Hilary Jackson

Hi There,

Just thought I would mention this movie - my husband and I first saw it
about 3 years ago and thought it was pretty amazing... even the way the
movie has been ptu together (animation on the top of digitally shot scenes)
is cool.

Anyway - someone just gifted us the DVD, and so it was brought to mind
again. Great if your teen is into philosophy and deep thoughts! Available
at your nearest video store.

Regards,
Hilary
www.labouroflove.org

__________________________________________


PS: Here's a review:

More than food for thought, Waking Life is a philosophical and visual
banquet for the mind. From scenes of immolation, floating and tango, to
micro-waved burritos and existentialism, Linklater has created a provocative
film.

We first encounter a boy who floats into the sky unless he holds onto
something to keep him grounded. In his adult life (played by Wiley Wiggins),
we follow him as he moves in a dreamland from person to person in various
scenarios, having never lost his sense of drifting skyward. Early in the
film he's in an accident and while part of his time and ours is spent
wondering if the reason he can't wake up is because he's in a coma and
nearing death, most of the film is purely enjoying the visuals and
listening. Typical plot questions are secondary to the exchange of ideas.
Various conversations and monologues about known, personal and questionable
philosophies (many about dreaming and that time before we wake) take shape.
A much-needed dose of existentialism colors the rants, raves, and
ruminations of a unique cast of characters.


Linklater digitally shot the film and used a modern version of
rotoscoping-in laymen's terms creating animation from live action by way of
tracing. The film was then colored using computer software to create layers
of color. The effect is beautiful: impressionism, solarization, by the
numbers cartoon-like, eerily human. The images have a dreamlike quality
unlike anything that's ever been seen.


Existentialist philosophy permeates throughout the film. If it's the belief
that "people have absolute freedom of choice and that the universe is
absurd, with an emphasis on the phenomena of alienation and anxiety",
Wiggins embodies it and shows that it's a hopeful philosophy. As he visits
over 20 people, some who see him, some who don't, all offer him a bone to
chew on their way of thinking. Particularly refreshing about the film is
that so many different ideas are offered without shoving anything down the
throat or sounding overly pretentious.






<http://media.fastclick.net/w/click.here?sid=3971&m=6&c=1>
Like a dream, the film fluidly moves from idea to idea or scene to scene
without much explanation but with the implicit acceptance that the state of
dreaming allows what reality does not. Watching Julie Delpy and Ethan
<http://www.plume-noire.com/cinema/critiques/trainingday.html> Hawke
reunited and bedroom philosophizing in one scene and then watching two men
shoot each other in a bar while discussing the merits of no gun control ("A
well-armed populace is the best defense against tyranny.") necessitates a
suspension of reality. Steven
<http://www.plume-noire.com/cinema/critiques/traffic.html> Soderbergh
appears, as does director Richard Linklater (as a pinball wizard philospher
no less). I might also add it was enjoyable to watch something basically
free of crude product placements or a bad soundtrack trying to promote a
bunch of bands with no real tie in to the film. As for the music in the
film, what could be better than tango to convey the ultimate reverie?

A somnambulist walking and floating and meeting people satiates a desire to
see something more than a self-serving gabfest onscreen. A void in film has
been filled whereby it can and should be used as a forum to discuss culture
instead of just spouting opinions about current non-events based on popular
media.





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