1980 book The Mist by Stephen King. A freak storm unleashes a species of bloodthirsty creatures on a small town, where a small band of citizens hole up in a supermarket and fight for their lives.
The Mists of Avalon, 2001, miniseries based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Marion Zimmer Bradley, adapted by Gavin Scott, and directed by Uli Edel. It is a retelling of the Arthurian legend with an emphasis on the perspectives of Morgan le Fay and other women of the tale. *****
Mother! 2017, USA, psychological horror film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky, and starring Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer. The plot follows a young woman whose tranquil life with her husband at their country home is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious couple. Biblical allegories and controversial Gnostic references abound in the film.
Mulholland Drive, 2001, USA, film written and directed by David Lynch. After a car wreck on the winding Mulholland Drive renders a woman amnesiac, she and a perky Hollywood-hopeful search for clues and answers across Los Angeles in a twisting venture beyond dreams and reality.
Multiplicity, 1996, USA, science fiction comedy film starring Michael Keaton and Andie MacDowell about a man able to duplicate himself by machine, each duplicate developing a different personality, causing problems.
Naked Lunch, 1991, USA, film directed by David Cronenberg, adaptation of William S. Burroughs’ 1959 novel of the same name. After developing an addiction to the substance he uses to kill bugs, an exterminator accidentally kills his wife, and becomes involved in a secret government plot being orchestrated by giant bugs in a port town in North Africa.
The Neverending Story, 1984, film directed by Wolfgang Petersen. A troubled boy dives into a wondrous fantasy world through the pages of a mysterious book.
Neverwhere, 1996, urban fantasy television series by Neil Gaiman, set in “London Below”, a magical realm coexisting with the more familiar London, referred to as “London Above”. It was devised by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry, and directed by Dewi Humphreys.
Next: 2007, USA, science fiction action thriller film directed by Lee Tamahori and starring Nicolas Cage and Peter Falk, loosely based on the science fiction short story “The Golden Man” by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of a small-time magician based in Las Vegas, who has limited precognition; his ability allows him to see into the very immediate future.
Night Watch, Ночной Дозор, Nochnoy Dozor, 2004, Russia urban fantasy supernatural thriller film directed by Timur Bekmambetov and written by
Bekmambetov and Laeta Kalogridis, loosely based on the 1998 novel The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko.
The Nines: 2007, USA, film written and directed by John August. A troubled actor, a television show runner, and an acclaimed videogame designer find their lives intertwining in mysterious and unsettling ways.
The Ninth Gate, 1999, mystery thriller film directed, produced, and co-written by Roman Polanski, loosely based upon Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s 1993 novel The Club Dumas. The plot involves the search for a rare and ancient book that purportedly contains a magical secret for summoning the Devil.
Nirvana, 1997, Italy cyberpunk science fiction film directed by Gabriele Salvatores, starring Christopher Lambert, Diego Abatantuono. A virtual reality game designer discovers that the main character of his game has achieved sentience due to an attack by a computer virus. ****
The OA, 2016, 2019, USA, mystery drama web TV series by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij. A young woman resurfaces after having been missing for seven years, calling herself “The OA” and can see, despite having been blind before her disappearance.
Oblivion, 2013, post-apocalyptic science fiction film directed by Joseph Kosinski. A veteran assigned to extract Earth’s remaining resources begins to question what he knows about his mission and himself.
The One: 2001, USA, film directed by James Wong. A rogue Multiverse agent goes on a manhunt for versions of himself, getting stronger with each kill. With only one version remaining, he races against the clock to finish him and become “The One.”
The One I Love, 2014, film directed by Charlie McDowell. A troubled couple vacate to a beautiful getaway, but bizarre circumstances further complicate their situation.
On the Silver Globe: Na srebrnym globie, 1988, Poland, film directed by Andrzej Żuławski. A team of astronauts land on an inhabitable planet and form a society. Many years later, a single astronaut is sent to the planet and becomes a messiah.
Open Your Eyes (Abre los ojos), 1997, Spain, film co-written, co-scored and directed by Alejandro Amenábar and co-written by Mateo Gil. It stars Eduardo Noriega, Penélope Cruz, Fele Martínez and Najwa Nimri. A handsome young man wakes up to a female voice telling him to open his eyes. He drives to an empty city. He wakes again, this time to a woman in his bed. He tells her not to leave him messages on his alarm clock.
