Category: Film

The Dwarf and the Giant

October 27, 2020 By arne hendriks Off

Between 1896 and 1913 French film pioneer and illusionist Georges Méliès directed over 500 films. Most of them were very short experiments exploring the possibilities of special effects inspired by the tradition of stage magic. As such the appearance and disappearance of objects and people…

Original Final Words

July 18, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Richard Matheson’s novel ‘The shrinking man’ was published in 1956 and soon adapted for film. In the film the famous last words are inspiring but quite different from the original final words in Matheson’s book. Supposedly the original text was adapted by director Jack Arnold.…

Japanese Miniatures: Cat Maximisation

October 30, 2017 By arne hendriks Off

Our series of Japanese Miniatures investigates the specific Japanese sensitivity for small as expressed in their love for things like bonsai, sushi, netsuke, and capsule hotels. Japan ‘knows’ things about shrinking that may help the human species embrace the desire for, or overcome hurdles to, becoming…

Beyond Phlebotinum

September 12, 2017 By arne hendriks Off

Phlebotinum is the versatile substance or incomprehensible technology that causes an effect needed by a plot in a work of fiction. Phlebotinum basically does everything, except solve specific limits and dangers required by the plot. Without it, the story would grind to an abrupt halt.…

Abundance Fantasies: The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat

November 20, 2016 By arne hendriks 0

Perhaps no Hollywood movie director and choreographer personifies the desire for abundance better than Busby Berkeley. His choreographies were wildly extravagant, the geometric patterns hallucinatory, and the props and costumes beyond anything seen before. His work oozes a profound and limitless desire for excess. And…

Shrink Rays

March 17, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

According to sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov miniaturization doesn’t actually make sense unless you miniaturize the very atoms of which matter is composed, and that is impossible. For the Incredible Shrinking Man however, the primary importance is its prominent existence in our imagination. How do we connect…