[pxChallenge] Civilization without people

Man vs Wild

A cafe without guests (Côte d’Azur, France).

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Last Summer we took our son, his partner and our four grandchildren to Kos.
The pool area in the daytime was thriving, but before and after, just an eerie quietness.

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related and without entering the undead zone:

  • to rewatch Tarkovsky’s Stalker

  • to rewatch The Quiet Earth, there’s an older version… if I’m not mistaken with Vincent Pryce but haven’t watch it yet.

  • also We’ve Forgotten More Than We Ever Knew (ganja recommends)

  • Other (now also with rotening zombies) may include - Boyle’s 28 Days Later, Turbo Kid, Z for Zachariah. Stake Land, Logan’s Run, Night of the Comet, The Road, Zombieland, Escape from New York, Romero’s Daw & Day of the Dead, Hell (2011), Planet of the Apes, Angel’s Egg, The Book of Eli, Priest, The Survivalist, The Cargo, MMax maybe, Zardoz (for giggles on acid costumes), Cherry 2000 (pre botox Griffith), I am Legend, 9, What We Become, etc.

 
PS
Yes! it is indeed Pryce (good to exercise the memory muscle) but the title is The Last Man on Earth… oh wait there’s even one previous version, from 1924… silent I’ll asume; so with last years’ one (cannot remember the title but was short and shot in Iceland, there are plenty versions of earth with little to no man (or with bad shape man, ja ja) to watch =)

 
 
PS
In conversations with @afre , about above films :film_projector:

Summary

Lets brake it down a little, shall we?

First off, there’s Andrei Tarkovsky.
He’s one of my all-time favourite directors, up there with (just some of the non-living) Welles, Bergman, Ozu, Bresson, Fellini, Kurosawa, Buñuel, Lang, Kubrick, Eisenstein, Dreyer, Murnau, Ophuls, Hitchcock … Everything he touched was gold. Not so much on topic but watch Andrey Rublev a B&W story of a XVth century artist… that is CINEMA!

Then there is the rest. I’ll break it down a bit more.

One day you wake up and the world is empty… empty of people, all the things are there but not a single person; that is how The Quiet Earth starts. This film had a profound impact on me. The last man on Earth series took this idea and watered down, after a couple of seasons (which had some funny moments) became boring. BTW the 2018 version I mentioned it is called Bokeh but haven’t seen it yet; sounds like a landscape photographer’s wet dream lure: no people, made in Iceland a d named Bokeh…

The Zs
I love zombie flicks, thus I love Romero, Daw of the Dead and Day of the Dead are two must-see, 'cause they are good (soft) horror films but 'cause they also introduce parallel narratives that mirror and reflect on society. Worth to watch his Crazies (1973) too. George A. Romero is a bit like John Carpenter (Escape from New York, They Live), non-intellectuals, bullshit free, very original, 2nd-row film directors; I love them both; each one brought very interesting approaches and his own set of (low budget) solutions. Watch Carpenter’s first and second long feat Dark Star and Assault on Precinct 13 two examples on how to make (in)credible things with a hand-full of dollars.
28 days later, despite the people who argue they’re not zombies 'cause they run or don’t pay taxes, the infection origin, and whatnot, is one of the greatest zombie flicks ever made; a superbly crafted rollercoaster. Don’t confuse with Fresnadillo’s 28 Weeks Later, a kind of sequel to Boyle’s, worthy too.

More to the popcorn side, I liked Zombieland and Stake Land, both quite entertaining, the former cracked me up with its Murray sketch, and Harrelson is vegan so… (WTF :poop: :wine_glass:). Also in the fun dept Night of the Comet, IMDB’s user says “Girls just want to have fun…even when surrounded by walking dead”… I couln’t agree more; it’s been my experience :stuck_out_tongue: :woman_zombie: What We Become is a danish zombie flick, tense, no cookies… if you what to keep exploring, (now that I think about it) there are plenty other “better/diff” alternatives, i.e. from japanesse Miss Zombie to Dead Set or even Peter Jackson (yes TLOTR guy) far out hilarious Dead Alive… but those have plenty of people too =)

Almost forgot, The Cargo is a save the australian baby tour, also Wyrmwood was not bad … there was also a very nice flick made in Africa … with plenty semi-rotten corpses but cannot recall its name … I’ll cheat, ah, oh so original The Dead