Ordet, 1955, Denmark, drama film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, based on a play by Kaj Munk. Follows the lives of the Borgen family, as they deal with inner conflict, religious conflict with each other, death and resurrection. Considered a masterpiece, admired particularly for its cinematography. ****
Orpheus: Orphée, 1950, France, film directed by Jean Cocteau. A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.
OtherLife, 2017, Australia, science fiction thriller film directed by Ben C. Lucas. It stars Jessica De Gouw as the co-founder of Otherlife where they develop a form of biological virtual reality. When her partner, played by T. J. Power, insists she license it for unethical use, she struggles to retain control of her invention with the help of her lover.
Otherworld, 1985, USA, science fiction series created by Roderick Taylor. A family take a tour of the Great Pyramid of Giza at the same time as a once-in-ten-thousand-years conjunction of the planets. Inside, they are abandoned by their guide, and as they try to get out, they are mysteriously transported to another planet which may be in a parallel universe.
Paradox: 2010, Canada, science-fiction television film directed by Brenton Spencer, and based on a three-part graphic novel miniseries by Christos Gage, starring Kevin Sorbo, Steph Song and Christopher Judge. In a world like ours where magic rules the day and almost nothing is known of science, someone is killing people using a device which reveals no trace of magic when subjected to analysis. A detective is in charge of the investigation.
Parallax, 2004, Australia, children’s television series about a boy who discovers a portal to multiple parallel universes, and explores them with his friends.
Parallels: 2015, USA, science-fiction adventure film directed ad screenplayed by Christopher Leone. A group of people are thrown into alternate Earths that range from subtly different to post-apocalyptic.
Passengers, 2016, USA, science fiction romance film directed by Morten Tyldum (2.6) and written by Jon Spaihts, about two people who are awakened ninety years too early from an induced hibernation on a spaceship, transporting thousands of passengers, travelling to a distant colony planet.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, 2010, action fantasy film directed by Chris Columbus, the first installment in the Percy Jackson film series, based on the 2005 novel The Lightning Thief, the first novel in the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series by Rick Riordan.
The Philadelphia Experiment, 1984, science fiction film directed by Stewart Raffill and starring Michael Paré, Bobby Di Cicco, and Nancy Allen based on the urban legend of the Philadelphia Experiment. The film is set in 1943 where two sailors are stationed on a ship used for an experiment to make it invisible to radar. However, the experiment goes horribly wrong and the ship completely disappears and the sailors find themselves in the Nevada desert in the year 1984. They find out the program has been revived in 1984, unexpectedly interacting with the experiment in 1943 and putting the entire world in danger. ****
Pi, 1998, film directed by Darren Aronofsky. A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.
The Platform (El hoyo), 2019, Spain, social science fiction-horror film directed by Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia.
Pleasantville, 1998, USA, comedy-drama film written, co-produced, and directed by Gary Ross, starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Daniels, Joan Allen, William H. Macy, J. T. Walsh, and Reese Witherspoon. The story centers on two siblings who wind up trapped in a 1950s TV show, set in a small Midwest town, where residents are seemingly perfect. In their attempts to fit in, the two become more aware of social issues such as racism and freedom of speech.
Pom Poko, 1994, Japan, animated comedy-drama fantasy film directed by Isao Takahata, about tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs) shapeshifters portrayed as a highly sociable, mischievous species, able to use “illusion science” to transform into almost anything, but too fun-loving and too fond of tasty treats to be a real threat. They tend to assume their realistic form when seen by humans, their cartoon-like form when they are doing something outlandish or whimsical, and their anthropomorphic form at all other times.
La porta rossa, 2017-2019, Italy, fantasy noir thriller TV series by Carlo Lucarelli and Giampiero Rigosi.
Powder, 1995, USA, fantasy drama film, written and directed by Victor Salva and starring Sean Patrick Flanery in the titular role, with Jeff Goldblum, Mary Steenburgen. The film is about Jeremy “Powder” who has an incredible intellect, as well as telepathy and paranormal powers. It questions the limits of the human mind and body while also displaying society’s capacity for cruelty, and raises hope that humanity will advance to a state of better understanding.
