AB de Villiers and Kumar Sangakkara clash for the top position: ICC ODI Ranking:The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced the various ICC Rankings following the last match of the group stage in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Days before the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 knock-out stage matches start here we have the list of rankings for teams, the number one batsmen, bowler and all-rounder’s ranking.
The ICC updated the Team Rankings as per their performances before the quarter finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 and also announced the battle for the top position for individual performers following the round robin matches.
Quite a few players with superfine performance in the world cup 2015 have made substantial progress in their ICC Ranks.
The ICC Press Release stated:
Top bowling spot firmly within Steyn’s and Starc’s sights; Shakib aims for Dilshan’s number-one all-rounders’ spot
AB de Villiers of South Africa and Kumar Sangakkara of Sri Lanka have brought their battle for the coveted one-number batting spot in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen to Sydney when the two will go head to head in the first quarter-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
De Villiers started the year leading Sangakkara by 76 ratings points and when the two players will take the field on Thursday, the South African will be leading the Sri Lankan by 38 ratings points. Both these outstanding cricketers are enjoying great form with de Villiers having scored 417 to date and Sangakkara leading the field with 496 runs, including four centuries.
While de Villiers has gained eight ratings points since the start of the tournament to enjoy his career-high rating of 899, Sangakkara has gained three places and 68 ratings points to sit on 861 ratings points, also his career-high rating.
Not too far behind the two batsmen are Hashim Amla of South Africa and India’s Virat Kohli.
Amla is in third position, 14 ratings points behind Sangakkara, while Kohli will go into Friday’s second quarter-final against Bangladesh in Melbourne trailing the South African by four ratings points.
While the four top batsmen have consolidated their positions in the latest batting chart, there are a few other batsmen who have made upward movements following their performances in the second half of the pool stage matches and will aim to continue to head in the right direction when they feature in the knockout stage.
Inside the top 10, India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni has gained two places and is now in eight spot while Australia’s Glenn Maxwell has jumped eight places to occupy a career-best ninth position, just 17 ratings points behind Dhoni.
Outside the top 10, Suresh Raina of India is in 17th position (up by three places), Pakistan’s Ahmed Shehzad 24th (up by two places), Australia’s David Warner 25th (up by five places), Mushfiqur Rahim of Bangladesh 27th (up by seven places), Australia’s Steven Smith 31st (up by six places), New Zealand’s duo of Martin Guptill 34th (up by eight places) and Corey Anderson 39th (up by eight places), Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah 44th (up by 17 places) and Shahid Afridi of Pakistan 44th (up by three places).
Zimbabwe’s former captain Brendan Taylor leads the batsmen who have gained places in the batting table but will not feature in the knockout stage.
Taylor, who is the second leading run-getter with 433 runs, has rocketed 13 places to claim 16th spot, while others include England’s pair of Jos Buttler in 22nd (up by six places) and Ian Bell 23rd (up by four places), Afghanistan’s Samiullah Shenwari 48th (up by four places) and Zimbabwe’s Sean Williams 49th (up by eight places).
In the ICC Player Rankings for ODI Bowlers, Dale Steyn of South Africa and Australia’s Mitchell Starc have Saeed Ajmal’s number-one ranking firmly within their sights. Steyn has gained one place to rise to second spot to trail the absent Pakistan off-spinner by just five ratings points.
Starc, who started the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in seventh spot, is now on a career-high third position after leading the bowlers’ list with 16 wickets. He is four ratings points behind Steyn and nine ratings points behind Saeed.
England’s James Anderson and Morne Morkel are the other bowlers inside the top 10 to improve their rankings. Anderson has gained one place to occupy sixth position while Morkel is 10th after rising two places.
New Zealand’s Trent Boult leads the charge of the other bowlers outside the top 10 when he has vaulted nine places to claim a career-best 15th position, thanks to his 15 wickets in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 to date.
Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka has climbed six places to 27th after his 11 wickets in the series to date, West Indies captain Jason Holder has joined his Sri Lanka counterpart Angelo Mathews in 28th spot after taking nine wickets to date, India’s Umesh Yadav has climbed eight places to 34th after his 10 wickets to date and James Faulkner has leaped 12 places to 35th.
