Hey folks, Harry here with a couple of briefs on a pair of flicks from Sundance 2001... Now the one I'm keen on hearing about most is Linklater's WAKING LIFE... at various Austin film events for the past year... there's been little tidbits here and there... Once at Antones, while the AICN crew and I were dancing and being the suave Don Juans that we naturally are... Some of the animation folks had monitors and computers that were actively rendering and doing playback on WAKING LIFE... or at least that was the impression. Guy Forsythe in animated form... WAY COOL. Oh... and just so you know, those EARTHLINK commericals on TV... those are not done by the same folks as WAKING LIFE... it's a total ahem... let's call it an HOMAGE... coughbullshitcough... to the style being used in WAKING LIFE... but 1/100th as cool looking. Can't wait for fuller reports on WAKING LIFE...
Hi Harry:
This is MEMENTO MAN again. Today I saw two great films at Sundance... TREMBLING BEFORE G-D and Richard Linklater's WAKING LIFE.
First, TREMBLING BEFORE G-D is a well-made documentary about Orthodox Jews
who love their faith yet struggle because of how many in their faith view
their homosexuality. The filmmakers interview believing homosexual Jews in
Israel, New York, Miami, London, and other places. We really feel the pain
of being an outsider that many of them express. One particular scene shows a
man who calls his father in hopes of being able to just visit him, but the
Dad refuses. I almost wanted to cry.
Next, Linklater's WAKING LIFE is absolutely wonderful. Think of it as a surrealistic, animated SLACKER on drugs. My understanding is that Linklater shot the film (with the usual improv style) and then had 19 different animators animate over the actual footage. Not only that but another technique makes the animated objects appear to float around in a surrealistic fashion. Meanwhile, our protagonist who's not sure if he's asleep or dead wanders around talking to people about various philosophies and systems of understanding the life and the world. Linklater's got another winner on his hand. It's too bad he didn't show up for the Q and A. I think he may have stayed late with his other film, TAPE.
More info on other films to come.
MEMENTO MAN
