{"id":4907,"date":"2012-05-19T01:19:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T05:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=3176"},"modified":"2012-05-19T01:19:20","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T05:19:20","slug":"east-bloc-sci-fi-part-1-dead-mountaineer%e2%80%99s-hotel-test-pilot-pirxa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4907","title":{"rendered":"East Bloc Sci-Fi, Part 1: Dead Mountaineer\u2019s Hotel + Test Pilot Pirxa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Back in January of 2012, the TIFF Bell Lightbox ran a wonderful series called Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction Behind the Iron Curtain, and I\u2019ve uploaded a pair of reviews for two films screened roughly between January thru March.<\/p>\n

Dead Mountainner’s Hotel \/ ‘Hukkunud Alpinisti’ hotell<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>] (1979) is a very, very<\/em> strange puzzle film \/ sci-fi flick that\u2019s set in an isolated locale where a murder investigation takes a strange turn.<\/p>\n

Even if the whole story doesn\u2019t quite jibe, there\u2019s this amazingly strange atmosphere, a beautiful look that isn\u2019t garish seventies, and a great prog-rock score by Sven Grunberg that\u2019s all warm & fuzzy analogue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Test Pilot Pirxa \/ Test pilota Pirxa<\/a> <\/strong>[M<\/a>] (1979) is equally compelling, but more for the intellectual arguments extrapolated from Stanislaw Lem\u2019s short story about a space commander charged with testing his human and robotic crew. Problem: he\u2019s never told who\u2019s inhuman, so the blind test can truly challenge the validity of using invulnerable robots for dangerous missions.<\/p>\n

Lem\u2019s big claim to fame is author of Solaris<\/strong>, later turned into a classic sci-fi \/ psychology meditation in 1972 by Andrei Tarkovsky, and both films share the author\u2019s interest in brainy arguments instead of action-oriented sequences. Problem: Pirxa<\/strong>\u2019s director felt the need to do some action-styled goosing, and it makes the film a fairly wonky production.<\/p>\n

Both Pirxa<\/strong> and Hotel<\/strong> share similarities with the film version of Blade Runner<\/strong> (1982), and it\u2019s possible director Ridley Scott and the film\u2019s writers were exposed and softly influenced by either film. It’s also a funny coincidence the two Estonian films were produced in the same year, but they also reveal the unique films the state was making for export to other Soviet markets.<\/p>\n

Both films are accessible on YouTube, but what\u2019s really needed are respective Blu-ray Special Editions, supported by material that details the inventive, odd little films made within the East Bloc\u2019s most prolific film production hub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Didn\u2019t know Estonia was so involved? Neither did I, which is why more of its product should be shared with the world market.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back in the chilly winter of 2011-2012, the TIFF Bell Lightbox ran a great series called Attack the Bloc: Cold War Science Fiction from Behind the Iron, and I’ve uploaded a pair of reviews for two intriguing productions from former East Bloc countries: Dead Mountainner’s Hotel \/ ‘Hukkunud Alpinisti’ hotell (1979) and Test Pilot Pirxa \/ Test pilota Pirxa (1979) from Estonia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1315,1316,1317,1318,4212],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1h9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4907"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}