Waking LifeIf you could record your dreams on film, what would they look like? That's the basic premise of Richard Linklater's experimental drama on dreaming, Waking Life, which defies traditional narrative and character in favor of emulating a dream-like experience in cinematic form. The story of Waking Life--loose though it may be--follows an unnamed protagonist (played by Wiley Wiggins) through a series of conversations and interactions with a diverse group people, and he comes to the revelation that he is experiencing these moments not from his "waking life", but from that of a persistent dream state.
|
|
The distinct look of Waking Life comes from its unorthodox style of animation, largely derived from rotoscoping the performers and then exaggerating these features. Some scenes appear more natural than others, and the varied animation styles give a kind of artistic signature to the individual scenes, in keeping with the varied people who the protagonist encounters. Some scenes are more photorealistic than others, which may be fluid or impressionistic. These differing interpretations suggest a lot about the perspective of the protagonist--as much as the individual orators--and the variety also blurs the distinctions between dream and reality. This is important, since the protagonist experiences several "false awakenings", believing he is no longer dreaming, only to discover at some point later that he still is. The film opens with the protagonist leaving a train--careful audiences will note even this train is branded "Dreamtrak"--and is given a ride by a man in a boat-styled car, with none other than director Richard Linklater in the backseat. The director...well, directs the enthusiastic driver to let the protagonist off at a specific point, and he is subsequently hit by a car, as if the whole event were scripted or preordained. This is recalled later when the protagonist starts to suspect that he is not dreaming a traditional--if highly vivid--dream, but that he is, in fact, dead, and he's really experiencing a "waking afterlife". This distresses him, but only to a point, since this kind of heightened reality--if it is reality--seems to be more important than mundane concepts like "life" or "death".
Throughout all of the assorted interactions--not all of which directly involve the protagonist--lofty themes are discussed in great detail and with enthusiasm. These topics include religion, individuality, free will, love, language, reincarnation, and many more. These are the kinds of things that we contemplate but rarely discuss in an open forum with one another; but they make perfect sense as the kind of deep thoughts that would be freely expressed in a dream realm, or even a purgatorial state prior to taking the next metaphysical leap to another plane of existence. One of the more intriguing questions--which the protagonist brings up at one point--is that if all of these learned (or at least impassioned) speakers were but a dream in his head, where did all of this knowledge come from? These other people are portrayed as complete entities, not (in most cases) as mere phantoms in the protagonist's head, and are distinct and individual. Sometimes they speak with a natural candor, sometimes it is with an inflated diction that sounds occasionally absurd, but all of them exemplify the qualities of a person you might just as well meet in reality as in a dream. This is the magician's trick which Linklater plays, and then gleefully subverts. It would be just as easy to maintain the illusion that Waking Life is an experiment in animation and narrative, and leave the possibilities of whether the hero is dreaming or even alive as subtext. By proposing any and all options, Linklater involves the audience in what would otherwise be more narrowly be described as a film featuring a bunch of "talking heads", and instead makes the experience one which is a plumbing of the psyche, a forced introspection of one's values and concept of reality.
Some viewers may recognize some of the assorted speakers in Waking Life, even as alumni from Linklater's other films, future and past. For instance, fiery radio show host Alex Jones (who also appears in Linklater's other rotoscoped film, A Scanner Darkly) delivers his familiar, impassioned call to arms against a manipulative and calculating world order. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their roles of Jesse and Celine from Linklater's prior film, Before Sunrise, which is interesting considering that film left off on a cliffhanger as to whether they would ever met again--one not answered until several years later with Before Sunset, making this a non-canon interlude. Virtually every scene concerns itself with dreams and trying to understand this often misunderstood element of human existence--its significance, its relevance, and our fascination with it. Dreams represent the most enigmatic part of our lives, other than death, because it seems anachronistic to our senses, even though it relies on them. As if to assess this cryptic part of our nature from all angles, Waking Life is also a kind of deconstruction of film and is occasionally self-aware. Consider an early scene where the musicians composing the score for the actual film we are watching are practicing, but are presented as though they were characters in the film; it is like the cinematic equivalent of lucid dreaming. Waking Life was a much talked about film in my college days; aside from being timely, it is a film which asks those important questions that all people are ultimately forced to confront--questions about how they interpret the world and the quest for self-fulfillment that is life. It sparked many varied conversations with many of my peers, staying up late into the night to philosophize and to try to learn more about ourselves by learning more about one another--how others perceive the world and how that, in turn, enriches our own lives. That is, I think, really the point of Waking Life--a rare gem that invites the audience to think deeper without patronizing or condescending, and avoiding pat answers, because like life, it is the journey--not the destination--that makes the story.
