Avalon, by oshii mamoru

[sanctus]

I just watched this film last night and was very surprised (positively) and impressed.

Has anyone seen it? What do you think of it?

[CraigD]

What do you think of it?

Stylistically, I liked the use of color – sepiatone, under-saturated color, and, in the end, over-saturated color. I’d say this is the film’s most sophisticated feature.

 

As a movie about gaming culture, I think Avalon’s unremarkable and unoriginal, as speculative fiction about actual VR or gaming, unserious.

 

As an experiment in epistemology and phenomenalism, I think it’s pretty good, and nicely subtle. Despite the wild success of “the Matrix” (1999), this is not a very popular genre, as demonstrated by X-files creator Chris Carter’s quickly canceled TV series ”Harsh Relm” (1999).

 

Though stylistically very different from David Cronenberg’s ”eXistenZ” (1999), when I saw Avalon (1999), about a year after eXistenZ, my mind made an immediately connection. While nowhere near as esthetically pleasing, I slightly preferred eXistenZ to Avalon, for its pace, plotting, and fun. Cronenberg’s surely a weird and disturbing guy, but I usually like his film vision. Comparing him to Mamoru is essentially comparing soft & wet (eg: ”Videodrome” (1983)) to hard & dry (eg: ”Ghost in the Shell” (1995)). I like them both a lot.

 

1999 was some year for movies about immersive VR, eh?

[sanctus]

Wee, I haven't seen eXistenZ but I watched the trailer now. The impression it gave me is that the psicological part seems less imortant, ie there is more action (this doesn't mean that I don'twant go to get in the following days).

I haven't seen many other movies about gaming culture (none come to my mind, but I'm sure I have seen others), so I thought it is quite original. Actually I saw a thing of gaming culture the episode "better than life" of Red Dwarf :shrug:

What I don't understand is why you think it is unserious?

 

By the way Mamoru says that "La Jetée" of chris Marker has influenced him a lot (in general not for this film especially). Have you seen it? It is supposed to be the movie that inspired the army of the 12 apes....

I looked for this movie, but in all the videotheques I was they knew it but didn't have it.... :umno: