A veritable flood of mysterious, majestic extraterrestrial and terrestrial imagery strung together by a less compelling spoken-word narrative, intrepid filmmaker Jean-Christophe Jeauffre’s survival doc Passage To Mars is sure to inspire a few wide-eyed youngsters to pursue the exciting field of space exploration and offers an improbable story of endurance and problem-solving to those with a particular interest in Nasa and their planet-hopping endeavors. There isn’t enough emotional attachment or narrative thrust, however, to keep audiences with only marginal knowledge or interest in scientific pursuits immersed and engaged.
To prepare for a future Mars expedition, Nasa sent a team of engineers, survivalists, and documentarians (Jeauffre was one of them) to test-drive a prototype Humvee called the Hmp Okarian across 2,000 miles of frozen ground and sea that is the Northern Passage, eventually arriving at Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world. Via journal entries, we experience the...
To prepare for a future Mars expedition, Nasa sent a team of engineers, survivalists, and documentarians (Jeauffre was one of them) to test-drive a prototype Humvee called the Hmp Okarian across 2,000 miles of frozen ground and sea that is the Northern Passage, eventually arriving at Devon Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world. Via journal entries, we experience the...
- 10/2/2016
- by Bernard Boo
- We Got This Covered
World Without Sun, Jacques Cousteau’s classic portrait of life in a submarine lab with half a dozen paperback-reading, chain-smoking Frenchmen, ends with a scene in which Cousteau’s saucer-shaped submersible briefly surfaces in an air pocket in an undersea cavern. It’s a strange and inspiring coda, but also blatantly staged (though so is almost everything in World Without Sun) and could never pass muster in our age of interchangeable educational nature documentaries. But lest one think that Cousteau’s light-on-facts approach was easier (“As soon as you are specific, the poetry disappears,” he said at that film’s premiere), there are bad imitations to prove otherwise. If nothing else, Jean-Christophe Jeauffre’s insipid Passage To Mars instills a greater appreciation for the classic movies that clearly inspired it.
Admittedly, Cousteau and other nature documentary pioneers like Jean Painlevé and Hans Hass had it a little easier, because they...
Admittedly, Cousteau and other nature documentary pioneers like Jean Painlevé and Hans Hass had it a little easier, because they...
- 9/29/2016
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
"Before man makes it to Mars, he must conquer the Arctic." IFC Films & Sundance Selects have debuted a trailer for a film called Passage to Mars, an experimental doc with narration by Zachary Quinto retelling some of the stories from the crew on Nasa's Arctic expedition. As a test to see if astronauts could survive on Mars, Nasa sent a team of six people on a 2,000-mile journey up into the Northwest Passage in the Arctic - this film recounts their voyage. "As an expedition that was supposed to take weeks stretches into a two-year odyssey, the crew must overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges and life-threatening conditions if they hope to realize their dreams of someday reaching the Red Planet." James Cameron even loved this film. Here's the official trailer for Jean-Christophe Jeauffre's The Passage to Mars, direct from YouTube: Passage to Mars is the incredible true story of...
- 9/15/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
McQueen To Be Honoured With Hollywood Parade
Movie legend Steve McQueen is to be honoured in Hollywood with his own parade and square on Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of his death.
The actor's son Chad McQueen will lead the parade, which will launch a week of tributes to his late father as part of the 2010 Jules Verne Festival.
The Steve McQueen Parade on Hollywood Boulevard will end at the intersection of Highland and Santa Monica Boulevard, where a retail square is to be named after The Great Escape star.
McQueen's son will unveil the square's new name alongside Los Angeles City councilmember Tom Labonge and Jules Verne Festival founders Jean-Christophe Jeauffre and Frederic Dieudonne.
The festival will pay tribute to McQueen on Thursday when members of his family and the cast of cult film Bullitt attend a special screening of the movie with fans - and when Chad McQueen will accept the Jules Verne Legendaire Award on behalf of his dad.
Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn and music composer Lalo Schifrin are expected to attend the event.
The actor's son Chad McQueen will lead the parade, which will launch a week of tributes to his late father as part of the 2010 Jules Verne Festival.
The Steve McQueen Parade on Hollywood Boulevard will end at the intersection of Highland and Santa Monica Boulevard, where a retail square is to be named after The Great Escape star.
McQueen's son will unveil the square's new name alongside Los Angeles City councilmember Tom Labonge and Jules Verne Festival founders Jean-Christophe Jeauffre and Frederic Dieudonne.
The festival will pay tribute to McQueen on Thursday when members of his family and the cast of cult film Bullitt attend a special screening of the movie with fans - and when Chad McQueen will accept the Jules Verne Legendaire Award on behalf of his dad.
Jacqueline Bisset, Robert Vaughn and music composer Lalo Schifrin are expected to attend the event.
- 11/6/2010
- WENN
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