Content Starts Here
Waking Life film review
WAKING LIFE
Running time: 99 mins
Starring: Wiley Wiggins, Robert C. Solomon, Trevor Jack Brooks, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Steven Soderbergh, Speed Levitch
Years ago director Richard Linklater found himself experiencing multiple false awakenings, uncertain of whether he was asleep or not. The incident was so vivid that it began a fascination with lucid dreams. He kept the idea percolating in his head, in the interim making such influential films as Slacker and Dazed And Confused, until the technology existed to fully realise his vision for a film about that profound moment. When animation director Bob Sabiston showed him the results of a pioneering computer technique he'd developed that transforms live action into a crude, but striking two-dimensional animation, Linklater knew he had finally found the method to make his film. The resulting Waking Life is a visually stunning and original work that offers up some intriguing philosophical treatises on the fundamental tenets of life while being a constant source of humour and amazement.
Starting without a conventional script, instead working from fifty pages of notes and ideas, Linklater used nearly thirty characters to explore the question: "Are we sleepwalking through our waking state or walking through our dream awake?" . To find the answers he enrols Wiley Wiggins, star of Dazed And Confused, who encounters a variety of people, including Robert C. Solomon, a philosopher at the University of Texas, Speed Levitch, a motor-mouthed raconteur, director Steven Soderbergh and actors Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, who offer discussions and dialogues on both the abstract and tangible elements of existence. All appear as flatly painted unerring facsimiles of the real people, as rendered by a large team of animators who were each allocated one scene that had first been shot on film.
By using multiple animators, who each brought their own ideas, the film encompasses a number of differing styles. One distinctive element many incorporated was constantly shifting the focal point of the frame. The backgrounds drift around, distracting attention away from the speaker in a manner more akin to real life than conventional live action films. Safer than a tab of acid but equally mind-blowing, the film's hallucinogenic style of animation blends the recognisable with the bizarre in a manner that is both amusing and disquieting.
As Wiggins begins to suspect he's dreaming and seeks clarification, someone suggests he try flipping the light switch to see if it has any effect. It's one of the principle tests people employ before embarking on a lucid dream. It's a test you feel equally compelled to try at times while watching Waking Life.
If there's any criticism of Waking Life it's that having invented such a exciting new form of animation, Linklater has limited its potential by confining the action to a series of talking heads. It also means that at times you find yourself so enwrapped by the intoxicating imagery that it's difficult to focus on the wordy exchanges. However, it seems churlish to complain that there was too much to absorb when the opposite is usually the case. The answer, I suppose, is to see it again, although the fear then is that you'll wonder whether you're simply in a recurring dream.
Font size
Mail
My account
Help
Community
Print now
Send to a friend
Related articles
Related products