In the ICC Player Rankings for ODI All-rounders, Bangladesh’s Shakib Al Hasan will try to reclaim the number-one spot from Tillakaratne Dilshan of Sri Lanka, who leads by 17 ratings points.
There are notable major changes inside the top 20 in the latest all-rounders’ rankings. Glenn Maxwell of Australia has joined India’s Ravindra Jadeja in seventh position by rising three places, Corey Anderson has broken into the top 10 for the first time by gaining seven places while Mahmudullah of Bangladesh is enjoying his career-best ranking of 14th after jumping nine places.
Quick Link :Cricket World Cup 2015: Hit XI of Group Stage
ICC ODI TEAM RANKINGS:
There is no change to the ICC ODI Team Rankings as Australia continues to lead defending champion India by five ratings points. South Africa and Sri Lanka are separated by just four ratings points.
The side that tops the ICC ODI Team Rankings as on 31 March 2015, will receive an ODI shield as well as a cash award of USD$175,000, while the side finishing second will collect USD$75,000.
Forthcoming matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015:
Quarter-finals:
Wed 18 March – Sri Lanka v South Africa, Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG)
Thu 19 March – Bangladesh v India, Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)
Fri 20 March – Australia v Pakistan, Adelaide Oval
Sat 21 March – New Zealand v West Indies, Wellington Regional Stadium
Semi-finals:
Tue 24 March – SF1 – Winner QF1 (NZ v WI) v Winner QF3 (SL v SA), Eden Park, Auckland
Thu 26 March – SF2 – Winner QF2 (Aus v Pak) v Winner QF4 (BD v Ind), SCG, Sydney
Final:
Sun 29 March – Melbourne Cricket Ground
To find the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Rankings Table,
The ICC ODI batsmen’s Ranking
The ICC ODI bowler’s Ranking
The ICC ODI all-rounder’s Ranking
Check the ICC ODI Team Rankings (as on 16 March, 2015, after pool stage matches in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015)
Since the ancient times, perfumes and natural scents have been
around, bringing lovely and reminiscent smells to living spaces, skin
and hair. Although, we have had the ability to create perfumes as we
know them today since the 1800s.
A great perfumer – or a ‘nose’ – is thought to be both a chemist and an
artist, putting together chemicals and ingredients. In today’s society,
cologne and perfume is worn by both men and women; it is a luxury
market, and people normally expect to give a pretty penny for a
beautifully decorated bottle and classy scents. It is a safe gift choice
and indulgence that remains popular even in modern times.
Obviously, most people would not expect to spend anything near to the
cost of the fragrances on this list.
From light, flowery scents to
strong musky smells, the art of perfume making is an always-evolving
practice and mostly expensive and not-easy-to-come-by ingredients rise
the price of the finished product. The outstanding prices of the 10 most
expensive perfumes and colognes on this list are influenced by current
trends, design of the bottle, and the rarity of ingredients involved.
Luxurious perfumes are bought by ounce, not the bottle, in the
commercial fragrance industry. Because of that, we have listed the
perfumes’ prices according to this.
10. Annick Goutal Eau d’Hadrien – $441.18 per ounce
This perfume was released as a result of a Annick Goutal and Francis
Camail working together back in 1981. Eau d’Hadrien can be used by both
men and women. This perfume is a citrus fragrance, made up ingredients
including mandarin orange, lemon, grapefruit, Sicilian lemon, cypress,
aldehydes, citron and extracts from a plant grown in Madagascar called
ylang ylang. It is also sold in a $1,500 3.4 ml bottle. The perfume
gained fame and popularity when it was raised to the Fragrance
Foundation’s Hall of Fame at the FiFi Awards in 2008.
9. JAR Bolt of Lightning – $765 per ounce
JAR is the short form for the jeweler who designed this perfume, Joel A.
