Inflight Magazine of Brussels Airlines

Culture

Matt Bochenski hears Daft Punk’s TRON triumph, reads Lonely Planet’s 2011 tips and watches a monster movie with a difference

MUSIC

Daft Punk
TRON: Legacy original soundtrack

Traditionally, the original soundtrack was known as the ‘official soundtrack’, and there was little or nothing original about it . But a shift in attitudes and the emergence of the MTV generation as a powerful force has brought about a change. Whether it’s Spike Jonze collaborating with Karen O on Where The Wild Things Are, or Jarvis Cocker and Wes Anderson teaming up for Fantastic Mr Fox, a film’s soundtrack has never been more important. And few have been more eagerly awaited than the soundtrack for TRON: Legacy by French electro legends Daft Punk. Teaming a re-imagining of the 1982 film about a renegade computer programme with a band who like to dress up as robotic bobsledders is inspired.

The results more than live up to the hype. There’s plenty of the buzzing, twinkling, feedback-looping euphoric pop noise with which Daft Punk revolutionised 21st-century dance music – but it is underpinned by an oceanic swell of doomy atmosphere that cuts through the neon futurism of the TRON universe to the dark heart within. This is Daft Punk at their fearless best.

BOOK

Best in Travel 2011
Lonely Planet

We like to tell ourselves that the world is getting smaller, but seeing all of its sights and sounds remains an impossible dream for most of us. Which is why Lonely Planet’s Best in Travel 2011 is such an invaluable book. Drawing on the expert knowledge and insight of the company’s network of travel writers, this guide is a perfect companion for anyone keen to streamline next year’s travel schedule. Ranking the top 10 countries, regions and cities alongside the best one-off experiences to be had in the coming 12 months, by the time you’ve absorbed all the information from this tome you’ll be a one-person fountain of travel-related wisdom. From the opening of New York’s 9/11 memorial to flamenco classes in Andalucia, there are over 35 events spread out across the world, each one guaranteed to tempt you away next year.

FILM

Monsters
Director Gareth Edwards
Starring Scoot McNairy, Whitney Able

Shot in Latin America on a rumoured budget of just £15,000 (€11,000), independent British sci-fi movie Monsters might just represent the unlikely face of cinema’s future.

Billed as a spiritual sequel to District 9, but actually a sombre, nuanced character piece that prizes mood and atmosphere above action, the film is set on a contemporary earth afflicted by the emergence of giant alien life-forms across much of the Latin American continent. These ‘monsters’ escaped from a crashed NASA shuttle, but far from taking responsibility, America has walled itself off from the problem, leaving the inhabitants to fend for themselves. Trapped alongside them, however, is the daughter of an American businessman (Able) who, alongside a would-be rescuer (McNairy), must travel across the infected zone to safety.

Gareth Edwards is a special-effects techie by trade, but it’s the traditional filmmaking techniques of sound design and clever editing that allows Monsters’ limited budget to go such a long way. By invoking the audience’s imagination, the director is able to transform what could have been a by-rote sci-fi road movie into something both subtler and more profound. The question is this: are the ‘monsters’ the squid-like aliens, or the people who have allowed their humanity to erode?

COMING SOON

Disney’s TRON: Legacy updates the 1982 film with 3D effects and a Daft Punk soundtrack; see it from mid-December
The Michael Jackson gravy train arrives in time for Christmas with Michael, a three-CD compilation including material the star was working on before his untimely death Master thriller writer and doorstop engineer Tom Clancy is back with Dead or Alive in early December. It sees Jack Ryan Jr chasing terrorists – surprise!

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