waking life

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couple of film questions....firtsly, i knwo theres a thread about it from a year ago, but its coming out on friday in the uk and i wanted to see if anyone else had seen it 'WAKING LIFE' - the richard linklater film....i saw it with suzy and ed and i was totally blown away. i've never seen anything so beautiful! (excpet maybe some tarkonskii shit). but there was a muted response in the old thread i found....any new thoughts?

― ambrose, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm going to a screening on Thursday night. Should Iget drunk beforehandtoenhance the dreamlike state?

― Pete, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

*COULD* BE A GOOSE BUT IS MORE LIKELY A DUCK. HOPE CHILLI GONZALES IS GUD TONIGHTE

― WILDABEEEEEEE, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought the film was great too. It's not being released until later this month here though - I don't plan to buy it. I thought about it a lot and I saw it with my film group...we all decided to see it again, but that never manifested. Overall, well done and inspiring to me.

― jen, Wednesday, 17 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Wow - is all I can say. I've not seen a more irritating more fantastic more beautiful movie in years. As much as some of the soliloquies bore or get smothered up their own arse with technical over-complications, others leap off the screen and really stick (and since you have about fifty of them to choose from this isn't a bad ratio). Animation just jiggles everything - compliments the good and bad philosophy in there very well. And about a subject which I don't really understand because I never remember my dreams (if I dream at all). A lot of people walked out (free screening) but a lot of people were entranced.

I particularly liked the Julie Delpy/Ethan Hawke bit as it seem to finally confirm the happy ending of Before Sunrise which I also - like a sap - loved. Not for lovers of narrative, but pretty and thought provoking (and tiring and annoying).

― Pete, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

When's this on general release?

― Anna, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have just realised after accidentally clicking this that I have been avoiding threads on this film because I had it confused with WAKING NED.

― Tom, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Its on general release TODAY!!!!!

I will probably go and see it again sober and during the day sometime in the next week to see if it annoys me and beguiles me as much.

(Ace soundtrack too - proper orchestral type score which tugs the flying cross narratives along.) Man Lucid Dreaming looks ace, I can't even do the elucid type.

― Pete, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

There's a book on lucid dreaming sitting on my desk. I will give it to you the next time I see you Pete. it may help with the non-lucid kind too, I haven't really got any use for it.

― Anna, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Odd thing is after watching the movie, I'm not sure if I'm really missing out not dreaming. My normal daytime flights of fancy and my life is whacked out enough as it is.

(I also had to swear at some kids in the cinema who wouldn't shut up. Luckily my outburst did not get me killed, they slunk off with their tails twixt legs saying the film was boh-ring. WHich I guess it was in a lot of ways.)

― Pete, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Waking Ned was a great example of Irish cultural modernity. Don't you are mock it. Nothing's sacred here, you'll be mocking Into the West next.....

― Ronan, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Into The West. Horse in lift. Bieginning of stereotype "Irish people keep horses in their flats". Puts back Ireland by fifteen years.

― Pete, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Other key moments..........

Spice Girls video with inbred looking people trying to clap their hands without missing.

Actually Into the West owns this though, there were some dreadful parts of it alright. Gabriel Byrne rubbing the ash on his face "JAYSUS MARY I LOVE YOU, I MISS MY WIFE, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD HAVE MERCY ON ME". Bloody irishsploitation or something.

― Ronan, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Surely infamous Irish episodes of Eastenders >>>> worse than any of the above.

― RickyT, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh I didn't see them, but they made the news here. Stuff like that tends to really cause crankiness because let's face it it's not so long since it was true.

It's like those comments David Trimble made a few months which everyone down here seemed to flip the lid about. Putting salt in a wound that's only beginning to close.

― Ronan, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Best/worst bit of those Eastenders episodes was the honking massive great big billboard poster of London at which one of the Fowler cousins used to come and gaze as an aid to fantasizing about her escape from the drunken yokel hell she inhabitated.

― RickyT, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Poor Mary, she had terrible hair.

― Emma, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

However it was ever so shiny.

― Sarah, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's what being bought up on a diet of potatoes and Guiness does to you.

― RickyT, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm so glad you liked it, Pete.

― Josh, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have just realised after accidentally clicking this that I have been avoiding threads on this film because I had it confused with WAKING NED.

I was full of FEAR because I thought you wrote WANKING NED.

― Dan Perry, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've just realised the Delpy/Hawke bit is in his dream, so he may be dreaming a continuation of the characters. Reminded me of their really good chemistry though.

― Pete, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I was full of FEAR because I thought you wrote WANKING NED.

That's quite enough. Unless you consider options like Working Ned, Wristing Ned, Squeaking Ned...