Rosenthal. Every bottle of Bolt of Lightning is personally hand cut and
designed. Joel advertized this scent as having the smell of air just
after a lightning strike, however, it is more specifically for women as
an oriental floral fragrance. Some of Jar complicated ingredients are
smells of mature flowers, ripe fruit, freshly cut plants and dashes of
green notes, musk and tuberose.
8. Joy by Jean Patou – $800 per ounce
It was created in 1929 for French courier Jean Patou, Henri Almeras
being the perfumer. Launched in 1936, Jean Patou has become one of the
most highly-regard fragrances ever created. It was voted “Scent of the
Century” by the Fragrance Foundation at the 2000 FiFi Awards, beating
out the more popular Channel No. 5. Joy. This perfume is exemplary of
the floral type, and it was made to raise people’s spirits during the
Great Depression. The ingredients add to its sky-high price since an
exceptional 10,000 jasmine flowers and 336 roses are required to just
create a single ounce.
7. Caron Poivre – $1,000 per ounce
Parfum Caron was founded in 1904 and is one of the world’s most
prominent perfume companies. 50 years later, in 1954, they released the
Caron Poivre, the most expensive perfume the brand has ever made. It is
bottled in a limited edition Baccarat crystal bottle with a white-gold
collar and is described as a perfume for both men and women. Caron
Poivre has dashes of clove, and a number of spices including black and
red pepper. It has a very spicy and fiery scent, which is definitely
appropriate since Poivre is French for pepper.
6. Hermés 24 Faubourg – $1,500 per ounce
Launched in 1995 by the French luxury brand Hermés, this perfume is a
limited edition scent for women and it was named after the address of
the original store in Paris: 24, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré. The
legendary perfurmer, Maurice Roucel, created this fragrance. It is an
especially rare perfume since only 1,000 bottles were ever made. The
perfume bottle is made from St. Louis crystal is shaped in soft, curvy
square. Hermés long-lasting fragrance is light, flowery, and sunny, made
up of orange blossom, tiare flower, jasmine, patchouli, ylang ylang,
iris, vanilla, sandalwood and ambergris.
5. Clive Christian No. 1 – $2,150 per ounce
Clive Christian is a famous name in the luxury perfume industry, and
this particular scent was even believed to be the most expensive perfume
in the planet from when it was launched in 2001, to 2006. Clive
Christian No 1 comes in two selections: Floral Oriental for women, and
Woody oriental for men. The signature bottle is created from lead
crystal and is decorated with 1/3 carat of diamond on the neck. The
sweet scent of the perfume is superb and rich, and it is made up of
natural gum resin, bergamot, vanilla, orris, sandalwood and extracts of
ylang ylang.
4. Chanel Grand Extrait – $4,200 per ounce
Even since the Coco channel release this iconic scent in 1921, Chanel
has been synonymous with luxury around the planet. Chanel No. 5 was
created by legendary perfumer Ernest Beaux. This limited edition perfume
was released as the purest, rarest original No. 5 fragrance in the
world, explaining its $4,200 per ounce price tag. Every bottle is
created through moulds, which benefits from a glassmaker’s individual
touch, and a Chanel spokeswoman has said that “very few pieces are
produced” each year. The floral perfume is made with delicate care. Rose
and jasmine from Chanel’s very own fields in France to go into
fragrance.
3. Baccarat Las Larmes Sacrees de Thebes – $6,800 per ounce
This perfume is costly for both the scent itself and the bottle it comes
in. Baccarat is a luxury crystal glassware manufacturer and one of the
top choices in artisan bottle creation for high-end perfume companies
around the world. The company launched three of its own limited edition
fragrances in 1998, and this one was the least produced, making it the
most valuable and the rarest.
The Baccarat Las Larmes Sacrees de Thebes – or the “Sacred Tears of
Thebes” as it translates to – is and Egyptian-themed perfume housed in a
striking pyramid-shaped bottle of crystal. Nowadays you can buy the
fragrance in tiny 0.25oz containers. The ingredients are made up of a
mix of jasmine, rose, Egyptian cassie, as well as myrrh and frankincense
bring to mind the scents of the Middle East.
