Based on the science
fiction and satirical novel “ The Futurological Congress” of Stanislaw Lem, “The
Congress” directed by the Israeli Ari Folman indicates he has a knack for
creating a surrealistic kind of conceptual animation so as to cover even hard
sociopolitical aspects of his subject in a cultural framework. Five years after
“Waltz with Bashir”, Ari Folman considers his new movie as being his naughty
kid, a hellion, who causes problems everywhere. On the other hand, he loves
this child very much as the most representative piece of him. That’s what he
said to the audience, at the 19th International Film Festival of Athens, “Nychtes
Premieras” yesterday evening.
“The Futurological Congress” is a symbolical
novel of political character. It regards the way power works and controls
people. Polish Stanislaw Lem (1921-2006), whom we know better from Solaris, wrote a satirical text of
political insinuations where industry is the power that confirms its value by deceiving
–and, thus, damaging- the individuals treated as isolated but also as
productive and profitable units.
So the story existed. Moreover, Folman had a
personal experience relating to a former famous actress, who was not
recognizable recently in Cannes
due to her age. He included the feeling of this fact in the script. Whereas,
the essential, for him, was to focus on the actress who would incorporate his
vision to make a movie even for his personal status, by broadening the novel
subject into a wider cultural scale so as to approach the issues of age and sadness
in time, of compromise, decay and deception after all. Luck supported him and,
given that he had the chance to meet Robin Wright at an international meeting,
he proposed her acting in his movie by showing her excerpts as if the script
were made exclusively for her. We know what followed.
“Release your chemistry to the world”: this
could be the motto of any enterprise, any collective source of images and
patterns, so as to control people by seducement and bet on both their sexuality
and libido nature. Robin Wright is the actress who goes through this adventure
of becoming somebody else. She is an aging woman and so, this is an important
reason for lending her image to Miramount Studios. There, they will convert her
into a digital actress with a scanned body of an everlasting youth. No wonder.
This is the profitable slogan: “for ever young”. Less powerful, less beautiful,
less attractive is painful. And Wright pays the price.
What happens, anyway, when people still think, deprived
of action and creativity? They are sad and need pills to survive. Although
Robin Wright sold her movie rights to Miramount, her decision made her suffer,
because she promised not to act again. Instead, she got a computer-generated
character. This is the first level of decay, when action has nothing to do with
you but with your icon. This is the first compromise.
After 40 minutes around, here the book
reference title comes: the congress. Twenty years later, Robin goes to attend “the
Futurological Congress”, where Miramount Studios highlight their brand-new technology.
It’s about the second level of decay, when your mind gets rotten and lacks in
originality, creativity, space actually! According to the movie, people can now
transform themselves into animated avatars like that of Michael Jackson
appearing later in the “Chemical Party”. Their salvation is hidden in a pill. Miramount
Studios now bet on Robin’s giving people the right to become her avatars.
First, Robin makes the insane agreement but, all of a sudden, she realizes that
she consented to become a product in a pill. So she denies officially before
the public and, thus, saves herself from being killed by enemies of
technological monopoly. Then, Miramount Nagasaki Police imprison and are about
to execute her, but later a modern protector appears and takes her to the
“Chemical Party”. On the other side of this chemical world, of course, there
is…truth. Robin explores the new condition but still misses her son and wants
to find him, years later, looking for his presence in time.
In conclusion, “The Congress” is a symbolical
movie about the human composure beyond –and except for- the technological
insanity. However, according to Julia Kristeva[1],
sadness, the depressive emotion, can be interpreted as a form of defense
against the process of cutting-up. It is claimed that sadness reconstructs and
reunifies the “ego” that regains unity through this emotion sheath.
Consequently, “The Congress” has a closer look
at time, from a subjective aspect, when things are occasions of a personal trip
and reconsideration in time. That’s why this “hellion”, this naughty kid, is
beloved by Folman. It is a mirror of his feeling – I won’t define it as stress,
for it is much more- towards his course in time. From this symbolical standpoint,
Robin is a Muse, a soul, and Aaron is her son who awaits and seeks an answer
like a modern Telemachus. Why sadness? Why truth? Because –otherwise- we would
not have started from a denial to end up in a kind of deception and judge the
deceptive side of life as well as of things. Because –otherwise- we would not
have pursued our creativity so as to release this body adventure confessed by
the emotion. Sadness indicates detachment. It is an impulse for addressing
ourselves to symbolism so as to correlate experiences of reality together.
(Well done Mr. Folman, but no pills provided
after your movie…)
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