Happy New Year everyone!
I'm not entirely sure what happened to 2014, but as we roll
on into 2015 and all end up back on campus again, I hope that everyone had a
good break, and that this year goes well for you all. Hopefully the prospect of
new classes isn't a bad one, but if it is - and even if it isn't - you may be
pleased to know that the SFS is back to offer distraction!
We're starting off the year with the thought that Airships
Make The World Go Round, involving Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and
Laputa: Castle in the Sky, two rather different films united by the
aforementioned airships, robots, and a distinctly steampunk feel to them. As
ever, we will be in Buchanan B215 from 5:30pm-ish, with the first film starting
at 6pm.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow is a 2004 film
starring Gywneth Paltrow as Plucky Reporter!Polly Perkins and Jude Law as
Roguish Flying Ace!Joseph 'Joe' Sullivan (the fact he goes by the moniker Sky
Captain perhaps tells you a great deal about his character). Angelina Jolie
also appears as Determined and Eyepatched Naval Type!Commander Francesca
'Frankie' Cook, and Laurence Olivier makes a posthumous appearance as Mad
Villainous Scientist!Dr. Totenkopf. (And yes, the exclamation marks are
entirely necessary. It's that sort of film.) Set in an alternate universe and
gleefully embracing the pulp and comic book genres with oodles of ridiculous
gadgets, and more cliches than you can shake a stick at, I will be forever
disappointed that the film didn't cover its budget and will thus almost
certainly never have a sequel.
Anyway, our plot kicks off with the mysterious disappearance
of scientists from around the world, an occurrence that is being investigated
by our Plucky Reporter!Polly Perkins. In the midst of her investigations,
things ramp up a notch when giant, flying, and seemingly indestructible robots
attack New York City. The city authorities quickly realise they are outmatched
and call upon the skills of Sky Captain - the Roguish Flying Ace! Joe Sullivan
who appears in his highly souped up plane and proceeds to do battle.
Unsurprisingly, these two meet up and proceed to team up in order to find the
origins of the robots and to solve the mystery of the vanishing scientists...
This is probably the time to admit that I am really fond of
this film, and think it's great fun, but am very willing to admit that it's not
a 'good' film. It's doesn't take itself at all seriously (which is a good thing
considering that it's really daft), begins by flying a Second World Era plane
against giant robots, and then ramps up (or down, depending on your point of
view) from that point on.
Our second feature of the evening will be the Hayao Miyazaki
film Laputa: Castle in the Sky (released in various places under a variety of
titles), which I remember terrifying me when I watched it as a kid (it's not a
particularly terrifying film, I hasten to add, but I have very vivid memories
of watching this film recorded onto a VHS tape on a Sunday evening with my
parents and being exceedingly alarmed by it). Released in 1968, it was (and is)
Studio Ghibli's first film, and we'll be showing it in its Japanese form with
English subtitles.
Set in a world where, once upon a time, humans had built
flying cities that were later destroyed in an unnamed catastrophe, our story
begins at a time when only one city remains in the air: Laputa, lost to most
and concealed within a storm cloud. We open with an airship carrying a young
girl, Sheeta, and the government agent who has abducted her being attacked by
air-pirates who desire the amulet that Sheeta wears. Falling from the plane,
her plummet being slowed by the amulet, she lands in a small mining village
where the young Pazu stumbles upon her, and takes her to his home to recover.
Pazu dreams of finding the lost city of Laputa. and his
discovery of Sheeta soon catapults both him and Sheeta into an adventure that
may well lead him to his goal...
Interestingly, the mining villages that appear early in the
film were inspired by Welsh mining villages, which Miyazaki had encountered in
his first visit to Wales during the 1984 miners' strike. He had been struck by
and had admired their tenacity and sense of community, and he could see clear
links between them and Japanese miners who had also recently been fighting for
their way of life. Neither of the groups of miners succeeded, and some of his
harrowing experience ended up portrayed in Laputa. On that note (sort of), in
the writing of this email I discovered a 2005 interview with Miyazaki, which
may be of interest to some people:
As the term gets going there are also other things in the
works:
Lord of the Rings Nights
The winning option in the poll was for a film once a week,
starting with The Fellowship of the Ring (shockingly enough, we put aside the
option of watching them backwards in favour of watching them in the more
conventional order) on Wednesday January 14th (next week), probably at 5:30pm,
with location to be determined. Our indomitable VP Adam will be headlining
these.
Expanding The Nights We Have Events On
As indicated by the above paragraph, we are doing are best
to have more things occurring at different times - hopefully this will work out
for people!
Writing Circle
Our lovely assistant librarian Cecily is leading this, and I
understand that people who expressed an interest have been emailed with
enquiries as to when they are free. Watch this space for updates!
Book Group
Our dearly beloved librarian Alannah has volunteered to head
this one up, so watch this space for further updates!
Photos
I have eventually gotten my act together and uploaded all of
the photos from Halloween to Dropbox:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7et2hth2j5r2ues/AAA_bAIGZGP4dRBGgabJyOLna?dl=0
Download away!
Laser Tag
This was an immensely popular option in the poll - it is now
a work in progress!
Scavenger Hunt
I've also got the ball rolling on this one, so hopefully
details of all of these things will be forthcoming shortly.
Suggestions
Suggestions for films, events, different ways to do things,
books to read and the like are always very welcome - please do send them in! I
am gleefully excited by all the responses people gave to the survey, so thank
you very much for that. I hope we'll be able to implement things to make the
club better based upon it.
This post is becoming inordinately long, so I shall sign off
here before I think of anything else to add. Good luck with the first week of
classes, and I hope to see you soon!
Catriona
Your Friendly Neighbourhood SoCo
