THE CONGRESS
Israel, 2013, 122 minutes, Colour.
Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Jon Hamm, Kodi Smit-Mc?hee, Danny Huston, Sami Gayle, Paul Giamatti.
Directed by Ari Folman.
The title is not particularly helpful, even though it comes from the original novel, The Futuristic Congress, by Stanislav Lamb. There is a Congress in the middle of the film but the film is concerned with much, much more than the Congress itself.
In 2008, Israeli director, Ari Folman, made an award winning film, Waltz with Bashir. It was concerned with war in Lebanon, massacres and consequent nightmares for some of the participants and victims. What was striking about Waltz with Bashir was that it was an animated film, an animation feature for adults, very serious, graphic, challenging.
It is taken some years for Folman to follow-up with another feature film. Quite a number of international companies contributed to financing it, a difficult project, with both animation and real life performance.
It is not the kind of film that will appeal to a wide audience. Rather, it will have an appeal to those who like to exercise their imagination in response to film, especially to a film which relies on graphic animation for its impact.
The star of the film is Robin Wright, a star in Hollywood and overseas since her breakthrough role in The Princess Bride. The Congress relies on Robin Wright and her impact and her status. There is discussion of The Princess Bride with a scene where Robin Wright ruefully looks at a poster. At the opening of the film, in real life, the actress is discussing her career with her agent, Al (Harvey Keitel) who takes her to see a producer, Jeff (Danny Huston) who upbraids her for not following the path of a successful career, making bad choices in films, bad choices in life. The new (and final) contract that he is offering her is for a complete scan, physical and psychological, so that she will not have to act any more but that companies will produce programs relying on the information and perspectives from the scan. We do see some glimpses of a science fiction film so produced, Rebel Robot Robin!
In the fictitious real life sequences, Robin has two children, and they live at the edge of an airport in the Mojave desert. A young son, Aaron, (Australia’s Kodi Smit-McPhee) is losing his sight and this makes demands on Robin for her decision, especially when she visits Dr Baker (Paul Giamatti).
She opts for the scan, a spectacular sequence, and then drives, 20 years later, to The Congress, transforming during the trip into an animated character, arriving at the Abrahama Hotel, full of animated celebrities and staff, goes to the Congress where she sings, but a revolution is going on and she falls victim.
Robin does have the opportunity to return to real life, searching for her son, meeting Dr Baker, making an option to support her son.
Needless to say, there is much more going on, especially with the vivid imagination in the animation. A point is made towards the end of the film that drugs are used in order to overcome depression and find some kind of truth, but drugs can also be used in a hallucinogenic way, creating a different truth. The animated world, on the other side of reality, is visually bright, active, hallucinogenic.
One might say that Robin Wright was fairly game in agreeing to perform in this film, open to some criticism about her life and career, but contributing to its continuance by appearing in this very unusual film.
1. A film of imagination? Relationship with a real life? Past, present, future? Animation and the indicating of real life with animation? Musical score?
2. The director, his films and imagination, animation? The title of the original novel, The Futuristic Congress?
3. The real locations, the Mojave airport, the kite and the planes, the interiors of the hangar? The surgery of the doctor? The Hollywood offices?
4. Animation, 20 years into the future, on the road, the transformation, the guard allowing Robin inside? The Abrahama hotel? The staff, many storeys?
Decor? The characters changing, e.g. John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe? The world of hallucinations, the other side from the real world? The meeting, the assembled, the nature of the Congress? Robin and her singing? Meeting with Dylan, the friendship, discussions, the search? Meeting Jeff again? The rebellion? Robin’s arrest, prison, wanting a bullet to the head? In a coma, the doctors and their puzzle, the cryogenics, travelling through the ice, the search for her son?
5. The basis in reality? Al as the agent, explaining the situation to Robin, taking her to the office? The criticism of her choices, in films, must, in real life? Bad choices? The references to the Princess Bride and Robin’s career, beauty, top star? The discussion about the scan, the soap opera, Michelle Williams, the flickering of her eye and the technology not able to fix it? Trite material?
6. Robin and her children, Sarah, her age, with Aaron, the flying of the kite, the danger of the kite in flight, the security guards warning? The images of the kite and the destruction of a plane? Taking Aaron to the doctor, his losing his sight? His personality? Robin making the decision, the images of the transformation, her character as Rebel Robot Robin?
7. Robin’s return, the older Dr Baker, Aaron losing his sight, leaving and going to the other side?
8. Robin, her decisions, the search, going back to childhood images and the kite and the airport?
9. The comments on drugs, anti-depression, facing the truth? Hallucinatory drugs and their creating a different truth?
10. The film’s comment on Hollywood, Hollywood dreams, celebrity, stardom, the nature of acting, taking on characters? A real and unreal world? And
audiences delighting in watching the stories of films, the stories of celebrities and their lives? Are they cartoons?