Predestination, 2014, Australia, science fiction thriller film written and directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, based on the short story “All You Zombies” by Robert A. Heinlein. A time travelling agent is trying to disarm a bomb that explodes and burns his face. Someone approaches and helps him to grasp his time travelling device, which then transports him to a hospital in the future, where the agent is recovering from facial reconstruction.
Prince of Darkness, 1987, USA, supernatural horror film directed, written and scored by John Carpenter, based on the premise that the essence of a being described as Satan, found in an abandoned church in Los Angeles, is actually an alien being that is the ‘son’ of something even more evil and powerful, trapped in another universe.
Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime) 1997, Japan, animated epic historical fantasy war film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The story follows the young Emishi prince Ashitaka’s involvement in a struggle between the gods of a forest and the humans who consume its resources. The term “Mononoke” is a Japanese word for a spirit or monster: supernatural, shape-shifting beings.
Prisoners of the Lost Universe: 1983, South Africa, film directed by Terry Marcel. Three people are transported to another world when an earthquake occurs.
Project Almanac, 2015, USA, science fiction thriller film directed by Dean Israelite in his directorial debut, and written by Jason Harry Pagan and Andrew Deutschman. The film stars Jonny Weston, Sofia Black-D’Elia, Sam Lerner, Allen Evangelista, Virginia Gardner and Amy Landecker. The film tells the story of a group of high school students that build a time machine.
The Prophet, 2014, animated film adapted from Kahlil Gibran’s book The Prophet.
Quatermass and the Pit, British television science-fiction serial transmitted live by BBC Television in December 1958 and January 1959, written by Nigel Kneale. Workmen excavating a site in London, discover a strange skull and what at first appears to be an unexploded bomb. Quatermass becomes involved in the investigation when it becomes apparent that the object is an alien spacecraft. The ship and its contents have a powerful and malign influence over many of those who come in contact with it.
Rashomon, 1950, Japan, period psychological thriller film directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Toshiro Mifune. Various characters provide subjective, alternative, self-serving and contradictory versions of the same incident.
Red Dwarf 1988-1999, UK, science fiction comedy created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor. Set on the eponymous mining spaceship, the main characters are Dave Lister, initially the last known human alive, and Arnold Rimmer, a hologram of Lister’s deceased bunkmate.
The Revenant, 2015, USA, epic western film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, screenplayed by Mark L. Smith and Iñárritu, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, based in part on Michael Punke’s 2002 novel of the same name. A frontiersman fights for survival after being mauled by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team.
Rick and Morty, 2013, USA, adult animated science fiction sitcom created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. The series follows the misadventures of a cynical mad scientist nd his good-hearted but fretful grandson, who split their time between domestic life and interdimensional adventures.
Repo Man, 1984, USA, science fiction comedy film written and directed by Alex Cox. It stars Harry Dean Stanton and Emilio Estevez. The plot concerns a young punk rock enthusiast who finds himself partnered with a jaded repossession agent and subsequently caught up in the pursuit for a mysterious car that might be connected to extraterrestrials.
Roswell: 1999-2002, USA, TV series created by Jonathon Dukes, based on the Roswell High young adult book series, written by Melinda Metz. The lives of three young alien/human hybrids with extraordinary gifts in Roswell. ***
A Rough Draft, Черновик, 2018, Russia, fantasy film directed by Sergey Mokritskiy.
Run Lola Run: Lola rennt, 1998, Germany, film written and directed by Tom Tykwer. After a botched money delivery, Lola has 20 minutes to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks. ****
Samsara, 2001 independent Indian/Italian/French/German film which tells the story of a Buddhist monk’s quest to find Enlightenment. The film stars Shawn Ku as the monk Tashi, and Christy Chung as Pema. It was directed by Pan Nalin and written by Pan and Tim Baker.
The Science of Sleep: La Science des rêves, 2006, France, surrealistic science fantasy comedy film written and directed by Michel Gondry. A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is love-struck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world.