Recommended for: Fans of an artistic and contemplative film that hypnotizes the audience with vivid visuals and rich, thought-provoking monologues and conversations. The hallucinatory imagery recalls both a drug trip and an art gallery, and with the jazzy riff on a plot, truly captures the sense of experiencing a dream on film.
Throughout all of the assorted interactions--not all of which directly involve the protagonist--lofty themes are discussed in great detail and with enthusiasm. These topics include religion, individuality, free will, love, language, reincarnation, and many more. These are the kinds of things that we contemplate but rarely discuss in an open forum with one another; but they make perfect sense as the kind of deep thoughts that would be freely expressed in a dream realm, or even a purgatorial state prior to taking the next metaphysical leap to another plane of existence. One of the more intriguing questions--which the protagonist brings up at one point--is that if all of these learned (or at least impassioned) speakers were but a dream in his head, where did all of this knowledge come from? These other people are portrayed as complete entities, not (in most cases) as mere phantoms in the protagonist's head, and are distinct and individual. Sometimes they speak with a natural candor, sometimes it is with an inflated diction that sounds occasionally absurd, but all of them exemplify the qualities of a person you might just as well meet in reality as in a dream. This is the magician's trick which Linklater plays, and then gleefully subverts. It would be just as easy to maintain the illusion that Waking Life is an experiment in animation and narrative, and leave the possibilities of whether the hero is dreaming or even alive as subtext. By proposing any and all options, Linklater involves the audience in what would otherwise be more narrowly be described as a film featuring a bunch of "talking heads", and instead makes the experience one which is a plumbing of the psyche, a forced introspection of one's values and concept of reality.
Some viewers may recognize some of the assorted speakers in Waking Life, even as alumni from Linklater's other films, future and past. For instance, fiery radio show host Alex Jones (who also appears in Linklater's other rotoscoped film, A Scanner Darkly) delivers his familiar, impassioned call to arms against a manipulative and calculating world order. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprise their roles of Jesse and Celine from Linklater's prior film, Before Sunrise, which is interesting considering that film left off on a cliffhanger as to whether they would ever met again--one not answered until several years later with Before Sunset, making this a non-canon interlude. Virtually every scene concerns itself with dreams and trying to understand this often misunderstood element of human existence--its significance, its relevance, and our fascination with it. Dreams represent the most enigmatic part of our lives, other than death, because it seems anachronistic to our senses, even though it relies on them. As if to assess this cryptic part of our nature from all angles, Waking Life is also a kind of deconstruction of film and is occasionally self-aware. Consider an early scene where the musicians composing the score for the actual film we are watching are practicing, but are presented as though they were characters in the film; it is like the cinematic equivalent of lucid dreaming. Waking Life was a much talked about film in my college days; aside from being timely, it is a film which asks those important questions that all people are ultimately forced to confront--questions about how they interpret the world and the quest for self-fulfillment that is life. It sparked many varied conversations with many of my peers, staying up late into the night to philosophize and to try to learn more about ourselves by learning more about one another--how others perceive the world and how that, in turn, enriches our own lives. That is, I think, really the point of Waking Life--a rare gem that invites the audience to think deeper without patronizing or condescending, and avoiding pat answers, because like life, it is the journey--not the destination--that makes the story.
Recommended for: Fans of an artistic and contemplative film that hypnotizes the audience with vivid visuals and rich, thought-provoking monologues and conversations. The hallucinatory imagery recalls both a drug trip and an art gallery, and with the jazzy riff on a plot, truly captures the sense of experiencing a dream on film.