Gattaca (1997)
Directed by Andrew Niccol
Vincent is an all-too-human man who dares to defy a system obsessed with genetic perfection. He is an "In-Valid" who assumes the identity of a member of the genetic elite to pursue his goal of traveling into space with the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation.
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11 films that influenced Gattaca
What critics say influenced Gattaca
Self-consciously at a remove from the trashy B-movie sensibilities which have dominated science-fantasy movies in recent times, this harks back to the vacuum-packed, classically alienated dystopia of Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451.
When I read he was from New Zealand, I was reminded of a 1985 New Zealand science fiction film that is similarly low-key, called "The Quiet Earth."
Any omen-of-the-future movie inevitably owes much of its mood and theme to "1984" and "Brave New World."
Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, for instance, is best known for his work with Krzysztof Kieslowski -- Idziak shot The Double Life of Veronique and Blue , and his work on Gattaca can't help but recall the far more haunting imagery of those much simpler pictures.
The striking future-retro look created by production designer Jan Roelfs ("Orlando") and the shadowy, angular cinematography by Slawomir Idziak ("Blue") are memorable, but neither distract from the story.
Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak (who shot a few Krzysztof Kieslowski films, including Blue) is a sorcerer conjuring with golden browns and muted violets; this is one of the most beautifully photographed movies of the decade.
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Cinematographer Slawomir Idziak, for instance, is best known for his work with Krzysztof Kieslowski -- Idziak shot The Double Life of Veronique and Blue , and his work on Gattaca can't help but recall the far more haunting imagery of those much simpler pictures.
The irony should not be lost on the fact that David Fincher's Mank, a dramatized feature about the writing of one of Orson Welles's greatest films, Citizen Kane (1941), is being released by the streaming giant Netflix.
In ten years, go from the truth-telling, auburn celluloid lasso of sex, lies, and videotape (1989) to the truth-telling digital one of American Beauty (1999), with touchpoints in the appalling, historical-integrity-raping Forrest Gump and Titanic along the way.
His most important set is a vast office where genetically superior computer programmers come to work every day, filing into their long rows of desks like the office slaves in King Vidor's “The Crowd” and Orson Welles' “The Trial.”
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Like other films of its ilk such as "The Stepford Wives" (gender discrimination), and "Logan's Run" (age bigotry), it makes incisive, edgy commentary on our own contemporary world, by showing us the ugly face of prejudice--as experienced by the natural-born Vincent.
The prescience of Blade Runner and The Terminator become clearer, too, as the Eisenhower-era nostalgia fostered by Reagan's time in the White House reaps its harvest in the barely subsumed sex of Pleasantville (1995) and the god in the machine of The Truman Show (1998).
While Cronenberg's films are always risky, injected with a sense of danger or experimentalism, Nicol's movie comes across as softened sci-fi, a boring "Blade Runner".
Look at " Dark City ," "Total Recall," " Brazil ," " 12 Monkeys " or " Gattaca " and you will see its progeny.
Yet the movie is at least as stunning as Blade Runner or Brazil.