-essays-

The world, which suffers from overpopulation, is now genetically regulated. The population is divided between those who live in sealed mega cities, referred to as “inside”, and the “outside” where the underclass and poor people live. __A__ccess and travel through the "inside" of the cities are highly restricted and regulated through DNA-specific IDs, known as “papelles.” The world is run by an organization called, The Sphinx, which manufactures insurance cover documents. In this story, someone has been using their equipment to falsify cover documents allowing their buyers to travel to places they would otherwise be forbidden to visit. Fraud investigators are sent to The Sphinx to investigate phony ID trafficking. Cloning and in vitro fertilization is prohibited; the law, Code 46, states that anybody who shares 100%, 50% or 25% genetic identity are not permitted to marry and have children. Code 46 also states that, //“any pregnancy resulting from 100%, 50% or 25% genetically related parents must be terminated immediately. If the parents knew they were genetically related prior to conception it is a criminal breach of Code 46.”// The parent will enter a somnambulistic state caused by a virus’s reaction, forcing the parent to report further Code 46 violations to the authorities. The authorities will respond to the Code 46 violation by erasing the parents' memory. One individual of the pair of violators of the Code can be brought before a tribunal, and have their memory erased, but remain citizens of the “inside” world. The other violators are sent into exile in the desert of the “outside” world with his or her memory intact. These violators are doomed to live in exile with the memories of the past life.
 * Code 46, Michael Winterbottom, 2004.**

A political thriller that unfolds against the intrigue of the global oil industry, Syriana, directed by Stephen Gagham, who is the winner of the Best Screenplay Academy Award for “Traffic.” It is based on ex-CIA agent Robert Baer’s book “See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA's War on Terrorism.” A CIA agent, Bob Barnes (the Robert Baer character is played by George Clooney), finds himself in the middle of a power struggle between rival factions in a Middle East oil emirate led by two brothers, both of whom are rivals for their father’s throne. One of the brothers is a playboy who favors partnership with the United States (U.S.) oil company that offers lower prices for his country’s decreasing oil supplies. The other brother, an idealist who wants to bring a better life to his people, sees an imminent partnership with Chinese oil company as a bootstrap for progress. The film is ultimately about the U.S. government and how it will stop at nothing to ensure the future of its business interests.
 * SYRIANA, Stephen Gaghan, 2005**

The story begins with Max Renn (James Woods), a late night programmer of a local cable TV station who tries to keep his small audience by providing them with material of sex and violence. His technical staff Harlan (Peter Dvorsky) brings his attention to a bizarre transmission of a violent program that shows depicting torture, and murder. Max’s quest to find more Videodrome products discovers that the program not only is horrifyingly real, but its transmitting signals are dangerously hypnotic, causing brain tumor and creating hallucinations which interlink TV with reality. He finds that he is hallucinating violent acts and his own body transforming, allowing the Videodrome to mentally program him by inserting video cassettes inside his body. Max is caught between those who created the Videodrome and those who use it to transmit violent program for their own evil ends. Under the influence of his programming his hand transforms into a moist, organic pistol. He is commanded to kill.
 * Videodrome, David Cronenberg (1983)**

Private investigator Lemmy Caution (Eddie Constantine) disguises his identity by acting as a reporter, although he is really a secret agent sent from the Outlands to infiltrate Alphaville and find Henri Dickson, another agent from the Outlands. Entering a bizarre world, totally alien to his own, ruled by professor Vonbraun, Lemmy discovers that the residents, as well as Henri Dickson, are under the control of Alpha 60 computer system, which seems to control the thoughts and actions of everyone inside Alphaville. While exploring Alphaville with professor’s daughter, Natacha Vonbraun, Lemmy begins to realize how hopeless the citizens of Alphaville are, but he senses that Natacha is different. With her assistance, Lemmy gains access to Alpha 60’s headquarters and discovers Vonbraun’s scheme to declare war on the world outside Alphaville. In this scenario, Lemmy tries to prevent Vonbraun’s “logical” war against Outlands and also make Alpha 60 self-destruct.
 * Alphaville, J. L. Godard (1965)**

Tati is first seen at the Paris Airport, as a party of American tourists land and embark on a one day sightseeing tour around Paris. They all descend on Paris's center where the famous landmarks have long since been replaced by glass-and-steel structures and towering office blocks. They all, not shockingly, look the same. Few signs of old Paris remain, for example, the old lady is still selling flowers on a street corner, though the image is destroyed by the modern architecture in the background. Familiar landmarks appear only as reflections in the buildings of glass and steel. Meanwhile, Monsieur Hulot has an appointment in one of the glass buildings with an important official, but he ends up getting lost in the mess of modern offices and he gets shuffled along with the same group of American tourists from the airport. Alternating between Monsieur Hulot and the group of American tourists, Tati exploits the chaos just below the exceedingly ordered surface of this brave new world.
 * PlayTime, J. Tati (1967)**

Demonlover, written and directed by Assayas, is stylish, bizarre, cold and confused – a gripping portrait of a global civilization driven and defeated by technology, sex, violence and power games. Demonlover, in fact, is basically Videodrome for the new millennium. In this erotic thriller, Diane de Monx (Connie Nielsen), is an executive with a French multinational entertainment corporation competing for a distribution deal with TokyoAnime, whose revolutionary pornographic 3-D animation is set to wipe out the competition in an extremely lucrative market. She’s also a corporate spy, secretly working for another company called Mangatronic, recruited to sabotage the deal between Demonlover and Tokyo-Anime. Eventually all the double-crossing leads Diane to discover an unexpected link between the business deal and a sadistic underground website called “The Hellfire Club." Diane enters a world where sex and violence become extreme, where she struggles to separate real life from cyber reality, in which she no longer has any control.
 * Demonlover, Olivier Assayas, 2002.**

The Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertovis, is a compelling and delightful exploration of the life, and a breathless statement of excitement about documentary film making in the Soviet Union in 1920. Its exhilarating and often hilarious montages, show Moscow people at work and play and the machines that keep the city running. //“It depicts a day in the life of the city framed by the experience of cinema, but it also about the role of cinema in society."// Vertov pioneers the use of all available cinematic techniques, split screen, slow motion, freeze and dissolve. In The Man With a Movie Camera, Vertov was more apprehensive with revealing process than revealing the sell image. He wanted the audience to understand how film works mechanically and technically as well as conceptually.
 * Man With A Movie Camera,** **Dziga Vertov, 1929.**