Waltz with Bashir

[Watashi]

Trailer (http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/waltzwithbashir/)

I know this has been parading around in festivals, but I just saw the trailer now before Synecdoche, New York today and I'm absolutely floored.

Some will call it the "Persepolis" of 2008, but this has immediately skyrocketed to my most anticipated list.

Anyone seen it yet?

[Ezee E]

No, but everyone that saw it at Telluride thought it was awesome.

[Winston*]

I've seen it. Didn't blow me away or anything, but it's definitely a good movie.

[megladon8]

That looks pretty cool. Some of the animation is almost Adult Swim style.

[number8]

It's my most anticipated right now.

[Boner M]

I've seen it. Didn't blow me away or anything, but it's definitely a good movie.
Yeah. Found the animation a little uneven, but it yields some extraordinary scenes.

[Cult]

I really liked it, but the animation--while very cool--holds back the emotion in some cases (like straight-on talks to the camera from the characters/interviewees). The soundtrack is killer.

[Ezee E]

I really liked it, but the animation--while very cool--holds back the emotion in some cases (like straight-on talks to the camera from the characters/interviewees). The soundtrack is killer.
My thoughts exactly. The animation gives the movie a "cool factor" which steals a good amount of the emotion that it would've had if it wasn't there. Hence, the final shot of the movie being the most affecting when it isn't animated at all.

Still worthwhile though.

[D_Davis]

Dang that looks cool.

[Ezee E]

Dang that looks cool.
And it certainly does. There's some great images, particularly when flares are sent in to the night sky to light the city for the murders of many civilians.

Hmm... Should that look cool though?

[soitgoes...]

Just watched this tonight. I pretty much echo the thoughts of everyone else in this thread. The animation does sap some of the punch such a subject matter should have. Then again the animation setup for the ending makes it a worthwhile attempt. The switch to real footage as Folman is finally able to face the reality of the events of the massacre, and his role in turning a blind eye to it, is really one of the best ideas to end a movie that I've seen all year. Too bad I couldn't quite connect with the film because of the animation. Quite the Catch-22.

[soitgoes...]

On an interesting side note, I believe I have now seen more 2008 films from Israel (2) than all the rest of the years of Israel's nationhood combined (1). Israel must be experiencing some sort of filmmaking boom.

[Pop Trash]

I saw this last night. I think most of you are missing the point of the animation. The animation is meant to keep you at a distance from the subject matter. It is also, as they say in the film, meant as a halucination or dream. The way memories seem distanced and fractured. Which is precisely, without giving anything away, what makes the end moments so powerful. I described it to one of my friends as Waking Life meets Schindler's List, even if that is probably a little too reductive.

[[ETM]]

I thought the animation made it more powerful... it allowed for some powerful visual choices that emphasized the events as seen (or imagined) by the characters/people involved to an extent unattainable with real life footage.

The only thing that was less than stellar about the film for me were a few "slower" moments with interviewees that hurt the pacing.

[[ETM]]

Hence, the final shot of the movie being the most affecting when it isn't animated at all.

I don't think it's the most affecting because of that - it's a cathartic moment the director has been building up to slowly from the first frame of the film, and wouldn't have the same impact if it weren't for the carefully orchestrated animated sequences. The surrealism of the animation in contrast to the stark realism of the final sequence only adds to the emotional impact.

[number8]

From my review (http://www.justpressplay.net/movie-reviews/40-reviews/4615-waltz-with-bashir.html):


There is another value in it being animated. At one point, Folman’s psychiatrist tells him a story about a photographer who was able to bear with the horrors of war by looking at them through a viewfinder. When the photographer lost his camera abruptly, the war ceased to be mere images and became a reality he couldn’t cope with. Folman recreates this same effect on the audience by switching to real life footage at the very end of the film—after 90 minutes of animation—when showing the horrific aftermath of the Sabra-Shatila massacre, where thousands of Palestinian refugees were lined up and killed by the Lebanese Phalangist militia.

[MadMan]

If I finally get my hands on it, I will watch it immediately. I've heard nothing but positive buzz about the film.

[Sycophant]

I watched this last night and can't agree with the majority of this thread (or maybe it's been evened out now--the first half of you, anyway) that the animation was inappropriately used to cool effect. I still found a lot of the animated violence disturbing, because of the real human stories surrounding it and because it wasn't casually, hiply cool. Definitely some nifty techniques and images, but the kid with the RPG, the guy who gets shot in the tank while goofing around, those were potent and affecting images nonetheless. Then Folman strips away the animation and it snaps everything into a clearer focus and you realize just how distancing the animation actually was.

