There is perhaps no other genre in film that reveals as much about an era’s style and mindset, its dreams, fears and hopes for the future as Science Fiction. In its new special exhibition “Things to Come,” Deutsche Kinemathek Film Museum in Berlin is taking a closer look at the genre. With 300 exhibits covering film sets, costumes and compilations of film scenes across three floors, the show is as much a fabulous playground for sci-fi buffs and film geeks as it is an intelligent reflection on implications past and present.Space, the society of the future and “the other” are the three key themes that structure the show – and there’s heaps to discover in terms of visual input: a model of the Millenium Falcon in George Lucas’ 1977 “Star Wars: The New Hope, ” for example, or of the flying taxi cab from the Luc Besson sci-fi flick “The Fifth Element (1997); ” props from the “Star Trek” franchise, including an original tricorder, a model of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701, as well as costumes for Spock and James T. Kirk in the 2013 J. J. Abrams movie “Star Trek Into Darkness;” the Pan Am Stewardess outfit from the Stanley Kubrick 1968 all-time classic “2001. A Space Odyssey,” or the blue Hubot uniforms worn in the much lauded recent Swedish original sci-fi series “Real Humans” (2012-2014). There’s also the futuristic handheld-computer from Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report” (2002); the storyboard for his “E. T.;” a 1930s reconstruction of Les Sélénites from the Georges Méliès 1902 classic “A Trip to the Moon,” and of course aliens, aliens, aliens: as models, props and drawings, from the James Cameron production “Aliens” (1986) to the original Roland Emmerich blockbuster “Independence Day” (1996) – to name just a few.Next to its three dimensional offerings – many on loan from international collections – the show also delves into popular sci-fi themes in its sub-chapters: hyper-sleep chambers, spaceship bridges, and the spaceship mess as a social meeting point for astronauts are some of the topics explored more closely in the “space” section. Interesting discoveries await too: the countdown, for example, is revealed to be an invention by German filmmaker Fritz Lang for his 1929 silent drama “Frau im Mond” (Lady in the Moon), from where it later found its way into the world of real space travel.That, in return, is integrated into the exhibitions via excursions into the “real world” of science. A humanoid robot, developed by Manfred Hild and his team at the Beuth Hochschule für Technik, Berlin, is perhaps the most spectacular exhibit from these real life encounters, that intermingle with their fictional counterparts.In the section titled “The society of the future,” popular tropes such as dystopian visions of future cities, social models, “ghettos of the suppressed,” and “the world of the rich” are considered more closely. This chapter is especially interesting when it comes to reality checking futursitic fantasies of the past. Wim Wenders’s “computerized watch” from “Bis ans Ende der Welt” (2001) reminds strongly of Apple’s new iWatch; and regarding the interactive “Telescreens” from “1984” – well, with Siri and the new smart TVs reacting to spoken commands, it sometimes seems like we’re almost there. The section dedicated to “the other,” finally, looks at aliens and mutations, cyborgs, clones and replicas, envisioned both on earth and on other planets, as the result of human hubris, the personification of latent subconscious fears or political allegories.What makes this exhibition particularly worthwhile both for buffs and researchers, however, is its encyclopedic scope of science fiction film scenes and excerpts in the various screenings. A treasure trove for anyone even remotely interested in the subject, the selection offers rare jewels such as the 1957 Russian production “Doroga K Swesdam,” directed by Pawel Kluschanzew, the GDR/Polish production “The Silent Star” from 1960, directed by Kurt Maetzig, or the German sci-fi series “Space Patrol Orion,“ a low-budget TV production from the mid-1960s that is much loved for its quirky props. A rich selection of excerpts from blockbusters since the '90s is on view too, all the way up to recent films such as “Gravity” or “the Martian”, franchises from “Star Wars” and “Star Trek” to “Divergent” or “The Hunger Games”; basically all of Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi blockbusters from “E.T.” to “Minority Report;” and recent TV-series such as “Orphan Black”, British cult series “Doctor Who” or the aforementioned “Real Humans,” to name just a few.Virtually all the classics are represented, too. Next to the above mentioned “A Trip to the Moon” and ”2001” or Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis,” there’s the British production “Things to Come” (1936, directed by William Cameron Menzies), which gave the exhibition its title; the original “War of the Worlds” from 1953, directed by Byron Haskin (and its Steven Spielberg reiteration from 2005); Fred M. Wilcox’ “The Forbidden Planet” (1956); Fred F. Sears’ “Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers” (1956) or François Truffaut’s “Fahrenheit 451” (1966), to name just a small selection.Jewels from the 1970s and early ‘80s include George Lucas’ early exploration of the genre in “THX 1138” (1971); Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Solaris” (1972); Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell To Earth” (1976); Michael Anderson’s “Logan‘s Run” (1976), Philip Kaufman’s “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers” (1978); Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” (1982), and Terry Giliam’s “Brazil” (1985).Utopias, dystopias, robots, and all: an exhibition worth seeing – even twice.“Thing to Come. Science. Fiction. Film” is on view through April 23, 2017 at Deutsche Kinemathek Museum für Film und Fernsehen, Sony Center Berlin, Germany. Click here for more information.See more exhibits and installation views in the slide show.
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