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb, 1993, film directed by Dave Borthwick. A boy born the size of a small doll is kidnapped by a genetic lab and must find a way back to his father in this inventive adventure filmed using stop motion animation techniques. Tom meets a variety of strange creatures and eventually discovers a race of miniature humans like himself.
Il segno del comando, 1971, Italy, TV series directed by Daniele D’Anza, with Ugo Pagliai, Carla Gravina, Silvia Monelli, Rossella Falk, Carlo Hinterman, Massimo Girotti, Laura Belli. ***
Sense8, 2015-2018,USA, science fiction drama web television series created by Lana and Lilly Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski for Netflix. A group of people around the world are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world’s order.
A Series of Unfortunate Events, 2017-2019, USA, black comedy-drama streaming television series from Netflix, developed by Mark Hudis and Barry Sonnenfeld, based on Lemony Snicket’s children’s novel series of the same name.
Seven Pounds, 2008, USAm drama film, directed by Gabriele Muccino, with Will Smith starring as a man who sets out to change the lives of seven people.
The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet) 1957, Sweden, historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Sweden during the Black Death, it tells of the journey of a medieval knight (Max von Sydow) and a game of chess he plays with the personification of Death who has come to take his life. Bergman developed the film from his own play Wood Painting. The title refers to a passage from the Book of Revelation beginning with the words “And when the Lamb had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour”.[Rev. 8:1] Here the motif of silence refers to the “silence of God,” which is a major theme of the film.
Short Circuit, 1986, USA, comic science fiction film directed by John Badham and written by S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock. The film’s plot centers upon an experimental military robot that is struck by lightning and gains a more humanlike intelligence, with which it embarks to explore its new state.
Siddhartha, 1972, USA, film based on the novel of the same name by Hermann Hesse, directed by Conrad Rooks, with Shashi Kapoor as Siddhartha. It was shot on location in Northern India, and features work by noted cinematographer Sven Nykvist. ****
The Signal, 2014, film directed by William Eubank. On a road trip, Nic and two friends are drawn to an isolated area by a computer genius. When everything suddenly goes dark, Nic regains consciousness – only to find himself in a waking nightmare.
Silver Heads (Серебряные головы), 1998, Russia, science fiction film directed by Yevgeny Yufit.
Sleeper, 1973, USA, futuristic science fiction comedy film, directed by Woody Allen and written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. The plot involves the adventures of the owner of a health food store who is cryogenically frozen in 1973 and defrosted 200 years later in an ineptly led police state. The film contains many elements which parody notable works of science fiction.
Sliders: 1995-2000, USA, TV series created by Robert K. Weiss and Tracy Tormé. A boy genius and his comrades travel to different parallel universes, trying to find their way back home. ****
The Snails: Les Escargots, 1966, France, film directed by René Laloux
Snowpiercer, 2013, film directed by Bong Joon Ho. In a future where a failed climate-change experiment has killed all life except for the lucky few who boarded the Snowpiercer, a train that travels around the globe, a new class system emerges.
The Society, 2019, USA, mystery teen drama web television series created by Christopher Keyser. Iy follows the story of a “group of teenagers who struggle to survive after they’re mysteriously transported to a facsimile of their hometown with no trace of their parents.
Solaris: 1972, Russia, film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. A psychologist is sent to a station orbiting a distant planet in order to discover what has caused the crew to go insane. ****
Somewhere in Time, 1980, USA, romantic science fiction drama film directed by Jeannot Szwarc, adaptation of the 1975 novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson, who also wrote the screenplay, starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, and Christopher Plummer. A playwright becomes obsessed with a photograph of a young woman and through self-hypnosis, travels back in time to the year 1912 to find.
Songs from the Second Floor: Sånger från andra våningen, 2000, Sweden, written and directed by Roy Andersson. Where are we humans going? A film poem inspired by the Peruvian poet César Vallejo. We meet people in the city. People trying to communicate, searching compassion and get the connection of small and large things.
Source Code: 2011, France/USA, film directed by Duncan Jones, written by Ben Ripley. A soldier wakes up in someone else’s body and discovers he’s part of an experimental government program to find the bomber of a commuter train. A mission he has only 8 minutes to complete. ****
Spellbinder (Dwa światy) fantasy teen drama/science fiction television series. A young lawyer, after falling in love with a beautiful woman, finds that she has an extremely mysterious past.
