A Waltz for Bashir

[strangedave]

doctor_k_ and I and a few others saw this excellent film this evening, which we are glad we saw, although it was very emotionally draining. Technically, a very nice animated film, it had a lovely sense of being clearly inspired by pen and ink black and white drawings (though it was quite a colourful film in its way, mostly big vibrant slabs from a fairly

Comments

[randy_byers]

The director, Ari Folman, is rumored to be working on adapting Stanislaw Lem's The Futurological Congress now. A book that kind of pissed me off, but I'd love to see what he does with it.

[_bigjobbies_]

TomDispatch is running exerpts from the original graphic novel - looks like the film has stayed true to the original iilustrations

[_bigjobbies_]

ah.. the two were developed together I see - oops !

[strangedave]

Apparently, they use a pretty innovative animation technique where a lot of the animation is done by taking hand drawn still frames, then cutting them up and moving the bits around (using Flash). So I imagine they often more or less started with the come illustrations then animated them.

[girliejones]

I wanted to see this - we had plans to - but I'm not going to get there this week. Sounds worth it though.

SPOILER WARNING

[ataxi]

Through the movie I was thinking of that old chestnut about fiction 'lying to get to the truth', introducing these synthetic characters (that are probably based on real people) to mediate the audience's understanding of these terrible historical events. And the animation, keeping you at a long arm's length from the type of footage one sees on the evening news, inviting you to look at what's in front of you, instead of just passing it over.

It was really noticeable how well the animation brought out the characters, through a subtle tick representing a facial line, or the small introductory sequences they afforded each of them. I suppose it was probably based on real footage as well? Don't know.

And then, just as that distancing, that mediation through twenty years, through psychoanalysis, hallucination etc. reached its peak, the chop back to exactly that type of evening news footage, out of animation and into "live action" was unbelievably effective. And also brought out a contrast between the film's ostensible subject (the

Re: SPOILER WARNING

[strangedave]

Yes, I had very similar thoughts. The film, particularly through the animation style, and the way the animation of the scenes of memory would often completely abandon realism etc, made you very conscious that it was a work of art and artifice, and highly mediated. The chop back to news footage was so incredibly effective, with its sudden message of 'this may be art, but these people really died'.

Re: SPOILER WARNING

[ataxi]

It was a beautifully constructed film -- which made me feel slightly cynical about the opportunities afforded to Israeli filmmakers as opposed to Palestinian. Perhaps it's an unjust feeling but it still hasn't escaped me.

[johjohjoh]

Brilliant review by the way, Dave. Very insightful and I'm happy to have read it.

Films such as this often deeply affect me to the point where my entire week/weeks/month/months/year (yes, true) is shaken up and I am left feeling terribly... empty (for want of a better word). Watching one particular film induced a severe depression, once-upon-a-time, and as such I've developed a learned fear of any film with slight similarities. This is perhaps why I have a hyper-awareness of the affect of animation on me personally, and perhaps why I completely switch off at the mere suggestion of it.

Introspection... oh dear. Not sure if that made any sense...

Dunc came home very melancholy and was at a loss to explain the film to me, so reading this was great.

P.S. Sorry to have missed you guys!