2. Clive Christian No. 1 Imperial Majesty Perfume – $12,721.89 per ounce
Clive Christian holds the Guinness Book of World Records title as the
most costly perfume in the world. This perfume was released in 2005, and
only a 10-bottle run in this super –rare, super-exclusive limited
edition perfume was released for sale in the famous Harrods store in
London and in Bergdorf Goodman in New York. The “No. 1 Imperial Majesty”
is actually just a Clive Christian NO.1 – in a very fancy bottle. The
cost of the bottle is $215,000 since it has 16.9 ounces of perfume. The
perfume bottle was crafted by Baccarat, decorated with a 5-carat white
diamond on the neck and encased in an 18-carat solid gold collar.
1. DKNY Golden Delicious Million Dollar Fragrance Bottle – $1 million
DKNY released its golden-apple-shaped million dollar bottle of perfume
in 2011. The company cooperated with famed jewelry designer called
Martin Katz to create a special one-of-a-kind edition of the company’s
highest selling fragrance. The million dollar bottle is crafted in
14-karat yellow and white gold and contains 183 yellow sapphires, 2700
white diamonds, a 1.6-carat turquoise Paraiba tourmaline from Brazil, 15
vivid pink diamonds from Australia, a 7.18-carat oval Cabochon sapphire
from Sri Lanka, 4-rose cut diamonds, 15 vivid pink diamonds from
Australia, a 4.03-carat pear shape rose cut diamond, a 3.07-carat oval
cut ruby, and a 2.43-carat flawless vivid yellow Canary diamond adorning
the cap.
Overall, the bottle contains 2,909 precious stones, but the best part is
that the above mentioned stones have been placed hand placed to
duplicate the New York City skyline. It took approximately 1,500 hours
to complete the process. After being released and showcased around the
world, a silver lining for the outstandingly expensive fragrance bottle
was announced: The bottle would be sold to a perfume enthusiast and all
proceeds would go to the global charity Action Against Hunger.
The gang's all here ... Star Wars PR
Peter Bradshaw on sci-fi
Science fiction has produced some of cinema's boldest and most
glorious flights – in every sense. Sometimes patronised as kids' stuff,
the genre seeks to look beyond the parochialism of most realist drama:
to see other worlds and other existences, and therefore to look with a
new, radically alienated eye at our own. Maybe something in the
limitless possibilities of cinema itself spawned sci-fi.
George Meliès's A Trip to the Moon (1902) was one of early cinema's
biggest hits. In the middle of the 20th century, sci-fi inhabited the
B-picture world of monsters and rockets and intuited a "red scare"
anxiety about aliens. At the end of the 60s, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A
Space Odyssey broke through into a new level of poetry and wonder. Films
like Dark Star and Alien worked a satirical, pessimistic darkness into
sci-fi, but George Lucas and Steven Spielberg together expressed its lighter, more hopeful strain.
In the 21st century, the Wachowskis' The Matrix sequels and
Christopher Nolan's Inception have explored new, interior landscapes:
the inner world of the mind may be the genre's new frontier.
10. The Matrix
The Matrix is a teenage boy's dream. There's action, fighting,
cutting-edge special effects, murderous robots, evil authority figures,
an overriding pseudo-conspiracy theory and, most wonderful of all, an
ineloquent social outcast who eventually becomes a flying kung fu Jesus.
What's missing? Girls in skin-tight PVC catsuits? Nope: The Matrix has
those, too.
