J.G. Ballard

J.G. Ballard

Birth : 1930-11-15, Shanghai, China

Death : 2009-04-19

History

James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Born in an international settlement in Shanghai to British parents before his family emigrated to the UK, Ballard began writing in the 1950s, becoming associated with the New Wave of science fiction with post-apocalyptic novels such as The Wind from Nowhere and The Drowned World. (Wikipedia)

Profile

J.G. Ballard

Movies

High-Rise
Novel
Life for the residents of a tower block begins to run out of control.
Hyperstition
Self
A film on time and narrative by Christopher Roth with Armen Avanessian. Hyperstitional thinking hijacks the present-forming daring interventions into conditions of cybernetic governance that foreclose contingency.
Home
Author
The ostensibly calm and courteous Gerald Ballantyne lives in and embodies modern suburbia. But he is haunted by the memory of a recent car crash and hounded by his estranged wife and her demands for divorce. Slowly, a festering insanity takes over and unwilling to face the outside world he embarks on a lunatic experiment. Confining himself to his middle-class home, he eschews contact with others and survives entirely off 'food' which he can find in his house. Based on JG Ballard's The Enormous Space.
J.G. Ballard: A Profile
Himself
Tom Sutcliffe meets J.G. Ballard, arguably one of Britain's most profound and provocative novelists, author of such works as Crash, High-Rise and Empire of the Sun.
London Orbital
Himself
A filmmaker sets out to make a voyage of discovery on London's orbital motorway, the M25. He enlists the help of several others to film the motorway from several points, drive endlessly around it and dig up stories and potential beauty behind the motorway.
Low-Flying Aircraft
Novel
Based on a the short story "Low Flying Aircraft" by J.G. Ballard and set in a near future where humans are dying breed. Judite and André flee to a semi-abandoned apartment complex to protect their mutant child from certain death.
The Atrocity Exhibition
Novel
A doctor in a mental research institution is driven insane by the spectacle of the horrors of the twentieth century.
J.G. Ballard: The Future Is Now
Crash
Novel
After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims who use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.
Ten Monologues from the Lives of the Serial Killers
Writer
Based on the writings of: J.G. Ballard, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer, Henry Rollins, Roberta Lannes, Edmund Emil Kemper, etc. The structure of this film is literally that of the title: ten monologues adapted from various fiction and documentary sources which combine to produce an unsettling work that does not pretend to analyse nor to understand the serial killers.
Minus One
Story
Strange things are happening at Green Hill asylum…
The Unmade Films of J.G. Ballard
Self
A film essay on Ballard's fiction, and its unrealised cinematic potential, with particular reference to David Cronenberg's (yet to be filmed) Crash, featuring an interview with the director, prior to making of his film.
The China Odyssey: Empire of the Sun
Self
Documentary about the making of director Steven Spielberg's film Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun
Novel
Jamie Graham, a privileged English boy, is living in Shanghai when the Japanese invade and force all foreigners into prison camps. Jamie is captured with an American sailor, who looks out for him while they are in the camp together. Even though he is separated from his parents and in a hostile environment, Jamie maintains his dignity and youthful spirits, providing a beacon of hope for the others held captive with him.
The Unlimited Dream Company
Self
An experimental documentary portrait of author J.G. Ballard. Ballard speaks about his life and work, and submits to a lengthy personality questionnaire; these sections are intercut with surrealist scenes inspired by Ballard's fiction, centering on a downed pilot wandering through various landscapes.
Billenium
Novel
Two roommates discover an extra personal space that they have never known. Things become complicated when they allow two other close friends to share the space, and the ensuing snowball effect of their invitees bringing family to live in the room.
Crash!
Writer
Short film produced by the BBC about JG Ballard's Crash. “The film was a product of the most experimental, darkest phase of Ballard’s career. It was an era of psychological blowback from the sudden, shocking death of his wife in 1964, an era that had produced the cut-up ‘condensed novels’ of Atrocity plus a series of strange collages and ‘advertisers’ announcements’. […] After Freud’s exploration within the psyche it is now the outer world of reality which must be quantified and eroticised.’ Later there were further literary experiments, concrete poems and ‘impressionistic’ film reviews, and an aborted multimedia theatrical play based around car crashes. After that came an actual gallery exhibition of crashed cars, replete with strippers and the drunken destruction of the ‘exhibits’ by an enraged audience.” (from: http://aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.blogspot.de/2013/01/short-film-adaptation-of-jg-ballards.html)
Crash!
Short film produced by the BBC about JG Ballard's Crash. “The film was a product of the most experimental, darkest phase of Ballard’s career. It was an era of psychological blowback from the sudden, shocking death of his wife in 1964, an era that had produced the cut-up ‘condensed novels’ of Atrocity plus a series of strange collages and ‘advertisers’ announcements’. […] After Freud’s exploration within the psyche it is now the outer world of reality which must be quantified and eroticised.’ Later there were further literary experiments, concrete poems and ‘impressionistic’ film reviews, and an aborted multimedia theatrical play based around car crashes. After that came an actual gallery exhibition of crashed cars, replete with strippers and the drunken destruction of the ‘exhibits’ by an enraged audience.” (from: http://aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.blogspot.de/2013/01/short-film-adaptation-of-jg-ballards.html)
When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth
Writer
An ancient tribe attempts to sacrifice Sanna as an offering to the Sun god to save their tribe from dinosaurs. Tara, a young man from another tribe, saves Sanna and takes her along with him.
Thirteen to Centaurus
Story
Interstellar travel at sub-light speeds: the enormous distances, isolation from human culture and the aching loneliness of space are enough to drive the strongest personality insane. Better to block all memories of human contact and to program the 12-strong crew to accept only the reality they can see and touch within their spacecraft. But a child born on "the Station" becomes insistent on learning the truth about 'Outside'.
Running Wild
Novel
A forensic psychologist is enlisted to delve into the circumstances surrounding the brutal murder of thirty-two adults in an exclusive gated community in the desert outside Los Angeles and the disappearance of their children.
Concrete Island
Novel
An architect finds himself stranded on a man-made island between two highways with only the contents of his car in his possession.