Leaving now zombies behind but still in gloomy costumes The Road; a father (Viggo Mortensen) and his son in a post-apocalyptic world; it’s the mindset; Hell has same background/context, way scarier/gorier, german made. Z for Zachariah shares same post-apocalyptic backdrop but is more focused on the people’s egos/relationing… you can skip this one. The book of Eli is a purely entertaining, and good at that, post… not writing that word again, hero at the dawn of civilization, featuring the historic top black hero of Hollywood Mr. Washington. I am Legend idem with second top black Hollywood’s hero, Will freshhh Smith. But the king of the genre is no doubt Mad Max. The first one is a must see… also impacted me quite a bit, the engine trying to excape the car, its sound, the accelerated acceleration for getting nowhere fast, that guy with the saw… sheeee patrão. The last instalment is an adrenaline action fest, quite entertaining but a bit too much 4 me, even if it has a kinky and bold Charlize Theron, sorry neurons die quickly these days; instead I’ll go with the shebot (Cherry2000); you can skip also.
Priest shares same deserted future ambience but the twist is… are you ready for a total novelty… vampires!!! yupppy, yummy, yuuurrry, yoonnny. Remote {click} you can skip.
9 is nice to change pace. Don’t even get me started on anime, I specially like the pre-computer days, yet Mind Game blew me mind, je je

The Planet of the Apes, The Omega Man, Soylent Green (all feat rifle lover Heston, je je), THX, Westworld, Logan’s Run, Alphaville, Brazil, and Zardoz are amongst those classics a bit dated but worth coming back to; specially the ones that were left alone with the dust not making a franchising factory out of them.

I’d like to add, for a positive sprinkle caress & balance Colin Serrau’s La Belle Verte and Frédéric Back’s L’homme qui plantait des arbres (1987).

https://youtu.be/KTvYh8ar3tc

 

And ‘cause we need something totally unrelated if Joan Rake made animation, the great David OReilly’ (PSS) and his

The External World on Vimeo

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I’ll try…

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‘Ryan’s Daughter’ schoolhouse panorama

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The photos I liked have the following features:

– Some aspect of aging.
– Closed or covered doors or windows.
– No doors or windows, or roofs.
– Nice patterns and textures.

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Quite wonderful @heckflosse!

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Wow! Everyone - make it a point to click through to @heckflosse’s panorama at a larger size - the embed doesn’t do it justice. :slight_smile:

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I really failed with the horizon. But well, I only spend 5 minutes with it from RawTherapee to Hugin to RawTherapee for stitching 6 shots I took without tripod, so it’s not too bad…

Though unintended, I like the curves. Not bad for 10 minutes of effort, save the travel time. :+1:

Ancient civilization…


(Mayan ruins in Belize)

… vs. modern civilization…


(Inside the Solomon Guggenheim museum in New York)

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Everyone, it would be nice if you indicated where you took these photos. I love context.

@sguyader Fancy triangle lights.

Here is another snapshot of everyday civilization. An abstract of a living room in Bangalore!

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Heating pipeline in the middle of nowhere :slightly_smiling_face:

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I edited my post and added the information.

A small side diversion, this challenge is a wonderful opportunity to set up a tripod, snap like a madman, and use something like a median blend to remove people from the scene. If you haven’t tried it yet, might be fun to try out!

@chroma_ghost actually mentioned a couple of wonderful films. The Last Man on Earth actually has vampires (it’s an early adaptation of Richard Matheson’s “I Am Legend”). Also, the opening scenes of a deserted London are flat out amazing in “28 Days Later” - just a creepy and amazing sequence.

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Well actually there is one person in this photo :slight_smile:

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Here is my triad, Civilization Without Personages.


Rạch Miễu Bridge




Moses L. Rosendin Park, California



The Gravitron, Morgan Hill, CA

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I have an analogue shot from the streets of Sendai.
(Pentax MZ-3 with 77mm limited and a roll of Fujifilm Venus 800. Scanned with an RPS 10M)

And a more post apocalyptic one shot in the port of Hachinohe.
(Fujiflm X-T3 with XF 50-140mm and ClassicChrome)

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