The Spiderwick Chronicles, 2008, USA, fantasy adventure film based on the book series of the same name by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi, directed by Mark Waters.
The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena), 1973, Spain, drama film directed by Víctor Erice, focusing on a young girl and her fascination with the American horror film Frankenstein.
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, 2002, USA, animated adventure film produced by DreamWorks Animation, directed by Kelly Asbury and Lorna Cook and written by John Fusco. A wild stallion is captured by humans and slowly loses the will to resist training, yet, throughout his struggles for freedom, the stallion refuses to let go of the hope of one day returning home to his herd.
Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi) 2001, Japan, animated coming-of-age fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It tells the story of a sullen 10-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, enters the world of Kami (spirits) of Japanese Shinto-Buddhist folklore. After her parents are transformed into pigs by a witch she takes a job to find a way to free herself and her parents and return to the human world.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring, 2003, South Korea, film directed by Kim Ki-duk about a Buddhist monastery that floats on a lake in a pristine forest. The story is about the life of a Buddhist monk as he passes through the seasons of his life, from childhood to old age.
Stalker: 1979, Russia, film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. A guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes. ****
Stargate, 1994, science fiction adventure film written by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, xirected by Emmerich, starring Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Alexis Cruz. The plot centers on the premise of a “Stargate”, an ancient ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole enabling travel to a similar device elsewhere in the universe. The film’s central plot explores the theory of extraterrestrial beings having an influence upon human civilization.
Starman, 1984, USA, science fiction romance film directed by John Carpenter that tells the story of a humanoid alien (Jeff Bridges) who has come to Earth in response to the invitation found on the gold phonograph record installed on the Voyager 2 space probe. The original screenplay was written by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon, with Dean Riesner doing uncredited re-writes. ****
Stay, 2005, USA, psychological thriller film directed by Marc Forster and written by David Benioff. It stars Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts, Ryan Gosling and Bob Hoskins. The film represents intense relationships centering on reality, death, love and the afterlife.
The Stranger: 1973, USA, television movie directed by Lee H. Katzin, as a pilot for a new television series, but never picked up by a network. After a freak mishap, an astronaut finds himself on an almost precise copy of Earth, yet with three moons and run by an Orwellian government.
Stranger Things, 2017, USA, television series created, written, and directed by the Duffer Brothers. When a young boy disappears, his mother, a police chief, and his friends must confront terrifying forces in order to get him back.
Super Mario Bros.: 1993 American fantasy adventure film directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel, written by Parker Bennett, Terry Runté and Ed Solomon, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios, based loosely on the Mario video game series by Nintendo. The story follows the Mario brothers (Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo) in their quest to rescue Princess Daisy (Samantha Mathis) from a dystopic parallel universe ruled by the ruthless President Koopa (Dennis Hopper).
Supernatural, 2005, USA, dark fantasy television series created by Eric Kripke. It follows two brothers as they hunt demons, ghosts, monsters, and other supernatural beings. Several episodes deal with parallel universes, particularly the 13th season.
Synecdoche, New York, 2008, USA, film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman. A theatre director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he creates a life-size replica of New York City inside a warehouse as part of his new play.
Tale of Tales, 2015, European fantasy film co-written, directed and co-produced by Matteo Garrone, screen adaptation based on collections of tales by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile: Pentamerone.
The Thirteenth Floor: 1999, USA, neo-noir science fiction crime thriller film directed by Josef Rusnak, loosely based upon Simulacron-3 (1964), a novel by Daniel F. Galouye, and a remake of the German film World on a Wire (1973). A computer scientist running a virtual reality simulation of 1937 becomes the primary suspect when his colleague and mentor is murdered. ******
They Live, 1988, USA, science fiction film written and directed by John Carpenter, and based on the 1963 short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” by Ray Nelson. It follows an unnamed drifter, who discovers that the ruling class are aliens concealing their appearance and manipulating people to spend money, breed, and accept the status quo with subliminal messages in mass media. ***
Timecop, 1994, USA, science fiction action film directed by Peter Hyams and co-written by Mike Richardson and Mark Verheiden, based on Timecop, a story created by Richardson, written by Verheiden, and drawn by Ron Randall, which appeared in the anthology comic Dark Horse Comics.