[baby doll]

I don't think the animation had an emotional effect either way. It simply allowed Folman to show things he couldn't in a live action documentary. That said, this is strong, upsetting stuff. The tragicomic montage of absentminded murders, scored to a Hebrew rock song called "I Bombed Lebanon," is better than all of Inglourious Basterds.

[Sycophant]

The tragicomic montage of absentminded murders, scored to a Hebrew rock song called "I Bombed Lebanon,"

That's a great sequence. And that's a remake of Cake's great "I Bombed Korea Every Night."

[Melville]

I must be the only person who was more emotionally affected by the animated scenes than the final scene. For me, the impact of the final scene has been deadened by years of viewing similar news footage, whereas the animation, combined with the choices of music and surreal elements, made the events seem new and immediate, like actual experiences rather than tired recordings of them, which added immeasurably to their impact. The ending still worked for me, by tying the whole thing to the real history and tragedy, but it actually seemed more "distant" to me.

After Hunger, I think this is my favorite movie from last year.

EDIT: and the scene where the reporter calmly walks through the street amidst a hail of bullets, is one of the greatest things I've ever seen. The montage that baby doll mentioned is great as well.

[Sycophant]

I was a little mystified by the lack of discussion about this film on this site. It's sticking with me.

I've learned that nothing punches me harder emotionally than footage like that shown at the end of the film, especially the screaming woman. It continually devastates me.

[Pop Trash]

The tragicomic montage of absentminded murders, scored to a Hebrew rock song called "I Bombed Lebanon," is better than all of Inglourious Basterds.

So is I.B. shaping up to be what The Dark Knight was last year? In which every movie we see from now until the end of the year needs to be favorably or unfavorably compared to it?

[Melville]

I was a little mystified by the lack of discussion about this film on this site. It's sticking with me.
Yeah, I meant to write something about it when I saw it (in February, I think), but I couldn't be bothered. It's definitely worthy of more discussion.

[Pop Trash]

I was a little mystified by the lack of discussion about this film on this site. It's sticking with me.


It made my top ten of last year. It stuck with me and it uses animation (and the brief scene w/o animation at the end) in a very pointed way.

I think the only possible misgivings I have is it's resemblence to Waking Life, which I think I would ultimately go back to more because of its more universal themes and, well frankly, it's just less depressing of a film. And also the feeling I had that it never quite implicates Israel because it choses a situation where it's Lebanese vs. Lebanese, and Israel is only guilty of not stepping in to stop the situation.

[baby doll]

So is I.B. shaping up to be what The Dark Knight was last year? In which every movie we see from now until the end of the year needs to be favorably or unfavorably compared to it?In this case, I think there's good grounds for comparison because both are war movies about Jews kicking ass. And in the "I Bombed Lebanon" sequence, Folman manages to be irreverent without being cheerfully ahistorical and amoral, which makes the film that much more challenging. Watching Folman's film, you have to ask yourself, "Is it alright to be laughing at this?" while Tarantino's film takes it for granted that anything can be comedy.

And yes, we will be comparing everything to Inglourious Basterds for some time to come. Despite my reservations, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and apparently, no one else has either (even Jonathan Rosenbaum posted two follow-up blog entries to his now notorious post, in which he sensibly likened the film to Holocaust denial).

[Pop Trash]

And yes, we will be comparing everything to Inglourious Basterds for some time to come. Despite my reservations, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and apparently, no one else has either (even Jonathan Rosenbaum posted two follow-up blog entries to his now notorious post, in which he sensibly likened the film to Holocaust denial).

I read that, and it made me dislike Rosembaum even more than usual. I can't come to terms with a critic that only talks about a film as a literal, political vehicle and not in terms of form, craft, or any allegory. I think it's a testament to IB when some of the best film criticism is by people who like it and some of the worst is by people who don't (ie David Denby and Rosenbaum).

[baby doll]

I read that, and it made me dislike Rosembaum even more than usual. I can't come to terms with a critic that only talks about a film as a literal, political vehicle and not in terms of form, craft, or any allegory. I think it's a testament to IB when some of the best film criticism is by people who like it and some of the worst is by people who don't (ie David Denby and Rosenbaum).That's his thing, and he knows where he's going with it. Anyway, I prefer it to reviewers who pretend that movies aren't political even when they totally are (i.e., Ebert's review of Caché).