Waking Life

Steve

il magnifico
Waking-Life-Poster.jpg
Richard Linklater's 2002 film Waking Life is all about dreaming, and how we can sometimes control our dreams when they're lucid. Yet it's also about some broad philosophical issues, including one of the oldest philosophical conundrums, the distinction between appearance and reality. When René Descartes sat at his stove and meditated on the world and on whether an evil demon controlled everything he perceived, he wondered, what's more real, dreams or waking life? The diverse collection of characters in Linklater's film ask the same question. Yet they ask it not just in a literal sense, but also as a metaphor for the nature of modern culture and for the human condition as a whole - in what ways do we fall asleep even while awake? How can we lead a life that is more awake, more aware of people and things, more authentic?

The reason why I refuse to take existentialism as just another French fashion or historical curiosity is that I think it has something very important to offer us for the new century. I'm afraid we're losing the real virtues of living life passionately, sense of taking responsibility for who you are, the ability to make something of yourself and feeling good about life. Existentialism is often discussed as if it's a philosophy of despair. But I think the truth is just the opposite. Sartre once interviewed said he never really felt a day of despair in his life. But one thing that comes out from reading these guys is not a sense of anguish about life so much as a real kind of exuberance of feeling on top of it. It's like your life is yours to create. I've read the postmodernists with some interest, even admiration. But when I read them, I always have this awful nagging feeling that something absolutely essential is getting left out. The more that you talk about a person as a social construction or as a confluence of forces or as fragmented or marginalized, what you do is you open up a whole new world of excuses. And when Sartre talks about responsibility, he's not talking about something abstract. He's not talking about the kind of self or soul that theologians would argue about. It's something very concrete. It's you and me talking. Making decisions. Doing things and taking the consequences. It might be true that there are six billion people in the world and counting. Nevertheless, what you do makes a difference. It makes a difference, first of all, in material terms. Makes a difference to other people and it sets an example. In short, I think the message here is that we should never simply write ourselves off and see ourselves as the victim of various forces. It's always our decision who we are.



Sperando che abbia interessato qualcuno, se ci ha capito qualcosa.

Io l'ho visto, personalmente l'ho trovato quasi come una risposta a una serie di dubbi che mi ero posto, anche solo al "ma qualcuno ci avrà già pensato?".
 
Finito di vedere poco fa.

Anche se è un concentrato di quel tipo di discorsi che mi fanno venire il mal di testa, è certo vero che fa molto pensare questo film.

Il doppiaggio italiano poi mi è sembrato davvero curato e sembra che renda bene l'originale (cosa molto difficile per questo film secondo me).

Grazie per il consiglio!
 
Top Bottom