Timecrimes (Los Cronocrímenes) 2007, Spain, science-fiction thriller film written by, directed by, and starring Nacho Vigalondo. The film stars Karra Elejalde as Héctor, a man who becomes part of a time loop and must stop his other selves from continuing to exist.
Time Lapse, 2014, USA, indie sci-fi thrille film directed by Bradley D. King and starring Danielle Panabaker, Matt O’Leary, and George Finn. It centers upon a group of friends who discover a machine that can take pictures of things 24 hours into the future, causing increasingly complex causal loops.
Tomorrowland, 2015, film directed by Brad Bird. Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory.
Touch: 2012-2013, USA, TV series created by Tim Kring. A widower struggling to raise his emotionally challenged son discovers that he can predict events before they happen.
12 Monkeys: 1995, USA, film directed by Terry Gilliam. In a future world devastated by disease, a convict is sent back in time to gather information about the man-made virus that wiped out most of the human population on the planet. ****
Transcendence, 2014, USA, science fiction thriller film directed by cinematographer Wally Pfister and written by Jack Paglen. The film stars Johnny Depp, Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Kate Mara, Cillian Murphy, Cole Hauser, and Morgan Freeman. A scientist who researches the nature of sapience, including artificial intelligence, work to create a sentient computer; he predicts that such a computer will create a technological singularity, or in his words “Transcendence”.
Trancers, 1984, USA, science fiction film directed by Charles Band and starring Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, and Art LaFleur. It is the first film in the Trancers series. The film revolves around a police detective from the 23rd century who travels to the 1980s in order to bring his old nemesis to justice. The film portrays a unique method of time travel: People can travel back in time by injecting themselves with a drug that allows them to take over the body of an ancestor.
Travelers, 2016, Canada, TV series. Hundreds of years from now, surviving humans discover how to send consciousness back through time, into people of the 21st century, while attempting to change the path of humanity.
The Tree of Life, 2011, USA, experimental epic drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and featuring a cast of Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Jessica Chastain. The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man’s childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the known universe and the inception of life on Earth.
The Trial, 1962, dream-logic black comedy drama film directed by Orson Welles. An unassuming office worker is arrested and stands trial, but he is never made aware of his charges.
Triangle, 2009, British-Australian psychological horror thriller film written and directed by Christopher Smith and starring Melissa George and Michael Dorman. A single mother goes on a boating trip with several friends. When they are forced to abandon their ship, they board a derelict ocean liner, where they become convinced that someone is stalking them.
The Truman Show: 1998, USA, film directed by Peter Weir, written by Andrew Niccol. An insurance salesman discovers his whole life is actually a reality TV show. *****
Twin Peaks, 1990, American mystery horror drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. The series follows an investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer. The show’s narrative draws on elements of detective fiction, but its uncanny tone, supernatural elements, and campy, melodramatic portrayal of eccentric characters also draw on American soap opera and horror tropes.
Ugetsu, 1953, Japan, romantic fantasy drama film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi and based on stories in Ueda Akinari’s 1776 book of the same name. It is a ghost story and an example of the jidaigeki (period drama) genre, starring Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō.
Unbreakable, 2000, USA, superhero thriller film written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, alongside Robin Wright, Spencer Treat Clark, and Charlayne Woodard. It is the first installment in the Unbreakable film series. In Unbreakable, a security guard named David Dunn survives a horrific train crash.
Under the Dome, 2013, TV series. An invisible and mysterious force field descends upon a small actual town of Chester’s Mill, Maine, USA, trapping residents inside, cut off from the rest of civilization. The trapped townspeople must discover the secrets and purpose of the “dome” or “sphere” and its origins, while coming to learn more than they ever knew about each other and animals too.
Under the Skin, 2013, UK, science fiction film directed and co-written by Jonathan Glazer, loosely based on the 2000 novel by Michel Faber. It stars Scarlett Johansson as an otherworldly woman who preys on men in Scotland.
