The Spazzmodicus Movie Review : Waking Life
Spazzmodicus
personal views entirely. It doesn't really matter anyway since it was
written for usenet.....with usenet being figuratively composed of about
80% opinion and 20% fact. I did however report as much fact as I know
about the movie.
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The movie "Waking Life"(WL) seems to be an attempt 'at the new' in movie
making because the method used in portraying the story, while may have been
used in bits and pieces here or there such as music videos among other
things, has never been used on a whole production as far as I know.
The method is called "Rotoscoping". The entire movie was shot on hand held
digital cameras, collected onto hard drives, that were then packed and sent
over seas for the rotoscoping, which is in effect the 'translation' from
video into animation,(presumably on computers)
The entire movie is in fact animated. If you look at the picture and
think "video" then you may be able to see the scenes as video but
otherwise is fluid animation for the most part. The reason I say "for the
most part" is because there are various entities in the film that are
unstable and floating as it were, jumping about....background items such
as buildings, furniture, roads and even facial features on some of the
characters, for example floating 'mustaches'. Even the titles and credits
morph and "globulate" in size and shape. The "floaty" appearance may
have been done intentionally to simulate a dream environment or may have
just been a byproduct of the rotoscoping, perhaps even a desired
byproduct for the same reason. Therefore, if you have problems with
vertigo then you may very well be getting 'seasick' by just watching this
flick. You can still enjoy the movie though by easing back and tuning out
with your eyes, and 'in' with your ears.
For an idea of the way the film appears, if you know anything about
graphics software, then imagine watching a movie put together completely
on Adobe Illustrator. If you don't know anyting about Illustrator, then
imagine watching a movie done entirely in watercolor paints and and
pencils. The scenery and character appearances(including the main
character) change often, depending on which of the 30 something artists
did what scene. Speaking of characters, there is only one main character in
the film, while most are only seen once, there are however two or three
recurring characters in the movie, including Rich Linklater himself, the
guy that created the movie. (The guy in the boatcar that gives directions
and the guy playing pinball in the end of the movie. Forgot his official
title in the movie production and too lazy to look it up right now)
The graphics, while entertaining at best, are nothing all that special.
Perhaps that was an intention of the artists that worked on this film,
to create less distraction in order to facilitate the 'taking in' of the
various messages of the characters in the story with undivided attention.
That is in fact what one tends to focus on in this movie, the diverse
perspectives offered on such topics as consciousness, evolution, humanism
and a few other 'isms as well. There are scant tips on how to lucid
dream, of which you can find as many tips and more on the net. It may
well be that Rich Linlater is trying to imply through the characters in
his film....that we really just don't know. Know what? Anything which we
beleive to be fact concerning the origins of man, the mind, the universe
and the destiny of the same.
The volume of information this movie dumps into your thinking cap is too
much to take in in one sitting. Maybe not for intellectual types who have
experience in the realms of thought and theory covered in the film but it
should still be enough to satisfy just about anybody with an appetite for
such content. I'll not only go back for a second helping by bying the DVD,
but probably go back for thirds, fourths and fifths as well.
If you're not much of a thinker in things mentioned above then this movie
will most likely bore you, as there is little action in the film if any.
This is a thinking persons movie that I predict will build an intellectual
cult following....maybe not a huge following, but that remains to be seen.
The soundtrack was done by various small orchestras containing string
intruments and added a nice touch to the movie. In fact, a couple of the
orchestras were depicted in the movie as dream scenes or a part of the
environment in a dream scene such as a club band. The music often sounded
like a muciscal attempt to emulate confusion or psychosis. It is jazz
based,...the kind of jazz I always referred to a "scientific jazz" because
it sounds as if they play by the numbers, with theory being the sole
consideration in the music production.
I must admit I walked out of the theatre questionung even more, the concept
of "reality".......but then again I try to keep from having a solidified
perspevtive on such things. It may just be that with regard to accepting
the messages conveyed in the movie, I was just gullible. If that was the
case, it was enjoyable gullibility indeed.
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As a side to this review, I got to the threatre early Sunday night ahead
of time to just "observe" anything I could observe and do reality checks,
trying to psyche myself up for the movie. The theatre is in an obscure
location behing a small shopping mall, but was the only place anywhere
near me even showing the movie. It is very nice but small, with about 8
or 10 cinemas that seat about 250 each. I happened to talk to one of the
custodians changing the trash in the restroom and he delightfully gave me
a tour of the projection room and discussed the "platter system" they use
there....and I assume most others use too. This particular theatre is
very much "pro-cannis film fesival" and shows quite a few foriegn and
obscure films. Jerry, the guy that gave ne the tour, said that was their
only intention when they opened the theatre 5 years ago but almost "went
under" after 6 months because that's not where the money is unfortunately.
Therefore they do show what main release films they can. Most big name
movie companies only release to larger theatres that can really rake in the
dough. Bussiness is bussiness, can't really blame them for that.
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Spazzmodicus
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a persistent one"
LadyThyme
will have it? ;-)
I saw this movie about a month ago and really enjoyed it so I, too, would
like a
second helping.
Spazzmodicus
Last time I looked on the waking life website I found no mention of a
release to DVD whatsoever, or anywhere else for that matter.
May have changed by now. I'll wait 'till it finds 'me'....heh heh.