23rd June, 2019
Yes: it’s been one of those …
One of those days, today.
This morning … ?
My Uncle Brian died.
I’m …
I also felt closer to Brian than I did my stepdad: as we lost contact, there.
So I’m … not grieving.
My mother, Brian’s sister, and my cousins, Dean and Mark, his children, will be.
I am feeling both depressed …
And deeply thoughtful.
Thoughtful …
But very aware there’s little I can do: until asked.
~≈¥≈~
The least that I could do for myself … ?
Was simply keep myself busy
Stuff around the house, job hunting …
And tonight … ?
Catch a movie.
Frankly, I’ve had Alex Proyas’s Dark City in my collection for a while …
Dark City opens with John Murdock (Rufus Sewell, The Man in the High Castle) waking up in the bath.
With the room light swinging crazily, smashed glass on the floor, no memory of how he got here …
And a dead body in the flat the bathroom is part of.
It’s when the phone rings?
That he’s introduced to the mysterious Dr Schreber (Kiefer Sutherland): who tells Murdock he’s been part of an experiment …
But is forced to flee: as a groups of men in trench coats arrive.
Strangers who seem very aware of who Murdock is: much better than he does himself.
~≈¥≈~
Meanwhile … ?
In another part of the city, John’s wife Emma is having issues of her own.
As John vanished three weeks ago? She decides it’s high time she reported him missing to the local police.
And gets directed to Inspector Bumstead (William Hurt.)
The only problem there?
Inspector Bumstead is investigating John for murder …
~≈¥≈~
Now …
Good? Bad … ? Indifferent … ? Bloody fantastic … ?
Bloody fantastic, actually.
I don’t think there’s that many films that seem … quite so …
Hmm …
Hmm …
Possibly the word I’m looking for here, is ‘influential.’
It strikes me that Dark City’s look and feel — at least, its colour palette — must surely have influenced Franklyn, The Matrix, Underworld, Level 16, lord knows how many others …
Or possibly ‘affected.’
After all, we’re looking here at a city that reminded me of Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, complete with a version of the Auditors.
Albeit ones who consistently experimented, rather than did the filing.
But a film that ALSO saw reality bending, a lá The Matrix … even though The Matrix was released in 1999 …
And whose villains … weren’t a patch on Richard O’Brian at his sinister best …
And we’re looking at set designed that seems influenced by both Metropolis …
And the baroque art-work of 2000AD’s finest, Kevin O’Neill.
Frankly?
I suspect Dark City is going to be in my collection for a while.
I suspect Dark City needs to be watched it again …
Dark City★★★☆
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