Having finally seen this after hearing so much about it (It was all over the Bremen press when I was there and it’s been in the recent weekly magazine here in Asheville), I am almost too-overwhelmed to write about it. One can’t help making a comparison to Waking Life. I know, I know, all animations aren’t the same, but I feel like the interview format and the obsession with cognition and memory are shared themes in the films.
Waltz with Bashir takes us with a man as he tries to uncover his part in a massacre during the Lebanese/Israel war of 1982.
Quote about the memories: “It’s not stored in my system.”
Spoiler questions (i.e. don’t read if you haven’t seen the film):
Why are animations like this so much more appealing? Is it because we can have little segues and quick surreal flashbacks? Because we can see the ferris wheel and hot air balloons in the background? What about this makes it more moving? Does the “real” footage make it more powerful for you?
When it’s an animation, I think, we pay more attention to the sideways glances and the pauses of the “actor”… if it was live acting, we would be aware that the actor is aware of the videocamera.
Here is the film’s IMDB page.