By cherrypicking as many key ingredients from action films as they
could (the us-against-the-machines mentality from The Terminator, the
wire work from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and the star from Johnny
Mnemonic), and shooting it through with a timely dose of pre-millennial
unease, the directors single-handedly managed to reinvigorate an entire
genre. The sight of Arnold Schwarzenegger
lunkheadedly charging through armies of ineffectual goons started to
look embarrassingly tired. The Matrix marks the point where fans
demanded more – they wanted to see themselves on screen. And that's why
the casting of Keanu Reeves was a masterstroke. He might be pretty, but
he's no one-man army. Plus: Neo is totally an anagram of "One". Woah. Stuart Heritage
9. The Terminator/Terminator 2: Judgment Day
A $7m outlay brought spectacular returns of over $70m for James
Cameron's first great sci-fi action thriller, which spawned a
three-sequel franchise, a powerhouse directorial career, and made
robotic, former iron-pumping Teuton Arnold Schwarzenegger an unlikely
80s superstar. A time-travel thriller, whose closed-
circuit-in-time
mechanism is a straight lift from Chris Marker's La Jetée,
its more cerebral notions – man versus machine, grey matter versus
computer, past versus present versus future – are cleverly pondered
alongside some of the most visceral and exciting action sequences ever
filmed. And the monster, unstoppable and remorselessly murderous, can
take on the voices of others, and later (in the sequel), even adopt
their outward fleshly appearance, allowing it to take on the form of
LAPD cops, step-moms, pet dogs, and who knows what else.
The follow-up, made for zillions more dollars, was a smash on a far
larger scale, offering a metal-based morphing psycho robot (Robert
Patrick) and a more sympathetic Schwarzenegger cyborg, this time
assigned to protect, not destroy future rebel leader John Connor (Edward
Furlong). One of the most likable aspects of this and several other
Cameron features is his eagerness to put a tough, resourceful and sexy
woman at the head of the cast – look at the muscle tone on that Sarah
Connor in Judgment Day! – and never permit anyone to rescue her.
State-of-the-art in their day, they still pack a knockout punch. John Patterson
8. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Steven Spielberg revived and revitalised the alien-invasion genre
after the 50s rush of raygun-wielding creature features. In his luminous
1977 special-effects extravaganza, he saw alien contact as a gateway to
new knowledge, new experiences and a higher consciousness.
Its suburban hero Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is both an everyman
and a prophet, a family guy who is haunted by sounds – the film's
signature five-note whale call – and images of a rock formation in
Wyoming, to the horror of his wife and their children. Spielberg flirts
with thriller conventions, though this is ultimately a cosy ride,
lightened by a spirit of evangelical zeal concerning Neary's obsession,
while the encounter itself plays out like an intellectual version of the
rapture, in which only true believers are taken by the sylph-like
visitors.
The film is also as close as Spielberg gets to social comment, and
the ending – expanded for the 1980 "special edition" – sees Neary, after
an unpleasant grilling by the government and the military, turning his
back on a US where Watergate and Vietnam were still recent and painful
memories. Damon Wise
7. Star Wars
The original Star Wars (let's not bother with this Episode IV: A New
Hope subheading nonsense) lays its cards on the table with its opening
shot: a gigantic, evil-looking spaceship chasing down a far smaller
craft.
Like the rest of the movie, you could watch it with the sound off
and completely follow what was going on. It's the purity of the story
that has made this film endure, the classic themes handed down through
the ages. It may be dressed up with robots, spaceships and trash
compactors, but it's the old-as-time hero journey – George Lucas
has said he consciously modelled his screenplay on Joseph Campbell's
study of comparative mythology The Hero With a Thousand Faces.
Advertisement
In
the cynical 70s, the notion of making a movie that mixed Kurosawa and
Flash Gordon must have sounded as ludicrous as it does today. The film
industry wasn't ready for such an ambitious technical feat (at such a
modest budget) as Star Wars, so Lucas changed it by bringing in untested
youngsters from experimental and indie movies, or from fields like
industrial design. Lucas had a talent for mixing disparate influences
and making them fit perfectly. He shepherded together acting stalwarts
like Alec Guinness
and Peter Cushing, experimental film-makers like Adam Beckett (who
supervised the effects), and military uniform historian John Mollo; it
would otherwise be inconceivable that these people would have all worked
on the same project.
Much has been made of Lucas's repeated direction to his cast ("Faster
and more intense") or that the dialogue was easier to type than say.