I proposed one time to Brian that you could easily pervert a certain beloved Beach Boys classic by calling it, with the appropriately sleazy voice, "Caroline, YEAH!" There were complaints.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 19 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...

i saw this film recently. thought it was pretty dull dialogue wise, although the animation was pretty. i just didnt really have much feeling for the characters. maybe im just dumb and unintellectual though.

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Thursday, 28 August 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

We watched this the other night -- the animation was gorgeous, appropriately dreamlike, but the "philosophy" was so pretentious that it took us half an hour before we had to accept that it wasn't a parody.

― Layna Andersen (Layna Andersen), Thursday, 28 August 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

i think its just a chance to let people ramble on for a bit. i dont think richard linklater was standing going 'hell yeah! thats the truth dammit' or anything. he just let people talk about what they thought. i mean, yeah some of it is a bit OTT, but i dont think their views should be projected onto the film as a whole, or the director. its so hard to follow what theyre going on about i think the idea is in instill a sense of calm, a completely soporific state, just to drift off with people murmuring in the background.

― ambrose (ambrose), Thursday, 28 August 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The bouncing-from-one-rambling-freak-to-another makes this movie all that much more realistic-as-a-dream. Those of you who found the dialog irritating should definitely never watch Slacker.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 28 August 2003 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)

since buying this on dvd last month i've begun to unlike it.

that said, i don't think the philosophy bits are especially hard to follow, or (for the most part) so unbearably pretentious that they're not worth paying at least nominal attention to. like ambrose suggests, the visuals work as a fallback when the dialogue inevitably hits upon a topic that doesn't grab you, or you're just metaphysically exhausted (har har) (but then again, the jittery, quivery rotoscope effect might be offputting for some. the squigglemation in dr. katz bothered my mom so she probably wouldn't like it.)

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Thursday, 28 August 2003 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

oh there were definately good moments, i like the bit where the girl from the busstop came back in his dream. but id hate to meet some of those intellectuals in a dark alley.

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Thursday, 28 August 2003 16:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I also really like how Linklater brought in characters from all his previous films in this one.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Thursday, 28 August 2003 16:51 (twenty-two years ago)

it was hard for me to follow because i am dense.

i also have to read aloud to myself when reading the newspaper

(if its in russian)

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 29 August 2003 07:48 (twenty-two years ago)

three months pass...

Just watched this and really enjoyed it. Um, it's 1.30am and I can't be arsed to say anymore. That's totally my problem these days.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Sunday, 7 December 2003 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

Nick, I bought it on DVD and love it. So long as you're not going into it looking for the meaning of life, it's a great movie.

But when is Slacker going to be released on DVD in R1? Sigh.

― J (Jay), Sunday, 7 December 2003 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

linklater's new sequel to 'before sunrise' reviewed favorably in the new village voice:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/lim.php

― amateur!st (amateurist), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 14:25 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

this was great

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 June 2006 15:58 (nineteen years ago)

*backs away slowly*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 8 June 2006 16:15 (nineteen years ago)

Oh I hated this movie. I'm amazed I didn't say anything on this thread sooner, actually.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:06 (nineteen years ago)

Liked it except for the shootable Speed Levitch.

The characters aren't sposta be philosopher-kings.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:32 (nineteen years ago)

It has the best music of all the Linklater movies...besides Dazed & Confused.

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:33 (nineteen years ago)

You did on this thread, Ally:

Waking Life:

And the original:

RFD: Waking Life

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:46 (nineteen years ago)

i'd wanna test it against before sunset, but the music is very good, yeah

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:48 (nineteen years ago)

Oh thank you Sundar :D

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:51 (nineteen years ago)

Said it before, will say it again -- not enough characters set themselves on fire and burned to a crisp in this film. I'll start with the accordion/string ensemble whatsit.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:53 (nineteen years ago)

they were great! at the end i thought they were playing some of the theme music from north by northwest?!

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 June 2006 18:54 (nineteen years ago)

worst movie ever made?

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:04 (nineteen years ago)

I think I was being way charitable on that first thread but I don't know what I'd think now. I don't remember anything about it except for some vague recollections of what the animation kind of looked like.

― Sundar (sundar), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:12 (nineteen years ago)

This movie gives me the fear about A Scanner Darkly's potential.

I like Richard Linklater, but he does seem kind of like the guy who took three intro-philosophy courses before he dropped out (to sell weed out of his garage in this instance), doesn't he?

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:15 (nineteen years ago)

I don't think this movie is about 'philosophy'.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:20 (nineteen years ago)

He just said it was inspired by Sartre, Freud, etc. and interviewed the philosophy professor for kicks?

