Last and First Men (2020)

December 12, 2021 3:19 PM

Tilda Swinton narrates the bleak future of humanity in the only feature directed by the Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson.

Currently streaming in the US via Metrograph.

posted by DirtyOldTown (7 comments total)

Tilda Swinton narrating a grim warning from the last of mankind over moody B&W contemplative shots of spomenik in Croatia and Serbia? It's like I ordered this movie out of a catalog.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 3:36 PM on December 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

Oof. I read the book a few years ago, and it left me in a bit of a funk. This sounds simultaneously up my alley and maybe something I should take a pass on at the moment.
posted by phooky at 4:04 PM on December 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

With apologies, I just realized I omitted the accents on the O's in his name. It should be Jóhann Jóhannsson.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:15 PM on December 12, 2021

Oof. I read the book a few years ago, and it left me in a bit of a funk. This sounds simultaneously up my alley and maybe something I should take a pass on at the moment.

The book had just the opposite effect on me - - I found its far-reaching future history to be hopeful in a non-alleggsinonebasket way - - and even moreso with Olaf Stapledon's follow-up book Star Maker.

Thank-you OP, I hadn't heard of this new movie adaptation (trailer).
posted by fairmettle at 11:19 PM on December 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

The film was shot at numerous Yugoslav World War II monuments and memorials. I'm kind of a nerd for Spomeniks. I have to include this list of all of the ones featured in this film as stand-ins for monuments from distant futures of humanity. (All links from the Spomenik Database.)

• Podgarić, Croatia
• Sanski Most, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Tjentište, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Ostra, Serbia
• Jasenovac, Croatia
• Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Niš, Serbia
• Popina, Serbia
• Mitrovica, Kosovo
• Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Novi Travnik, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Petrova Gora, Croatia
• Kadinjača, Serbia
• Nikšić, Montenegro

posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:08 AM on December 13, 2021 [2 favorites]

Obligatory additional spomenik context. It's important to remember that even though these sculptures are so abstract as to be able to serve as stand-ins for a far-flung future, they're actually (for the most part) locally-made memorials to atrocities, massacres, and lost battles.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:18 AM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]

Previously. I tracked this down after the post on the Blue and it quickly became a fast favourite of the year. Music by the late Jóhann Jóhannsson is excellent. Simple, effective and powerful.
posted by Ashwagandha at 1:57 PM on December 13, 2021 [1 favorite]