What if someone came up to you and said that he is 14,000 years old? Would you believe him if he said that he was once friends with Beethoven, Voltaire and Jules Verne – and showed a painting given to him by Van Gogh himself? Would you listen to this man if he said that he was Jesus himself, who once had been a disciple of The Buddha – and that he had learned methods of stopping pain from The Buddha, which he applied to survive The Crucifixion?
This extraordinary man could tell you the first-hand ‘historical’ accounts of cities like Rome, London and New York, and most of the important events that happened in history. He could tell you about the alteration of landscapes, about the war between Athens and Sparta, about his friend scientists of the past, and about the different pandemics in human history. Would you really be able to believe this man? Would you want to meet this man?
Well, here is someone – at least from the imagination of Jerome Bixby – portrayed as Professor John Oldman, in The Man from Earth.
The sudden resignation of John from the University creates a talk among his colleagues, who gather for John’s farewell party. When asked for reasons of premature retirement, John could not but reveal the secret of his immortality; and thus the need to move on to a different location. Tensions rise and beliefs crumble as John continues his stories; with frequent interruptions from his colleagues, who find out that his tales are as impossible to falsify as they are to verify. What begins as a friendly party soon builds up to an unexpected and shattering climax.
If THE MAN FROM EARTH is an experimental film, then it has been a very successful one.
This extraordinary man could tell you the first-hand ‘historical’ accounts of cities like Rome, London and New York, and most of the important events that happened in history. He could tell you about the alteration of landscapes, about the war between Athens and Sparta, about his friend scientists of the past, and about the different pandemics in human history. Would you really be able to believe this man? Would you want to meet this man?
Well, here is someone – at least from the imagination of Jerome Bixby – portrayed as Professor John Oldman, in The Man from Earth.
The sudden resignation of John from the University creates a talk among his colleagues, who gather for John’s farewell party. When asked for reasons of premature retirement, John could not but reveal the secret of his immortality; and thus the need to move on to a different location. Tensions rise and beliefs crumble as John continues his stories; with frequent interruptions from his colleagues, who find out that his tales are as impossible to falsify as they are to verify. What begins as a friendly party soon builds up to an unexpected and shattering climax.
If THE MAN FROM EARTH is an experimental film, then it has been a very successful one.
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