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Questioning nature of reality
November 2001

Questioning nature of reality

By Peter T. Chattaway

 

Waking Life

 

REMEMBER Generation X? Douglas Coupland once traced the origins of that short-lived bit of media hype to three items that appeared on the pop culture scene within months of each other in 1991: his own book by that name, Nirvana's album Nevermind, and Slacker, a film by Richard Linklater.

In Slacker, Linklater drifted from one minor character in search of meaning to the next, over the course of a single day. He went on to make more conventional films, such as Dazed and Confused, but in Waking Life, he returns to the loose structure and flow of ideas that marked his first film.

Waking Life deals primarily with one guy, Wiley Wiggins, who spends his time watching films about the nature of reality, listening to people's philosophical views and occasionally expressing his own ideas. Sometimes the film diverts its attention to other characters, who rant into a void or discuss their own existential themes. And just to keep things suitably surreal, the film was shot as live action and then converted into a cartoon.

The film begins with Wiley caught in a dream, and every time he seems to wake up, it turns out he is still dreaming. The film's central theme is a question: Is life itself simply an illusion? While the dialogue is occasionally sophomoric, the film covers a broad range of challenging subjects, including the nature of memory, identity, free will and language -- as well as the quest for ""holy moments,"" in which characters try to put time on hold and peer into some sort of eternal truth about each other. Linklater also tackles quantum physics, the writings of Philip K. Dick, and the fact that none of the molecules now in our bodies were there seven years ago.

It is sometimes said that the church is busy giving answers to questions that no one asks any more. It doesn't have much of a story, but Waking Life does a nice job of compiling some of the essential questions of our age. For that reason alone, it is worth seeing. He who has ears, let him hear.


14A

Divided We Fall

 

Funny, dramatic and surprisingly poignant, Divided We Fall is one of the most oddly engaging stories about life under the Nazis in recent memory.

This Oscar-nominated Czech film -- now playing in Vancouver theatres, and soon coming out on video -- focuses on Horst (Jaroslav Dusek) and Josef (Bolek Polivka), two Czechoslovakians who work for a Jewish family. When the family is deported to Poland, Horst collaborates with the Nazis and embraces their anti-Semitism, while Josef grumpily tries to be as neutral as possible.

One night, one of the deported Jews returns. David (Csonger Kassai) has escaped from a concentration camp, and Josef and his wife, Marie (Anna Siskova), offer to hide him. This proves somewhat difficult, since Horst often visits their apartment, leading to a series of amusing near-misses and ironic cover-ups.

Directed by Jan Hrebejk from a script he co-wrote with Petr Jarchovsky, Divided We Fall is a fascinating mix of social farce, domestic drama and political tragedy. It also takes an intriguing turn toward religious allegory.

For reasons too complex to explain here, Marie tells the Nazis she is expecting a child, and to make good on her alibi, she has to become pregnant -- but Josef is sterile. It thus falls to David to sleep with Marie and give her the ""miracle child"" she has always wanted (a 'son of David,' one could say). If, as Corrie Ten Boom said, a sin such as lying is permitted when lives are on the line, then perhaps this is justified, too. And like everything else in the film, this episode is handled with humour, compassion and hope.


PG