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:22 (nineteen years ago)

I didn't say there wasn't philosophy in it.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:30 (nineteen years ago)

caitlin, quite possibly, otm.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:43 (nineteen years ago)

it is a movie for those people who take intro to philosophy and read ayn rand or "philosophy of seinfeld" or chuck palahniuk books and babble constantly about how much they love philosophy and you just want to murder them

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:47 (nineteen years ago)

teenagers, you mean?

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:49 (nineteen years ago)

ie, ppl who are more interesting than Ethan Hawke in those goddamn Before movies.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 June 2006 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

Ethan Hawke in anything is not very interesting.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:00 (nineteen years ago)

i always mentally get ethan hawke confused with elijah wood and before* confused with left behind, don't know why

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

you're 22?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:03 (nineteen years ago)

i'm 21 but i don't know how that would make me get so confused about things

― caitlin oh no (caitxa1), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:05 (nineteen years ago)

My favorite part of this movie is the guy that's like "I can explore all these new dimensions of reality...plus I can have ANY kind of sex I want", and relays to kid the flip-a-switch dreamtest.

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:08 (nineteen years ago)

seen it twice - not as arresting the second time around, but I really like the animation and the whole death-trip/moving from station-to-station aspect of it. Also the Pinball/PKD sequence at the end convinced me Linklater may be the only guy alive who could possibly appropriately adapt PKD stuff to film.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:12 (nineteen years ago)

dead poets society - 1989
reality bites - 1994
before sunrise - 1995
gattaca - 1997
deep impact - 1998
training day - 2001
fellowship of the ring - 2001

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:14 (nineteen years ago)

i liked this movie. i also liked my existentialism classes.

― kingfish du lac (kingfish 2.0), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

Ethan Hawke PLAYING someone (esp in Hamlet and Tape) >>>> Ethan Hawke being himself in Before movies

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:39 (nineteen years ago)

yes, when he plays someone he fulfills the vision of THE GREAT DEE-RECK-TOHR

Tape is his best performance that I've seen, but I love the Before movies without regard to whether I like him or not, just like I like Slacker and Waking Life without regard to whether I think the characters are full of shit or not

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:42 (nineteen years ago)

Liking Ethan Hawke/his character is irrelevant to the Before movies (he's a sleazebag in the first and kind of one in the second).

― milo z (mlp), Thursday, 8 June 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

Sure it's relevant; fans of the BSs apparently find the babbling sophisticated, and the worst of it comes out of EH's mouth.

But I can understand why the searching, semi-schooled rhetoric gushing from the Waking Life pilgrims repulses folks who have come to expect lofty perorations like David Carradine's "Superman is Clark Kent's secret identity" in K*** B*** from the cinema. You can't be accused of 'pretentiousness' when yer talkin' bout trivia.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 9 June 2006 12:34 (nineteen years ago)

Sure it's relevant; fans of the BSs apparently find the babbling sophisticated, and the worst of it comes out of EH's mouth.

uh, not really. if you think the dialogue is supposed to be "sophisticated," you're missing the point of the movie (and do you think the way to evaluate a film is via others' responses?). the characters themselves frequently call bullshit or babblling on themselves and each other, and while i suppose the movies allows you to put yourself in either character's position, it's pretty clear to me personally that delpy is closer to the voice of the first movie (tho hawke maybe the voice of the second), and that she regards hawke as a bit adolescent but with potential. he's hardly a sleazebag, though i suppose that's a facile epithet for a dude with longish greasy hair.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 9 June 2006 13:31 (nineteen years ago)

oh wait that was milo not morbs on the 'sleazebag'. i don't think he's supposed to be one at all in the first. you could argue the second but the movie's pretty upfront about his failings (though you don't actually see their impact on anyone).

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 9 June 2006 13:34 (nineteen years ago)

Morbius, your self-parody is kind of funny but I really wish you'd do it less often for the sake of saving some kind of discussion on these threads.

As mentioned on other threads, I found the film to be unimaginably dull (cue "That's great but I'm not waiting for an 'earth not flat' picture either;" I'm not much of a Linklater fan in general though, something about his style in general doesn't do anything for me), but more important to me is that I really, really hate rotoscoping; it gives me migranes. So, a film where the main draw is pretty much admitted by (almost) all who love it is the visual style, and the visual style--for whatever reason--actually renders me unable to watch the screen...I'm outta luck.

