A Solitary World

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A Solitary World

A Breathtaking Homage to H.G. Wells from a New Genre of Cinematic Poetry

“What is this spirit in man that urges him forever to depart from happiness, to toil and to place himself in danger?”

HG Wells is considered one of the fathers of science fiction. He had "encouraged fantastical thinking about what is possible, on this planet and beyond". Many of the futuristic inventions and scenarios Wells dreamed up in his novels have indeed come true, while others remain the stuff of science fiction.

 
From PBS Digital Studios and filmmaker
James W. Griffiths comes A Solitary World — a breathtaking homage to H.G. Wells, with text adapted from five of his most celebrated works:

The Time Machine (1895), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), The First Men in the Moon (1901), In The Days of the Comet (1906), The World Set Free (1914). Read by Terry Burns and featuring an appropriately haunting score from the young British composer Lennert Busch, the film belongs to — pioneers, perhaps — an emerging creative genre: the cinematic poem.

“A horrible feeling of desolation pinched my heart. I listened rigid but heard nothing but the creep of blood in my ears. Great and shadowy and strange was the world and I drifted solitary through its vast mysteries.

A remote faint question, where I might be, drifted and vanished again in my mind. I found myself standing astonished, my emotions penetrated by something I could not understand. 

I felt naked. I felt as perhaps a bird may feel in the clear air knowing the hawk wings above and will swoop. 

I began to feel the need of fellowship. I wanted to question, wanted to speak, wanted to relate my experience. What is this spirit in man that urges him forever to depart from happiness, to toil and to place himself in danger? 

It was this restlessness, this insecurity perhaps that drove me further and further afield in my exploring expedition. As the hush of the evening crept over the world, the sun touched the mountains and became very swiftly a blazing hemisphere of liquid flame, and sank. 

Then, slow and soft and wrapping the world in fold after fold of deepening blue, came the night. And then, the splendor of the sight — in the sky, one bright planet shone kindly and steadily like the face of an old friend. The full temerity of my voyage suddenly came upon me. At last I began to feel the pull of the earth upon my being, drawing me back again to the life that is real, for men.”

Director, Producer, VFX Artist & Colourist:
James W. Griffiths

Director of Photography:
Christopher Moon

Editor:
Marianne Kuopanportti

Sound Design & Mix:
Mauricio D'Orey

Composer:
Lennert Busch

Narrator:
Terry Burns

PBS Digital Studios Original Shorts Series Producer:
Matt Vree

Source:

brainpickings.org