Gore Vidal

In "the not-too-distant" future, where genetic engineering of humans is common and DNA plays the primary role in determining social class, Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is conceived and born without the aid of this technology. Suffering from the nearly eradicated physical dysfunctions of myopia and a congenital heart defect, as well as being given a life expectancy of 30.2 years, Vincent faces extreme genetic discrimination and prejudice. The only way he can achieve his life-long dream of becoming an astronaut is to break the law and impersonate a "valid", a person with appropriate genetic advantage.[4] He assumes the identity of Jerome Eugene Morrow (Jude Law), a former swimming star who, despite a genetic profile "second to none", won only a silver medal in a high-profile competition. He then attempted to commit suicide by jumping in front of a car, but again fell short of his goal in that he only succeeded in paralyzing himself from the waist down. However, as the incident occurred outside the country, no one knows of his newly acquired disability. Thus, Vincent can "buy" his identity with no one the wiser. Though he requires orthopedic surgery to increase his height, persistant practice to favor his right hand instead of his left, and contact lenses to replace his glasses while matching Jerome's eyes, he can use his "valid" DNA in blood, tissue and urine samples to pass any genetic test - as long as he takes extreme measures to leave no traces of his identity as an "in-valid". But, where he was once an object of scorn and pity, he is now a perpetrator of an unspeakable fraud. Legally, exposure would only subject him to fines, but socially the consequences would be far more extreme - he is now a heretic against the new order of genetic determinism. Vincent is now a "borrowed ladder" (a reference to the ladder structure of an un-coiled DNA strand) or in harsher language, a de-gene-erate. With Jerome's impressive genetic profile he easily gains access to the Gattaca Aerospace Corporation (his interview consists entirely of a urine test), the most prestigious space-flight conglomerate of the day. With his own equally impressive determination, he quickly becomes the company's ace celestial navigator. But a week before Vincent is scheduled to leave for Saturn's moon Titan, the mission director is murdered, and evidence of Vincent's own "in-valid" DNA is found in the building in the form of an eyelash. The presence of this unexpected DNA attracts the attention of the police, and Vincent must evade ever-increasing security as his mission launch date approaches and he pursues a relationship with his co-worker Irene Cassini (Uma Thurman). After numerous close calls, the investigation eventually comes to a close as Director Josef (Gore Vidal) is arrested for the murder by the lead detective covering the investigation (Alan Arkin). The Director reveals that he murdered the mission director in order to buy time for the mission to launch, because the window of opportunity for the launch is only open once every seventy years, and that it is now too late to stop the launch. However, just as Vincent appears to be in the clear, he is confronted by one of the detectives, who is revealed as Vincent's estranged brother, Anton (Loren Dean). Anton tries to convince Vincent to go with him for protection before Vincent is found out. However, it soon becomes apparent that Anton is acting more out of insecurity and is more concerned with how Vincent had managed to get the better of him, despite his supposed genetic superiority. Vincent and Anton settle their competition as they did when they were children, by seeing who could swim out into the ocean farthest. As he did once before when they were young, Vincent manages to beat his brother, and, once again, saves him from drowning. This is simply because he refused to save any strength to swim back - he is willing to risk everything to succeed. Conversely his brother worried about preserving enough strength to swim out and return again, and these fears kept him from testing his true limits. Anton: "Vincent! How are you doing this, Vincent? How have you done any of this? We have to go back!" Vincent: "It's too late for that, we're closer to the other side." Anton: "What other side? Do you want to drown us both" Vincent: "You want to know how I did it? This is how I did it, Anton. I never saved anything for the swim back." As the day of the launch finally arrives, Jerome bids Vincent farewell and says that he intends to travel too. He reveals that he has stored enough genetic samples to last Vincent two lifetimes. Overwhelmed and grateful, Vincent thanks Jerome for "lending" him the identity that has allowed his success at Gattaca. Jerome