About the project
The Unseen Connections in Art
Across the world of cinema, some films are like hidden trails, waiting to be discovered. At times, art pieces seem to speak to each other across ages and space — sharing a mood, a heartbeat, a glimmer of similar light in very different stories. For years, I’ve been developing unique recommendation technologies to reveal these unseen connections, building a bridge between films and creative works of every sort.
Let me tell you how I ended up here.
It goes back to my university days, back when I was a history major. She stood there like something straight out of a film — stunning, magnetic, the girl I knew only as 'Jennifer' online. She was a future archaeologist or ethnologist, or perhaps just a high school history teacher in the making. The golden hour sun lingered in her dark-blonde hair, hesitant to fade. She was holding a 3.5-inch floppy disk with a “Dear John” letter on it in one hand, and a VHS of What Dreams May Come (1998) in the other.
«I had so much more to write, but I’m exhausted and can barely keep my eyes open... Anyway, why did I choose this movie for you?» That was how her letter ended.
My heart shattered — a sharp, cruel pain at first, followed by a dull, insistent ache I couldn’t escape. But in the stillness of the months that followed, the scene began to replay in my mind with a new kind of gravity and it started to feel different. From the ruins of that heartbreak, a question arose, both haunting and inevitable: what place do stories — and film in particular — truly hold in our lives, and how deep can their meanings actually go?
Usually, these are the hidden gems that slipped through the cracks — overshadowed by big-budget blockbusters or buried by poor opening-weekend numbers, or, even worse, simply misunderstood by critics and audiences alike.
And yet, these overlooked films can be true cinematic treasures — the kind that linger in your mind, quietly reshaping the way you see stories and life itself. Discovering them feels like finding rare artifacts buried beneath the dust of time — pieces the masses missed yet yet holding all the depth, beauty and timelessness of something truly enduring.
The platform I’m developing goes far beyond simple genre or cast matching. It uncovers deeper connections: shared themes, creative vision — leveraging my two decades in the industry of art production — and unique visual and sonic signatures.
I’m constantly refining the algorithm and will use your input to make the recommendations even more tailored to your tastes. For now, some interactive features are still in beta, but stay tuned — they’ll be available to the public in the near future.
And yes — I admit I’m in love with Mélanie Laurent, Rose Leslie, Rebecca Ferguson, Eva Green, and Scarlett Johansson. I also have a soft spot for Teresa Palmer, Juno Temple, Charlize Theron, Kaya Scodelario, Emily Blunt, Kristen Stewart, Saoirse Ronan, Milla Jovovich, Stana Katic, Amy Adams, Elizabeth Debicki, Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, Ana de Armas, Kate Beckinsale, and Peta Wilson. Films and series featuring certain people are also where I’m developing another recommendation approach, one that will keep growing over time.
Why these actresses in particular? At first glance, they come from different countries, cultures, even cinematic traditions. But they share one profound thread: on screen they almost never play «ordinary people in an ordinary world.» Their characters live close to the threshold — between life and death, sanity and madness, realism and myth. Witches and queens, agents and survivors, women from futures that might come or worlds that never were — this is the landscape where they feel most at home.
They aren’t polished into identical porcelain sexual molds, nor trimmed into studio sterility. Instead, accents, scars, height, sharp cheekbones, unique voices and unmistakable silhouettes become part of the story itself. Directors like Denis Villeneuve and Christopher Nolan and production engines from Screen Gems to Marvel and DC turn to them when they need not just a beautiful outline, but a presence with an internal axis — someone who can carry an entire world on her shoulders.
Many of them entered the profession young, faltered, disappeared for a while, then returned — often stronger, more certain, and more defiant. They stepped into directing, producing, entrepreneurship, activism: environmental movements, campaigns against domestic violence and other humiliating traditions of patriarchal societies, public solidarity in support of Ukraine, resistance to the rhetoric of Trump-style irresponsible populists, battles for gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights. Their biographies, taken together, form a single narrative — a story about women who didn’t just save worlds in scripts, but quietly rewrote the rules of the real industry behind the camera.
And today, each in her own way, they change not only cinema — but the cultural grammar of progressive society, expanding what it means to be a woman on screen and off it. Perhaps that’s why their films resonate with me so much, and why the system I’m building gravitates toward them: not because they are famous, but because they are formidable.
If you notice any mistakes, have ideas or suggestions, or would like to join the closed testing, I’d be happy to hear from you — just drop me a line at: a@skirlan.com
Embark on an exploration through these pages, and together we’ll seek out and uncover the hidden treasures of the cinematic world.
