Shabcast 26 – Dark City
Shabcast time again. Listen and/or download here.
This time I’m once again joined by Jane, Shana, and Daniel. We talk about Dark City, the classic surreal-SF-noir from 1998… which you really should see, if you haven’t already. Trust me on this.
Also, my tetchy, strident, and highly-opinionated Bengal cat Quizzy joins in at several points. Which kept us all on our toes.
If you’re interested in Dark City, TMBDOS also did an episode about it, way back when. Here.
Oh, and Jane recently did a stellar guest turn on Kit Power’s Robocop podcast, here.
Thanks for listening, as ever.
October 14, 2016 @ 9:04 am
As you’ve described it in the beginning as a comic book movie I think I want to suggest that two of the biggest influences on it are Mister X and The Walls of Samaris.
Mister X itself is inspired by german expressionism and American Art-Deco architecture. But it’s concerned with architecture and psychogeography, with the city as a living entity with hidden secrets and it also inject a pale bald figure into the setting. So I’d say there are more distinct commonalities beyond the visual style. Also, it was referenced by the Proyas, for all that is worth.
And Samaris for the idea of a simulacrum of a city, always shifting and consuming its inhabitants, with characters that lose their memories and have a rigid schedule. The spiral as a visual motif is also prevalent in it. In fact, If you were to make a Hollywood adaptation of The Walls of Samaris, you would get to something pretty close to Dark City.