Upstream Color, 2013, USA, film written, directed, produced, edited, composed, designed by Shane Carruth. A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
“USS Callister”, “Playtest”, Black Mirror, 2017, anthology TV series created by Charlie Brooker and William Bridges, directed by Toby Haynes.
The Usual Suspects, 1995, neo-noir mystery film directed and co-produced by Bryan Singer and written by Christopher McQuarrie, starring Stephen Baldwin, Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak and Kevin Spacey. It follows the interrogation of a small-time con man, who is one of only two survivors of a massacre and fire on a ship.
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (Valérian et la Cité des mille planètes), 2017, France, 3D space opera film written and directed by Luc Besson, based on the French science fiction comics series Valérian and Laureline, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières. the most expensive European and independent film ever made. A dark force threatens Alpha, a vast metropolis and home to species from a thousand planets. Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard Alpha and the future of the universe.
Vanilla Sky, 2001, USA, film directed by Cameron Crowe. A self-indulgent and vain publishing magnate finds his privileged life upended after a vehicular accident with a resentful lover. ****
V for Vendetta, 2005, dystopian political thriller film directed by James McTeigue and written by The Wachowskis, based on the 1988 DC/Vertigo Comics limited series of the same name by Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The film is set in an alternative future where a Nordic supremacist and neo-fascist regime has subjugated the United Kingdom. Hugo Weaving portrays V, an anarchist freedom fighter who attempts to ignite a revolution through elaborate terrorist acts, and Natalie Portman plays Evey, a young, working-class woman caught up in V’s mission, while Stephen Rea portrays the detective leading a desperate quest to stop V.
Videodrome, 1983, Canada, science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Deborah Harry. It follows a small UHF television station who stumbles upon a broadcast signal featuring extreme violence and torture. The layers of deception and mind-control conspiracy unfold as he uncovers the signal’s source, and loses touch with reality in a series of increasingly bizarre and violent organic hallucinations.
Visitor from the Future (Гостья из будущего), 1985, five-part Soviet children’s science fiction television miniseries, based on the 1978 novel One Hundred Years Ahead by Kir Bulychov.
Vivarium, 2019, science fiction horror film directed by Lorcan Finnegan, from a story by Finnegan and Garret Shanley.
Waking Life, 2001, American philosophical adult animated docufiction film directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, the meaning of life, free will, and existentialism. It is centered on a young man who wanders through a succession of dream-like realities wherein he encounters a series of individuals who engage in insightful philosophical discussions.
The Warning: El aviso, 2018, film directed by Daniel Calparsoro. Ten-year-old Nico receives a threatening letter and now his life is in danger. No one seems to believe him except one person that he doesn’t know who has come to believe that fate itself wants the boy dead and tries to prevent it.
Webs: 2003 science fiction-horror television film directed by David Wu. An electrical crew stumbles into a parallel universe dominated by a mutated spider.
Westworld, 1973, USA, science fiction Western thriller film written and directed by novelist Michael Crichton. Its plot concerns amusement park androids that malfunction and begin killing visitors. It stars Yul Brynner as an android in a futuristic Western-themed amusement park, and Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as guests of the park.
Whale Rider, 2002, New Zealand-German family drama film directed by Niki Caro. Based on the novel of the same name by Witi Ihimaera, the film stars Keisha Castle-Hughes as Kahu Paikea Apirana, a twelve-year-old Māori girl whose ambition is to become the chief of the tribe. Her grandfather Koro Apirana believes that this is a role reserved for males only.
What Dreams May Come: 1998, USA, film directed by Vincent Ward. Chris Nielsen dies in car crash one night, and then goes to Heaven. Later, his widow Annie commits suicide, unable to overcome her loss. Chris descends into Hell to save her. *****
What the Bleep Do We Know!?, 2004, USA, film that combines documentary-style interviews, computer-animated graphics, and a narrative that posits a spiritual connection between quantum physics and consciousness. The plot follows the fictional story of a photographer as she encounters emotional and existential obstacles in her life and begins to consider the idea that individual and group consciousness can influence the material world. Her experiences are offered by the filmmakers to illustrate the film’s thesis about quantum physics and consciousness. ****
Where the Wild Things Are, 2009, fantasy film directed by Spike Jonze. Written by Jonze and Dave Eggers, based on Maurice Sendak’s 1963 children’s book of the same name.
Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin) 1987, romantic fantasy film directed by Wim Wenders. The film is about invisible, immortal angels who populate Berlin and listen to the thoughts of its human inhabitants, comforting the distressed. Even though the city is densely populated, many of the people are isolated or estranged from their loved ones. One of the angels, played by Bruno Ganz, falls in love with a beautiful, lonely trapeze artist, played by Solveig Dommartin. The angel chooses to become mortal so that he can experience human sensory pleasures, ranging from enjoying food to touching a loved one, and so that he can discover human love with the trapeze artist.The cast includes Otto Sander, Curt Bois and Peter Falk. ****
The Wizard of Oz, 1939, USA, musical fantasy film, considered to be one of the greatest films in cinema history, adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, directed primarily by Victor Fleming, starring Judy Garland. It portrays a parallel world, separating the magical realm of the Land of Oz from the mundane world.
World On A Wire: Welt am Draht, 1973, Germany, film directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Somewhere in the future there is a computer project called Simulacron one of which is able to simulate a full featured reality, when suddenly project leader Henry Vollmer dies. His successor Dr. Fred Stiller experiences odd phenomena. A good friend, Guenther Lause, disappears in the middle of a conversation and a week later nobody has ever heard of him. And those fits of dizzyness – Stiller cannot believe himself to be fool. There has to be an explanation for all this. Could Simulacron have something to do with it? ****
A Wrinkle in Time, 2018, USA, science fantasy adventure film directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Jennifer Lee and Jeff Stockwell, based on Madeleine L’Engle’s 1962 novel of the same name, produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Whitaker Entertainment, the story follows a young girl who, with the help of three astral travelers, sets off on a quest to find her missing father.
Yesterday: 2019, UK, musical comedy film directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis, from a story by Jack Barth. It stars Himesh Patel as a guitarist who realises he is the only person who remembers the Beatles, and becomes famous plagiarising their songs.
Zardoz, 1974, film directed by John Boorman. In the distant future, a savage trained only to kill finds a way into the community of bored immortals that alone preserves humanity’s achievements. ****
Zathura: A Space Adventure, 2005, USA, science fiction adventure film directed by Jon Favreau, adaptation of the 2002 children’s book Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg, author of the 1981 children’s book Jumanji.
Zen Noir, 2004, surrealist Buddhist murder mystery by independent filmmaker Marc Rosenbush. A nameless ‘noir’ detective, still mourning the loss of his wife, investigates a mysterious death in a Buddhist temple, but his logical, left-brained crime-solving skills are useless in the intuitive, non-linear world of Zen.
The Zero Theorem, 2013, film directed by Terry Gilliam. A hugely talented but socially isolated computer operator is tasked by Management to prove the Zero Theorem: that the universe ends as nothing, rendering life meaningless. But meaning is what he already craves.
8 1⁄2 (Otto e mezzo) 1963, Italy, surrealist comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini, starring Marcello Mastroianni as Guido Anselmi, a famous Italian film director who suffers from stifled creativity as he attempts to direct an epic science fiction film. Shot in black-and-white by cinematographer Gianni Di Venanzo, the film features a soundtrack by Nino Rota with costume and set designs by Piero Gherardi.
9, 2009, film directed by Shane Acker.
12 12 12, 2013, Italy, film directed by Massimo Morini. In the little town of Bogliasco, in Italy, there is a political conspiracy. Max tries to discover the truth, which will be frightening.
2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968, USA, epic science fiction film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. The screenplay was written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, and was inspired by Clarke’s short story “The Sentinel”. The film, which follows a voyage to Jupiter with the sentient computer HAL after the discovery of a mysterious black monolith affecting human evolution, deals with themes of existentialism, human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and the possibility of extraterrestrial life.
2010: The Year We Make Contact, 1984, science fiction film written, produced and directed by Peter Hyams. It is a sequel to Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), and is based on Arthur C. Clarke’s sequel novel 2010: Odyssey Two (1982).
SOURCES:
Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org
IMDb https://www.imdb.com
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