Everything about Waking Life totally explained
Waking Life is a digitally enhanced live action
rotoscoped film, directed by
Richard Linklater and made in
2001. The entire film was shot using digital video and then a team of artists using computers drew stylized lines and colors over each frame. This technique is similar in some respects to the
rotoscope style of 1970s filmmaker
Ralph Bakshi, which was invented in the 1920s.
The title is a reference to
George Santayana's maxim that "[s]anity is a madness put to good uses; waking life is a dream controlled."
Plot
In a broad scope,
Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent
lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in
philosophical discussions that weave together issues like appearance and
reality,
free will, our relationships with others, and the
meaning of life. Along the way the film touches on other topics including
existentialism,
situationist politics,
posthumanity, and the film theory of
André Bazin. The young man eventually comes to realize the possibility that the reason he's unable to wake up is because he's dead. The film ends on an ambiguous note, and in the commentary track, director Richard Linklater states that he never intended for people to think the protagonist was dead.
Unsurprisingly, given the above themes and content,
Waking Life is much more focused on dialogue (often even monologue) than on plot action. In this emphasis, it echoes the
1981 film
My Dinner with Andre and the
1990 film
Mindwalk. Long scenes in
Waking Life consist of nothing but head shots of characters while they run through explanations for philosophical questions. The characters and their speech are very reminiscent of
Linklater's earlier cult classic,
Slacker. (
Ethan Hawke and
Julie Delpy even appear as their characters from Linklater's
Before Sunrise and
Before Sunset)
Production
Adding to the dream-like effect, the film used an innovative
animation technique based on
rotoscoping. Animators overlaid live action footage (shot by Linklater) with animation that roughly approximates the images actually filmed. A variety of artists were employed, so the feel of the movie continually changes. The result is a
surreal, shifting dreamscape.
The animators used inexpensive "off-the-shelf"
Apple Macintosh computers (as opposed to the expensive
supercomputers and
computer clusters used by
Pixar and
DreamWorks). The film was mostly produced using
Rotoshop, a custom-made
rotoscoping program that creates blends between keyframe vector shapes, and created specifically for the production by
Bob Sabiston (the name is a play on the popular bitmap graphics editing software called
Photoshop, which makes use of virtual "layers" inspired in part by the work of Sabiston).
Awards
Nominated for numerous awards, mainly for its technical achievements,
Waking Life won the National Society of Film Critics award for "Best Experimental Film," the
New York Film Critics Circle award for "Best Animated Film," and the "CinemAvvenire" award at the
Venice Film Festival for "Best Film." It was also nominated for the Golden Lion, the festival's main award.
Soundtrack
The
soundtrack was performed and written by
Glover Gill and the
Tosca Tango Orchestra, except for one piece written by
Frédéric Chopin, and was relatively successful. Featuring the
nuevo tango style, it bills itself "the 21st Century Tango." Influence for the compositions stem from the Argentinian "father of new tango"
Ástor Piazzolla. The actual tango scores are revised renditions of Ástor Piazzolla's works.
DVD
The film was released on DVD in North America on May 7, 2002. Special features included several commentaries, documentaries, interviews and deleted scenes, as well as the short film
Snack and Drink. A bare-bones DVD with no special features was released on Region 2 on February 24, 2003.
Details
- The Philip K. Dick essay being discussed is How to Build a Universe that Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later,(External Link
) the introduction to his short story collection I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon.
- The final song in the theatrical trailer is "The Passenger" performed by Iggy Pop.
- The entire film was shot with a MiniDV camera.
- In the scene with the chimpanzee giving the lecture, scenes from The Last House on the Left, Akira Kurosawa's Dreams and live performances of Nirvana and Dead Kennedys are playing on the projector.
- The scene with the man in prison ranting about torture is taken almost directly from Hubert Selby Jr's 1971 novel The Room.
- The 1970s Bally pinball machine "Fireball" appears in the film.
- Since none of the characters are mentioned in the film by name, the closing credits show a clip from the film with the character's face on screen, with the actor's name beside it.
- The man simultaneously driving and shouting into the megaphone is Alex Jones, known for expressing even more controversial and conspiratorial viewpoints on his syndicated radio show.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Waking Life'.
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