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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 23299 DVD
- Running time: 96 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 20 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English for the hard of hearing
- Widescreen: 1.85:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: None
Director:
- Richard Linklater
(Before Sunrise, Dazed and Confused, Live from Shiva’s Dancefloor, It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, The Newton Boys, The School of Rock, Slacker, SubUrbia, Tape, Waking Life)
Producer:
- Tommy Pallotta, Jonah Smith, Anne Walker-McBay and Palmer West
Screenplay:
- Richard Linklater
Music :
- Glover Gill and Tosca Tango Orchestra
Cast :
- Main character: Wiley Wiggins
Jesse: Ethan Hawke
Celine: Julie Delpy
Philosophy Professor: Robert C Solomon
Shape-Shifting Man: Eamonn Healy
Self-Burning Man: J.C. Shakespeare
Angry Man in Jail: Charles Gunning
Guy talking about Turning the Light on in Dreams: John Christensen
Himself: Steven Soderbergh
Pinball Playing Man: Richard Linklater
I haven’t the first idea what’s going on in Waking Life.
That was my initial impression of thisfilm, a film from a director who, by all accounts, is far from conventionaland this is apparent in two of his others I’ve seen – one of which Ienjoyed (Dazed and Confused) and one of which I didn’t (Slacker).
Wiley Wiggins is a young man, apparently dreaming and ‘floating’ aroundthe town, dropping in on random characters who offer up their own reflectionson life – all different, so it’s a lot to take in. The people Wiley comesacross include a philosophy professor, a man who keeps changing shape, onewho rambles on about free will and whether man has free will or whether lifeis pre-determined (reminds me of a Simpsons episode!), a man in jail talkingabout how he’d murder those who captured him, a man who talks a short whileas he pours petrol into a can before turning it on himself and striking amatch and a scene in which Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy reprisetheir roles from the director’s Before Sunrise, a film I haven’t seen.
Waking Life is rather a mind-bender because it’s not just a case of filming people.They’re all animated. And not just drawn as standard, but done in a numberof different styles, mainly either painted or cell-shaded. The way the variouselements of the background shift about independently of one another is alsosomething to get used to.
Some of what you hear in this film you can identify with, whereas others youwon’t. There’s also things to learn, as Wiley can’t figure out whether he’sstill dreaming after he wakes up, or if he’s really awake. The light switchman tells him to try flicking a switch in a dream: if you can manage it andthe light levels don’t change, then you’re dreaming. Once realised, try toseize upon it and then you can control your own dreams and change the destinywithin.
This is a film worth watching if you can get into it, but this takes 20-25minutes to get with the flow. We must all have had a dream within a dreamat some point, but how do you know when you’ve woken up?
Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, the animation is crisp and clearand as colourful or as dark as it needs to be. Zero defects. There’s no problemwith the sound either. Although in Dolby Digital 5.1, it doesn’t make much,if any, use of split-surrounds so don’t get too concerned if you only getround to seeing this in Dolby Surround.
What there is a problem with is the extras, or rather the total lack of them.I couldn’t believe it when I put the disc in and saw a static and silent menucontaining options to just play the film, select a scene or subtitles. Ithought perhaps there was an easter egg that would find something because thefilm’s a little ‘out there’, but no, nothing.
The Region 1 DVD, on the other hand, contains two audio commentaries,a ‘greatest hits’ from the live action version, Bob Sabiston’s animationsoftware tutorial, deleted live action scenes, selections for Linklater’saudition tapes, a featurette, a Sundance Channel specail and two short filmsby Bob Sabiston.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
0OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.