Guinness, Cushing and James Earl Jones
give it all the gravitas it needs, with the younger members fitting
their roles perfectly: Mark Hamill's wide-eyed earnestness, Carrie
Fisher's dignity and, perhaps best of all, Harrison Ford looking so
mortified and embarrassed to be there. For audiences it resulted in a
film unlike any before or since. Phelim O'Neill
6. ET: The Extra-Terrestrial
After 1977's Close Encounters (see no 8), director Steven Spielberg
reversed the alien encounter formula to wonder not what we would make of
them but what they would make of us. The result was this 1982
blockbuster, which eclipsed even the original Star Wars and received nine Oscar nominations (winning four) – a feat unheard of for a film with such overt sci-fi content.
Despite its genre trappings, ET balanced its fantasy content with an
Academy-pleasing dose of sentiment, played out in the home life of
Elliott (Henry Thomas), a lonely 10-year-old whose parents are
separating. Little time is spent revealing where the film's ET has come
from, or how he came to be left behind. Instead, Spielberg focuses on
the film's unlikely-buddy story; the middle child of three (Drew
Barrymore is the sweet but clingy younger sister, Robert MacNaughton the
cynical teenage big brother), Elliott takes in the ET as the friend and
confidant he doesn't have.
Largely filmed from an adult-waist-height perspective, the film
prioritises this world of children and indulges them in their harmless
naivety. So when the mean-minded authorities find out about the presence
of ET, the effects are doubly shocking. The faceless hordes of
uniformed, flashlight-toting militia make an intimidating and brutal
sight. After a light-hearted first half, the film takes a plunge into
darker drama in the second, when ET is captured and quarantined. Pale
and half‑dead, the creature draws uncanny performances from its child
cast, and the religious parallels in ET's subsequent "resurrection" have
never gone unnoticed. However, they are likely accidental; Spielberg
has said he sees his film more as a "minority story" about two outsiders
who join forces in isolation.
There is also more than a hint of fairytale about ET, notably in the
film's final, famous chase sequence, in which Elliott takes to his
bicycle with ET on the handlebars and soars, Peter Pan-like, up into the
sky. As in Close Encounters, there is a healthy scepticism about
authority on show, but ET: The Extra Terrestrial is a less worldly film.
Like much of Spielberg's work, it was heavily influenced by his
parents' divorce and based on an imaginary friend he created at the same
age as Elliott. "A friend," he said, "who could be the brother I never
had, and a father that I didn't feel I had any more." DW
5. Solaris
Andrei Tarkovsky
started work on an adaptation of Stanisław Lem's philosophical
science-fiction novel in 1968 in an attempt to find a popular cinematic
subject. After the usual labyrinthine negotations with the Soviet
authorities over the script, what emerged was a space film unlike
anything before or since. Lem's novel posited the existence of
solaristics; the study of an outlying star system that had bizarre
effects on human psychology. Tarkovsky took this idea, and turned it
into a dreamlike interrogation of faith, memory and the transfiguring
power of love.
Tarkovsky begins his version of the story with some of the most
magically earthbound images ever filmed, as his protagonist, a
psychologist called Kelvin (Donatas Banionis), contemplates his garden.
He then embarks on a voyage to the space station circling Solaris, there
to investigate the reports of eccentric behaviour of previous visitors.
Kelvin undergoes an ordeal by memory, as Solaris' psychoactive
properties trigger the reappearance of his dead wife, Hari (Natalya
Bondarchuk). The space station becomes a place of mysterious hauntings
and apparitions. His colleagues hardly inspire trust, and Kelvin
attempts to make sense of what is happening to him as he retreats
further into an internal world.
Tarkovsky was barely interested in Lem's main preoccupation: to
theorise about what might constitute alien life. Solaris, and its
apparently animate "oceans", are simply a conduit to, and
externalisation of, deeper spiritual matters. It's fair to say that no
other director can have got anywhere near the mystic uplift of this film
- and that includes the Steven Soderbergh remake with George Clooney.
