5 September 2019

Blow your mind with a season of sci-fi classics at the Arc

| Ian Bushnell
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The Matrix

The Matrix: All your questions will be answered at the National Film and Sound Archive. Photos: NFSA.

Spring is sci-fi season at the National Film and Sound Archive with a mind-bending and spine-chilling array of classic cinema in restored prints as they were meant to be seen – on the big screen at the Arc.

A special guest will be the Executive Producer of The Matrix, a landmark film shot mostly in Sydney that stretched the genre and passed into popular culture.

Andrew Mason will join the NFSA for a 20th-anniversary screening on 14 September followed by a Q&A.

Released in 1999, The Matrix, says the NFSA, proved to be highly influential with its combination of cutting-edge technology and philosophical narrative blowing viewers’ minds.

Energetic, action-packed and smart, it had such a visually recognisable style that The Matrix is still frequently referenced in popular culture.

Twenty years on, the NFSA will celebrate the many Australians who crafted this cinematic milestone – from production to VFX, costume design to sound effects.

A week later, you can remember the sheer terror that Ridley Scott’s Alien induced 40 years ago when it screens on a 35mm film in a special anniversary double feature.

Relive the USCSS Nostromo and its crew landing on LV-426, and how audiences were introduced to Sigourney Weaver’s Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley, together with Memory: The Origin of Alien, which tells the largely untold story behind the ultimate monster flick that became a monster franchise.

Alien‘s Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver. In space, nobody can hear you scream.

The NFSA says Alien fans can discover amazing never-before-seen materials including rejected designs and storyboards and behind-the-scenes footage.

The season continues in November with Arnold Schwarzenegger classics The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day; and another Ridley Scott masterpiece, Blade Runner: The Final Cut.

Set in the ‘distant future’ of November 2019, Blade Runner stars Harrison Ford who is hunting down a fugitive group of synthetic replicants.

Sci-Fi Season 79-99
The Matrix: 20th Anniversary + Q&A – 14 September, 6 pm
Memory: The Origins of Alien – 20 September, 6 pm
Alien: 40th Anniversary – 20 September, 8 pm
The Terminator – 2 November, 6 pm
Terminator 2: Judgement Day – 2 November, 8 pm
Blade Runner: The Final Cut – 16 November, 2 pm

Where: Arc cinema, National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, Acton
Tickets: $12/$10 available online.

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