replies, however, that it is he who should be grateful, since Vincent lent Jerome his dreams. As Vincent moves through the Gattaca complex to the launch site, he is stopped for an unexpected DNA test. Vincent reluctantly agrees to take the test, even though he has none of Jerome's genetic material to hide his identity. The test result uncovers Vincent's "in-valid" status, and the doctor, Lamar (Xander Berkeley), reveals that he has known Vincent's true identity all along, saying: "For future reference, right-handed men don't hold it with their left. Just one of those things". Lamar then alters the test result to allow him to proceed regardless, confessing that his son admires Vincent, and wants to be an astronaut just like him, despite an unforeseen genetic defect that would already rule him out. As the shuttle lifts off, Jerome is shown committing suicide inside his home incinerator, wearing his silver medal, which turns gold in the flames. The story centers on the irony of the perfect Jerome failing to succeed despite being given every advantage while the imperfect Vincent transcends his deficiencies through force of will and spirit. A milder version of the disorder that afflicts Vincent prevents Irene from taking part in space flight. This dichotomy shows how the eugenic policy in Gattaca and the world in which it is set adversely affect the humanity of both Vincent and Jerome, as well as the "invalid" and "valid" humans they represent. A coda, cut from the final film, lists various people who have succeeded despite genetic deficiencies (and would be excluded in the modern society of Gattaca), such as Albert Einstein and Abraham Lincoln.

The weirdest alien of the galaxy pays a visit to Earth... Jerry Lewis is Kreton, a childish alien who, against his teacher's will leaves his planet to visit the Earth, and lands in the backyard of a famous television journalist who doesn't believe in U.F.O's and aliens. Wanting to study humans but not able to fully understand them, Kreton makes a mess out of it, generating a lot of comic situations. —Alessio Quirino

New Orleans, 1937. Catherine Holly (Elizabeth Taylor) is a young woman institutionalized for a severe emotional disturbance that came about when her cousin, Sebastian Venable, died under questionable circumstances while they were on holiday in Spain a few months earlier. The late Sebastian's wealthy mother, Violet Venable (Katharine Hepburn), makes every effort to deny and suppress a potentially sordid truth about her son and his demise. Toward this end, she attempts to bribe the state hospital's administrator, Dr. Hockstader (Albert Dekker), by offering to finance a new wing for the underfunded facility (in Sebastian's name) if he will coerce his brilliant young surgeon, Dr. John Cukrowicz, (Montgomery Clift) into lobotomizing her niece, thereby removing any chance that the events surrounding her son's death might be revealed by Catherine's "obscene babbling". Mrs. Venable meets with Dr. Cukrowicz in the primordial garden ("like the dawn of creation") at her estate to discuss her niece's case, and their conversation eventually turns to Sebastian. Mrs. Venable describes him as a poet whose art was his sole occupation... even though he only wrote a single poem each year during the summer months and never published his work... and recounts her own previous vacations with him and of the poems that he kept in a poetry book that she reads from time to time. Mrs. Venable then reads out loud to Dr. Cukrowicz one poem from the book which tells of one particular voyage to the Encantadas a few years ago where her son forced her to witness the horrific sight of birds feeding on newborn turtles emerging from the sand, a ghastly scene in which Sebastian believed he saw the "face of God". Cukrowicz agrees to visit Catherine and begin his evaluation. Catherine has been confined to a private women's mental institution since her return from Europe several months earlier. At first remaining out of sight, Cukrowicz watches as she is caught smoking by Sister Felicity (Joan Young), one of the nuns who staff the facility. When the nun confronts Catherine and holds out her hand, demanding that she turn the cigarette over, Catherine responds by extinguishing the lit cigarette into her palm, burning her. The nun then tells the doctor that this can be seen as proof of her mental instability. Cukrowicz dismisses Sister Felicity and goes on to interview Catherine in her room. She claims that her memory does not extend any further back than an incident that occurred just before she left for Europe with Sebastian, when she "lost her honor" while being driven home from a Mardi Gras ball. Beyond that, she struggles to recall the events that led to Sebastian's death and her subsequent