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Friday, 9 June 2006 15:08 (nineteen years ago)

I found the film to be unimaginably dull (cue "That's great but I'm not waiting for an 'earth not flat' picture either;" I'm not much of a Linklater fan in general though, something about his style in general doesn't do anything for me)

This is my way, btw, of vaguely agreeing with gabbneb's "not meant to be sophisticated" view of BS, but kind of saying "Soooo....?" at the same time...

― Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Friday, 9 June 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

I've heard that the animation/rotoscoping makes heads/eyes hurt from various people. I wonder why this is - is it like the magic eye thing? some people can just deal with it and others can't? I think it looks amazing.

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 9 June 2006 15:12 (nineteen years ago)

Slacker and Waking Life without regard to whether I think the characters are full of shit or not

Sometimes I think Linklater includes certain people's rants in his movies precisely BECAUSE they are pretentious idiocy.

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Friday, 9 June 2006 15:15 (nineteen years ago)

Oh shit, I just remembered the boat car guy. That's my favorite.

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Friday, 9 June 2006 15:16 (nineteen years ago)

otm

I kept wondering if the film would be better without animation, which I guess misses the point - it highlights the dream quality. But the animation was probably incidental to my enjoyment of the film - i don't usually go for that sort of thing.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 9 June 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

Sure it's relevant; fans of the BSs apparently find the babbling sophisticated, and the worst of it comes out of EH's mouth.
They do? Where is this, cuz I've never seen it. (And some Spielberg fans misinterpret blah blah blah so we should blah blah blah, there's really no reason to even speak to you about films.)

Maybe sleazebag was harsh, but he's definitely skeevy. Otherwise gabbneb OTM about the movie.

― milo z (mlp), Friday, 9 June 2006 16:38 (nineteen years ago)

I don't see the skeeviness.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 9 June 2006 16:40 (nineteen years ago)

Milo, gimme a little credit that I didn't mean all BS fans say blah blah...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 9 June 2006 16:50 (nineteen years ago)

So just most? Where are they? I still haven't seen it. Everyone seems to have the exact same opinion of Hawke/his character - little twerp who maybe needs to get punched. Feeling that way has never made it more difficult for me to watch and enjoy the film.

Linklater's characters are realistic in their inanity. It's not like Reality Bites, where Hawke's couch-slacker is supposed to be an intellectual hero or something.

― milo z (mlp), Friday, 9 June 2006 16:55 (nineteen years ago)

I think this might have been said, but to clarify --
U can't discredit this movie (or Slacker, which I related to more) for having annoying, pretentious, sophomoric, or whatever philosophical dialogue in it bcuz I'm pretty sure that's (sometimes) the point. The atmosphere Linklater creates in these two films is pretty cool though and definitely unique

― /4 LFG PST (blastocyst), Friday, 9 June 2006 17:51 (nineteen years ago)

It's also worth noting that the conversational content of Slacker & Waking Life are both the product of the randoms cast in them, and not so much Linklater himself. Now, he didn't NOT put them in the movies, so his contributions in these films is almost entirely editorial.

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Friday, 9 June 2006 18:09 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

I love the dialogue and the way it's is laid out, but rotoscoping is so flat and ugly. It's like watching a McDonald's commercial for 2 hours

― nice babies finnish blast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 9 July 2009 05:43 (sixteen years ago)

I never saw Scanner Darkly and am really bummed that he continued to make movies that look this cold and stupid considering his dialogue is always aces.

― nice babies finnish blast (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 9 July 2009 05:43 (sixteen years ago)

Two odd things have happened to my perception of this movie in 8 years. One is that while before I didn't think of the visuals as anything but novel, I now find them almost hostile. It's like the movie has been quickly run through photoshop's posterize filter, and then traced over by a child. It's not clever or new or anything but ugly.

Two is that I like the movie much more as a whole.

― a Gioconda kinda dirty look (kenan), Thursday, 9 July 2009 06:43 (sixteen years ago)

Oh, another thing about the visuals: motion sickness. Why was any of this necessary?

― a Gioconda kinda dirty look (kenan), Thursday, 9 July 2009 06:48 (sixteen years ago)

Dialogue's about 1000x more offensive and irritating than the rotoscoping.

― circa1916, Thursday, 9 July 2009 07:08 (sixteen years ago)

Some of it is. The Ethan Hawke scene is awful.

― a Gioconda kinda dirty look (kenan), Thursday, 9 July 2009 07:10 (sixteen years ago)

Favorite bits: Caveh Zahedi's holy moment. The man on the telephone pole, all action and no theory. "What is the most universal human characteristic: fear or laziness?" The moment where the dreamer explains himself to the world's most annoying woman.

― a Gioconda kinda dirty look (kenan), Thursday, 9 July 2009 08:07 (sixteen years ago)

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