Decalogue:Watershed proudly presents a year-long series of events reflecting on cinema from 2000-09
Films from 2008
We picked Pixar’s Wall-E as our Decalogue film of choice for 2008. What film do you think we should choose from the year? Here are some of the year’s highlights to jog your memory:…
35 Shots of Rum / Wendy and Lucy / Gran Torino / Hunger / Waltz With Bashir / Still Walking / Let The Right One In / The Hurt Locker / The Class / Gomorrah / The Dark Knight / Man on Wire / Slumdog Millionaire / Synecdoche, New York / Cloverfield / I’ve Loved You So Long / Juno / You, the Living
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- Films from 2008
Wall-E is great because it harks back to early cinema (the designers studied the works... by Flint
- Films from 2005
I don’t know this movie very well, so could easily be... by Keturah Anderssen-Chivers
- Films from 2003
Finding Nemo is my favourite by betty aged 2 1/2
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- Films from 2008
Wall-E is great because it harks back to early cinema (the designers studied the works of Keaton and Chaplin to perfect the emotional expression of these machines). And yet, although the first half hour especially was praised for using all the devices of a silent film, it actually demonstrates the importance of music and sound effects. In addition, the film’s depiction of obese, infantilised humans carries a serious warning – not just about health but about the mind-numbing, crass ideology of multinational corporations (check out http://www.buynlarge.com).
And finally there is the complexity of the film’s use of screens (within its screen space). These range from seemingly solar powered, pop-up propaganda screens of the (now, off-world) BnL corporation (referencing Metropolis and Bladerunner), to cheesy, video tape extracts of Hello Dolly. The prosthetic attachments to the floating human transport systems on the Axiom spaceship are a warning that mediated reality only serves to isolate people from one another. More sinister still on the cocoon of the spaceship is the CCTV and holographic palm trees that keep the baby-fied humans docile. The (1984-style) eye of the computer is finally tricked by the captain who uses a screen to deceive the computer.