Movie: Peter Delpeut: Forbidden Quest (The Netherlands, 1993) A Dutch fake-documentary Antarctic movie! This is a great Antarctic film, done with very little means. Its a documentary about the fictitious Hollander expedition, put together using the actual vintage Antarctic and Arctic footage shot by Herbert Ponting, Frank Hurley and others. Continue Reading
Antarctica
Research Blog Antarctica #60: Alien Hunter
Movie: Ron Krauss: Alien Hunter (Bulgaria, U.S.A. 2003) At first you think you’re watching the X-Files, then John Carpenter’s The Thing. Closer to the end you realize this is actually a pretty clever B-movie with some moves of its own. In the beginning, alien stuff is found in the Antarctic Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #59: The Ice
Fiction: Louis Charbonneau: the Ice (Thorndike Press, 1991) The funny thing about this book was that it was a large print edition, with a huge font size and lots of pages to compensate. In all honesty, this was the reason I chose this book to read out of my large Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #58
Photo book: Patrick Hook: The Frozen World – a Panoramic Vision (Compendium Publishing, 2006) My wife got me this collection of panorama photos from the Arctic, the Antarctic and the Alpine regions of the world as a gift in Frankfurt. The book is physically huge, too large to fit Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #57 – Poles Apart
Photo book: Galen Rowell: Poles Apart (Mountain Light Press, 1995) This is an insightful, comprehensive photo book. You get the impression that Rowell has been everywhere both above the Arctic circle and below the Antarctic circle. The book is organized around a series of visual comparisons between the northern and Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #56
Movie: Ash Brannon & Chris Buck: Surf’s Up (U.S.A. 2007) A late entry in the recent spate in penguin movies. This is a bizarre film. It has the plot, the characters, the jokes, the voices, of a surf movie, except with penguins. The hero, Cody, is a young penguin from Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #55 – Varatohtori Virta Etelänavalla
Fiction: Mikko Lensu: Varatohtori Virta Etelänavalla (Teos, 2006) This the sequel to Mikko Lensu’s first polar children’s book, Varatohtori Virta Pohjoisnavalla. Although this book suffers from the usual sequel problem of recycled jokes, it was more fun to read. The fantastic parts didn’t seem quite so forced and the general Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #54 – White
Fiction: Marie Darrieussecq: White (Faber & Faber, 2006) One of the rare Antarctic novels I’ve read that’s proper, high-brow literature and not a genre excercise. It’s a slim, compact novel, a simple love story with a very effective, stream-of-consciousness voice. It’s about the weight of the past and deals with Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #53 – Ice Station Zebra
Film: John Sturges: Ice Station Zebra (U.S.A. 1968) A Cold War thriller about a secret mission to the North Pole on a nuclear submarine. The underwater imagery of the sub is cool, and it looks like a big budget production for its time. Unfortunately, it feels like the people who Continue Reading
Research Blog Antarctica #52 – Varatohtori Virta Pohjoisnavalla
Fiction: Mikko Lensu: Varatohtori Virta Pohjoisnavalla (Teos, 2005) A children’s book about an expedition through the polar sea. The author makes an effort towards whimsy, but his style doesn’t really stretch that far. It reads like someone in the natural sciences trying to be lighthearted and failing. On the upside, Continue Reading