Category: Shrinkfilms

The Dwarf and the Giant

October 27, 2020 By arne hendriks Off

Between 1896 and 1913 French film pioneer and illusionist Georges Méliès directed over 500 films. Most of them were very short experiments exploring the possibilities of special effects inspired by the tradition of stage magic. As such the appearance and disappearance of objects and people…

Beyond Phlebotinum

September 12, 2017 By arne hendriks Off

Phlebotinum is the versatile substance or incomprehensible technology that causes an effect needed by a plot in a work of fiction. Phlebotinum basically does everything, except solve specific limits and dangers required by the plot. Without it, the story would grind to an abrupt halt.…

Abundance Fantasies: The Lady in the Tutti Frutti Hat

November 20, 2016 By arne hendriks 0

Perhaps no Hollywood movie director and choreographer personifies the desire for abundance better than Busby Berkeley. His choreographies were wildly extravagant, the geometric patterns hallucinatory, and the props and costumes beyond anything seen before. His work oozes a profound and limitless desire for excess. And…

Subliminal Tinker Bell

November 9, 2012 By arne hendriks Off

If we want to convince mankind that we should downsize the human body it will not be sufficient to present the endocrinological and genetic possibilities to shrink, or point out the amount of damage we are causing because of human size, or any of the…

Munchkin Statistics

September 6, 2012 By arne hendriks 0

Statistical research on the 124 actors who played the Munchkins in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz shows that little people live longer. Through Wikipedia we were able to calculate projected life expectancy and actual date of death of 77 actors, both male and female and…

(Mad) Scientist Fiction

October 24, 2011 By arne hendriks 1

Mankind seems so indoctrinated to think bigger that sometimes the mere suggestion that we should become smaller is thoughtlessly rejected as mad science. Ever since the 20th century our relationship with science, vacillating between science as the salvation of society or its doom, has been personified by…

Shrink Rays

March 17, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

According to sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov miniaturization doesn’t actually make sense unless you miniaturize the very atoms of which matter is composed, and that is impossible. For the Incredible Shrinking Man however, the primary importance is its prominent existence in our imagination. How do we connect…

Shrink to Power

February 19, 2011 By arne hendriks 0

Popular culture is ripe with examples of the playful desire to shrink. We’ve reported before on the peculiar desire of some people to sexually fantasize about very small men, and women especially. But not all forms of microphilia are of an erotic nature. On the…

B-Movie Biology

December 29, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

The shrinkfilm archive features many 50’s movies of debatable quality. And there’s a reason: B-movies of the 50’s are a rich source of inspiration for size-related speculation.  The premise of the 50’s B-movie is invariably to take something out of its usual context -make people…

Last Words Before Infinity

December 14, 2010 By arne hendriks Off

The Incredible Shrinking Man takes its name from a 1957 movie, based on a book by Richard Matheson. In it the protagonist Scott Carey slowly starts shrinking after having been exposed to radioactive pesticides. The film (and book) is about coping with this situation. Towards…

World of Dwarfcraft

August 21, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

One of the goals of The Incredible Shrinking Man project is to archive existing forms of the desire to shrink. It’s difficult to know how many people have this  desire. But maybe online behaviour and the public games we play shed some light on this.…

Big Small Possible

June 25, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

Two short films titled Faktor 4a and Faktor 4b (perhaps related to a faktor of how much more of everything people would have if they were consierably smaller) created by Graw Bockler give a rare insight into a possible future when people of even extremer…

Shrink Film Archive

May 6, 2010 By arne hendriks 0

From the surreal explorations of Pedro Almodóvar in Hable con Elle to the blockbuster entertainment of films like Honey I shrunk the kids, shrinking is and always has been a popular topic for filmmakers. Here’s a list of shrink films. Click the title for previews…