Lem didn't like the way his novel had been adapted; Tarkovsky himself
considered it a less than successful film. But the clarity and beauty of
Solaris ensures its majesty lives on. Andrew Pulver
4. Alien
Alien is a perfect storm of talents: Dan O'Bannon and Ronald
Shusett's lean screenplay; Derek Vanlint's moody cinematography; Jerry
Goldsmith's haunting score; Brian Johnson's miniature effects, and a
cast including Sigourney Weaver, Harry Dean Stanton, Ian Holm and John Hurt.
The most noticeable and revolutionary work on this film was, of
course, on the design side. O'Bannon had previously worked on Alejandro
Jodorowsky's ill-fated adaptation of Dune (a project that also fell
through Ridley Scott's grasp). For that he had assembled an incredible
assortment of artists, who he regrouped for
Alien, with talents such as
Moebius from the Métal Hurlant magazine, Ron Cobb from Star Wars and
Swiss artist HR Giger. Years before, Giger had a vivid nightmare where a
lavatory and surrounding plumbing came to queasy, pulsating life – and
so his "biomechanical" style was born. His creations were bizarre,
organic machines and his designs for Alien, such as the huge derelict
spaceship the astronauts investigate, seem as much grown as constructed.
Alien uses a similar story framework to the 50s cheapo monster flick It! The Terror from Beyond Space,
but adds so much to it that it becomes a far deeper film. There are
plenty of subtexts at play here, such as having the lead role played by a
woman (the script just used surnames in a non-gender specific manner),
or the male Kane giving "birth" to the creature in the still-powerful
"chestburster" scene. However you approach it, this is a wonderfully
immersive and terrifying film. It was such a shock to the system when it
was released (and a huge hit to boot) that you can still see its
influence in countless sci-fi and horror films decades down the line. PON
3. Blade Runner
Most directors who have finished a science-fiction film tend to
choose something a little more down to earth for their next project. Ridley Scott, coming off Alien, launched himself into something even more stylised and visually dense.
Based on Philip K Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
and borrowing the title from William S Burroughs, Blade Runner follows a
detective called Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) as he hunts down a group
of replicants. These synthetic humans – almost impossible to discern
from the real thing – have escaped from one of the "off-world" colonies
and returned to Earth. Deckard's mission is to "retire" them, but the
reason behind the replicants' return is interestingly emotive: they wish
to lead their own lives, as is the right of any sentient being.
Blade Runner, notoriously, was completely misunderstood when it was
released. Ford was an action man and audiences could be forgiven for
thinking this was going to be a sort of Indiana Jones and the Flying
Police Car. It wasn't helped by the clumsy voiceover and coda that the
studio insisted upon.
Now, though, there's no denying its classic status. There are several
versions available, each showing that with even a few minor
differences, this film can be read in different ways. (Is Deckard a
replicant? Even Scott and Ford can't agree.) Designer Syd Mead also
pulled his weight. Mead was a visual futurist, a designer of advanced
concepts for companies like Chrysler and Philips. However, it is Rutger
Hauer's final speech, as the dying replicant leader Roy Batty, that
people remember the most. It's an emotional end, adding unexpected
heartbreak to a film that may have seemed almost baffling at first
viewing. PON
2. Metropolis
Although many sci-fi films followed, none have had the lasting,
seemingly self-regenerating appeal of Fritz Lang's silent classic –
perhaps because, after its Berlin premiere in 1927, it is arguable that
no authoritative version of it has ever really been established.
Originally clocking in at two hours and 33 minutes, Metropolis has since
become a movable feast, with new scenes and scores – Giorgio Moroder
issued a derided, colour-tinted synth version in 1984 – that have kept
Lang's epic current.
For its time, the film was a milestone, innovative miniatures and
camera tricks to create its city of the future, taking two years to
shoot and bankrupting its producers (in modern money, the budget was
close to $200m). But the real key to its longevity is its thematic
content: more a warning than a romance, it deals with issues of
modernity that have never gone away. Class conflict is its main thread:
when Freder (Gustav Fröhlich), the idle son of a rich businessman,
discovers the primitive conditions the city's workers are living in, the
scenes of a dehumanised proletariat – a cast of more than 30,000 extras
– still have power today. Lang's fetishising of machinery scarily
foregrounds the cost of heavy industrialisation. But what many remember
most is an extraordinary sequence in which the woman who pulls the
scales from Freder's eyes – Maria (Brigitte Helm), a good-hearted
workers' rights agitator – is kidnapped and replaced with a sinister,
violence-inciting robot double by evil scientist Rotwang, at Freder's
father's command. This hydraulic beauty, with cantilevered breasts,
morphs into a wide-eyed, unblinking Maria in a moment of pure magic.
