I am old enough to remember when the future looked fun. As a kid I was an eager reader of Jules Verne, whose futuristic novels, written in mid-19th century France, had proven thrillingly prophetic. "From the Earth to the Moon" (lunar exploration in 1865!), "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (deep-sea submarines in 1870!), "Around the World in Eighty Days" (globe-trotting by air in 1873!). My interest in Verne had been sparked by the movies made from his books, particularly Michael Anderson's "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956), shot in glorious Cinerama, and Richard Fleischer's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" (1954), which Disney seared into Baby-Boomer brains on its Sunday-night TV show. (To this day I cannot listen to an organ recital without thinking of James Mason's Captain Nemo.)
Several recent Japanese films view the future through the eyes of the past, including Kazuaki Kirya's "Casshern," whose set design was inspired by George Orwell's "1984" and prewar Soviet propaganda posters, and Mamoru Oshii's "Innocence," whose animatronic sex dolls could have stepped out of a Taisho Era (1911-26) print.
The latest is Katsuhiro Otomo's "Steamboy," an animation set in the London of 1866, when Verne was at the height of his powers, the Machine Age was well under way, and, to the era's optimists, mankind's horizons looked unlimited. (Not many were looking with the same glittery eyes at womankind's horizons, unfortunately.)
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