breakdown, but expresses her desire to do so. Beginning to doubt that she has lost her mind, Cukrowicz decides to move Catherine into the state hospital for continued observation. Catherine's mother (Mercedes McCambridge) and brother George (Gary Raymond) pay her a visit and reveal that Sebastian has left them a considerable sum of money in his will. Unfortunately, Mrs. Venable will not give them the inheritance unless they sign papers to commit Catherine to the institution and allow a lobotomy to be performed. Alarmed by this prospect, Catherine tries to escape. She accidentally wanders onto a catwalk suspended over the men's recreational area. With the door at the other end of the catwalk locked, she is forced to fight her way back past the men who are trying to climb up onto the catwalk and grope her, and returns to her room in defeat. Later, Mrs. Venable drops by the hospital to check on the status of Cukrowicz's evaluation. The doctor persuades her to meet Catherine face to face. In the ensuing confrontation, Catherine tries to get her aunt to reveal the true nature of her relationship with Sebastian and the reason why she was left behind and Catherine chosen to take her place as his traveling companion, vaguely hinting that Sebastian used them as "bait" and that they "procured for him". Mrs. Venable responds to these allegations by fainting. Catherine uses this opportunity to slip away again to find another way to escape from the hospital. Catherine finds another catwalk that runs above a rec room filled with women who initially stare at her in silence as she walks overhead. She climbs the railing and leans out precipitously, considering jumping to her death as the women start cackling below, but before she can release her hold, an orderly (David Cameron) comes up behind her, drags her back to her room and sedates her. In a last-ditch effort to help Catherine, Cukrowicz brings her to the Venable estate where he administers a truth serum that will allow her to overcome any resistance to remembering the details of what happened that summer. Before an audience consisting of her aunt, mother and brother, Miss Foxhill (Mavis Villiers), Dr. Hockstader, and Nurse Benson (Patricia Marmont), all of whom have gathered on the patio in the jungle-like garden, Cukrowicz begins questioning Catherine: In a long silent flashback sequence, Catherine recalls how she and Sebastian spent their days on the beach in the Spanish town of Cabeza de Lobo at a posh resort hotel on the beach. On one occasion, he drags her reluctantly into the water, which causes the fabric of her white bathing suit to become transparent. A group of local young men, who had been watching her from the neighboring public beach, start to approach but are intercepted by Sebastian. Catherine gradually realizes that he is using her as bait to attract these local teenage boys in order to proposition them for sex. Since the boys are desperate for money, Sebastian is successful in his efforts; however, he gradually becomes "fed up with the dark ones" and, being "famished for blondes", makes plans to depart for the northern countries of Scandinavia. On one scorching white-hot day, Sebastian and Catherine are having lunch at a local cafe near the beach when they are beset by a team of ragged street boys playing cacophonous music on instruments of scrap metal and begging for money (some of them being the same teen boys he propositioned to earlier). When Sebastian rejects them, they take up pursuit through the streets of the town. Sebastian attempts to flee, but the boys swarm around him at every turn. He is finally cornered among the ruins of a temple located on a hilltop. In the meantime, Catherine has been frantically trying to catch up with Sebastian, but she reaches him only to see him overwhelmed at last by the group of boys. To her horror and revulsion, she realizes that the starving street teens are literally tearing him apart and eating his flesh. She screams for help, to no avail. The film returns to Catherine, who has collapsed upon the ground, sobbing, and then runs outside the house. Mrs. Venable closes Sebastian's book of poems... the pages of which are blank (there were never any poems in the book, for Mrs. Venable clearly made them up as her own deluded way to deny her son's homosexuality to herself). Mrs. Venable then slowly rises from her seat and takes Cukrowicz's arm. Calling him Sebastian, she tells him not to be out in the sun for too long and that they should go inside the boat and inform the captain that they want to leave. Now clearly insane that the truth has come out, Mrs. Venable is led away and Cukrowicz returns to check on Catherine, who has recovered, having learned the truth. They both walk into the house together.