When we recall our memories; we recall them in a non-linear and relatively random, disjointed manner – shooting from one time or location to the next, seeking out that sense of a humbling nature as we come to terms with what we did, or saw. Sometimes they are of a pleasant kind as we recall what good deeds we did on a certain day; or that of an unpleasant kind, when we live in regret and experience those short, sharp stabbing sensations when we, often accidentally, recall an occasion we'd much rather forget: something we said to someone; something we might've done when we were too young and didn't know any better, that we look back on now and realise how wrong we were. It was Robin Williams' character, in Mark Romanek's 2002 film One Hour Photo, who stated "Photographs always represent a happy occasion; because nobody takes a photograph of something they don't want to remember." In one sense, it'd be great if the human mind operated like this: picking and choosing the good times; but if this were the case, we would loose everything of what actually makes us who we are as individuals if all the bad could be detoured around.
Isreali animated film Waltz with Bashir enjoys incorporating the notion of memory. It looks at a number of different people, of whom all participated and experienced the same overall situation, and their respective recollections and how they feel about both these and the bigger picture of things. Some can miraculously re-call events from the event that brings them all together, that being the 1982 Lebanon War, others cannot recollect anything at all and feel compelled to seek out those that'll help remind them, whereas others seem more haunted by, and talk about, the dreams that were a result of this conflict.
The film is wandering and disjointed, but it is with the greatest of respects that I say that because the artistic license here compliments the subject matter. The film persistently blurs the lines between what would be either a documentary about a real-life event; a series of talking-head interviews; or a number of recollections, some of which would make both exceedingly effective and dramatic scenes all on their own had they not been entirely non-fictional anyway. But they are, and it's a credit to the film for being able to mesh together all this wavering content into an informative, humbling piece from a man that was there and is going through his own epiphany of sorts both on the screen and off it.
The film does indeed cover Ari Folman, the man who interviews; journeys; remembers but also writes and directs his way to success in a piece that is entirely animated, which adds a further layer of the mystical. It is a piece that incorporates a sense of reality clashing with non-reality: dreams and nightmares not obviously linked to an event, but existing because of a true to life event. Ari travels from one location to another, stumbling across former comrades of the Israel Defense Force, with whom he served during the conflict, in a bid to get to the bottom of why he cannot recall his time, in 1982, in said conflict and regiment. His journey is inspired by Boaz, a man he interacts with in the very first scene in a bar, when he tells Ari of a re-occurring dream in which he is running away from a specific number of dogs. The dogs, in some symbolic-inspired manner, might represent repressed memories and one's feelings and fears linked to these repressed memories – a running away from; a refusal to confront through risk of being attacked and consumed by these memories and feelings, all the while linked to extreme feelings of guilt.
The film acts as an anti-thesis to action films. It takes war and warfare as an item or generic convention; takes a step back, and observes it from a humbling and knowing perspective; it takes time to deconstruct those involved on the front-line of a war-zone; those whom were in and around gun fire and explosions, and informs us of how they feel years on from such a concoction of events and troubling interactions. The first recollection of the conflict the film provides us, and Ari, with; is a tale of how one ex-soldier was facing overwhelming odds on a beach during and was forced into the sea, thus to swim away from any potential battling. While structured with your, some might say 'typical' action conventions with its point of view angles and hand-held camera, the whole sequence refuses to epitomise the typical action hero; instead opting for an atypical generic instance in which the character will run away, or indeed retreat, further distancing the film, very early on, from action genre convention.
