Philip K Dick is one of my favourite authors. More than anyone his novels are plumbed for screenplays, often to dire effect (Nicolas Cage in Next).
I recently finished The Man In The High Castle (birthday present, thank you) which I can unreservedly recommend. Major events (the Axis win the war) are presented in a low-key way, without heavy exposition, through the small lives of people. Complete with the classic Philip Dick reality-turned-on-its-head manoeuvres.
In this case no film is on the horizon, surprisingly (though my current read, the bonkers VALIS has the rights acquired).
Instead I recommend you see A Scanner Darkly.
Above all, this is a film true to Philip K Dick’s work. I mean all of his work, and not just the novel. It’s an armour-piercing bullet of paranoia.
Linklater uses the painterly visual effect throughout the film. However the look isn’t just sparkly eye biscuits, as he previously used to lighten the stodgy philosophy of Waking Life. Here, the effect is crucial.
- This is a film where almost every character is constantly on drugs. Bad, paranoid drugs. The view shifts and slips uncertainly, without relief. The whole world is always on the verge of sliding off the edge of normality and into something unexpected and frightening.
- The ‘scramble suit’, a kind of shifting camouflage. The visual effects here actually make it convincing.
The themes of identity loss, and confusion around what is real are executed skillfully.
I think it’s a film that actually evokes the exhiliration of simply pushing yourself so far out of yourself that your senses are completely subsumed. To break the barrier between conscious and subconscious.
My main criticism is that by the end, very little uncertainty remains. Loose ends are tied.
If only Lynch had done it. Still, a great, underrated film.
08-May-07 at 2:41 am | Permalink
Can anyone help me out here? Air mentions the axis of evil and I for one can’t get enough of fictional treatments of the second war. Now nearly everyone’s seen Oliver Hirschbiegel Downfall and probably heard of a similar film dealing with Hirohito called The Sun (slow, “meditative”, psychedelic and goddamn hilarious at points) but allegedly there is a third film dealing with Stalin. Not quite a triptych, almost. Does anyone know what this is called? And by the way Air, right now I am the demolished man!
08-May-07 at 12:21 pm | Permalink
Can’t say I know offhand, but The Sun looks like the third part of a trilogy featuring Hitler, Lenin/Stalin and Hirihito.
The Russki one is Telets.
> demolished man
Ha, I bet : )
FYI this is the astonishing Bester novel. Worth saying again, the SF Masterworks series is absolutely essential. I recommend you read The Forever War immediately.
15-May-07 at 9:31 am | Permalink
I would recommend 28 Weeks Later for cool desolated London scenes, or gore if you’re that way inclined. Aaron you can maybe see your flat in the Tower Bridge scene (almost).
21-May-07 at 3:55 pm | Permalink
> 28 Weeks Later
Saw this yesterday. You know how Spiderman 3 is like New York Porn? Lots of recognisable landmarks, to make NYC residents excited?
28 Weeks Later is that for London. It fairly jizzes landmark shots. Big Ben and the Gherkin strain turgidly. Arcing ropes of helicopter swoop mark every plot development.
After a while it started to feel like a promotional video for a business park. A sexy business park.
I also died a little when the protagonists were identified as a young brother/sister duo, immediately as invincible as a dog in a disaster film.
21-May-07 at 6:07 pm | Permalink
Lots of recognisable landmarks, to make NYC residents excited? > Notice how the trailer for the new GTA got *shat on* by the New York press for the same reason..
28 wks > Sounds fab. Must see.
In other filum news, I saw Blades of Glory last night. Better than Napoleon Dynamite. Hilarious.
09-Aug-07 at 2:58 pm | Permalink
Compare and contrast:
1. Keanu’s painted puss (above)
2. Loading screen from The Sentinel, Commodore 64