LMGI COMPASS
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Summer 2024
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49
Ripley
Masters of the Air
True Detective: Night Country
MASTERS OF THE AIR
The harrowing experiences of the American 100th Bomb Group
as they conduct strategic missions over Nazi Germany during
World War II is recreated in the UK. The English countryside
provides airfields and barracks, while the cities offer authentic
settings for dramatic aerial and ground battles with locations
matching wartime UK, France, Belgium and Germany. A US
Army Air Force Base is constructed from the bones of an un-
used university and hotel in Buckinghamshire and the former
Royal Air Force Station Abingdon in Oxfordshire is its airfield
and control tower. Old Town Hemel Hempstead's High Street in
Hertfordshire plays for bombed-out streets and bomb shelters.
The French Resistance helps an airman on a farm in Belgium,
filmed at a farm near Aylesbury, while another rural property
evokes the horrors of a death camp. The realism portrayed in
the series honors the bravery and sacrifice of the men of the "Bloody Hundreth," a brotherhood forged by
courage, loss and triumph.
RIPLEY
In this psychological neo-noir thriller, a small-time con artist
devises a sinister scheme to steal the life, money and identity
of a trust fund expat living in late 1950's Italy. The story takes
Ripley from Manhattan to Italy, where he spends time in Atrani,
Rome, Naples, San Remo, Palermo and Venice. The steep steps
and winding alleys of picturesque Atrani create disorienting
spatial effects that reflect Ripley's mental state. A dead body
found by the ancient Roman aqueduct intensifies his cat-and-
mouse game with the police, as his deceit leads to desperation
and murder. The Amalfi Coast Road, with curves overlooking
the sea, a timeless grand villa in Capri, the historic alleys of
Rome and the irreplicable charm of Naples are filmed in black-
and-white with unique cinematic angles that create an awe-
inspiring visual experience that heightens the tension.
TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY
Detectives investigate the mysterious disappearance of eight
men from a research station in "Ennis, Alaska" in the stark,
harsh, frozen expanse of Iceland's tundra, so close to the Arctic
Circle that it exists in perpetual darkness for eight months.
The towns of Keflavik and Dalvik were the bones for the eerie
small close-knit mining town isolated by the sea. The unsettling
blue twilight and frigid darkness reflect a larger emotional
ambience, as the narrative takes a gruesome turn. The long,
frigid nights were endured by the actors and crew but were
crucial in creating the haunting and desolate atmosphere
central to a story of environmental pollution, missing people
and indigenous justice. The detectives must also confront the
darkness they carry in themselves as they dig into the haunted
truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.