Waltz With Bashir is a film-maker attempting to share thoughts, feelings and questions. One might say its 'proper' use of animation technology and mass-European based funding should act as a lesson to 2006 French film Renaissance, whose dazzling imagery was lost under a somewhat empty and soulless exercise in narrative and study. Waltz With Bashir is anything but lacking in feeling and clarity; a humbling and enlightening exercise in which the lead quickly establishes the notion of framing and looking through the camera into another world; their world, their memories and their feelings towards it. Don't bore me, talk down to me or lecture me with pseudo text-book-fodder-pieces like Waking Life; don't drown me in meandering narrative with pieces like Renaissance; just do what Waltz With Bashir does: take an idea, an artistic approach and execute it with a very personal aplomb. For a companion piece, check out 2007's Beaufort; another burning, brooding and engaging Isreali film in which the realities of soldiers in conflict are explored.
Isreali animated film Waltz with Bashir enjoys incorporating the notion of memory. It looks at a number of different people, of whom all participated and experienced the same overall situation, and their respective recollections and how they feel about both these and the bigger picture of things. Some can miraculously re-call events from the event that brings them all together, that being the 1982 Lebanon War, others cannot recollect anything at all and feel compelled to seek out those that'll help remind them, whereas others seem more haunted by, and talk about, the dreams that were a result of this conflict.
The film is wandering and disjointed, but it is with the greatest of respects that I say that because the artistic license here compliments the subject matter. The film persistently blurs the lines between what would be either a documentary about a real-life event; a series of talking-head interviews; or a number of recollections, some of which would make both exceedingly effective and dramatic scenes all on their own had they not been entirely non-fictional anyway. But they are, and it's a credit to the film for being able to mesh together all this wavering content into an informative, humbling piece from a man that was there and is going through his own epiphany of sorts both on the screen and off it.
The film does indeed cover Ari Folman, the man who interviews; journeys; remembers but also writes and directs his way to success in a piece that is entirely animated, which adds a further layer of the mystical. It is a piece that incorporates a sense of reality clashing with non-reality: dreams and nightmares not obviously linked to an event, but existing because of a true to life event. Ari travels from one location to another, stumbling across former comrades of the Israel Defense Force, with whom he served during the conflict, in a bid to get to the bottom of why he cannot recall his time, in 1982, in said conflict and regiment. His journey is inspired by Boaz, a man he interacts with in the very first scene in a bar, when he tells Ari of a re-occurring dream in which he is running away from a specific number of dogs. The dogs, in some symbolic-inspired manner, might represent repressed memories and one's feelings and fears linked to these repressed memories – a running away from; a refusal to confront through risk of being attacked and consumed by these memories and feelings, all the while linked to extreme feelings of guilt.
The film acts as an anti-thesis to action films. It takes war and warfare as an item or generic convention; takes a step back, and observes it from a humbling and knowing perspective; it takes time to deconstruct those involved on the front-line of a war-zone; those whom were in and around gun fire and explosions, and informs us of how they feel years on from such a concoction of events and troubling interactions. The first recollection of the conflict the film provides us, and Ari, with; is a tale of how one ex-soldier was facing overwhelming odds on a beach during and was forced into the sea, thus to swim away from any potential battling. While structured with your, some might say 'typical' action conventions with its point of view angles and hand-held camera, the whole sequence refuses to epitomise the typical action hero; instead opting for an atypical generic instance in which the character will run away, or indeed retreat, further distancing the film, very early on, from action genre convention.
Waltz With Bashir is a film-maker attempting to share thoughts, feelings and questions. One might say its 'proper' use of animation technology and mass-European based funding should act as a lesson to 2006 French film Renaissance, whose dazzling imagery was lost under a somewhat empty and soulless exercise in narrative and study. Waltz With Bashir is anything but lacking in feeling and clarity; a humbling and enlightening exercise in which the lead quickly establishes the notion of framing and looking through the camera into another world; their world, their memories and their feelings towards it. Don't bore me, talk down to me or lecture me with pseudo text-book-fodder-pieces like Waking Life; don't drown me in meandering narrative with pieces like Renaissance; just do what Waltz With Bashir does: take an idea, an artistic approach and execute it with a very personal aplomb. For a companion piece, check out 2007's Beaufort; another burning, brooding and engaging Isreali film in which the realities of soldiers in conflict are explored.