Many of Lang and writer Thea von Harbou's original subplots have been
lost. But even in its shortest form (90 minutes) Metropolis remains a
timeless tale. Though made to fit a genre that showcases the
possibilities of the future, Lang's film never loses sight of its rights
and wrongs. DW
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
When 2001: A Space Odyssey was first released, few would have
predicted it would still be feted nearly half a century later. In fact
few would have tipped it for even short-lived glory. At its premiere –
its premiere – there were 241 walkouts, including Rock Hudson, who
asked: "Will someone tell me what the hell this is about?"
Even its champions were stumped. "Somewhere between hypnotic and
immensely boring," thought the New York Times; "Superb photography major
asset to confusing, long-unfolding plot," reckoned Newsday. But
bafflement was the intention, explained its creators. Said Arthur C Clarke,
whose 1948 story The Sentinel was the starting point for Stanley
Kubrick (Clarke's novelisation postdated the film): "If you understand
2001 completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than
we answered."
A cop-out? Far from it: 2001 is magisterial. Its impeccable
serious-mindedness is nothing to scoff at; what some saw as ponderous
now seems merely prescient. It was both the last space-travel movie shot
before men actually landed on the moon, and the first to turn a genre
that had been the preserve of B-movie cheese into the highest form of
art.
It looks not just as fresh as the day it was made but as fresh as the
day you first saw it: iffy ape costumes aside, it's one of the few 60s
movies that stands up to contemporary technical scrutiny. At the time,
it must have marked a quantum leap forward: suddenly, space seemed
credible. To watch even now is to be awestruck: all those exacting
details (the 700-word instructions for using a zero-gravity toilet), the
pacing – at once lulling and urgent, the audio – soaring Strauss
waltzes spliced with dead air. In space, of course, no one can hear you
speak.
And so to the difficult matter of what on earth it's about. On a
bare-bones level, it concerns three artefacts: one left on Earth at the
dawn of man by space explorers keen to steer the evolution of the apes,
another buried deep in the lunar surface, and programmed to signal word
of man's first journey into the universe (in Kubrick's words, "a kind of
cosmic burglar alarm") and the third in orbit around Jupiter – another
alarm, this time for when man breaks out of his own solar system.
And that's what happens in the film, when a team of five men (three
in hibernation) jet off to investigate the second. But the mission goes
awry – arguably the fault of the chatty command computer, Hal – and the
sole surviving astronaut is swept into a force field that hurls him on a
journey through the galaxy. From there it's to a human zoo, built from
his own subconscious, where he ages fast, dies, is reborn and enhanced –
"a star child, an angel, a superman" (said Kubrick) – before returning
to Earth to advance evolution.
2001 is a film whose ambition is only matched by its achievement in
pulling it off. It was the world's first – and perhaps only –
metaphysical exploration of the workings of humanity, from the beginning
of time to the far-flung future, and it's small wonder sci-fi has never
really recovered. It has really only been going backwards, relying
either on splashy effects or psychological conundrums handled so tritely
that they barely seem related to 2001 at all.
Some complain that it is chilly, inhuman. Perhaps. But the dying song
of Hal, warbling out Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Made for Two) as his plug is
pulled, must be one of the most haunting scenes in cinema, mechanic or
not.
Not to mention, of course, that 2001 provides the most open-and-shut
case for cinema being primarily a visual medium: from the twirling,
dancing orbits to the extended acid(ic) trip at the end, it is, quite
simply, a knock-out. And it features Leonard Rossiter as a Russian
astronaut. The question back in 1968 would have been: how could this
possibly be number 1? The question today is: how could it not? Catherine Shoard
