^ That's the one! And a bonus in the form of
Frequencies - liked that one a lot too and wouldn't object to a second viewing
In somewhat related news, I picked up a copy of Solaris (novel not film) in a charity shop t'other day. Didn't realise
The Congress was based on one of his other books. Will have to track that down too...
Stanislaw Lem's The Futurological Congress is a good read - quite different to the film; it's actually more about drugs - taking different drugs provides the 'virtual reality' rather than computers (though he has something similar to the modern internet in there too - and written in the late 60s i think) - it's written as satire and quite funny in places (similar plot in a way to Idiocracy (ie man out of place in the future) - another of my faves (though it becomes less dystopia, more documentary as time goes on)).
I like dystopias - i see them as forward planning. Speaking of which; not strictly a film, but i rewatched
A Very British Coup again the other day on 4OD - a mix of nostalgia for 80s drama (keith allen and tim macinnerny (darling) are good), with fear for the chances of establishing democracy against the thousand year old oligarchy and the real government of the civil service ("his father and his father before him, yea even until the middle ages").
Also, again not strictly a film (documentary), but Scott Noble's just Released part 2 of
Plutocracy - really excellent account of the not very well known history of labour struggles in america - part 2 explores the International Workers of the World (IWW - the wobblies) in the early 20th century. People really should know about this stuff as it gives a very different picture of american culture than the usual facile redneck portrayal (though ironically, part one suggests the term redneck partly comes from a workers rebellion in the 19th century where they all wore red hankies round their necks).
Overlaps with the fascinating story of the
secret behind the wizard of oz (it apparently being all about money and the politics of the late 19th century in america (eg the cowardly lion was Presidential candidate for the populous party william jennings bryan (who sold out to the racist democrats, hence cowardly), the yellow brick road was gold money, the emerald city was lincoln's greenbacks, dorothy's silver slippers represented the silver dollar the populous party campaigned for (they were changed to ruby for the film to show off the new technicolor) etc)
