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{"id":1411,"date":"2007-08-15T11:51:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-15T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/08\/the-end-is-near-and-yet-still-so-far\/"},"modified":"2007-08-15T11:51:00","modified_gmt":"2007-08-15T11:51:00","slug":"the-end-is-near-and-yet-still-so-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/08\/the-end-is-near-and-yet-still-so-far.html","title":{"rendered":"The end is near … and yet still so far …"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>I have wanted to see Abel Gance\u2019s La fin du monde<\/a><\/i> (1931) \u2014 one of the first talking pictures made in France \u2014 ever since I first read about it while researching an article on apocalyptic movies<\/a> for Christian History<\/a><\/i> magazine back in 1998.<\/span><\/p>\n

The film concerns a comet that is heading for Earth, and it reportedly has a fair bit of religious imagery, too. But it has never been available on video, to my knowledge \u2014 at least not in North America \u2014 despite its similarities to recent disaster-from-space movies like Deep Impact<\/a><\/i> (1998) and Armageddon<\/a><\/i> (1998; my review<\/a>); it also seems to have inspired Guy Maddin<\/a>\u2018s excellent retro-silent short film The Heart of the World<\/a><\/i> (2000).<\/p>\n

So imagine my joy when The ScreenGrab<\/a> provided a link to this site<\/a> which allows you to download a copy of Gance\u2019s film here<\/a>. There\u2019s just one problem. The film is in French, and the subtitles are in Italian, and I don\u2019t speak either of those languages.<\/p>\n

Oh well, hopefully I can get by on the visuals, and on what little I remember of my high-school French. (Which isn\u2019t much.)<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Apparently Turner Classic Movies<\/a> does sell a DVD of the 54-minute version of this film that was released in the United States. The version linked above is about 90 minutes.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"